Even as the global gaming industry sets sights on scaling the $70-billion mark by 2015, powered by an ever-growing class of enthusiasts across age groups, the technology itself is finding a myriad of non-gaming uses in areas ranging from space applications and military operations to healthcare and architecture. This is best exemplified by NASA's experiments with gaming technology to gain an up-close view of its latest mission to Mars. The Jet Propulsion Lab team at NASA recently gave a demonstration of how the new Xbox 360 game called 'Mars Rover Landing' was being used to track Curiosity's forays into the red planet.
Likewise, the team uses the 'Gale Crater' game's interactive experience to get a close view of the locales where Curiosity will traverse in the coming years. The game was created using real satellite data from Mars.
The lab is also using gaming technology to better control NASA's robots. Speaking about this at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), an annual gaming convention held in Seattle, Jeff Norris, manager of the Planning and Execution Systems Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the technology behind games and games as a platform will greatly support future space exploration missions. For instance, a Kinect-driven interface is now being used to control the humanoid robot called Robonaut which is currently lodged on the International Space Station.
Kinect is also being used for several other non-gaming tasks like helping autistic children learn to interact with the world and with each other. Microsoft maintains that Kinect's gestural interface is much more intuitive for these children than traditional computer interfaces, and draws them out of their shells more effectively than traditional forms of teaching and human training.
On a different plane, the US Army has been using gaming technology for training and simulation purposes. As a case-in-point, the Army commissioned the CryEngine 3 -- created by Crytek for its 'Crysis' games -- for its head-mounted display-based Dismounted Soldier Training System, a 3D surround-sound environment for combat testing scenarios.
Gaming technology has also permeated the healthcare space in a significant manner. Some gaming companies have developed medical training simulators for hospitals.
Among a host of other business areas, architecture is one field where gaming tech can make a big difference. To illustrate this, US-based architectural firm HKS created a 3D virtual stadium using 'Unreal Engine' -- the same software used in making hit games such as 'Mass Effect 3' -- for designing the Dallas Cowboys Stadium project.
Looking ahead, as the gaming industry reaches out to a wide cross-section of enthusiasts through different platforms including the cloud, many niche technology groups are also gearing up to use this technology for some serious fun.