If you were under the impression that driving a tank in real life had much in common with doing the same in, say, Battlefield 4, you'd be wrong. The Norwegian Army recently got their hands on an Oculus Rift and wired the virtual reality headset through the tank's systems. The end result? Real-world warfare that actually begins to feel more like a game.
The tank's network of off-the-shelf cameras and sensors feed the VR headset a steady 360-degree view of the world around themselves. Basically, they've created a tank that you can drive like you're in-game or hitching a ride with Wonder Woman. You even get on-screen stats like you would in a video game. Your current rate of speed, tilt and even a map pop up when you want them, giving you a real sense of your surroundings.
Well, we say "real", but in actual fact the opposite might be true. Giving tank drivers disembodied super-vision and on-screen data like that they'd get in-game could lead to battlefield personnel who don't really realize that they're in harm's way. Video games let you reload when you take lethal damage, but unlike drone pilots who simply lose a few million in government funding when their "avatar" goes down, tank operators really do go down with the ship.
Camera-generated or not, being able to see through a tank's walls is basically a super power. We just hope all that X-Ray vision doesn't go to anyone's head when their life is on the line. VIDEO
TuTV, via The Verge
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