<\/b>Microsoft Corp. ha ganado un contrato de $ 480 millones para suministrar prototipos para sistemas de realidad aumentada al Ej\u00e9rcito para su uso en misiones de combate y entrenamiento,\u00a0 El contrato, que podr\u00eda eventualmente llevar a que el ej\u00e9rcito compre m\u00e1s de 100,000 dispositivos , est\u00e1 destinado a “aumentar la letalidad al mejorar la capacidad de detectar, decidir y actuar frente al enemigo”.<\/p>\n
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Microsoft Corp. has won a $480 million contract to supply prototypes\u00a0for augmented reality systems to the Army for use on combat missions and in training, the Army said. The contract, which could eventually lead to the military purchasing over 100,000 headsets, is intended to\u00a0\u201cincrease\u00a0lethality by\u00a0enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy,\u201d according to a\u00a0government description of the\u00a0program.<\/p>\n
“Augmented reality technology will provide troops with more and better information to make decisions. This new work extends our longstanding, trusted relationship with the Department of Defense to this new area,\u201d a Microsoft spokesman said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Army and the Israeli military have already used Microsoft\u2019s HoloLens\u00a0devices in training, but plans for live combat would be a\u00a0significant step forward.<\/p>\n
HoloLens is one of\u00a0the leading consumer-grade headsets, but a large consumer market doesn\u2019t yet exist; a video made for the European Patent Office this spring said it had\u00a0sold about 50,000 devices<\/a>. \u00a0That\u2019s about half the number the Army expects to\u00a0buy\u00a0through its augmented reality program, which is called the Integrated Visual\u00a0Augmentation System, or IVAS.<\/p>\n With the contract, the Army immediately becomes one of Microsoft\u2019s most important HoloLens consumers. It expects devices to vary from their consumer-grade counterparts in a handful of key respects. In a document shared with companies bidding on the contract, the Army said it wanted to\u00a0incorporate night vision\u00a0and thermal sensing, measure vital signs like breathing and\u00a0\u201creadiness,\u201d\u00a0monitor for\u00a0concussions and offer hearing protection. It said the winning bidder would be expected to\u00a0deliver 2,500 headsets within two years, and exhibit the capacity for full-scale production.<\/p>\n The contract went though a\u00a0bidding process designed to encourage the Army to do business with companies who aren\u2019t traditional defense contractors. Magic Leap, which makes the main competitor to HoloLens for the consumer market,\u00a0also pursued the contract<\/a>. In early August, the Army held meetings with 25 companies interested in participating in some way, including Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Raytheon Co.<\/p>\n The technology industry\u2019s cooperation with the U.S. military and law enforcement has become increasingly tense over the last year, with employees at companies like Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google and Amazon.com Inc. pushing back against government contracts.<\/p>\nEarlier this year, hundreds of Microsoft workers signed a petition criticizing a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Microsoft had originally said included some of its AI software. In October, a blog post purportedly written by Microsoft employees\u00a0urged the company not to bid<\/a>\u00a0on a multi-billion dollar U.S. military cloud contract. “Many Microsoft employees don’t believe that what we build should be used for waging war,” they wrote.<\/div>\n