Like Hungary presented herself during the years gone by with a number of remarkable inventions in the world of cellular telephony, the first mobile phone aided kind of sport, the Mobile-O (i.e. The main point in Mobile-O is the communication between two mobile phone sets, the navigator guides with the aid of his/her handy the runner to find the controls placed on the field of race. In summer of 20
04, this special version of orienteering running was introduced by our group as a world-wide novelty. It made a hit right at its debut: T. Gajdos, prominent media figure of TV channel Sport1, designated Mobile-O as a “sport of the 21st century”. My handy goes in for sport! – is a slogan for orienteering running based on mobile phone communication what can be a really extreme kind of partly technical, partly physical competition. In Mobile-O each team consists of two persons: a navigator and a runner. The navigator holds a map completed by the controls to be found as for classical orienteering, while the runner is equipped with a compass only. The navigator, located at the home (i.e. at the finish area), has to guide the runner between the controls with the aid of instructions given by mobile phone. During the competition the feedback from runner is of high importance because this is the proof whether he/she interpreted properly the instructions received and at the same time the navigator gets information about the three-dimensional reality. The interdependence of the two partners is somewhat similar to the confidential relation between driver and navigator at Rally races. Thus, a very exciting, interactive game comes into existence the driving force of which is the unambiguous and quick communication. Locations and participants of Mobile-O
Mobile-O can be carried out almost everywhere, in a forest, in a park-forest, in a shopping centre or in a sports hall cluttered up with artificial barriers. The heart of the matter is that an adequately detailed map of the given field should be available. At the birth of the idea, Mobile-O was aimed at the handy-fan young generation. The practice has shown, however, that adventurous people from elder generations take part in this communicative game as enthusiastically as the young ones. As navigators, persons handicapped in motion can also enjoy the intellectual pleasure of the orienteering sport: communicating by mobile phone with a healthy runner companion they can be active participants of a thrilling adventure over hill and dale. Mobile-O is actually an alternative for Trail-O.
