It ran the years 2015-2017 when Microsoft began to invest in a big virtual and mixed. The Redmond company integrated this technology until the deepest in Windows 10 and promoted What Meta and Apple call “Metaverso” and “Spatial computing“, respectively. However, its proposal has been diluted over time and now the company has other open fronts: the AI and the cloud.
The Hololens 3 They were canceled in 2022 and the production of the Hololens 2 stopped at the end of last year. The question is what would happen to ivas (Integrated visual increase system) AKA The Hololens -based helmet that Microsoft was developing for the US army. Today, we finally have an answer: the project is in the hands of Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Rift and Anduril.
Context. The development of IVA dates from 2018 and, for the moment, has not left the test phase. It does not seem to be a simple project and has not been exempt from criticism. In fact, as soon as the projects of Hololens ask Microsoft to cancel the contract (valued at about 22,000 million dollars) because the product was going to “help people to kill.” Satya Nadella came out in defense of it, claiming that Microsoft “will not hide technology to the institutions that we have chosen in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.”
What is ivas? It’s a Hololens -based reality visor based on Hololens For military purposes. The idea is to improve the vision of soldiers by adding information layers superimposed on the image itself. For example, thermal vision, night vision, maps, routes, etc. Although at first it was intended only to infantry, later versions added the possibility of controlling drones and helicopters remotely. Its launch was scheduled for 2021, but different problems and delays have led the date to this year, 2025. We will see.
Image | Microsoft
Microsoft gets off the car … Despite the lucrative of the contract, the reality is that the Hololens project has been very deflated over time. So much so that in October last year Microsoft put an end to him. The company stopped producing the Hololens 2, but announced that it would support until 2027 and, here is the crumb, which remained “totally committed to the IVA program of the United States Department of Defense.”
… And Palmer Luckey is uploaded. Microsoft He has just announced A collaboration agreement with Anduril Industries, the Palmer Luckey defense company, founder and creator of Oculus Rift. As Microsoft has detailed, the objective is to “boost the following phase of the IVAS Program of the United States Army.”
Image | Microsoft
The agreement is aware of the approval by the Department of Defense, but from now on “Anduril will assume the supervision of production, the future development of hardware and software, and delivery deadlines.” This agreement also establishes “Microsoft Azure as Anduril’s favorite hyperscale cloud for all IVA -related workloads and Anduril’s technologies.”
The idea, of course, is to take advantage of the points where each company is strong. Anduril knows about defense and military requirements, while Microsoft has taken the opportunity to get chest from Azure (its cloud) and its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Cover image | Microsoft
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