R&D employee at Half-Life house says external test for mystery hardware aiming for sometime next year; wearable computing 2-5 years away.

Gamers may get a chance to go hands-on with Valve's first foray into the hardware scene in the next year. Speaking to Engadget, Valve research and development employee Jeri Ellsworth said she is hopeful to launch an external beta test of proprietary hardware sometime in the next year.

Valve hardware is not far off.

Ellsworth was decidedly short on details concerning just what this hardware will be, saying only that her team at Valve aims to create a hardware solution for "control barriers" in Steam games. She said this hardware will be tied to Steam and is in development alongside Steam's new Big Picture Mode.

Elsewhere, Ellsworth revealed that internal tests of the hardware are currently ongoing, with prototypes available to staffers at Valve's headquarters.

Regarding Valve's wearable computing efforts, Ellsworth said this hardware is much further off. She said gamers should not expect to see such products for another two to five years.

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