So Microsoft's Kinect was a video gaming bust. Whatever. It's still got its uses. Like...helping police work on their "use of force options" against suspects. You know, whether to shout or shoot at a guy.
Prepare for unintentionally hilarious police action/acting.
Via Attract Mode, the Windows version of the peripheral is being used as part of MILO Range (coincidence?), a training program that's designed to stick cops in front of a giant screen and have them directly interact with pre-recorded video footage.
Like a bad 80s Laserdisc arcade game, then, only instead of hitting giant arrows they're yelling "FREEZE", swinging batons, tazing bros down at the docks and pulling out a little plastic gun (that actually seems pretty cool, since it's got accurate recoil).
(um.....this does not look safe)
Most of the time it's using video footage, but sometimes it drops the player inside 3D environments. Or, graphx.
I'm sure MILO Range sounds great across a boardroom table. Magic 21st century technology for 21st century police work, etc etc. But we all know how shitty it was for video games, so when you see stuff like this:
...it's hard to see this working as advertised.
But hey, maybe it does (anything using firearms seems more involved than simply leaving it up to Kinect to figure out what's happening), and professional police training will get to enjoy a world of Kinect-based interaction that video games never quite got a handle on. And if it does, well, the program's developers have of course already made a zombie shooter to blast around with.
You can see both the MILO Range clips below.