Or at least the modded version of the US Army’s greatest recruitment game, America’s Army. Military software engineers have managed to recreate real-life bomb threats in the game, and, with an actual robot controller, soldiers can operate a virtual robot to realistically defuse it.
The US Army has been working on this project since 2003, and it has clear benefits. First, not all recruits will have access to actual robots to learn a bomb disposal skill set. Robots, like the iRobot Packbot, are expensive. But by putting the task on a virtual playing field, more recruits can learn those necessary skills for much cheaper. Second, well, it could save lives. More trained bomb defusers means more men and women that are kept out of harm’s way in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
This sounds slightly better than all the Modern Warfare my friends play. [Fast Company, Image Credit: charles knox/Shutterstock]