A new initiative to support digital media projects in the South West is investing £50,000 in creative research and development projects at some of the region's best new media firms.

Media Sandbox is a joint initiative launched by South West Screen, Watershed, iShed and the South West Development Agency in November last year. Six projects will all receive a £9,000 grant and one of those will receive an additional £10,000 for further development.

Aardman Animations has partnered with HMC Interactive on the 'Physical Cartooning' project which puts animated characters in the real world, while the Altern8 project is exploring public control over communal spaces by inviting people to direct fountains in Bristol.

Several projects explore gaming. In Harmonize, one 'seeker' armed with a two-way radio and PDA is directed around the streets by a team at basecamp, who have a large map plotted with obstacles and quests.

The Swarm project explores urban gaming and self-organised swarms and will provide gamers with a toolkit, based on HP technology, that allows them to interact and message each other on the go.

Thought Pie uses digital gifts to encourage people to feel more confident about new technologies, and users can leave gifts for friends and relatives around the city.

The sixth project, Happy Town, will try out a series of morale-boosting initiatives to try and influence morale at large-scale public events.

All six projects were picked because they explore, in one way or another, understanding of digital media beyond the conventional applications of TV, cinema and PCs. I think we can assume that HappyPackages.com is an early prototype.