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Gaming handheld technology in the works says HP

5 April 2007 5:43 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 1 comment

Although in its early stages, Hewlett-Packard has begun working on a gaming handheld that could let players use their surroundings as a backdrop for an interactive game.

During an unveiling for their "Mscape" prototype they showed a TV commercial that "featured a number of young hipster gamers roaming San Francisco while playing a game on Mscape that used cues from their environment as triggers to unlock new levels or bonuses."

"We want to get kids off the couch," responded Rahul Sood, chief technology officer of HP's gaming division.

Although general details were sketchy, Sood did say that the company was developing technology that would turn handhelds in gaming devices. When the technology was created they planned to license it far and wide.

Patrick Goddi, an HP company researcher, said that HP has been working on the Mscape technology for almost two years.

"It's the underlying layer that game developers could use to take advantage of sensors like GPS (global positioning system) or accelerometers like the ones in the Wii controller", he said.

It seems that a game organizer could place small sensors around a park or even a city and those sensors would trigger events in the handheld game, including bonus levels, event progression or even attacks from villains.

Source:
News.com

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vinny13 (Inactive) 5 April 2007 11:51
If it does come out, it probably won't be cheap. I'm not quite sure about what they mean when they say GPS. Does that mean that(in a game) you'll have to be in a certain area to move on or level up or whatever? It sounds complicated :S [ + quote]