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Magic Leap Is Bidding on an Army Combat Contract

33 points by mmaanniisshh 8y ago

maxxxxx 8y ago
I guess they can hire the Theranos board to move this forward....
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  Just because Magic Leap hasn't really delivered on a mind blowing consumer product doesn't mean they can't create something great for military use. Google Glass just wasn't cool enough or useful enough to become the next iPhone but it did very well for certain applications. If Drone Pilots could use Magic Leap headsets to pull in ANY useful information to their field of view while flying a mission it would be a step forward the military would be happy to pay for.
excalibur 8y ago
Americans need this technology to gain widespread military application in order to make all of the Tactical Flashlights we bought on the Internet useful as a countermeasure.
- dogma1138 8y ago
  Similar goggles are used by armored vehicle crews to get better situational awareness the users won’t necessarily be exposed. Also flashlight in the dark is very good against a mark one eyeball and even better against a mark one eye ball augmented with night vision without good flash protection. Virtually every military has already adopted a technology that can be easily defeated with a bright light they still use it because it’s better than the alternative and a bright light is a very good way of ensuring that your enemies know exactly where to aim their tracers at which is why you don’t tend to use flashlights in combat to defeat night vision because for every bloke you temporarily blind there will be 10 shooting at you the moment you turn it on.
noetic_techy 8y ago
So what? God forbid a tech company not based in SV contribute to the defense of Western values!
- hungryhobo 8y ago
  western values haven't been particularly defensive in the past
- amaccuish 8y ago
  Defending them from whom exactly?
  - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
    Ahhh.... I know this one from Jeopardy. That would be "Terrorists who hate our Freedom" for $400 Alex.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Is there such a thing as western values? Hemispheres are pretty big diverse places.
- marricks 8y ago
  “Western values” is such a propaganda term. We overthrow democratic governments in S. America because it suits “our” needs and have caused nothing but chaos in the Middle East for the last.. century? We need high tech companies to buy into “values” lie so we can continue to dominate the rest of the world and spy on all of western civilization. EDIT: maybe you’re joking? Its hard to tell these days, if so A+ job.
Pica_soO 8y ago
Sorry but- after the JSF debacle- is this not already a dead duck? Honestly- on a battlefield, everything in addition you want has to be unobtrusive, totally intuitive and non-view obstructing. The last thing you want after a IDE has blown up, to see MS Clippy hoping through the wreckage, producing friendly fire. Just take the integrated battlefield promised with the JSF, generating more Noise then usage. Im sure, you could add something similar in theory to a FPS, basically estimating the position of a retreating shooter. But why bother and risk - when some well placed mortars will do that? Just because it looked good in scifi movies, doesent mean its good in reality. Only parties that could benefit from this, are specialists- meaning, drone-flights, commanding officers and upgraded personal- (medics in need for direct instructions by a doctor) - even those could usually be easier given without the AR. And thats from someone who is a huge AR fan. Maybe im overlooking some benefits- i would really appreciate some usecases - if i missed them.
- ericd 8y ago
  Maybe non-obstructive collaborative battlefield annotations would be helpful?
oh-kumudo 8y ago
Seems like a legit use case.
carlosdp 8y ago
I don't know why he was flagged to death, but I think Pica_soO was spot on. Regardless of anyone's opinion of whether they should bid for the contract or not, none of the AR headsets publicly available, definitely including Magic Leap's, seems anywhere near good enough for what the Army needs...
dogma1138 8y ago
AR company bidding on HMD contracts who would’ve thought...

33 points by mmaanniisshh 8y ago

maxxxxx 8y ago

I guess they can hire the Theranos board to move this forward....

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
Just because Magic Leap hasn't really delivered on a mind blowing consumer product doesn't mean they can't create something great for military use. Google Glass just wasn't cool enough or useful enough to become the next iPhone but it did very well for certain applications. If Drone Pilots could use Magic Leap headsets to pull in ANY useful information to their field of view while flying a mission it would be a step forward the military would be happy to pay for.

excalibur 8y ago

Americans need this technology to gain widespread military application in order to make all of the Tactical Flashlights we bought on the Internet useful as a countermeasure.

dogma1138 8y ago
Similar goggles are used by armored vehicle crews to get better situational awareness the users won’t necessarily be exposed. Also flashlight in the dark is very good against a mark one eyeball and even better against a mark one eye ball augmented with night vision without good flash protection. Virtually every military has already adopted a technology that can be easily defeated with a bright light they still use it because it’s better than the alternative and a bright light is a very good way of ensuring that your enemies know exactly where to aim their tracers at which is why you don’t tend to use flashlights in combat to defeat night vision because for every bloke you temporarily blind there will be 10 shooting at you the moment you turn it on.

noetic_techy 8y ago

So what? God forbid a tech company not based in SV contribute to the defense of Western values!

hungryhobo 8y ago
western values haven't been particularly defensive in the past
amaccuish 8y ago
Defending them from whom exactly?
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  Ahhh.... I know this one from Jeopardy. That would be "Terrorists who hate our Freedom" for $400 Alex.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
erikpukinskis 8y ago
Is there such a thing as western values? Hemispheres are pretty big diverse places.
marricks 8y ago
“Western values” is such a propaganda term. We overthrow democratic governments in S. America because it suits “our” needs and have caused nothing but chaos in the Middle East for the last.. century? We need high tech companies to buy into “values” lie so we can continue to dominate the rest of the world and spy on all of western civilization. EDIT: maybe you’re joking? Its hard to tell these days, if so A+ job.

Pica_soO 8y ago

Sorry but- after the JSF debacle- is this not already a dead duck? Honestly- on a battlefield, everything in addition you want has to be unobtrusive, totally intuitive and non-view obstructing. The last thing you want after a IDE has blown up, to see MS Clippy hoping through the wreckage, producing friendly fire. Just take the integrated battlefield promised with the JSF, generating more Noise then usage. Im sure, you could add something similar in theory to a FPS, basically estimating the position of a retreating shooter. But why bother and risk - when some well placed mortars will do that? Just because it looked good in scifi movies, doesent mean its good in reality. Only parties that could benefit from this, are specialists- meaning, drone-flights, commanding officers and upgraded personal- (medics in need for direct instructions by a doctor) - even those could usually be easier given without the AR. And thats from someone who is a huge AR fan. Maybe im overlooking some benefits- i would really appreciate some usecases - if i missed them.

ericd 8y ago
Maybe non-obstructive collaborative battlefield annotations would be helpful?

oh-kumudo 8y ago

Seems like a legit use case.

carlosdp 8y ago

I don't know why he was flagged to death, but I think Pica_soO was spot on. Regardless of anyone's opinion of whether they should bid for the contract or not, none of the AR headsets publicly available, definitely including Magic Leap's, seems anywhere near good enough for what the Army needs...

dogma1138 8y ago

AR company bidding on HMD contracts who would’ve thought...