Tomisin Ogunnubi is a fifteen-year-old student of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls who made News in 2016 for developing a mobile tracking app called ‘My Locator’. The mobile app, which is available on the Google Play Store, has already been downloaded more than 1,000 times since its debut in 2016.
How Does It Work?
My Locator App comes in three different sections including Current Location, Alert Button, and Remembered Location.
With the ‘Current Location’ setting on the app, the child is able to know where they are exactly and the neighboring streets around them. ‘Remembered Location‘ button allows the kids to save their current whereabouts. If the child still is not able to find their way, the app which allows the kids to save a location – like their house or school – will then direct them on how to get from wherever they are to that saved location.
More amazingly, My Locator App’s alert button is connected to the Lagos State Emergency Service number (767). When that button is pressed, the emergency number is called and a message showing the child’s current location will be sent to them for help. The app is compatible with all android phones which is another comforting feature that stands out.
“It also has a function where when you click on an alert button. It sends a text message and makes a phone call – that’s if you’ve enabled it in your settings – to a particular number that you’ve designated to it. It could be an emergency number or it could be a family member’s number. It’s basically your choice. So in case of an emergency, when you need an urgent response, it sends your current address to that number so somebody can easily locate where you are. I was very conscious about security, thinking… there are different dangerous people, so I guess the idea of being able to go out safely might have been what triggered the idea for the app. But it was me then as my 12-year-old self-thinking, ‘Oh I’ve just learned how to create applications. How about I use what I have learned to create something that can be useful to me and other people? Tomisin Ogunnubi explains.
Tomisin Ogunnubi is currently on her way to becoming a world-leading ICT expert, presently working on building a site that would enable teenagers to buy and sell goods which would serve as her own way of trying to grow the entrepreneurial spirit amongst teenagers. “I feel great after developing the app; though not a professional app, but I have other things agitating my mind to work on. I prefer to keep them to myself for now, because things change and develop over time,” she told Tech Economy.
