Microsoft has been steadily winding down its mixed reality (MR) efforts, but the company moving to exit the business.
Microsoft developed its HoloLens MR headset, but met with ongoing challenges and setbacks. The U.S. Army experimented with the headsets, but found that 80% of soldiers experience “mission-affecting physical impairments” after less than three hours using the device. Microsoft went back to the drawing board, vowing to fix the issue.
In early October, news broke that Microsoft was killing off the second version of the HoloLens, HoloLens 2, although the company said it was committed to the military version, the HoloLens IVAS.
Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey penned a blog post announcing that his new company, military contractor Anduril Industries, is preparing to take over the HoloLens business.
As of today, Anduril Industries is taking the reins of the largest project of its kind in history: the United States Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
The IVAS program – one of the most important programs to the Army – represents just the beginnings of a new path in human augmentation, one that will allow America’s warfighters to surpass the limitations of human form and cognition, seamlessly teaming enhanced humans with large packs of robotic and biologic teammates.
Microsoft will still be involved, but its role will be to provide the AI and cloud computing necessary for the IVAS program.
I have to admit that I am almost equally chuffed to finally get a Microsoft Partner campus badge – I’ve always been a Microsoft fanboy after all, to the point of hosting a midnight launch party for the launch of Windows 7. Yes, all of us had already been running the Release Candidate for years at that point, but there is something special about going gold, you know? Microsoft has some pretty extraordinary things in the pipe on the AI and cloud computing side that will continue to power IVAS, and as the one person in the universe who bought a Surface Duo phone and then a Surface Duo 2, I am looking forward to letting them do what they do best so I can do what I do best. I am, after all, the best head-mounted-display designer in the world.
Microsoft launched multiple rounds of layoffs impacting MR employees, before reportedly eliminating the entire team. As a result, finding a way to exit the business—while still fulfilling its obligation to the U.S. Army—is an unsurprising development.
from WebProNews https://ift.tt/fgpyHVn
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