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Hewlett-Packard has released a public beta of its new location based interactive software called “Mscapers” for Windows XP based computers. MScape lets anyone create interactive location-based games or tours for Windows Mobile devices.

Mscapes is a software suite and website to enable people to design, create and share location-based experiences, games and tours with friends, family and others, anywhere in the world. Anyone with a GPS-enabled mobile device running Windows Mobile can use the Mscapes client to play any of the created games as they move through the physical world.

What is mediascapes?
mediascapes are mobile, location-based experiences that incorporate digital media with the sights, sounds, and textures of the world around you. A mediascape blends digital images, video, audio and interactions with the physical landscape. Games, guided walks, tours, and destinations are among the mediascapes created to date.

What is mscape?
mscape authoring software and the mscape player enable people to design and play location-based experiences called mediascapes with friends, family and others, anywhere in the world. And www.mscapers.com is the place for sharing and downloading mediascapes on your GPS-enabled Windows Mobile devices such as HP iPAQ (http://www.hp.com/go/ipaq).

Unlike PC-based applications, mscape technology provides a highly interactive, fun and engaging experience when users are out and about in the real world. mscape’s context-sensitive logic, combined with GPS and mapping technology, allows gamers, travel, GPS and outdoor enthusiasts to take their experiences to a higher level. The solution is so flexible that different digital files can be overlaid in the same space and delivered at different times, depending on which other locations in the mediascape the user has already visited.

“Fundamentally, all of our mobility announcements are about helping people connect with each other around information that’s important to them,” said Debra Brackeen, HP Labs’ director of strategic initiatives. “All of that connection is happening with richer and richer media experiences.” And though Mscapes is not yet a finished product, HP is “putting it out there for the enjoyment of customers and developers.”

The mscape software is available for free download at mscapers Download page, you can create your own mscape which essentially overlays imaginary images over images based on real life.

Mscapers provides everything people need to develop their own mediascapes, including training and tips to get started with Mediascape Wizards Help Guide

For more information about mediascapes and the mscape tools for making and playing mediascapes, visit http://wiki.mscapers.com/bin/view/Main/WebHome. You will get more ‘hands-on’ approach to the creation of mediascapes, downloading the mscape toolkit and the use of the mscape maker itself.