US Army slows ~$20bn project to put Microsoft's HoloLens VR headsets into the field The US Army has delayed a massive rollout of Microsoft's HoloLens virtual reality headsets. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project kicked off in 2018 with tests of HoloLens headgear in the hope the VR goggles would "increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy". …
It's also a way of doing back door campaign advertising promotions as congressman X announces that project Y will provide Z jobs to his constituents.
You can be assured that Microsoft (just like everybody else building major weapon systems) is sourcing the components for these monstrosities from as many congressional districts as possible.
Roll out the pork barrel.
The Germans in WWII realised that lethality had less strategic value than wounding and maiming the enemy, thus forcing the enemy to recover wounded and then treat them, a way to deplete resources.
That is one if the reasons the schumine was made mostky of wood to escape detection and only a small charge in it.
Lethality makes martyrs
The problem I see is that the Hololens platform sucks from a software point of view.
The premier development environment is Unity which is not viable for proper software.
That leaves us with C++ and DirectX. OK, not *too* bad but unfortunately Microsoft's C++ portfolio is a non-standard mess these days. On one hand you have the C++/cx extensions which have been deprecated and C++/winrt taking its place. However this architecture heavily favors asynchronous designs which don't work particularly well with simulation software (and certainly not safety critical!). This also underlies the port of UE4 making that not robust enough.
Basically, as a developer. Don't work with Microsoft's "modern" platforms. Use Win32 API or simply reject the contract. It isn't worth your time.
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