The virtual reality head-mounted display, Oculus Rift may be the next-generation of video games, as well as the future of porn. But, the engineers at NASA are the only people who saw the true potential of this device and to use it for more than just gaming or to fly drones. Which led them to start developing a way to let us virtually walk on Mars using the Oculus Rift. Now, they have found an amazing use out of Oculus Rift by using it to control robots in space.
Using an Oculus Rift and a Kinect controller, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were able to “control the entire orientation rotation of a robotic limb,” Alex Menzies, a Human Interfaces engineer at NASA told Engadget during an interview. “We’re able to really immerse someone in the environment so that it feels like an extension of your own body — you’re able to look at the scene from a human-like perspective with full stereo vision. All the visual input is properly mapped to where your limbs are in the real world.”
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When fully developed, this method will basically allow a human being to fully control a robot as if it’s their own body. In a way it will turn that person into a cyborg. This is definitely a groundbreaking invention.
Check out the video to see it in action.
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