ixigo has introduced India’s first augmented reality (AR) feature on its trains app. The AR Coach Position feature will enable train travelers to accurately locate their coach positions for over 13,000 passenger trains at more than 7,000 railway stations across India.
With the Coach Position feature, iOS users using the iPhone 6+ and above just need to use their smartphone in order to have their coaches instantly categorized and labeled, thereby identifying how far away they are from their intended coach. ixigo’s AR feature leverages ARKit which is Apple’s augmented reality (AR) technology toolkit, that delivers seamless blending of virtual objects with the real world. Users with the ixigo trains app need to grant camera access to the app, point it at the railway platform, and the app will overlay coach positions of their train on the phone screen.
Along with the Coach Position feature, ixigo is rolling out Station Alarm and Rescheduled trains features. These new features will provide users with live updates and instructions to improve their train travel experience. The Station Alarm feature will alert users as they approach their destination station, ensuring that users can sleep worry-free. The Rescheduled trains feature will allow users to easily check if their train is canceled, diverted or rescheduled. ixigo has also added a host of interesting iMessage stickers to help users communicate on the go.
Commenting on the development, Rajnish Kumar, CTO & Co-founder, ixigo said, “At ixigo, our constant endeavor is to use innovation to improve traveller experience and diminish pain points. Due to overcrowding at railway stations, passengers often worry about not having the right information with them when needed, leading to anxious moments before they board their train. To curb this, we worked on developing our AR Coach Position feature. We are quite excited about being the first in the indian travel services market with an AR use case that will greatly ease passenger pain.”
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