HP has gaming handheld in the works

[wraggster]

via cnn

Hewlett-Packard is working on a gaming handheld that could let players use their surroundings as a backdrop for an immersive game.

The company unveiled a commercial for "Mscape," its gaming prototype, 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," Rahul Sood, chief technology officer of HP's gaming division, said during a presentation here.

Details were sketchy, but HP appears to be taking a cue from the response to Nintendo's Wii gaming console, which is built around a motion sensor in the controller. Mscape is definitely still a prototype, but Sood said he's "really pleased with our progress so far." The taglines for the gaming handheld? "Your world is the playing field. Get in the game."

UPDATED--Sood was far cagier about HP's own plans for such a handheld in an interview after the presentation, but the company is developing the basic technology that would allow handhelds to turn into gaming devices, and hopes to license it far and wide, he said.

HP Labs has been working on the Mscape technology for about two years, said Patrick Goddi, a company researcher in Palo Alto, Calif. 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.

The early concept involves a handheld and a series of small sensors that a game organizer could lay out around a city or park. Those sensors would trigger certain events in the game, like a bonus level or an attack by the bad guys, based on a small demonstration of the concept here.

[paul1991]

I always hated those idiots that walked and played the PSP or DS. I like gaming, but stop showing off your gamesystem you Idiot!

I will and would never play video games in public. It is low class and Rude.

[DPyro]

Who would buy this? HP by far doesn't know a thing about gaming. They barely know anything about computers...

[Payk]

"I always hated those idiots that walked and played the PSP or DS. I like gaming, but stop showing off your gamesystem you Idiot!

I will and would never play video games in public. It is low class and Rude."

Totally agreed. Last week i had a longer journey by train. I had the DS with me. And even if i never would see those pll again, i didn't played in the train. I listedn to mp3 with my DS, but it was in my pocked so that nobody could see it at all.
HP should know that most ppl don't like to show their handheld. So buidling a GPS system, which is also more usefull for adult is something which is totaly unececary and just makes the price high of that handheld. But rest of that concept sounds interesting. Good luck HP, i hope you calculated with losing much money. Even Sony didn't stand a chance against Nindendo.

[DancinWookie]

I always hated those idiots that walked and played the PSP or DS. I like gaming, but stop showing off your gamesystem you Idiot!

I will and would never play video games in public. It is low class and Rude.

Your opinion is to narrow, it is not rude to be playing on a ds or psp outside, it's actually far better for you than to be cooped up inside of a building, I play my DS all the time in the park, it gives me time to absorb the weather. Yeah the games aren't as powerful, but its how good the game plays, graphics aren't everything. Here is my opinion I hate people who think only of them self and are jealous of others. People who are proud to support something they like is as much your right long as its with in legal boundaries. Watch what you say some people may take it in offense.

And in some ways it can be offensive if your playing in public, how is it. It is only offensive if you try to gather everyones attention. People aren't going to blast you because you have a ds/psp or what ever. It may also be a culture thing and may be offensive feeling in other countries, but it definitely isn't a problem where I live.

On to the real topic, It would only be worth buying if it played computer games, I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to play leisure suit larry on the road, with out carrying a laptop.

Maybe this will finally put hp under ground.

[rokobungi]

hmm so HP is making a geocaching-larp handheld??

ok that's fine just make sure it includes tha bad costumes and a foam sword

[crookedmouth]

It's rude to play your handheld on the go? Huh?
Where do you play it?

People don't think twice about whipping out their cellphones,even in restaurants . I heard about a minister who answered his during a sermon.
I see tons of people on the library lawn or in parks or coffee houses using their laptops.
I mean seriously it's just another entertainment medium. Is it rude to read a book on the train or bus? As long as you use headphones, it's no one elses business what your doing. Don't be ashamed of your tech enthusiasm.

[XDelusion]

I wonder if the hardware will crash and burn within the 1st year like there PC's do!?!?!