Army Soldier Says Using Microsoft’s HoloLens AR Goggles Could Get Them Killed

(Photo: US Army) Nearly four years and $22 billion dollars into Microsoft’s development of HoloLens devices for the US military, an Army tester is warning that actually using the augmented reality (AR) goggles could get soldiers killed. The Army began receiving shipments of custom-made Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS) in September. Though Microsoft fully expected soldiers to be disappointed with the goggles, the Army’s Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Douglas Bush said initial field tests yielded promising results. “The Army remains confident that the program will succeed,” he said.

Now it’s looking like Microsoft’s fears were well-founded. An Army report dictated to Business Insider reveals that further testing has uncovered glaring problems with Microsoft’s current iteration of IVAS. The devices apparently emit startling amounts of light for technology designed with the battlefield in mind, making the wearer visible to enemy forces from hundreds of meters away. The goggles’ physical body limits the wearer’s peripheral visibility. IVAS is allegedly also quite bulky and heavy, making it more difficult for soldiers to move as needed.

“The devices would have gotten us killed,” one tester said in the report.

(Photo: US Army)

Microsoft told Insider that the shipped version of IVAS failed four of six total evaluation events during a recent field test. The company (and the rest of us on the outside looking in) should have seen this coming: Microsoft was floundering with two major components, low-light performance and thermal imaging, earlier this year. In fact, IVAS has seemingly struggled since the beginning. An audit by the Office of the Inspector General found that Microsoft never established minimum user acceptance levels to ensure that IVAS would meet users’ needs, making it all the more likely that the company would ship a flawed or useless product.

Despite all of this, the Army still remains optimistic about its future with HoloLens. Brigadier General Christopher D. Schneider told Insider that IVAS had “achieved success in most of the Army evaluation criteria” but that certain aspects “fell short” and still require some work. An Army spokesperson told Insider that the field test “was so far generally considered a success” and that the branch is committed to seeing IVAS through.

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