As the pictures from the Mars Rover and the Mars Satellites come back in greater detail we will begin to see computer video games, which will have the Martian Surface as their backdrop. These computer video games are becoming more and more defined and realistic. NASA themselves have put together virtual reality and augmented reality settings to train astronauts and the CAVE Institute has also been gather data sets and digital pictures and video to make VR Mars experiences a reality here on Earth. Currently there are over 1.6 million digital high quality pictures of the Martian Surface which have been beamed back to Earth and this is enough to make a super Xbox 360 experience for you in your own living room your new Plasma High Definition TV.

One of the challenges now to go with that backdrop is to design realistic components, space surface vehicles astronaut suits, space habitats and devices, such as hand held communication devices that the video game characters will use. Now then this will take a little extra thought, as it is important for video programmers to stay ahead of the game. First off these astronauts will not be holding in their hands anything looking as silly as a cellular phone. Chances are they will communicate via devices on their neck which will sense the vibrational movements of their vocal cords and send them via voice activated sound or directly to a device in their fellow astronauts ear or a tiny microchip inside the ear near the ear bones, which will run off the electromagnetic induction of a miniaturized unit catching pulse and brain waves to power it up. So to be realistic as a gamming programmer you need to be thinking here.

Lance Winslow

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