Tourism Radio, a Cape Town-based travel technology company, is using American crowdfunding Web site Kickstarter to finance the launch of Google Glass interactive audio travel guides.
Tourism Radio provides location-based technology and travel content allowing a user to receive more information about a certain area when travelling. As the user moves from one place to the next, the information changes accordingly.
The company has now firmly set its sights on getting the audio guides onto Google Glass, says CEO Mark Allewell. "We believe that Glass will set the precedent for augmented reality platforms of the near future. With eight years of travel technology experience behind us, Tourism Radio has proven itself able to adapt to new technologies, and Glass is the next evolutionary step from the mobile smartphone," he says.
Allewell says the company hopes to raise in excess of R530 000 to fund the project, with an expected delivery in April 2014. "Backers who pledge funds towards Tourism Radio's goal will be rewarded with anything from one free travel guide, to the chance to include eight of their own points of interest in a particular city guide and have it translated into any language," he says.
Allewell is confident the company will be able to meet its deadline, saying it has been able to deliver on a number of large agreements in the past few years. "Should we be able to raise the funding, I have no doubt Tourism Radio's Google Glass travel guides will set the bar for all our predecessors."
Tourism Radio's audio guide stable comes in various forms, including an OEM device distributed via rental cars, iOS and Android apps, and a soon-to-be-launched application for the Renault R-Link in-car multimedia system. The firm produces guides to locations across the world and offers the travel applications as White Label solutions for destination marketing organisations and corporate entities, including the likes of Land Rover, Diners Club and SA Tourism.
The crowdfunding model is proving increasingly popular, with many companies taking to this method of funding projects rather than charitable donations or loans. According to reports, it is estimated the cash raised by crowdfunding platforms increased from $1.5 billion in 2011 to $5.1 billion in 2013.
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