Nintendo Wii Joins Army
It was almost two years ago when Nintendo unveiled the Wii with its innovative controllers and immediately grabbed everyone’s attentions. Since then, the company never fails to impress with news of entering areas which hardly have any other connection to games.
Although it was admittedly April Fools’ Day yesterday, this story doesn’t seem too far fetched. An otherwise reliable source NewScientist magazine reported that Nintendo Wii controllers may soon become one of the next generation of useful tools for soldiers.
Now David Bruemmer and Douglas Few, both engineers at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Lab in Idaho Falls, have modified a military robot so that it can be controlled by the Wiimote. “Using the ‘Wiimote’ to intuitively control the robot makes sense”
Packbot, made by iRobot in Burlington, Massachusetts, disposes of bombs, sniffs out explosives and checks for landmines for US soldiers. It is 70 centimetres long, and moves on wheels or tracks. Some even have machine guns attached, although these are yet to be used in battle.
However, assuming the story is true, it’s still in the testing process, but a robot controlled by Wii-like controllers certainly offers advantages over other control methods. Meanwhile, the U.S. military will have enough potential recruits on hand skilled in using a Wii controller to tactfully navigate a robot thanks to weeks if not months of experience with Mario.
As stated, some of you might think that this is one of April 1st things, but the date for the article in New Scientist magazine reads 27 March 2008.
Photo: © hdc
Related posts:
