HP Plots Virtual Prison Break from the Tower of London

HP Plots Virtual Prison Break from the Tower of London

HP researchers are working with the U.K.’s Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that cares for and conserves five unique palaces, to pilot a new location-aware adventure game in which visitors to the Tower of London help virtual prisoners to escape. Yeoman Sergeant Vic Lucas with a radio “pinger” used to warn players of approaching Beefeaters in the Tower of London Mediascape game, created by HP Labs.

The game, developed by the Mediascapes research team at HP Labs and staff at the Tower of London, 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. As players move into a location in the Tower and its grounds, the appropriate digital file is triggered on their iPAQ devices. This allows players to meet historical prisoners in the Tower, such as Guy Fawkes and Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII’s wives. Even the Tower’s Yeomen Warders, nicknamed Beefeaters, become part of the game as players try to help historical figures escape.

For HP, the interest in exploring this area of mobility is to understand the opportunities for new products and services that will emerge around the delivery of location and other context-based experiences. “This is part of a wider project we are running to investigate how locative services might evolve based on user experience,” said Josephine Reid, who is leading the HP Labs team. “We think of this as a new medium, like a digital fourth dimension laid over a physical space. Understanding its value will enable us to go beyond the delivery of ‘anything, anytime, anywhere,’ to the delivery of the ‘right thing at the right time to the right place.’”

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