Army plans to use Microsoft's augmented reality HoloLens goggles for battlefield visual augmentation
9 April 2019 -- The military calls its special version of the HoloLens 2 "IVAS," which stands for Integrated Visual Augmentation System. It's an augmented reality headset, which means it places digital objects, such as maps or video displays, on top of the real world in front of you.
Several companies are betting big on augmented reality as the future of computing, since it will enable us to do much of what we can on a computer but while looking through glasses instead of down at a phone or at a computer screen.
I put the set of goggles on and pulled it down so that my eyes were peering through a glass visor. That visor is capable of displaying 3D images, information, my location and more. IVAS isn't nearly finished — I was using a test unit — so it was a bit buggy and had to be restarted once during my demo.
Related: Department of Defense invests in delivering augmented reality technology to foot soldiers
Related: Augmented reality market expected to grow by nearly 80 percent each year through 2020
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
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