Mediascapes
Ok, I have seen this in person and let me just tell you, it is AWESOME. Now that Oliver and I have our iPAQs, I hope to play some and even make some of my own! In essence, Mediascapes is a physically interactive game. You run around town and find the ports to gain more lives, points, levels etc. using your iPAQ! The commercial for this (unreleased at this point) will "supposedly" ;);) rawk out as well. For example, they have made mediascapes for the Tower of London in which you attempt to break out of prison using your iPaq.
"The game ... uses HP iPAQ handheld devices and location sensors including GPS. Digital files containing voices, images, music and clues are placed in specific locations using the HP Labs Mediascape authoring toolkit." .... The files help you find historical prisoners (such as Guy Fawkes and Anne Boleyn) and escape while avoiding the Tower’s Yeomen Warders!
Now what doesn't sound AWESOME about that?! ..... oh MAN I'm excited to start playing!
Another example is by Alan Beecham, Secondary Strategy Consultant (ICT) at Education Bradford. He created a mediascape of the moon, then superimposed it on a playing field. The awesome details ...
Students, equipped with their HP iPAQs and two-way radios, set off to explore the 'crater' with a number of tasks to complete before their 'oxygen supplies' run out. These tasks include finding the volume of moon rocks and using a micrometer to measure a moon dust footprint. Students need to take at least one or two training sessions before they are ready to carry out their first Moonwalk mission.
Below are links to other articles, as well as sites where you can make your own mediascape in your yard, town, city, etc! . And if you have a digg account,
will ya? They want to get these mediascapes out to us, the bloggers! Read more at:
- Susie Wee's Blog (head of HP Labs)
- Rahul Sood's Blog (CTO and VP of VooDooPC -- a division of HP)
- Escape from the Tower of London (additional articles)
- HP's main mediascapes tool-kit page
- Create-A-Scape (more educationally based!)
