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Navy Plans To Use Xbox 360 Controllers For New Periscope Systems Aboard Its Submarines (go.com)
According to ABC News, the U.S. Navy is planning to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscopes aboard its most advanced submarines. High-resolution cameras and large monitors are replacing the traditional rotating periscope in the Navy's Virginia-class subs. While they can be controlled by a helicopter-style stick, the Navy plans to integrate an Xbox controller into the system because they're more familiar to younger sailors and require less training. They are also considerably cheaper. The controller typically costs less than $30 compared to the $38,000 cost of a photonic mast handgrip and imaging control panel. The Xbox controller will be included as part of the integrated imaging system for Virginia-class subs beginning with the future USS Colorado. It is supposed to be commissioned by November.
Honestly, a periscope that captures all 360 degrees is the perfect situation to use a VR headset. Literally, all you are doing is looking around which is precisely what VR is suited for!
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I discovered this when I tried switching from a mouse to an Xbox controller for gaming. With the mouse, you change its position and the direction of the camera changes appropriately. Once you've learned how much mouse motion corresponds to how much angular rotation, you can instantly move the camera from one one direction to another simply by moving the mouse to the appropriate spot on the desk. If you want to rapidly move the camera back and forth between two set directions, it's trivial because you're just moving the mouse between two fixed positions on the desk. You could do it blindfolded.
Not so for the thumbsticks on the XBox-style controller. It doesn't control the direction the camera is pointed. It controls the rate of change of the direction the camera is pointed. You have to push the thumbstick in the direction you want the camera to move, wait for the camera to almost get there, ease up on the thumbstick so the slew rate slows down, ease up some more, ease up some more, then let go when the camera is finally pointed in the desired direction. If you want to rapidly move the camera back and forth between two set directions, it's a lot of work each time, and you need to be watching the camera view to do it.
I emailed one of the developers working on drivers to allow you to use the controller in games which didn't support it, and learned why. The thumbsticks only have 256x256 resolution. That is, there are only 256 discrete measurable directions the stick can be pointing in each axis. This isn't enough resolution for precise aiming, so they have to use the gimpy slew-rate aiming.
For a camera limited to just one degree of motion like it sounds like this one is, you want to use a paddle controller. It's just a potentiometer. You rotate it and the camera rotates along with it. It too has a 1:1 correspondence between direction of the controller and direction of the camera. So you could rapidly move the camera back and forth between two set directions, blindfolded. In particular, if you put a raised ridge on the paddle wheel, the operator can know which direction the camera is pointed by feel, instead of having to read a numerical bearing readout. This is much more intuitive (the operator basically won't need any training) and less prone to error.