A flaw in Microsoft smart glasses could kill American soldiers
The US Army in 2021 awarded a contract worth 22 billion dollars to the company "Microsoft" to manufacture smart glasses for its soldiers, but the proposed glasses failed the test.
After more than a year of delay in the completion and delivery of the required equipment, it appeared that the tested glasses do not meet the standards, and failed in 4 out of 6 tests conducted by the US Army recently, according to the website "Business Insider".
The US Army awarded Microsoft for the first time a contract worth 480 million dollars in 2018, to create a prototype of advanced smart glasses, called the integrated visual enhancement system "IVAs".
What is the design of AVAs?
The website of "Interesting Engineering" stated that although the smart glasses are very similar to Microsoft's virtual reality headphones "HoloLens" available for commercial sale, the military asked the company to make modifications to integrate several technologies to build the integrated visual enhancement system "IVAs".
According to the agreement, Microsoft was to provide 120 thousand iPhones over 10 years, with a total deal of about 22 billion dollars, and one of the modifications required to be made to these glasses is the integration of high-resolution sensors for night vision and thermal.
Devices that can lead to the murder of American soldiers
According to Business Insider, an internal report of the US Army proved that the glasses failed in 4 out of 6 evaluation points during a recent "practical demonstration".
One of the main disadvantages of such glasses was the glare of their screen, which was visible from hundreds of meters away. According to one of the testers in the paper, a mistake like this may let enemy fighters know where US Army men were, increasing the likelihood that they would be killed.
Another problem faced by the soldiers is the limited field of view of the surroundings when wearing the Avas system, as well as restrictions on the movement of the soldier because of the apparatus's size and weight.
Apparently, Microsoft was expecting such a negative assessment of its device due to performance problems in low light conditions, Business Insider reported in its report.
Even after this assessment, the US military is still interested in acquiring AVAs glasses, and called for improving the areas where they failed, and addressing the observed imbalances.