Redlands, California—ESRI, the global leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, congratulates LOC-AID Technologies, Inc., as the winner of this year’s NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge—North America award in the Entertainment and Leisure category.

 Wireless industry experts selected LOC-AID Treasure, which uses ESRI’s ArcIMS technology, from more than 140 international entries narrowed down to a group of 14 semifinalists. Winners were announced during the recent Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006 conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The challenge encourages application developers to build innovative location-based service (LBS) applications that work with portable devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ maps. Participants compete in one of four categories—Navigation, Business Applications, Entertainment and Leisure, or Social Networking—to win $10,000 cash and $75,000 in NAVTEQ data licenses.

“LOC-AID Technologies is proud to have been selected winner of the entertainment category,” says Isaias Sudit, chief executive officer of LOC-AID Technologies. “LOC-AID Treasure offers a fun and different method for wireless carriers to introduce LBS services to consumers and enterprise customers alike. We are grateful for the support we have received from ESRI in achieving our current level of success.” LOC-AID Treasure takes players on a location-based treasure hunt. Players can share the fun with others and win prizes while they also learn to use wireless devices to navigate maps and access images. Last year, the LOC-AID People entry won first place in the contest’s Peer-to-Peer/Find Me category.

ESRI ArcIMS is a solution for delivering dynamic maps and GIS data and services via the Web. It provides a highly scalable framework for GIS Web publishing that meets the needs of corporate intranets and demands of worldwide Internet access. Using ArcIMS, city and local governments, businesses, and other organizations worldwide publish, discover, and share geospatial information. With ArcIMS, you can

·       Deliver dynamic maps and data via the Web.

·       Create easy-to-use, task-focused applications that use geographic content.

·       Develop custom applications using industry-standard Web development environments.

·       Share data with others to accomplish tasks.

·       Implement GIS portals.

Three other Global LBS Challenge finalists based their applications on ESRI’s ArcWeb Services. ArcWeb Services offer developers a rich Web services platform for integrating mapping into desktop, browser, or mobile applications. ArcWeb Services offer dozens of programming objects and classes, on-demand mapping data from more than 20 leading commercial mapping data and content providers, as well as APIs for SOAP, OpenLS, REST, and J2ME.

In the Entertainment and Leisure category, the CUTLASS, Inc., application HOT-n-COLD is an LBS version of the game “tag” that gives players a local map and sends them red or blue messages indicating how close they are to a hideout—a  promotional venue, a retailer, or a café. Walking or driving, players input street addresses as they travel. HOT-n-COLD works on all cell phones, and its underlying components are patent pending.

KnowledgeWhere’s Mobile Pooch competed in the Social Networking category and allows players to personalize a virtual dog that plays interactive games, communicates with friends, and discovers virtual prizes in real-world locations. Players locate friends, look for hidden prizes, and receive navigation instructions to find retailers where prizes can be redeemed.

A finalist in the Business Applications category, Astroleap’s eureka!mobile product is a location-based mobile advertising and coupon application. It allows users to use their mobile devices to search for, download, and redeem special offers, promotions, and coupons according to their location.

Intelligent Spatial Technologies, LLC (iST), used ArcGIS to prepare location data used by its product, iPointer. A finalist in the Navigation/POI Look-up/Traffic category, iPointer is a mobile search and location-sensitive content delivery system that lets mobile users point their cell phone or PDA at a landmark (e.g., restaurant, museum, historic site), engage the iPointer search engine with a single click, and retrieve location-specific content.

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About LOC-AID Technologies

LOC-AID, based in Boca Raton, Florida, has developed a suite of award-winning LBS solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming, and Workforce Management, as well as created the first fully integrated LBS aggregation gateway.  LOC-AID’s current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell, and Unefon networks and will launch in the United States during 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net.

About CUTLASS, Inc.

Since 2000, CUTLASS, Inc., has been an award-winning locative media provider, producing and distributing its own branded cell phone entertainment as well as building commissioned, custom wireless applications. A privately held New York City-based company, CUTLASS distributes Cellphonia, Treasure Hunt, Hollywood-USA, Fookie, Quirky World, Hidden Places, and other applications in the UK, USA, and Canada in partnership with Motricity, WirelessDeveloper Agency, Verizon Wireless, TELUS Mobility, and O2. Visit www.ctlss.com or contact CUTLASS at 212-388-9121 or info@ctlss.

 About KnowledgeWhere

KnowledgeWhere, an LBS leader, provides a commercial, carrier-grade, hosted platform and services that open new markets for companies wanting to exploit the LBS industry worldwide.

Over the past three years, KnowledgeWhere has created the tools and connectivity required for application developers to easily leverage wireless location context in their applications and content. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Blister Entertainment, KnowledgeWhere commercially launched North America’s first location-based games in 2004 and 2005 on the Bell Mobility, Boost Mobile, and Sprint Nextel networks. For more information, visit www.knowledgewhere.ca.

 
About Astroleap, Inc.
Astroleap, Inc., was founded in 2004 to pioneer innovative mobile applications that empower the user with context and location-sensitive data. Astroleap’s goal is enhancing users’ mobile experience by providing them with information and adding entertainment value to their usage of mobile devices. Astroleap, along with its core product eureka!mobile ™, also gives benefits to business and advertisers by providing highly desirable user behavioral data, which can be used to better serve the needs of their customers. For more information, visit www.astroleap.com.
 

About Intelligent Spatial Technologies, LLC
Founded in 2003 in Orono, Maine, and privately held, iST develops location-based services and technologies for mobile users. iST has developed the iPointer system, a pointing technology that enables specific content about selected landmarks to be delivered to a mobile user based on geographic location and orientation. For more information on iST, visit www.i-spatialtech.com or contact iST at 207-866-6521 or info@i-spatialtech.com.
 

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, ArcIMS, ArcWeb, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.