Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is coming to Hollywood. The largest phone maker in the world said it is opening a new research lab in Hollywood, which will work with people in the media and entertainment industry. That will include working closely with new tech companies and creative talent and universities. Clearly, Nokia is doing this to be closer to content companies and further its mission of becoming a content and services company, rather than just a hardware maker. The lab will conduct research on technologies surrounding film, music, games, web and TV. In a release, Rebecca Allen, Laboratory Director of NRC Hollywood, said: “The laboratory will explore new entertainment experiences that combine the physical and digital worlds. Our research work will focus on mixed reality experiences, with a strong community flavor. We will develop new user interfaces that fully explore the role of the human body and human motion for more natural forms of interaction. Mobile devices will play a central role in this.”

And no, this is not about Nokia’s product placement strategy in movies. To get an idea of what they might working on, in a recent job description, Nokia’s Hollywood lab was looking for someone to build prototypes for “Mixed Reality,” which includes such areas as wearable computing and real-time rendering. Release.