Microsoft Wins US Army Contract for Augmented-Reality Headsets, Worth Up To $21.9 Billion Over 10 Years (cnbc.com) 55
The Pentagon announced that Microsoft has won a contract to build more than 120,000 custom HoloLens augmented-reality headsets for the U.S. Army. The contract could be worth up to $21.88 billion over 10 years, a Microsoft spokesperson said. From a report: The deal shows Microsoft can generate meaningful revenue from a futuristic product resulting from years of research, beyond core areas such as operating systems and productivity software. It follows a $480 million contract Microsoft received to give the Army prototypes of the Integrated Visual Augmented System, or IVAS, in 2018. The new deal will involve providing production versions.
The standard-issue HoloLens, which costs $3,500, enables people to see holograms overlaid over their actual environments and interact using hand and voice gestures. An IVAS prototype that a CNBC reporter tried out in 2019 displayed a map and a compass and had thermal imaging to reveal people in the dark. The system could also show the aim for a weapon. "The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will keep soldiers safer and make them more effective," Alex Kipman, a technical fellow at Microsoft and the person who introduced the HoloLens in 2015, wrote in a blog post. "The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios."
The standard-issue HoloLens, which costs $3,500, enables people to see holograms overlaid over their actual environments and interact using hand and voice gestures. An IVAS prototype that a CNBC reporter tried out in 2019 displayed a map and a compass and had thermal imaging to reveal people in the dark. The system could also show the aim for a weapon. "The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will keep soldiers safer and make them more effective," Alex Kipman, a technical fellow at Microsoft and the person who introduced the HoloLens in 2015, wrote in a blog post. "The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios."
It would've cost even more (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bad to buy ANYTHING from Microsoft? (Score:5, Interesting)
Poorly managed? I don't know. Microsoft over the past ten or fifteen years has managed to grow profits pretty consistently, even while maintaining a shocking record of technical mediocrity that goes way back before Windows 10.
Let me suggest that it may not be Microsoft that's badly run. Maybe the problem is that Microsoft's customers are patsies.
Re:Bad to buy ANYTHING from Microsoft? (Score:4)
Maybe the problem is that Microsoft's customers are patsies.
You might be right there. I work for a fortune 200 company that is one of Microsoft's bigger customers, and we certainly eat whatever dogfood they give us, with no thoughts for the consequences.
The reality is that it doesn't matter much how much time and money we waste on stupid, poorly implemented "Cloud" crap or whatever nonsense pointy-haired bosses fall for because we have consolidated the industry we operate in to the point that there is no real competition, so we can raise our prices to pay for any management failures. And we do.
Re: (Score:2)
I mean, they MUST be using some heavy duty augmented headsets for that to look real.
Re: It would've cost even more (Score:2)
Amazing. You can erect a soapbox out of anything.
Re: (Score:2)
That will work out great, when they are facing the enemy they can be interrupted for a weapons ad. "Looks like you missed. Next time, try a bazooka .. 50% off if you call right now!"
Re: (Score:2)
50% off if you call right now!"
That's what a JTAC is for!
Re: (Score:2)
Been there, done that- (Score:2)
Soldiers don't need even more shit to break when it counts.
Now get on with your BSOD jokes.
Re: (Score:2)
3D psychedelic BSOD.
Dave: "My God, it's full of bugs!"
Re: (Score:2)
GENERAL: You told us Windows 98 would be faster and more efficient with better access to the internet
BILL GATES: It is faster, over 5 million...
*GUNSHOT*
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Big waste of money!! (Score:2, Troll)
What a huge waste of money!! The hololens is terrible. Judging by the Hololens debacle, Microsoft doesn't know anything about VR or how to build a headset. It weighs a ton and the field of view is pathetic. I know from experience that trying to use it for an extended period is torture. My God, our poor troops .. will they have to use it? Doesn't it violate the Geneva Convention, maybe that can be used to legally get out of this deal? Anyway, at least it's the Army paying for it .. it's not like it's coming
Re:Big waste of money!! (Score:4, Interesting)
I love the hololens. It's great!
The FOV is a smaller than I would like in v1, but they should be widening in the subsequent versions. The weight is a little annoying, but I think it's overstated. Plus, the Army is moving to lighter helmets. But you missed the point. The real win isn't the AR capabilities - it's the sensor capabilities. The hololens has ToF sensors 360 around the helmet, which should help a hell of a lot. Who cares if the graphics are low fidelity if it shows useful information in that area.
My hope is that this will lead to more surplus hololenses, because unlike most tech, they are not aging onto ebay at reasonable prices.
Re: (Score:2)
Men Against Fire (Score:2)
Perhaps the VR helmets will be used for this [wikipedia.org]?
Re: (Score:1)
The main use of helmets is for poorly intellectually equipped soldiers to be able to user drones more readily. So flying drone supplies information feed to the soldier, problem is, the M$ version of the glasses is crap, so old fashioned, should be
200k per lense? (Score:3)
That seems to come out to nearly $200,000 per hololense. Yikes.
Re: (Score:2)
No, the $22 billion includes a decade of cloud services, plus the estimated follow on when defense contractors start building hololens apps.
Re: (Score:2)
Cloud services? Army? WTF?
Corporal: Major, go see what's happening over there!
Major: I can't sir, my hololens' connection is lagging!
Re: (Score:1)
yeah, the DoD is surprising agile, see Platform One as an example. This as another.. https://www.popularmechanics.c... [popularmechanics.com]
Re: (Score:2)
First things first, Majors are many rungs higher than corporal on the rank hierarchy. Second, it's probably to sync prior to/after battles. Not real-time (except for during training when it can feed in false information.)
Re: (Score:2)
Almost certainly going to be used in a logistics and/or maintenance capacity. I.E. "find the piece of gear that looks like this", "initiate the BIT like so", "report status and ship to the following adress", "highlight this field to review crating and shipping instructions".
Re: (Score:1)
No, the $22 billion includes a decade of cloud services, plus the estimated follow on when defense contractors start building hololens apps.
Yes.. This effectively puts the price at about $183,000 / each. They're getting 120,000 units and, all together, the price tag is going to be $22 billion. Yes?
Okay, it's for a decade. That's $18,300 / each per YEAR of total MS cost.
So.. What the hell do you mean by "No"?
Re: (Score:2)
I mean you're assuming the total contract value is just for the hololenses. It's not. It's for support and long-term services too. You cannot just amertorize that cost over all the hololenses and end up with something reasonable, anymore than you can talk about a computer's cost over 10 years including all the license costs and all the costs of Google's servers feeding you ads, etc.
Re: (Score:1)
I mean you're assuming the total contract value is just for the hololenses. It's not. It's for support and long-term services too. You cannot just amertorize that cost over all the hololenses and end up with something reasonable, anymore than you can talk about a computer's cost over 10 years including all the license costs and all the costs of Google's servers feeding you ads, etc.
Well... You're correct in the total sense of the word, but we, the taxpayers, are effectively going to be paying $183,000 per holo-lense over a 10-year period.
6 of one, half dozen of the other. Dunno why the hell you brought up ads tho.. That's not a cost that the purchaser of a computer incurs. It would seem to me that the Pentagon is going to incur the TOTAL cost of this system. And your computer analogy is flawed too. I need not buy a single license to use my computer. In fact, I don't. (100% OSS)
S
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to buy a licenses But the government decided not to. People don't talk about the price of a computer including all their license costs and the costs of the ads they see. That's just not how vocabulary works. But those are counted as revenue for the company supplying them. When you buy a Pixel phone, Google figures the value of the sale including the continuing revenue from the App store and the expected cut of ad revenue going forward. That's why phones are cheap but Google makes so muc
Microsoft now an arms industry? (Score:2)
I wonder how much of US tech industry is not involved with profit through bloodshed?
Re: (Score:2)
A huge portion of the wealth and financial infrastructure of US is built on war profiteering during WW1. That we're still doing the same shit 100 years later should come as no shock, war and war fighting technology is a major component of American culture.
If you want to achieve world peace, you'll have to change the hearts and minds of millions of American voters first.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You live in a fantasy world. Remind me again why the US got involved in WWI. And why it was such a good idea to cut military spending before WWII.
You are the one living in a fantasy world. Remind me again exactly what industry isn't affected by the 21st Century multi-trillion-dollar Military Industrial Complex.
Eisenhower was THE prophet when it came to this, and he was 110% right. Still stands true today. Sixty years later.
Re: (Score:2)
The US's military force during WW1 was not a significant factor in the war. The US's banking and industry made it possible for much of Europe to continue the fight much longer. The payment of war debt was a huge injection into the US economy and marked a big shift in the world's markets away from London and towards New York.
The problem we face now is an attitude of American exceptionalism, where people live in a fantasy that we're somehow owed our position in the world and we could never lose it. Long term
Re: (Score:2)
Well, another way to look at it is that Microsoft is ripping us off so bad we won't have money for war.
Re: Microsoft now an arms industry? (Score:1)
Re: Microsoft now an arms industry? (Score:2)
Not all, and not at the same scale.
Re: (Score:2)
We spend more on our uniquely ineffective war machine than the next eight countries combined, six of whom are allies. We could reduce spending by 70% and still be the world's largest spender on war toys. And what do we get? The Pentagram hasn't won an actual war since 1945, and after spending close to a trillion dollars in Afghanistan they don't even control the suburbs of Kabul where the "enemy" is a bunch of goat herders armed with 20 year old Kalashnikovs who sometimes use literal smoke signals for co
My Company Was Raving About Hololens (Score:5, Interesting)
It Gives New Meaning... (Score:4, Interesting)
Wonâ(TM)t happen (Score:1)
Help, I cannot see (Score:4, Funny)
GI Joe: First Sargent, there's something wrong with my vision, all I see is blue.
First S: You are supposed to be working though the training exercise, stop looking at the blue.
GI Joe: It's blue everywhere I look.
First S: Uh-oh. Take that contraption off.
GI Joe: Ah, that's better now I can see.
First S: See the little red button there underneath, press that and put the goggles back on.
GI Joe: I've pressed the button. What does "Unrecognized Fault: Please Contact Viewer Support" mean.
First S: It means if you contact support, they'll explain why the U.S. Army just wasted $20 Billion.
GI Joe: So I don't have to complete the exercise?
First S: No, you are excused. Now where's that Microsoft Representative? It's time for the Live Fire Drill.
Unbelievable (Score:1)
The military using Microsoft is one of the dumbest, most irresponsible ideas anyone could ever generate.
Am I the only one who anticipates soldiers being hacked in the field, communications and authentication being corrupted and the entire US fighting force rendered inert by some of the most appallingly poor software engineering in the industry?
Re: (Score:1)
I hope Amazon wasn't a bidder. (Score:2)
Clippy pops up (Score:1)
"It looks like you are trying to lay waste to your enemies.... Would you like some help with that?"
Clippy (Score:2)
"It looks like you are trying to put down an insurgency. Do you need some help with that?"
Re: (Score:2)
MS would probably give better advice on that than Blackwater or Triple Canopy have done so far. Trillion dollars in Afghanistan and they still don't even control the suburbs of Kabul.
How much of this BL $21.9 donated to Capitol Hill? (Score:1)
Solar Winds attack explained [csoonline.com]
Definitions... (Score:1)
Safer? More effective? How? What do these terms mean in real life?
Holo = VR? (Score:1)