The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were transported back to their university days in Scotland – thanks to a hi-tech gadget.
William and Kate’s trip down memory lane came when they visited MESH – an Oslo work space for technology start-ups and would-be entrepreneurs.
With the duke in the seat of a high-tech exercise bike, a video showing a detailed drive around the streets of the university town of St Andrews was shown, reminding them of familiar sights from their days as students.
As Kate, 36, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit looked on, William operated the controls and soon spotted his room at St Salvatore’s halls of residence where both he and Kate stayed in their first year.
“You’re bringing us down memory lane,” Kate told the chief executive officer of the firm Motitech, Jon Ingar Kjenes.
The tech boss said: “William was enthusiastic, he knew straight away where we were filming and said ‘you’ve filmed my room.’”
To a soundtrack of Coldplay, Linkin Park and Ellie Goulding’s Your Song – which she sung at the couple’s 2011 wedding – the film showed a cafe called the North Point, which displays a sign saying ‘William met Kate here — for coffee’ and the businessman asked him if it was true.
Mr Kjenes said: “He said of course, St Andrews is a very small place. I took it to mean they had been everywhere.”
The Motiview technology, which was demonstrated during a visit by the two royal couples to a group of start-up companies operating in Norway, is designed to aid those suffering from dementia and also help them exercise.
The unique films are created with customers so that they can be most poignant — such as where the user grew up — and also increase activity.
The Duke and Duchess at MESH, a work-space for start-up tech companies in Oslo (Hannah McKay/PA)
Soon after the couples arrived at MESH in central Oslo, the royal foursome sat at a table to try out reMarkable — a digital tablet-style device that users can scribble on using a special pen.
Kate wrote “Does this feel like paper?” and drew a tree, while William wrote “I love Norway!! My toes are numb!” and added a smiley face.
The Norwegian Crown Prince wrote “So cool to write on a tablet with a pen”.
They were then taken to meet the innovators of a little robot-like gadget called AV1 which enables a classroom to be live-streamed to children who may be off school and feeling isolated from their friends and teachers.
The isolation can lead to depression and unhappiness in youngsters — something that is eased by staying in touch in this way.
Clearly getting on well together, the royal party spent about an hour at MESH, seeing the various start-ups and chatting to entrepreneurs.
Kensington Palace had said that because of a desire to ensure the “pace” of the day was right for pregnant Kate, she was not going to attend.
But that decision was reversed as she ended her walkabout with William and the Norwegian couple in the sculpture park.
Kate experimented with a digital tablet-style device that users can scribble on using a special pen (Hannah McKay/PA)
Towards the end of the visit, the couples took part in a friendly game of Kahoot!
William and Mette-Marit played on one team with Kate and Haakon on the other — answering a series of questions like ‘is it true that the Norwegian Royal Family eat English dessert, plum pudding at Christmas?’
One of the founders Johan Brand asked the question, and Mette-Marit called out ‘yes’!
As the game progressed it became clear Kate’s side was falling behind by at least 1,500.
“We didn’t hear that,” Brand joked when he was told the latest scores, adding “that was so much fun.”
He said: “They have a voice and they use it. They were all very approachable and seem very interested — and that’s inspiring for people.”
While neither team made it onto an online leader board, William and Mette-Marit came out on top among the royals.