People working at the European Patent Office or EPO have their eyes constantly focused on a computer screen all day, be it while reading, carrying out prior art searches or filing or examining the formal requirements of European patent applications. It seems like using a mouse and keyboard either makes this job of theirs more tedious or too boring, and the bureaucrats just want to kick back and have some gaming fun.
According to Kotaku, they use a PlayStation 2 DualShock 2 controller to do most of their work while navigating their high-strung EPOQUE database system. The EPO covertly calls the instruments “commercial game controllers”. These commercial game controllers seem to be better suited to pouring over record after record, than are the computer’s keyboard and mouse. Wouldn’t it be easier and not to mention faster, just to type in specific keywords while searching for records? Seems not. And how they type in the necessary is beyond any of us.