Augmented Reality allows you to see information about real objects using special glasses, and that can be very valuable in the military world.
This is what the US military believes, as it has closed a nearly $ 22 billion (10-year) deal with Microsoft to deliver HoloLens-based augmented reality glasses.
The contract is for more than 120,000 headphones, as they say on the BBC, and they will be made in the United States. The news has had such an impact that Microsoft shares rose 3% after the announcement was made a few hours ago.
Since Microsoft AR glasses cost $ 3,500, offering $ 120,000 would only cost $ 420 million, not $ 22,000, so there is something else to the deal, in this case related to custom software applications.
For some years Microsoft has been working with the military creating prototypes of what is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), which is a military-grade version of the Hololens. They have now moved to the production phase, and it is hoped that this will keep soldiers safer and more effective.
The idea is that the soldier has more context about his situation, that he can share information and that it is possible to make better decisions in a variety of settings.
