About mscapers.com

Mscapers.com had its origins in 2002 as Mobile Bristol, a project that explored how mobile devices and pervasive information technology could enhance people's interactions with their physical environments and with each other.

With funding from the British government, researchers in HP Labs Bristol, the University of Bristol, and Appliance Studio collaborated on several trials, working with artists, writers, educators, and others to create a series of interactive, context-aware mobile experiences.

In one trial, visitors to Bristol's harbor could virtually navigate the history of what was once one of Britain's busiest ports. In another, middle school students could experience life as a lion by walking around a virtual savannah.

The prototype toolkit used to create those experiences was made available on the Web. More than 1,000 downloads later, and the mediascape design community was born.

In the meantime, researchers at HP Labs built a redesigned toolkit from the ground up, and used it to develop more mediascape pilots. They also worked with a nonprofit learning company to offer a limited version of the toolkit for schools.

Ready to
get started?

Download Mscape Suite Version 2.1 | 10.5 MB

Today and to come

At mscapers.com, designers of all ages can create, post, and share their digital location-based mediascape experiences. Mscapers.com — combined with the simple-to-use Mscape authoring tools — creates a brand new platform for user-generated experience creation and sharing, much in the same way many Web 2.0 sites are conduits for user-generated content creation and sharing today. Designers have the option to use the Creative Commons licensing model for the mediascapes they post on mscapers.com, giving them control over how their mediascapes are shared and used.

With the more than 436 million mobile phones that are estimated to have GPS capabilities, Mscape has a vast potential audience. While most of the today’s mediascapes are designed to work with GPS, the Mscape plug-in architecture allows for expansion to other sensors such as infrared, Bluetooth™ wireless technology, and bio sensors. Sensors make indoor use of Mscape possible and allow smaller target areas to trigger content. They're the catalyst for a second generation of mediascapes that will enable users to take Mscape to the next level. If you want to try out Mscape's new pre-release capabilities, download Mscape Experimental, available in the Labs experimental zone.

HP also envisions potential enterprise uses for Mscape, such as associating maintenance information with equipment used in a manufacturing plant or refinery.