This company's taking the Wii U gamepad idea to all platforms

Second screen game design is starting to gain a foothold through features like Microsoft Glass and Nintendo's Wii U gamepad, which has the additional feature of running a game's main screen remotely in order to free up the use of the television. Certainly, it's a feature Nintendo has highlighted in its Wii U advertising in the past. But one company is currently prototyping a device that can do the same thing -- for any platform. Meet Advanced Gaming Innovations' Cross Plane, a "true hi-definition wireless video interface" currently looking for funding on Kickstarter, and designed specifically for HD remote game play. The device highly resembles the Wii U gamepad form factor, with a 7-inch screen, 1280x800 (720p) resolution screen, and dual analog sticks. It's intended to connect via a universal control interface attached to the game console or computer's HDMI port, and uses rear-mounted cartridge "paks" to streamline setup for specific systems -- a means by which to easily configure the device for different technical setups, as well as to future-proof the device against sudden obsolescence in the midst of a hardware transition. At present, the Cross Plane is planned for compatibility with Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Ouya and PC -- with future plans to bring the device to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, provided its current crowdfunding efforts pan out. If the Cross Plane works as well as its inventors Chris Downing and Jon Jandran say it does -- and there is cause to believe it can, as the team already has a working prototype (pictured) to show off -- then it has some solid potential to bring remote HD play to consoles besides Nintendo's pioneering (but commercially struggling) Wii U.