Award winning Dunedin innovators Igtimi Ltd have established a leading reputation through their development of hardware and software solutions for the high performance marine sector.
Their fast, tough and accurate GPS tracker YachtBot has been proven in many of the world’s most challenging events, including working with Animation Research on the Volvo Ocean Race and MedCup Series, working with SAP on the Extreme Sailing series and is used by elite sailing teams and Olympic level coaches around the world.
Less well-known is how this nimble company is applying YachtBot-inspired technology to create bootstrap solutions for other projects beyond the marine sector. “YachtBot is only one example of what we can do,” says Kylie Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Igtimi.
“The same GPS tracking technology that is used in sailing can also be put into assets in the field. Our bespoke projects are often made specifi cally for particular clients. In the past we have internet connected water meters in Middlemarch, tracked power boats in Dubai and stock movements in Mosgiel, as well as enabled spectators to follow long distance mountain races in Central Otago.”
Along with GPS trackers, Igtimi’s products include wind and tide sensors, audio recording and mobile apps, all able to generate invaluable live data.
This data is able to be used in a variety of ways in performance training, event tracking and club sailing.
“There are many applications beyond sailing too. For example, we’ve worked with the British kayaking team and we’re also doing some race timing projects in powerboat racing.”
Igtimi currently employs five full-time and two part-time staff and is looking to expand through partnering or merging with another company interested in applying their development capabilities across different markets.
After graduating in computer science from Otago, Kylie worked for Dunedin’s Animation Resear ch and as a freelance animator in London before returning home in 2007 to found Igtimi with Otago physics graduate, systems architect and fellow visionary Brent Russell.
Over the past decade, Kylie and Brent have built a specialist team whose expertise lies in knowing how to collect data that is usually hard to access and then connecting it up online so as to be tracked, analysed and shared.
It is a simple concept with many powerful applications.
Their strength in this area was recognised in 2016, when Igtimi received a business excellence award in research and innovation from the Otago Chamber of Commerce.
In high performance water sports, Igtimi is an acknowledged specialist in real-time, cloud-connected GPS, biometric and meteorological telemetry solutions.
Its systems were an invaluable aid to race organisers at last year’s 35th America’s Cup, which used them to track spectator and official boats associated with the race. New products are evolving all the time.
“We’ve just finished a project for the French sailing team that involves having tracking displays on boats so they can get live feedback from the data being gathered,” says Kylie.
“Traditionally, sailing doesn’t allow displays on smaller boats but that’s changing, particularly for some of the foiling classes.”
This article was brought to you in association with the following businesses…
