GUIs for Robots

kabir writes "OpenGL.org has a link to a fun article over at the Stanford Aerospace Robotics Laboratory. It seems an OpenGL-based GUI has been developed to enable the operation of multiple complex field robots by a single operator. The interaction mechanism was inspired by interface techniques refined in the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) genre of video games. Fifty years from now I expect all wars to be fought by giant robots controlled by teenagers."

Comments

Games

[GigsVT]

The interaction mechanism was inspired by interface techniques refined in the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) genre of video games.

This is interesting. Often it seems the games are ahead of the "serious apps".

One of my friends in high school put together a level in Duke Nukem 3D that was based on our high school. It was pretty accurate. This was pre-columbine, so nobody was thrown in jail for it.

If these game companies just put a little extra effort into retrofitting their game engines for serious purposes, they might sell the same thing for hundreds of dollars a copy. Imagine something like a first person shooter combined with The Sims. You could design your whole house, to scale, and then walk through it.

Click a menu option and output a postscript file to send to the structural engineer and architect for tweaks and approval.

Whoever does this will probably make lots of money.

A total reversal

[MarkusQ]

Fifty years from now I expect all wars to be fought by giant robots controlled by teenagers

In stark contrast to the situation today, where wars are fought by teenagers controlled by giant robots.

-- MarkusQ