Excitera Charon is a cooperation between the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Ericsson. Its aim is to encourage and teach students to develop mobile applications for Ericsson's NRG (Network Resource Gateway) using Parlay. The winners of the annual competition were Kristofer Borgström and Erik Eriksson, who won EUR 1,700 for their Treasure Hunt game.

Erik Eriksson, Kristofer Borgström and Anders Yveborg

Eriksson says that the game can be played by either one person or together with friends in teams of up to five participants.

"When a player moves around in an area, for instance Stockholm, he gets a message when he is close to treasure and gets directions on how to move to get to the treasure," says Eriksson. "When he reaches the right location he gets scores that are uploaded on a server."

The score list is available on the web, WAP or SMS.

"The game can be tailored for direct marketing," Eriksson says. "For example, operators can reward winners with free SMS or free minutes for voice calls or mobile data usage."

Borgström says he is very pleased to win the prize and that his dream is to work with mobile applications.

"Winning this prize gives us an advantage when contacting companies to write our Master's thesis for, hopefully, Ericsson," Borgström says. "It will also give us recognition when looking for jobs after we have finished our studies."

Both Borgström and Eriksson are in their second year of the Royal Institute of Technology's  Master of Engineering program and are interested in everything that involves mobile phones. Borgström gets a Sony Ericsson Z1010 and Eriksson a P900.

"We are very interested in technical devices and I think the prize money will go towards some more gadgets," Borgström says.

Social Module, a friend finder application, took second place in the competition and third place was awarded to a dating service, Soul Mate. All finalist applications have the chance to be displayed and demonstrated at the Ericsson Experience Center for Ericsson's customers.

For more information about the cooperation between Ericsson and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Previous article about Excitera

By Karin Hanson