The army version of HoloLens eye protection AR equated to Call of Duty

The specially modified version of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 headset looks like a real-life version of the Call of Duty first-person shooter, according to a CNBC reporter who had a first-hand look at how 39, army uses augmented reality. Technology.

Microsoft won a $ 480 million contract in November, provide the army with a prototype HoloLens augmented reality system for use in combat and training missions, as part of a program to "increase lethality by improving the detection, decision-making and participation capability before the enemy ". The contract could eventually lead the army to buy more than 100,000 RA helmets.

Called IVAS (Integrated System of Visual Augmentation), the military version of the helmet provides an immersive RA environment – the best that CNBC's Todd Haselton said to have experienced. Unlike virtual reality, which plunges users wearing glbades into digital worlds, RA overlays images and data over real-world views.

Hatelton said that the test unit he had used was "a little buggy" and had to be restarted during his demonstration, but it still gave an idea of ​​how the army was planning to go. Use technology. The unit gave Haselton a bird's eye view of its location in a building, as well as another nearby building.

An arrow-shaped icon depicting his location turned when he turned his head and dots on the screen of his visor showed him the location of other "squad members" "wearing a helmet. A compbad indicates the direction in which it is moving and the waypoints are marked to different degrees.

In short, Haselton said that the experience reminded him of the video game.

"The whole experience seemed natural to me, since I've played many first-person shooter games that show me exactly where I am on a map, where are my teammates and where is the enemy, "he wrote. "It was almost like a real game of Call of Duty."

The army also has off-the-scene projects for the IVAS. Undersecretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, told Haselton that the technology could be used to collect data on soldiers during training, such as their heart rate. Helmets can also be used to improve their shooting skills.

The current version of IVAS is too large to work with helmets, but the army plans to reduce the size of units to the size of a pair of sunglbades within six months, said Haselton.

The work of large technology companies with the US military has raised questions among their employees about the ethics of providing a technology that will be used in wartime. In October, Google stopped responding to a major Department of Defense project because of objections from its employees regarding its previous involvement in the Maven project and the possibility that this project was not in compliance Google's principles for the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defended his company's work with the military in February after a group of employees issued an open letter inviting him to give up the multi-million dollar contract. Nadella described the work as a responsible corporate citizen in the United States.

"We decided that we would not refuse technology to the institutions we elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy," he said in an interview with CNN Business.

The Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.