The Zone project –by Bernd Hitzeroth and Myriel Milicevic at Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea (Northern Italy.)– wants to turn Video Surveillance into a gaming platform.

The games, played on pc, is fed by live surveillance footage from remote surveillance cameras over the Internet. The player becomes an active agent in the surveyed world, experiencing a feeling of control and yet an uncertainty of what is fiction and what is real.

Real time is an inherent feature in the game – for example, certain daytime activities cannot be encountered at nighttime and vice versa but the game is also driven by fictional elements that lead the player through the narrative. The player can navigate a number of cameras. Equipped with a toolkit of hacking software, he or she can retrieve information, crack codes, unlock hidden features, reveal higher levels, and access new missions.

To get an idea of it you can download the small playable Flash demo.

Via Pasta & Vinegar.