Anduril’s new EagleEye MR helmet sees Palmer Luckey return to his VR roots

In the latest bid by a Silicon Valley defence steadfast to asseverate its ain solution for the Army’s mixed-reality ambitions, Anduril Industries connected Monday unveiled “EagleEye,” a helmeted computing strategy that seeks to crook soldiers into AI-augmented warfighters.

The motorboat is notable fixed that the inaugural is led by Anduri’s co-founder Palmer Luckey, who antecedently started the pioneering VR company, Oculus, which was acquired by Meta.

Anduril describes EagleEye arsenic a modular “family of systems” built atop its Lattice bundle that puts command-and-control tools, sensor feeds, and AI straight into a soldier’s tract of vision.

The institution claims the strategy tin integrate unrecorded video feeds; features rear- and side-sensors to alert operators to threats; and tin way teammates successful real-time. EagleEye variations see a helmet, visor and glasses.

The motorboat comes arsenic the U.S. Army looks to grow its excavation of mixed-reality cogwheel suppliers. It had been utilizing Microsoft’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a $22 cardinal programme awarded successful 2018, but aft years of issues, the Army handed power of the declaration to Anduril this February.

Then successful September, Anduril won a $159 cardinal grant to prototype a caller mixed-reality strategy for soldiers, portion of a broader Soldier Borne Mission Command effort. Anduril said the grant was “the largest effort of its kind” to outfit “every worker with superhuman cognition and decision-making capabilities.”

Earlier this year, Anduril besides announced a concern with Meta to make extended world (XR) devices for the military, marking an unexpected reunion betwixt Luckey and his erstwhile employer.

“I americium gladsome to beryllium moving with Meta erstwhile again,” Luckey said successful a blog post. “My ngo has agelong been to crook warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are gathering with Meta bash conscionable that.”

EagleEye has a agelong history: the conception archetypal appeared successful Anduril’s archetypal transportation platform draft, earlier investors convinced the startup’s squad to absorption connected bundle similar Lattice.

“Going toe-to-toe with Microsoft and Magic Leap would person been demoralizing windmill-tilting driven by magical thinking,” Luckey said successful a station connected X successful February. “Everything is antithetic now. The satellite is ready, and truthful is Anduril.”