GPS-enabled apps for tourists soon

My IndiEye Travel Companions, a start-up from the Indian School of Business (ISB), is developing a GPS-enabled navigation application that will enable tourists to get a virtual tour of monuments with audio-visual experience.

The application, which will hit the market in the next three months, can be used on any Google android device through pay-per-download model, its founder and director Kaushal Bhalotia said.

My IndiEye, which claims to be the first GPS (global positioning system) video tour provider in the country, develops mobile tour guides with 3D GPS navigation, video dramatised authentic stories and tour customisation on a smart phone. The technology recreates important historical events, shows cordoned areas and develops animated recreations and graphical sketches.

Its first product — Golconda Fort Multimedia Tour — provides GPS tour of the fort.

“We plan to use this interpretive services across most monuments in the country so as to give customers an enriching encounter of the historical times. Beyond the obvious history, myths, facts of historical monuments, palaces, and museums, tourists can get the experience of the place through the device,” he said.

The content has been developed by historians and film-makers.

My IndiEye has entered into a commercial agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) for developing similar products for other tourist monuments including Qutb Shahi tombs, Charminar and Laad bazaar in Hyderabad.

Currently, there are 50 devices available on per tour rent of Rs 300 and Rs 500 through major hotels in the city, targeting the growing business travellers and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) segment, he said. The product is being piloted in Hyderabad.

“With the success of our first product, we are looking at 20 cities and to cover historical monuments including in Delhi and Agra in the next 18-24 months,” Bhalotia said.

Its vice-president (technology) Viswesh said, “The apps will offer 10 monuments covering five cities at the time of its launch in the next three months. Later, other cities will be added to the platform.”

My IndiEye was incubated at ISB under the Entrepreneurial Development Initiative by its Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development in April 2010.