Promote Outdoor Activities with Selected Mobile Devices and Applications

Abstract

The market of electronic devices dedicated for sport, tourism and recreation is very broad. Unfortunately, the specialist equipment is relatively expensive. Smartphones seem to be the solution for this cost problem. They offer similar possibilities to computers, however their price is much lower. Thus they are more available to the average consumer. What is more, thanks to small dimensions, they can be also used outside. To begin an outdoor game, it is only needed to have a right application. An example of such a program is the Geocaching game that consists in finding a „treasure” (cache) based on GPS coordinates, determined by another player. He simply chooses the destination on his smartphone. The searched object, although being not valuable, can be often times well hidden. Additionally, the information regarding sightseeing and history of monuments found nearby the destination point is displayed on the smartphone during the travel. The aim of this article was to check the respondents’ level of knowledge regarding the use of smartphones in geolocation games. Furthermore, the purpose was to determine what forms of outdoor physical activity are preferred among the students living in the city and in the countryside. Tourism, recreation and sport are forms of activity, in which GPS modules, together with the necessary software find successfully use.