Not One But Three Prizes for SF Bay Area Commuter App

ZURICH -- November 4, 2015: The Swiss company Taktil Software Ltd. recently launched a third city edition of its augmented reality commuter app. Hack My Ride 2.0 thought it worthy of three prizes, including the $10,000 grand prize.

As if last year's award for their New York iPhone application "Departures NYC" was not enough, Taktil Software Ltd. set out to prevail on the West Coast as well. The Swiss app company not only took the grand prize in the Hack My Ride 2.0 international competition, they also won Best Data Visualization Application and the Ridership and Retention Award. Through augmented reality, "Departures SF Bay" displays real-time departure times of public transportation in and around San Francisco. By simply holding up the iPhone, a virtual view of the nearest public transportation station appears on the display panel. Users can then make their way to a stop by following the route on the built-in map. Routes can also be immediately changed during traffic peaks without the hassle of typing in a destination. And just for fun, track the nearest rocket in space by holding the iPhone up to the sky. "'Departures SF Bay' is not only persuasive for its real-time features, practicality and playful elements, the app is also conveniently linked to the city's various transport systems, including VTA, Caltrain and Bart," says Tobias Gemperli, co-founder of Taktil Software.

Sponsored by Microsoft, Hack My Ride 2.0 challenges contestants to create technology that transforms how commuters get around in Silicon Valley. They are particularly interested in finding innovative working apps and tools that enrich the transportation experience through beacons and wearables, for example, or with brilliant data visualization. The overall goal is to contribute to seamless mobility and to make an impact on transit ridership retention and growth through creative technology.

"We were impressed by Departures SF Bay's one-of-a-kind user interface and we think augmented reality has a good chance of helping us grow our transit ridership, one of our major goals at VTA," said Codi Kraatz, VTA administrator of digital communications and manager of Hack My Ride 2.0. "It's an engaging and fun way to discover transit options, with a 'wow' factor that will appeal to many people. We look forward to promoting Departures SF Bay to our customers and exploring ways this approach could be incorporated into apps VTA is considering building."

Taktil Software Ltd. is an app company based in Zurich that focuses on the unification of usability and design. Taktil has launched a "Departures App" for Zurich, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Swiss company is currently working on a software development kit that will allow other developers to use location-based augmented reality in their own app technology. Interested developers can already sign up at: Taktil.