When Microsoft employees balked at the company's $479 million HoloLens contract with the US Army, it raised a question: just what would this system look like? You now have a better idea. The Army has givenCNBC an early demo of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System, which uses a modified HoloLens 2 to provide both combat assistance and training. It reportedly feels like a "real-life game of Call of Duty" -- you can see your squad's positions on a map, a compass, and even your weapon's reticle. Thermal imaging would help you see in the dark without as much of a telltale glow as existing night vision headsets.
In training, IVAS can also provide data to improve performance, such as a wearer's gaze and heart rate. Instructors could coach soldiers on their aim or room-clearing techniques, for instance.
The existing HoloLens 2 is currently too big to work with existing helmets. However, one Army leader expected a sunglasses-sized unit inside of six months. We wouldn't count on that (it'd likely involve moving many components to outside the helmet or the soldier's body), but development on IVAS has only been going on for a few months. "Thousands and thousands" of soldiers could be using IVAS by 2022 and 2023, Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said, with a wider deployment by 2028.
The demo was clearly meant to sell people on the concept and allay the concerns of those who see this as twisting peaceful technology into a destructive tool. Unsurprisingly, McCarthy doesn't perceive it that way -- he argued to CNBC that the improved battlefield awareness could minimize civilian casualties. One of the soldiers involved in the test also said this really amounted to consolidating "multiple systems" that can only handle some of what IVAS does. Microsoft isn't likely to shy away from defending the contract, then.
However, this doesn't really change some of the core objections from Microsoft's staff and other critics. Part of their issue is simply that Microsoft committed to a military project without any input. The showcase may take some of the sinister edge off the technology, but it's not going to give workers a say.
A Hololens demo in 2018.Photo: Elaine Thompson (AP)
Last year, Microsoft won a $479-million-plus contract with the U.S. Army to build Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) prototypes that a government document described as intended to “accelerate lethal defensive and offensive capabilities utilizing innovative components.” This weekend, CNBC got a look at what Microsoft has been cooking up in the form of a modified HoloLens 2, and—though it seems like they got more of a high-end demo than a look at anything refined yet—it seems like the military is getting what they wanted and what Microsoft employees who signed a letter in February 2019 protesting the project feared.
CNBC wasn’t allowed to take video or photographs of the system, which is still in its preliminary stages, but CNBC technology product editor Todd Haselton was able to take them for a spin. He wrote the IVAS, in its current state, projects the kind of birds-eye local area map overlaid with locations of IVAS-equipped friendlies that a Call of Duty player would immediately recognize on the lower part of the screen:
When I first put it on, I saw a map in front of me that showed exactly where I was. It gave me a birds-eye view of the building I was standing in and also showed a nearby building. It’s like any satellite image you can find online.
But as I turned my head, a small arrow icon representing my location also turned. I could also see several other dots representing my other “squad members” who were also wearing the headsets.
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(The military doesn’t appear to be able to do this on the fly yet, as one of the soldiers quoted in the piece told CNBC, “We might not know what [the battlefield] looks like, but we can predict and take Google images and implement that into the IVAS.”) On the top half is a compass overlay that lets a user immediately determine their bearing.
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IVAS also has a built-in FLIR thermal imaging system that Haselton wrote was designed to produce a superior picture than prior generations of night vision devices as well as subdue the green glow associated with them, which is sometimes a giveaway to enemy troops. Perhaps most indicative of the system’s lethal intent, IVAS has some form of aim-enhancement technology built right in. CNBC wrote:
You might also wonder, as I did, how a soldier can aim a weapon while wearing IVAS. Cleverly, the system shows the reticle, or the aim from the weapon, right through the visor.
Other uses of the technology include allowing commanders to receive images directly from a subordinate’s IVAS. The system is currently being tested in training exercises (such as kill houses) and is said to be able to display “after-action” reports containing metrics on soldiers’ performance. Again, Call of Duty players might recognize this sounds similar to an end-mission screen.
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“The engineers and scientists are side by side,” Command Sergeant Major Michael A. Crosby told CNBC. “So if there’s a gap that needs to be adjusted, they take it back to the lab, and back in soldier command until we get it right.”
The Army told CNBC that it hopes to have “thousands and thousands of soldiers across the force” using the system as soon as 2022, and have it in widespread deployment by 2028—but the U.S. military is notorious for pouring countless billions into prototype programs that never get fielded, including a Future Combat Systems project intended to integrate troops and vehicles with suites of sensors that would provide continual feedback during battle.
It’s not clear how much IVAS would cost on a per-unit basis (CNBC noted the consumer version is $3,500) or how flexibly the system could operate in real-time on battlefields that might end up looking quite different on the ground than from a satellite dish. (For example, it’s not like every building troops go into will have readily available, digitized blueprints). There’s then the issue of whether equipping troops with complex digital assistants could hinder them if they are compromised by the enemy.
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In other words, it’s a lot easier to set up flashy demos than build a product that makes it through the military’s lengthy procurement process.
Microsoft employees protesting the IVAS contract also argued that the company had “crossed the line into weapons development” and that “Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology.” Speaking with CNBC, Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy argued that enemies who know the military has this kind of capability “will not want to engage us” (a line of logic that hasn’t necessarily panned out with massive U.S. military superiority in recent conflicts). McCarthy added that IVAS would allow for U.S. troops to operate with more precision, avoiding harming civilians caught in the field of battle:
McCarthy also explained a bit more about how the military uses the word “lethality,” which was a point of objection in the letter.
“We use the word ‘lethality,’ but if you look at this system, it improves situational awareness so you can be better at target discrimination,” the under secretary said. That means soldiers can use IVAS to make sure they’re only killing the enemy, not civilians.
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Again, this is an argument that sounds nice on paper. But critics have often alleged, for example, that the surgical strike is largely a myth propagated by the military to justify operations with a high risk of collateral damage (i.e., dead civilians). In any case, the argument that IVAS will make soldiers more efficient at killing the right people is not likely to persuade anyone who believes that there is an inherent problem with using technology they worked on to increase the efficiency of killing.
Microsoft is moving forward with IVAS at a time when the relationship between big Silicon Valley firms and the military has become a major point of contention. Its bid for a major cloud computing project code-named JEDI came under similar employee protest, which Google had abandoned alongside its drone-imaging Project Maven after similar outcry from rank-and-file staff. Numerous other major tech firms are also working with the Pentagon on a variety of projects.
Do you feel that game console giants hold you over a barrel by making you subscribe to a service to play online? You might have an ally in your corner. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony to see if their online service practices violate consumer protection law. It wants to know whether their auto-renewal policies are fair, how easy it is to get a refund (or cancellation) and whether or not the terms of service grant these companies too much power.
The move is the second part of the CMA's response to a "super-complaint" on the loyalty penalty, or the tendency for some companies (not just in gaming) to punish long-serving customers by making it difficult or costly to leave.
Officials emphasized that the investigation had only started, and that it might only take "enforcement action" if it believed the companies weren't being fair.
While it's hard to know what the CMA will say, there are areas of concern. Sony has raised prices for PlayStation Plus more than once, and there's no guarantee that you'll get the same volume of free games or other perks (even if there are good reasons for it, such as hardware obsolescence). And yes, auto-renewal is common -- even Switch owners taking advantage of the Twitch Prime promotion have to turn renewal off. Those aren't necessarily illegal, but they're certainly pain points.
Do you feel that game console giants hold you over a barrel by making you subscribe to a service to play online? You might have an ally in your corner. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony to see if their online service practices violate consumer protection law. It wants to know whether their auto-renewal policies are fair, how easy it is to get a refund (or cancellation) and whether or not the terms of service grant these companies too much power.
The move is the second part of the CMA's response to a "super-complaint" on the loyalty penalty, or the tendency for some companies (not just in gaming) to punish long-serving customers by making it difficult or costly to leave.
Officials emphasized that the investigation had only started, and that it might only take "enforcement action" if it believed the companies weren't being fair.
While it's hard to know what the CMA will say, there are areas of concern. Sony has raised prices for PlayStation Plus more than once, and there's no guarantee that you'll get the same volume of free games or other perks (even if there are good reasons for it, such as hardware obsolescence). And yes, auto-renewal is common -- even Switch owners taking advantage of the Twitch Prime promotion have to turn renewal off. Those aren't necessarily illegal, but they're certainly pain points.
The Logitech Harmony 650 has been our runner-up pick for the best universal remote control; at its typical $40-50 street price, we considered it the budget alternative to the far pricier Harmony Elite.
Microsoft has big plans for the healthcare space and even teamed up with Walgreens earlier this year to "transform healthcare delivery." It's been axing the older products it created for the industry, however, with HealthVault being the latest casualty. Microsoft launched HealthVault in 2009 after two years of beta, giving health professionals free access to a personal health record storage platform. According to ZDNet, the tech giant has started notifying customers via email that it's shutting down on November 20th and will be deleting all its data.
Microsoft is giving customers until that day to transfer their information. The company suggests transferring data to other health record providers, particularly Get Real Health for US and international users or FollowMyHealth for US customers. The email reads:
"If you are using an Application (mobile, web, etc.) that is dependent on the HealthVault service, such applications may also stop working once the HealthVault service is shut down. Please reach out to the Application provider for information on their plans."
Two years ago, Microsoft discontinued its Band fitness wearable even though it originally had future plans for it. And earlier this year, it announced that it's shutting down Health Dashboard and pulling down all Band apps on May 31st. Still, HealthVault did outlast the Google Health initiative that opened in 2008, and then closed in 2012 to make way for Google Fit.
Google's first mid-range Pixel phones may be close at hand -- at least, if Google itself is any indication. Both the company's store and the Google Play Developer Console's device catalog (which helps app developers allow or restrict device access) have made references to the Pixel 3a phone family. The store isn't revealing much beyond the series' existence, but it does hint that there will be a fabric case. The device catalog is the real star of the show, as it appears to confirm some of the core details.
The smaller Pixel 3a, "Bonito," would have a 2,160 x 1,080 display, while its larger 3a XL counterpart ("Sargo") appears to have a taller 2,220 x 1080 screen. That's slightly odd when renders and pictures have suggested that neither phone would have a notch, but it wouldn't be completely surprising. Both handsets would also have 4GB of RAM, and there are hints they'd both share the Pixel Visual Core that gives more recent Pixel phones their photographic prowess.
Earlier rumors had the base Pixel 3a running a Snapdragon 670 chip, while the 3a XL would move to a Snapdragon 710.
It's not certain just when Google will unveil its more affordable Pixels. The listings hint at a "midyear experience," though, and company Senior VP Hiroshi Lockheimer admitted to snapping photos with an "unreleased phone" in late March. It wouldn't be surprising if Google announced them shortly, though, whether by themselves or as part of its I/O conference on May 7th.
