Categories: Technology

The missing submarine is controlled with a Logitech gamepad

Near the famous “Titanic” wreck, rescuers have been searching since Sunday in a race against time for the “Titan”, a research and adventure submarine of the American company Oceangate Expeditions.

On Tuesday, the American tech blog The Verge pointed to a technical feature: the submarine is controlled by a game controller from the well-known Swiss manufacturer of computer accessories Logitech.

Since a TV report last year, it has been known that a game controller is used to control the submarine, which weighs about ten tons. At the time, a CBS reporter was very surprised when he was shown the makeshift equipment of the “Titan”.

Recent reports (including from the Keystone-SDA news agency) incorrectly spoke of an Xbox controller. However, the screenshot clearly shows that it is a Logitech device.

The use of a game controller (also known as a gamepad) is not entirely uncommon, notes The Verge. The US Navy uses gamepads to operate submarine periscopes, among other things. And Elon Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring Company, showed off an Xbox One controller that powers one of the giant boring machines.

Tech journalist Richard Lawler notes:

“Gamepads are versatile, comfortable, and familiar to use, but I’ve experienced controller failures often enough during heavy gaming to raise an eyebrow over reliance on a fairly common, wirelessly connected device for something so important.”
Not a mini submarine
While a submarine can dive independently and return to the seabed, a submarine does not have these capabilities. It is carried by a support vessel on the surface of the water to where it is to dive. Communication is via SMS. According to the Oceangate Expeditions website, these messages are exchanged through an acoustic system. Electronics and control pods for the steel rudders are mounted outside the 6.7-meter carbon fiber and titanium pressure hull.

Sources

With material from the Keystone-SDA news agency

  • theverge.com: The missing Titanic tour submarine is controlled with a simple Logitech gamepad
  • cbsnews.com: Titanic: visit to the most famous shipwreck in the world (November 2022)
  • wikipedia.org: Titan (submarine)

(dsc)

Source: Watson

Share
Published by
Ella

Recent Posts

Terror suspect Chechen ‘hanged himself’ in Russian custody Egyptian President al-Sisi has been sworn in for a third term

On the same day of the terrorist attack on the Krokus City Hall in Moscow,…

1 year ago

Locals demand tourist tax for Tenerife: “Like a cancer consuming the island”

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/4Residents of Tenerife have had enough of noisy and dirty tourists.It's too loud, the…

1 year ago

Agreement reached: this is how much Tuchel will receive for his departure from Bayern

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/7Packing his things in Munich in the summer: Thomas Tuchel.After just over a year,…

1 year ago

Worst earthquake in 25 years in Taiwan +++ Number of deaths increased Is Russia running out of tanks? Now ‘Chinese coffins’ are used

At least seven people have been killed and 57 injured in severe earthquakes in the…

1 year ago

Now the moon should also have its own time (and its own clocks). These 11 photos and videos show just how intense the Taiwan earthquake was

The American space agency NASA would establish a uniform lunar time on behalf of the…

1 year ago

This is how the Swiss experienced the earthquake in Taiwan: “I saw a crack in the wall”

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/8Bode Obwegeser was surprised by the earthquake while he was sleeping. “It was a…

1 year ago