LED gym floor lights up for different sports

Imagine walking into a gym hall, pressing a button and watching an entire basketball court appear on the floor, well that's what ASB Glassfloor claim to have created

A school in Germany has installed a reinforced ASB Glassfloor in its gym that uses hidden LEDs to change court markings with the switch of a button, depending on which sport is being played.

The interactive gym floor, the first of its kind, was designed and produced by ASB Systembau GMBH, and has the ability to displays markings for five different sports, including: tennis, handball, volleyball, basketball and badminton.

The floor costs £420 per square metre and is comprised of 165 glass panels which are layered with a coloured PVB foil, and then coated in an ultra-strong ant-skid laminate before being placed onto an aluminium support frame.

The material was also tested by Stuttgart University to ensure the glass panels met the sliding characteristics required for sports halls, and the floor meets the national and international requirements for slip resistance having been tested against requirements for area elastic floors for shock absorption, standard deformation, behaviour under rolling load and ball reflection.

The company behind the ASB Glassfloor are hoping to expand the technology to include training programmes, but one day see themselves venturing into hotels and clubs: “With this floor we can bring the future a bit closer. Hotel lobbies with gigantic logos that change colour over time, information counters from where directions can be displayed under the floor, directions for emergency exits that only appear in case of an emergency, a higher anti-slip surface for spa areas with under floor mood lighting and many more opportunities are waiting to be discovered.”

The ASB Glassfloor also has advertising potential, by applying logos and graphics under its glass panel flooring, and using LED panels which can be turned into giant screens.