   Does the Army use the XBOX 360?
  I've just seen a (UK) army recruitment video.  They launch an unmanned vehicle to investigate an area ahead of the troops.  And they seem to be flying it using a 360 control pad!Is this a novel application of XNA?  Or are they implying that war is a game?   
  The "360 gamepad" isn't confined to only the 360. The DirectX API allows it to be used on the PC. I would assume the Soldiers get trained first in a simulator that uses the gamepad for input. Then to keep the simulation as true to the real thing as possible, they continue to use the controller for input in the field.Plus they're wifi compatible, so its much cheaper to use existing tech on civilian market for warfare than to invent another wheel.   ;  Or maybe they just used it in the vid because it looked nifty, and is something a lot of people will recognize.But yeah, I have a 360 controller for my PC, so it's easy enough to use for any kind of application.   ;  XInput has a whopping 4 functions so its dead easy to use and they're pretty cheap disposable/replaceable pieces of kit - can imagine it'd work out nicely for the army...But that does of course mean that the British Army is likely running their field ops on Windows platforms and technologies. That's gotta scare some people [lol]Jack(fwiw I know that the MoD use a lot of MS platforms and technologies as I might be working on it in the future);  What's far more concerning is the fact that they seem to be implying that anything in warfare is a game. It seems to be a global trend too, as there's a current NZ navy ad which features fake video letters (god I hope they're fake) home to parents/friends/etc. It's full of the usual military recruitment lies (hey kids, join the navy, you'll spend all your time clubbing in Hong Kong and playing touch footy on a helipad!) but one of the more disturbing is some muppet sitting in front of a missile radar (at least it's implied that it's a missile radar) saying "been playing a lot of videogames lately". Videogames? That's a bloody expensive piece of military hardware designed to kill people, and my taxes (partly) paid for it too! I'd appreciate you treating it with a bit more respect!! Makes you wonder at the calibre of recruit they're trying to attract. [headshake]   ;  I am surprised to hear that people call this a "current trend"...The video game industry would not be there if it were not for army investments in simulations research. Avalon Hill, pioneer of board-wargaming, basically picked up the Napoleon/Prussian war simulations that they used for the actual wars they fought. Since then, the best possible war simulations came out of military-sponsored technology research.I once read a PhD thesis on this and could not believe my eyes when seeing the references in the footnotes.America's Army is just the current peak of something that has been there forever. And it makes it even easier. People are not realizing they are actually killing someone.Respect? Who in the branch has respect for the real incidents that the games they play resemble? I have given up trying to promote sensibility towards those issues among gamers ...   ;  Speaking of great scientific endeavors to improve the steering of wargear: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon   ;Quote:Original post by ChaosEngine...but one of the more disturbing is some muppet sitting in front of a missile radar (at least it's implied that it's a missile radar) saying "been playing a lot of videogames lately". Videogames? That's a bloody expensive piece of military hardware designed to kill people, and my taxes (partly) paid for it too! I'd appreciate you treating it with a bit more respect!! Makes you wonder at the calibre of recruit they're trying to attract. [headshake]Relax. Breathe. It's a common military euphemism, originally derisive, pointing out that warfare by remote is like videogames in comparison to traditional engagements.Ever heard the expression "wargames"? How about "exercise"? You know, we live in an era of such manufactured outrage, and the only antidote is to calmly examine the facts surrounding an issue before sputtering in ire. You may decry what you perceive as the loss of humanity, but that's an outsider's naive interpretation; military training is designed to dehumanize the enemy - that's why they use a range of terms equally suitable for inanimate objects, like "target", "objective", etc.Nothing's changed but the weapons.   ;Quote:Original post by jollyjeffersBut that does of course mean that the British Army is likely running their field ops on Windows platforms and technologies. That's gotta scare some people [lol]There's open-source drivers, and surely communicating with a joypad over USB isn't rocket surgery.   ;  I know a guy who is a contractor for robotic controls for the U.S. army, and while I don't know a lot about what he's up to for obvious reasons, he did say he was using a game controller for a turret. I guess it was a convenient piece of cheap off-the-shelf tech he could use, although I don't know if this was a prototype or a final version. If it does the job, then you might as well use it. You've also got the benefit that the driver is probably used to game controllers so they'll pick it up quicker.   