Three years after engineers visited a military base in North Carolina, the custom-built Microsoft HoloLens mixed-reality headsets for US Army troops are ready to be delivered. Unlike the version you can buy from stores, this one has an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), which enables soldiers to see through smoke and around corners.
They can also use the IVAS to view holographic imagery for training and also have 3D terrain maps projected onto their field of vision at the push of a button. In all, engineers gathered data from nearly 80,000 hours of soldier feedback. Other features include thermal imagery, sensors, GPS technology and night vision capabilities to improve soldiers’ situational awareness. For those interested, this is what it’s like to play Pokemon Go with the Microsoft HoloLens 2.
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Because Microsoft was a non-traditional defense contractor, we felt like for them to be able to experience what soldiers actually feel and what they go through would help with making some of their technical decisions. Some folks told me it was a pretty eye-opening experience,” said Mark Stephens, the Army’s deputy program manager for the project.
