The History of Fingabox

In 2001 Helensburgh inventor John R Doyle took a photograph of his three grandchildren Sam, Rhys and Bethany, had an animation created and the Fingabox children were born. Fingabox was officially launched onto the UK market in 2002 at the leisure industry week show held at Birmingham NEC.

Fingabox back then was a fifteen inch 3M touch screen monitor, had six games and only came in English. The locations that Fingabox was being used, Birmingham Interrnational airport and the BAA airports at Gatwick, Stanstead, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh required that Fingabox move forward and add more languages. Over the following four years the Fingabox added German, Dutch, Punjabi, Arabic, French and Spanish languages. New games were also added including snakes and ladders and noughts and crosses which has a two player option allowing two children or a child and an adult to play.

Built as a free games unit for children to play and interact with, the demand for a coin box version was such that Fingabox unit was then made available in coin box version. Using a one pound coin box it was successfully displayed at the ATEI in London’s Earl’s Court in January 2006. This lead to more venues across the UK having a Fingabox for children to play on.

In February 2006 Fingabox was a prize winner at the Scottish Innovators Awards. The awards are a joint initiative between commercial law firm Biggart and Baillie and the Glasgow Science Centre and aims to recognise Scotland’s freshest inventive minds. Three days later John Doyle passed away, but Fingabox has kept on going and moving forward. Later in 2006 Norwegian, Danish and Swedish languages were added.

In 2007 Fingabox underwent a makeover and was upgraded to a 19 inch 3M touch screen monitor and totally reprogrammed using Linux as its operating system. Fingabox continues to supply many children with enjoyment

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