Using gaming controllers for anything other than gaming ?

I heard they are great for killing billionaires in experimental deep sea rigs

Controllers in shoddily constructed deep sea rigs don’t kill people, billionaires piloting with controllers in shoddily constructed deep sea rigs kill people!
- and so does microsoft , woo woo wooo

Operating parts of multi million dollar navy ships, according to articles. Not joking

Also submarines, when heading down to see the Titanic
Because they’re designed for controlling and people are familiar with them/can learn easily

Also helps standardize when taking bids from multiple companies
I wonder how many spares they keep around
- And if you always get the shitty broken one until you're a corporal.

They use it to control a submarine

Not for long, though.
- For sale: Logitech submarine controller, lifetime warranty.

The Steam Deck and Steam controller have touchpads which make them totally usable as a mouse for normal PC usage like web browsing

DualShock 4 and DualSense touch pads do this too! They even support multi touch so you can do left/right/middle click by using multiple fingers.
Hell, not optimal by any means but I even had a serviceable for light usage setup using analog sticks and a mapping program before Steam Input came out. Much better with the trackpads

Disneyland uses Steam Decks to remote control droids in Star Wars land.

ukraine was doing the same but to kill russians lol
- "These blast points, too accurate for Russians"

They are the OG electric vibrators for people who can't buy vibrators.

A vibrator was one of the very first patented electrical devices. 1880. It predates the first patent for the first electric iron by a decade.
- I didn't know this!

They can be quite useful in hobbyist robotics

In college I was on the robotics team. We used several different controllers to drive various robots. I made a little tank steering robot that was remote controlled from a PC with an Xbox 360 controller. I later rebuilt it to use a Raspberry Pi and added a pan/tilt mount for the camera controlled from the controller's D-pad. We also used a Wiimote to control our competition robot, using the accelerometer for steering which was pretty cool. This was in like 2010 when motion controls were still a relatively new and cool thing.

Several modular synth modules use joysticks for control over parameters, but one of the coolest I’ve seen is one from Delptronics that uses a wii nunchuck controller to send out control voltage. Hagiwo I believe also has a similar DIY design.

I do recall a gaming controller being used to pilot the titan submersible that is now on the ocean floor. May their souls rest in peace.

In Ghostbusters 2 they rigged up a Nintendo joystick to drive the statue of liberty through the streets of NYC. Does that count?

Some guys I used to know used them to make music, as some sort of midi controller.

We had a subcontractor drive a wired camera mounted drone through the sewers with it. Some use LIDAR or SONAR instead of just cameras. Game controllers are pretty common for these.

I have one of mine configured as media controls when I'm wandering around the house (8bitdo controllers ftw)

I am working on getting my XBox controller to work with a Raspberry Pi/Astroberry setup to control my telescope.

All a controller is is just some buttons on a wire in a portable form factor.

If you want to use it for Excel, you can.

I used one on a Raspberry Pi to drive a self build remote car wirelessly.

Hacksmith on youtube uses playstation controllers for remote operation of their giant mechs.

I used to use a mini game controller for artwork. Like up on the dpad would zoom in the canvas. I had buttons for undo, redo, switch to eraser, rotate the canvas, flip it, etc.

I think it was med students who use controllers to control flash card decks for studying.

Also as PowerPoint remotes.

For FRC robotics competitions, we use Xbox controllers to control the robot

I've seen some people on YouTube use them to control their CNC.

playstation and Xbox controllers make good Kodi/XBMC remotes for a laptop connected to a TV.

We used a ps4 controller as a mouse on our tv/media center. Its wired/Bluetooth and comes in as a mouse on our Linux box. No setup, just connect and it works.

I would also add VR controllers to the list and I had used them for painting.

I use my flight sim gear as a fidget toy, hope that counts.

On a very old computer of mine, the "y" key was completely missing and I couldn't replace it because the contacts were broken so I just use JoytoKey and a USB SNES controller.

I've also used a similar setup for navigating some image boorus but, for obvious reasons, I wont specify anything further.

Scrolling around LibreELEC to get to my gaming folder

I don't know if me talking about my Steam controller counts...

Some digital artists use Switch JoyCons for shortcuts in Clip Studio and other painting programs.

Gave a presentation last year, using a joy con as a remote for switching slides.

Nice thing is you can have mouse with the joystick as well

Typing with Donkey Kong Bongos

Iirc (on the phone now,) cameractrls allows panning and zooming with a gamepad.

Haven't actually done it yet but I'm going to buy myself a Teensy for my birthday next month, set up headless M8 on it and control it through my Steamdeck.

Maybe 10 years ago, I set up a controller with my laptop to use as a mouse. Don't remember if it could do keyboard too. It's pretty nice ergonomically if you're just browing and not doing serious work.