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US Army trials augmented reality goggles for dogs
- 082349872349872 6y agoIt's all fun and games until someone fields CBIEDs. Bonus story: https://archive.org/stream/thegameofratandd29614gut/29614.txt https://archive.org/stream/thegameofratandd29614gut/29614.tx...
- normanmatrix 6y agoMakes sense, enhance a dog's vision and he got scent and vision to see through the world into the abyss.
- scandox 6y agoI think augmented noses for humans would be much better.
- tokai 6y agoA human with an augmented nose, would still be a bad choice to fill the role of an attack or bomb dog. Regardless of how good that nose is.
- scandox 6y agoWell agreed but I was thinking in more general terms of who requires augmentation.
- tokai 6y agoAh I feel you.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoPretty much all dogs that use their nose for work are never more than 5ft away from their handler.
- kalium-xyz 6y agoImagine if you had some technology to make the dogs more efficient on their own, some way to instruct them without their handler being there using visual directives.
- mocar 6y agoThen ai will choose the more efficient actors as its interface with the real world than their slower two legged counterparts.
- nix23 6y agoJust with integrated packet filter...have you ever been in Delhi?
- jkinudsjknds 6y agoTIL we do aerial drops with dogs
- cannedslime 6y agoMakes sense, you could easily train a dog to react with aggression towards targets outlined in a certain way, even point it in the direction it should go etc. Dogs are not stupid and they are always very eager to learn and decode what you want them to. (Well, most dogs, when they are at a certain age at least)
- yetihehe 6y ago> Dogs are not stupid and they are always very eager to learn and decode what you want them to. Yeah, many are so clever that they very convincingly pretend they don't know what you want. My dog sometimes does this when he doesn't want to go back home. Being smart and obedient are two orthogonal things.
- seg_lol 6y ago> Being smart and obedient are two orthogonal things. I used to think that, but I think a more accurate picture across all sentient social creatures is the following. IQ on range 0-10 (0 being the lowest) - 0-4, too low to understand commands, ignorant disobedience, easily confused - 5-6, mostly obedient, only disobedient through distraction (food, mates, tired, stressed) - 6-8, can overcome some of physical and situational issues, occasionally disobedient due to IQ - 9-10, freewill, obedient only as a peer. Will absolutely not do something it doesn't want to do. See also, https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-virtues-of-stubbornness-mules-at-war/ https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-virtues-of-s...
- ben_w 6y agoDoggles are, like so many products, both clearly a good idea and not something I would have expected to ever exist even just five years ago. I hope there are also civilian models — entertaining dogs doesn’t just need to be about throwing balls, and I can imagine AR hare chasing could be a lot of fun for some.
- nix23 6y ago>and I can imagine AR hare chasing could be a lot of fun for some. Yes, first he destroys your room, hurts himself by running into walls and after 10 minutes he throw up all over your place. PleasePlease let a animal be an animal and make other games with it. https://www.puppyleaks.com/games/ https://www.puppyleaks.com/games/ It needs you and not a TV/PC whatever (counts for any children too btw)
- ben_w 6y agoI was thinking outdoors use for the hare-chasing idea.
- nix23 6y agoOk i correct myself: throw up all over your Park BTW..if you teach him that, he will chasing other things too, but if you like wearing cat fur than it's a good idea.
- sandworm101 6y agoUntil the non-existent hair runs onto a road or in front of a moving wheelchair. Just throw a ball. For most digs, the fun isn't in the actual game but the joy of playing it with the human.
- fhood 6y agoEntertainment for animals that doesn't require a person involved isn't a bad thing. I have to work, I can't possibly spend as much time keeping my pets occupied as they clearly and loudly would prefer. Having something that will keep them mentally stimulated while I am working doesn't seem like such a horrible solution.
- bdowling 6y ago> In current combat deployments, soldiers usually direct their animals with hand signals or laser pointers - both of which require the handler to be close by. Handlers also use radios with earpieces for the dogs and cameras and microphones to provide feedback to the handlers. This AR system may enable the handlers to give more precise instructions to their dogs.
- rtkwe 6y agoYeah with this they can in theory lead the dog through a whole building where it'd be really hard with just a radio and camera. They'll have to train the dog for any new signals but they can just replicate the laser pointer plus voice commands they're using now in the AR headset.
- aaron695 6y agoWow, an actual use for AR. It takes a humans applied intelligence to give a dog augmented reality. So to give a human augmented reality, using napkin maths, would take an intelligence well above ours. General AI. That fits.
- cryptica 6y agoSo great to see our taxpayer dollars being put to good use. My dog Brutus can hardly wait to get his paws on a pair of these AR goggles. Brutus loves Modern Monetary Theory. Today we have hotels for dogs, shoes for dogs, scuba diving gear for dogs... Jerome Powell sure knows how to keep my mutt satisfied. Maybe I should start walking around on all fours and the economy will start treating me well.
- mellosouls 6y agoA less cool sub-story here is the way brilliant animals like dogs are considered disposable on our behalf in the name of violence created by us. The goggles are designed to let their handlers direct them, safely out of harm's way.
- yetihehe 6y agoEven less cool sub-story is the way briliant people serving as soldiers are considered disposable on behalf of their government in the name of violence created by that government.
- mellosouls 6y agoGood point - but soldiers at least have a choice in enlisting and have some idea of potential consequences.
- yetihehe 6y agoIn USA - currently yes. In many countries there is still unvoluntary army draft. "Some idea" of potential consequences - yeah, you can get killed. If I was sure that I could get killed for morally valid reasons (like defending my homeland, your moral validity may differ) and not to defend oil execs exploiting poorer coutries, I would have less objections. I'm rather convinced that we will have some big war soon and I'll try to help defend my country first with my skills and if that's not enough, then at least as cannon fodder. BTW, I'm not from USA, we had forced draft until several years ago.
- kittiepryde 6y agoSometimes the other choice is unemployment without hope for education.
- nwsm 6y agoNot to mention pushy/disingenuous military recruitment tactics.
- 6y ago
- neurobashing 6y agoSo, how long until we mount a suppressed weapon so the dog can sneak up and do sentry elimination?
- captainredbeard 6y agoUnlike in the movies, suppressed weapons are still quite loud.
- wittyreference 6y agoI have a hard time picturing a situation where that would be better than a similarly armed drone.
- fhood 6y agoI dunno, have you played MGSV?
- tmilard 6y agoI see it as a sign of desesparation to find a viable market of augmented reality goggles.
- Nbox9 6y agoReally? The US Army is a fantastic innovator and business partner to have. If I could choose a single customer based solely on business value of the relationship the US Department of Defense might be it.
- tmilard 6y agoI agree. I was mainly reacting to the goggle-dog experiment. I do not see this as a serious market.
- pmlnr 6y ago> Ng Security Industries Semi-Autonomous Guard Unit #A-367 lives in a pleasant black-and-white Metaverse where porterhouse steaks grow on trees, dangling at head level from low branches, and blood-drenched Frisbees fly through the crisp, cool air for no reason at all, until you catch them. /Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson/
- Communitivity 6y agoKudos sir or madam or nonbinary, you beat me to the punch. I saw the headline and Ng industries was the first thing I thought of, followed by remembering Boston Dynamics robotic dog Spot [1]. [1] https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot
- kyuudou 6y agoHave you seen Spot in Singapore parks yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viuR7N6E2LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viuR7N6E2LA Makes me want to work on miniaturizing HERF guns for commercial distribution.
- ProAm 6y agoSuch a waster of tax payer dollars. I would rather have health care.
- seg_lol 6y agoAwesomely Dystopian, the comments in this thread all point out a different distinct horror. Everything applied to these dogs will be applied to a person at some point. On I haven't seen is that the dogs could be directed by a goal seeking ML agent instead of their normal human handler. The same AI that wins at Starcraft now has dog based actuator in the physical world. No need for robots.
- bjarneh 6y agoEven dogs get to try out those VR glasses I've been hearing about since the mid 90s before me..
- coldcode 6y agoFor some reason this reminded me of the Russians trying to train dogs to take out tanks in WW2.
- joejohnson 6y agoUniversal healthcare is too expensive, how would you ever pay for that?