Georgia Tech has some rather big projects in the pipeline adapting gaming technolgies for use in “Serious Gaming”, the new field of creating applications and tools that use popular “gaming” techniques and tools in fields like simulation and education. One such example is in autonomous robots, where they first simulate the robots behaviour in realistic video-games.
At this level, the high-fidelity physical details of robot motion or car damage are not vital. What’s most important is understanding whether the robot can apply reason to the situation and then activate an avoidance behavior.
“Game engines and virtual worlds allow exploring these interactions in ways that, until we understand the issues, are much safer than building systems and identifying problems the hard way,” Weiss said.
In addition, they are working on integrating tools like SecondLife into remote education platforms, and using systems like the Wii Remote to analyze human kinetics for signs of repetitive stress injury.
We are actually working with Siemens to control real-time robotics from 3D virtual worlds which will also teach students this 21st century skill. If you would like to check it out with me contact me at [email protected] . Great site/article Randall!