Palmer Luckey Is Bringing Anduril Smarts To Microsoft's Military Headset (wired.com) 15
Anduril Industries, a defense startup founded by Palmer Luckey, will integrate its Lattice suite of software into Microsoft's Integrated Visual Augmentation System headset for the U.S. Army. The deal aims to enhance soldiers' battlefield awareness by displaying real-time data from drones, vehicles, and defense systems.
Luckey, who sold virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion, launched Anduril in 2017 to challenge traditional defense contractors. The firm recently secured a contract to develop an experimental robotic fighter jet, beating out industry giants. While Microsoft's IVAS faced initial user complaints of nausea and headaches, the Army plans to invest $21.9 billion in the project.
Luckey, who sold virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion, launched Anduril in 2017 to challenge traditional defense contractors. The firm recently secured a contract to develop an experimental robotic fighter jet, beating out industry giants. While Microsoft's IVAS faced initial user complaints of nausea and headaches, the Army plans to invest $21.9 billion in the project.
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I'm not so sure (Score:3)
I've never worked with the military directly, but I have worked with cops who were ex-military. One specifically stated to me that HUDs were more distracting than helpful, and a well trained team's coordination was reduced by such systems.
I love AR as a concept, and I'm sure it would make someone like me more effective... because I'm not great soldier material to start with, and almost completely untrained.
It seems to me that a good rugged tablet might be a better solution. If I was going to make a helmet high tech, I'd probably start on audio - blocking external sound as much as possible and passing through sound adjusted to avoid hearing damage, then layering coms on top of that.
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i think the idea here is the battlefield is segregated from the operator with forward assets being completely non-biological but still within a reasonable proximity to require mobility and stealth fro the operator.
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I don't see the point of a helmet-mounted display in that case, since you're still going to have to address the HID requirement.
If you're managing a fleet of drones... You're going to want a full workstation setup. AR glasses for large floating displays might be nice and save space and weight, but you'll still need a chair, pointer, and a keyboard. At that point, a helmet seems silly.
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i have only used the apple vision at the store, but it seems highly capable of display and manipulation. i guess the details on the capabilities of the device would shed some light on the ability to operate. on the plus side maybe this will advance game tech for us plebes
Re: I'm not so sure (Score:2)
The HUD in this device is unlike anything current vets have seen.
Existing HUDs can't present enough information in a way that's useful, besides being awkward as hell.
The starship trooper's comparison is valid.
Not Microsoft (Score:2)
Microsoft VR headset suck. They're heavy and the field of view is annoying. But the weight is the biggest problem, they heavier than the Apple Vision Pro which is heavy as fuck. It's treason to force Hololens on our troops. We're going to lose wars if we allow Microsoft VR headsets anywhere near the battlefield. Well, unless we give it to the enemy. Maybe airdrop it to Hezbollah terrorists, we won't even need to intercept the supply chain and add explosives.
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Atop that, IVAS just plain doesn't work in practice. The issues are manifold. Foot solder in action has nowhere to charge this thing. System requires a satellite uplink to have access to rear echelon data, or it needs that rear echelon data to be in close proximity to it, on a vehicle probably with a sat uplink. Battery life is less than you would wish. The batteries are heavy. They had to helmet mount the battery because a cable attached to a backpack mount was universally derided by the soldiers. Th
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Microsoft VR headset suck. They're heavy and the field of view is annoying.
You literally haven't used this and thus have no basis for the comment. It's not an off the shelf headset.
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False. HoloLens 2 is available to the public. A friend of mine made the mistake of buying it a few years ago (pre-pandemic). They haven't changed it since then, so it's the same. Stop making up BS.
Watch the Peripheral (Score:1)
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be warned it's only one season. The one season was quite good, and the enhanced soldiers were interesting