Watch: NASA robot combines OCULUS RIFT + KINECT. Future rules, brah.

NASA ain’t letting the upcoming Robot Apocalypse dissuade them from utilizing current technologies. Until it strikes, of course. Then they’ll just be paste like the rest of us. Until that happens though, they’re doing jazzy things like combining the both the Oculus Rift and XB1’s Kinect. For great justice. Or great…science?

NASA’s jet propulsion lab has been experimenting with interesting ways to control robots. Case in point: marrying Oculus Rift with Kinect to control a robotic arm.

By using the Oculus Rift for head-tracking and first-person view, and by using the Xbox One‘s new and improved Kinect sensor for gesture controls, NASA scientists can manipulate physical objects. The implication is that this could be a viable control option for robots off in space – or as an impressive means to get a soda from the vending machine in the NASA break room.

[Joystiq]