Andrew Pang's radical new technology literally reduces parents to tears. But happily these are tears of joy, watching their chronically handicapped children play for the first time.
'It's magical for them,' said Mr Pang, managing director at PlayMotion, a company applying virtual technology for learning and healing purposes. 'Children confined to wheelchairs with severe neuromuscular diseases, such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and spina bifida, rarely have fun.
'They don't get to play with their healthy brothers and sisters. But when they do, for the first time in their lives, it's so rewarding. You literally see parents in tears.'
The technology, allowing such disadvantaged children to play, is a truly 'magical' computer-generated device called PlayMotion that transforms ordinary walls, floors and ceilings into wildly interactive playgrounds.
But uniquely, taking a quantum leap ahead of existing virtual reality experiences, it requires no extra equipment. Most require goggles, gloves, helmets and remote controls - which many disabled children can't operate.
With PlayMotion, however, there is nothing to touch, or even break. Only the shadows of moving arms are needed to enter exciting, interactive projected play spaces - from flying over a city and creating trance-like waves, ripples and colours to playing football, volleyball or billiards.
