| BenKenobi88 said: I don't get why the Army constantly uses videogame controllers. Yeah, they're easy to learn, but are our soldiers really that dumb, and is the Army really that cheap? Surely there's better motion control devices, more accurate, but obviously more expensive. And I guess I'm just confused why they'd opt for motion control, which can be a little iffy...there's nothing iffy about pressing a button to issue a command. |
Aside from what gomezc mentioned you also have to consider that while a button is a sure-fire way to issue a command it is also a binary input. When dealing with the complex task of maneuvering a robot about an environment there are many times where a fistfull of buttons won't do you much good. Analog inputs are required at some point and while analog sticks are the early incarnation of the realization of this input requirement, I think it is obvious that motion sensing is at least attempting to be the next evolution.
From what I read of the article it sounds to me like they aren't planning to use the Wii-Mote in the field, but rather they are using the wii-mote to test the viability of motion controls. If they get promising results they will likely move forward to a phase of the testing where they will implement more cutting edge technology in terms of accuracy and responce time, but most importantly they will build something tailored precisely for the task.
Actually that is something else they gain by doing these early trials. They can learn a lot from their operator's feedback about where the design team should be looking to make improvements that allow them to perform better.
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
