Microsoft’s six-year-old program to make HoloLens headsets for the US Army may very well be getting some further assist. If the Division of Protection approves the deal, the corporate will expand its present partnership with Anduril Industries, Palmer Luckey’s defense startup, for the subsequent phases of the Built-in Visible Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
Microsoft, which spearheaded the program, would transition into supplying AI and cloud infrastructure. In the meantime, Anduril would do just about all the pieces else, together with “oversight of manufacturing, future growth of {hardware} and software program and supply timelines.”
Anduril makes a wide selection of protection tech, together with drone interceptors, sentry towers, comms jammers, drones and even an autonomous submarine. However given Luckey’s background as the first inventor of the Oculus Rift — and, by extension, the trendy shopper XR trade — the IVAS program may maybe be the protection tech startup’s most pure match.
Microsoft began working with the Army in 2019, utilizing a modified HoloLens 2 for a headset that reportedly felt like “a real-life sport of Name of Obligation.” Early prototypes allowed troopers to see a digital map displaying their squad’s places, a compass and their weapon’s reticle. Thermal imaging served as an alternative choice to conventional night time imaginative and prescient headsets.
However this system bumped into velocity bumps, one among which was all too acquainted to many who tried poorly designed VR games: It made them wish to hurl. Along with nausea, the headsets additionally led to eyestrain and complications. Their bulk, restricted discipline of view and — maybe worst of all — an emitted glow (which may make them straightforward pickings for an enemy) didn’t assist, both.
The issues contributed to Congress denying the Army’s request to buy 6,900 pairs as a part of a 2023 authorities funding invoice. As an alternative, it allotted $40 million for Microsoft to develop a brand new model, which the Military accepted later that yr. Nonetheless, the headset has but to make it onto the battlefield.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that early suggestions of the most recent IVAS prototypes is encouraging, however the Military needs the fee to be “considerably lower than” every headset’s at present projected $80,000. The Military may finally order as many as 121,000 gadgets, however the brand new model would nonetheless must cross a high-stress fight check this yr earlier than going into full manufacturing.
In December, Anduril partnered with OpenAI to develop AI for the Pentagon. That deal can have the ChatGPT maker supplying its GPT-4o and OpenAI o1 fashions to Anduril’s drone protection techniques for the navy.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/microsoft-wants-to-hand-off-much-of-its-army-hololens-program-to-palmer-luckeys-anduril-190223240.html?src=rss
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