Today in New York City, HP revealed "for the first time outside of the lab" a concept handheld for the company's Mediascape (or "Mscape") gaming software. The handheld has been sighted before, though — specifically in an HP commercial shown earlier this year at a technology summit (video after the jump).

As seen in the video, the concept with Mscape is that the handheld's screen acts kind of like a lens through which the real world is rendered just like a video game. For example, holding it up to a part of the street may reveal a virtual crater where the ground should be. It's not actually rendering the environment in real time; Mscape cues up the proper graphics when prompted by sensors on the device, including GPS. It's so far been confined to HP's iPAQ handhelds.

That could change, however, if this prototype device ever goes into production. HP gave no hint about when that might happen, not even giving the name of the thing, but showed it off to demonstrate Mscape technology. We're impressed. Follow the link below to check out the somewhat fictionalized potential of this as-yet-unnamed device. — Peter Pachal