The U.S. military has been using games for decades to train its troops. Now, for the first time, the Army has set up a project office, just for building and deploying games.
No, the Army isn’t about to start handing out copies of Halo 3 to troops, TSJOnline.com notes. “I haven’t seen a game built for the entertainment industry that fills a training gap,” said Col. Jack Millar, director of the service’s Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) Project Office for Gaming, or TPO Gaming. Instead, the new office — part of the Army’s Kansas-based National Simulation Center — will focus on using videogame graphics to make those dull military simulations more realistic, and better-looking.
Enjoy this video of expert team performance. I note that the post-er says these Marines “cut a lot of corners.” I’d be very interested to know how this differs from what they “should” be doing and what is optimal.
This from comments on the video: “Chief, what are you doing?! That was one jacked up fire mission. Are you trying to get your guys killed in a training mission? Not swabbing the breach or checking the bore while firing slow burning greenbag?! And what are you doing in the way between the trails? Didn’t do FCATS, did you? Don’t trust the quadrant on the gunner’s side?”
Though for some, turning war into a video game might remind them of 1984, unmanned aircraft offer unparalleled safety to the pilot.
NPR recently covered the technological and social changes that come with unmanned aircraft, but the human factors of tracking, flying, and manipulating the Predator was not mentioned.
Obvious issues include:
Lag time from the camera halfway around the world
Limited acuity and field of view
Decision-making (e.g., bombing a target on a screen vs. dropping a bomb on people)
In short, I worry that the news presented to the public paints a too-rosy picture of these aircraft, implying that we will eventually have robots fighting robots from the comfort of our own homes.
I’d like to hear from people what they consider to be the most interesting human factors challenge of unmanned vehicles. I don’t know much about the design of their interfaces and whether they are more similar to a cockpit or a game console, but I’m interested to learn. Feel free to comment!
