Contact Light, the innovation division of digital OOH company XTD Ltd, has launched its first commercial enterprise and announced four key hires.
Working with Curtin University in Western Australia, Contact Light has this week released OTTO, a smartphone app enabling intra-campus transport tracking, wayfinding and a custom campus map with levels of detail not seen in Google or Apple Maps.
Activating as part of the annual Orientation Week program, the new app will include extended capabilities such as meeting point sharing, live shuttle bus tracking, messaging and campus security integration.
The app is available for iPhone and will be available for Android in the coming weeks.
Contact Light is currently in discussions with several other tertiary education institutions in Australia and abroad, targeting a broad-scale roll out of the app in the 2016 student year.
Director of operations and maintenance at Curtin University Graham Arndt said deploying OTTO across the university’s campus was a major step forward.
“OTTO brings a new dimension to welcoming students and visitors to Curtin. It is easy for people to use and means that planning to arrive at specific points and times on campus is simple and effective,” Arndt said.
To support Contact Light’s expansion with the new app and other technology developments, the business has announced four new hires.
Adam Prasser joins as internet technology architect from Tatts Group; Ben Williams joins Contact Light as lead mobile developer having previously worked on the TAB iOS apps; Jeremy Blazé joins as user interface designer, coming from a freelance background working with numerous Australian agencies and startups; Dwayne Hoy joins as Android developer after working with Virgin Mobile and the City of Sydney. He also previously held a leadership role with b2cloud.
Contact Light CEO Mike Boyd, formerly a leading digital business executive within the STW Group, said the new business had moved quickly to product launch to capitalise on numerous opportunities in app-based communications capabilities in community environments such as education campuses, but looking more broadly towards personal safety, messaging and transactions.
“We are very close to launching pioneering technologies that provide a direct and valuable connection between digital out-of-home (OOH) hardware and people’s mobile devices,” Boyd said.
“There are millions of commuters worldwide and our technologies will allow people to extend their digital transit experiences via their mobile devices as they continue their daily routines.”
