training
Vehicles
Tiny Oil Tanker Makes Pilots Better Trained, Slightly Awkward
1:00AM Dan Nosowitz | The Warsash Maritime Academy in the UK uses these $US245,000 miniature oil tankers to train its pilots—they’re incredibly difficult to drive, and simulate all kinds of different emergency situations, all while looking like a coin-operated children’s ride. More »
Weapons
Suicide Bomber Training Vest in the Works
5:15PM Elaine Chow | The US Naval Air Warfare Centre is currently developing a suicide bomber simulation vest in an attempt to prepare soldiers for encounters with possibly rigged combatants, according to patent filings. More »
Software
Nature Defeats Technology, Again
9:50PM Jesus Diaz | Master buys dog training software. Dog finds training software. Dog decides he needs no bloody training. Dog acts accordingly, destroys it, then goes after master and bites his or her ass. More »
Weapons
11:31AM Nick Broughall | Forget Call of Duty 4 on your 360 – for the latest and greatest interactive shooting game you need to join the NSW Police Force. According to Edmund Tadros over at the SMH, the NSW boys in blue are planning on dropping around $2 million on a state-of-the-art virtual reality firearms range to boost firearms training at the Goulburn police academy. The range will use replica guns shooting at a video screen, complete with recoil action and using wireless technology (although what wireless tech isn’t mentioned). More »
NSW Police Getting A Virtual Reality Firearms Range
11:31AM Nick Broughall | Forget Call of Duty 4 on your 360 – for the latest and greatest interactive shooting game you need to join the NSW Police Force. According to Edmund Tadros over at the SMH, the NSW boys in blue are planning on dropping around $2 million on a state-of-the-art virtual reality firearms range to boost firearms training at the Goulburn police academy. The range will use replica guns shooting at a video screen, complete with recoil action and using wireless technology (although what wireless tech isn’t mentioned). More »
Gadgets
Medical Manikins Freak Us Out
9:15AM Gizmodo US Edition | Meet the manikins (not to be confused with mankinis), medical dummies (spelled “manikin”, apparently) used to train future doctors on how to do the bare minimum to keep you alive that the HMO will pay for. There are all types, from the sexy Overweight CPR manikin to the Deluxe Child Crisis manikin. My favourite is the Multi Man CPR manikin, because it reminds me of last weekend. Vote on your favourite, then report back here and we’ll compare notes. Next week we’ll feature Manikin II: On The Move. [Medical Mainikins on Oobject] More »
Vehicles
World’s First High-Def Train Simulator Makes Train Operating Uber-Realistic
10:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | Train operators-in-training will no longer have to deal with plain, unrealistic, standard-definition simulations thanks to a new system that uses full HD video. Jointly developed by Fujitsu and video game maker Ongakukan, the world’s most advanced train simulator uses variable-speed playback technology and HD video that was shot on actual train lines. More »
Gadgets
Sega Body Trainer: A Digital Excerise Coach for Your Medical Entertainment
8:32PM Gizmodo US Edition | Sega Toy’s new Body Trainer is a “medical entertainment” product, we kid you not, designed to guide you through your exercise regime. Taking account of your age, weight and so on, it advises you with spoken prompts along the lines of “Let’s start warming up.” It actually measures your heart rate with an earlobe clip, so it can tailor its advice and can even detect if you’re slacking— you wont get a crazed Army drill instructor-style insult from it though, just a wimpy “please exercise a little bit harder.” More »
Games
Surgeons Get Better Playing Nintendo Wii
4:45AM Jesus Diaz | According to the experiments by the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Centre team, playing some Wii games improve surgeons’ performance. The study pitted a group of eight trainee surgeons, who spent one hour on the Wii, against normal trainees in a surgery virtual reality simulator. However, only a few games help this: More »
Random Stuff
NY Jedi School Trains Lightsaber Enthusiasts (To Be Bigger Geeks)
2:30AM Mark Wilson | We’d heard of the NY Jedi School before—for those who haven’t, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like—but we’d never seen a class in action until we spotted this clip on ABC. Given that lightsabers don’t actually exist, we were confused just how the…logistics…worked out. Now we know. And yes, it’s every bit as dorky as we dreamed (or nightmared) it would be. [nyjedi via abc & neatorama] More »
