The army version of Microsoft's HoloLens AR goggles equated with Call of Duty

Specially modified version of Microsoft's US Army HoloLens 2 The headsets look like a real-world version of the Call of Duty first-person shooter, according to a CNBC reporter who had a firsthand glimpse of how the military is using technology of augmented reality.

Microsoft won a $ 480 million contract in November to provide the US military with a prototype HoloLens augmented reality systems to use in combat and training missions as part of a program to "increase lethality by improving the ability to detect, decide and engage in front of # 39; 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 glasses 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 compass 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 bulky to work with helmets, but the army expects to reduce the size of the units to the size of a pair of sunglasses in the six months, Haselton wrote.

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 is far from the auction on a huge project of the Ministry of Defense because of the objections of employees to the company previous participation in the Maven project and the possibility that the project does not comply with Google's principles regarding 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.