App to make searching for lost travellers easier

The engineering students Ástþór Tryggvi Steinþórsson and Þóroddur Björnsson worked on an exciting project last year, aimed at increasing the safety of travellers in the Icelandic highlands. The project was sponsored by the Student Innovation Fund under the supervision of Rúnar Unnþórsson, Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering. “The project concerns using smart-phones to make the search for lost travellers by rescue teams easier,” says Steinþórsson.

Unnþórsson points out that weather information in Iceland is a very important safety issue. The weather may be fine in the lowlands but very bad in the mountains; travellers often do not realise this. Steinþórsson and Björnsson have first hand experience in this area. “The spark of our project was a hiking trip on Fimmvörðuháls where we met a group of poorly equipped hikers. Later that day a storm broke and people needed rescuing on Fimmvörðuháls. After this we thought maybe we could help bridge the gap between traveller and rescuer,” says Björnsson.

Unnþórsson had gotten the idea that travellers in Iceland could be provided with information on what sights are interesting in each area, for example by sending information to phones – an idea that tallied well with Steinþórsson’s and Björnsson’s project.  

“An app was designed for Android smart-phones with a built-in GPS-system. The app sends automatic GPS coordinates providing a GPS trail that should help rescue teams demark the search zone better than they can with the information they are privy to today,” says Steinþórsson.

The development of the app is not finished according to Unnþórsson. “Further features to the app, for example information on weather and interesting sites should make the app interesting for domestic and foreign travellers and simultaneously make Iceland a safer and more viable tourist location than it is now,” Unnþórsson concludes.