Those who have had a go on a Nintendo Wii will know it’s fiddly enough just to knock a tennis ball over the net.
Now imagine using a ‘Wiimote control’ to defuse an unexploded bomb. It’s enough to give your Mii character a nervous breakdown…
But it could happen – the US military has adapted the motion-sensitive controllers to operate robots.
Scientists – presumably inbetween ten-pin bowling on Wii Sports – have created the Packbot, a machine-gun-toting robot which uses Wii technology to clear mines and bombs.
Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006. Its controllers detect the motion of players’ hands and beam their actions to the console. These are then converted – via a personalised digital character called a Mii – to gameplay.
Wiimote controls can be used to simulate movement in sports such as tennis and golf, as well as in shoot-em-ups and fighting games.
But this is the first time they have been adapted for war, where standard remote controls are widely used.
Wiimotes are more instinctive, allowing users to focus on data processing, US Department of Energy scientists told New Scientist.
But Packbot is not the first weapon to use gaming technology. America’s seven-tonne attack robot ‘Crusher’ is operated by a Xbox 360 controller.