Modified video game controller operates missing Titanic vessel

On Sunday, June 18, the Titan, an underwater ship designed to explore the wreck of the Titanic, lost contact with the ship on which it was launched and has since gone missing. As of June 20, the missing ship operated by the private company OceanGate has not been found.

As soon as news of the missing ship spread, some famous tweets have seen millions of times claiming that the submarine is operated by a video game controller.

Is Titan, the missing Titanic probe, controlled by a video game controller?

Yes, Titan is controlled with a video game controller.

Multiple viral tweets shared similar images of Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of OceanGate, holding a video game controller while inside Titan. Those are screenshots from CBS’s Sunday Morning segment, in which Rush confirms the ship is operated by a video game controller.

On November 27, 2022, CBS News published an article And videotapes in which CBS journalist David Pogue went on an expedition with a ship called the Titan. He was Rushed for a tour of the ship on camera. CBS also posted the same video Youtube Channel.

“We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush told Pogue about three and a half minutes after the video. Rush then shows the game controller, which appears to have been modified to have a large joystick, with the camera.

The controller seems to be this kind of wireless Logitech F710 Controller — with the aforementioned modified joysticks — designed for use with personal computer video games. New versions of the controller sell for around $50 on Amazon.

There are both images on OceanGate’s website and social media with the controller. ONE OceanGate photo posted on my Twitter account clearly shows someone sub-controlling with a game controller — the same controller seen in the CBS clip. Two other photo in the galleries on OceanGate’s website show controller inside Titan.

Although the photo is not available on OceanGate’s website, OceanGate’s website has a link to a Onshape’s blog posta company that produces engineering design tools used in the construction of Titan, including a photo in which someone appears to be actively controlling the Titan with a video game controller.

Onshape also says Titan uses a video game controller for navigation, “allowing crew members to take turns in the controls without knowing anything about traditional submarine gear and gauges.” .”

Titan uses “off-the-shelf parts” to make the vessel “easy to operate and replace parts on site,” OceanGate’s website speak.

The controller doesn’t make the train go up and down — it just navigates the train from side to side. The Titan is a submersible that uses flotation devices to float and descend while in water. So if the controller malfunctions, it won’t stop Titan from returning to the surface.

The Titan isn’t the first underwater ship to use a video game controller. The World Economic Forum reported in 2018 that the US Navy was experimenting with using an Xbox controller to operate a digital periscope.

VERIFY has reached out to OceanGate for comment.