A deal worth $21.88 billion passed between Microsoft and the US army for producing HoloLens 2

Tech giant Microsoft has successful businesses around the world. The business started by Bill Gates with commercial operating system production for personal and mainstream computers in 1985. Since then, the company grew to be one of the big names in the fortune 500. Microsoft now delivers verities of product for general people around and businesses the world. Now they have signed a deal with the US Army. The deal will last for ten years. In this ten year, the company will deliver 120,000 HoloLens 2.

US Army with HoloLens 2

Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented Reality (AR) became quite mainstream nowadays. But those are used for entertainment purpose mainly. On the other hand, virtual health check-ups and travel facilities are also a great addition to the new devices. But the HoloLens 2 is quite advanced than that. It uses touch, retina and hand gestures to track and do complex tasks. We've seen movies where holograms are used in technical scenes. HoloLens 2 follows the same footstep.

Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) based system will be on mass production by Microsoft. United States Army will benefit significantly from the new implantation at their artillery. The IVAS on HoloLens 2 will work on Microsoft's Azure cloud services. Azure developed systems that work flawlessly in a fraction of seconds. The headset is worn like a hat with glasses in front of the eyes. It will give soldiers night vision and other benefits. Live interaction, close communicating, and most effectively will help in keeping soldiers safe. According to a Microsoft blog post, the program works around situational awareness, flawless decision-making, and information sharing technologies.

The US Army shared the news on the Program Executive Office Soldier article, confirming an official dealing. They said, "The unique and innovative partnership between the Army and Microsoft accelerated prototype system development through the Soldier Centered Design approach to delivering an unprecedented system to our CCF."

Microsoft is no stranger to extensive dealings, and partnership with the Department of Defense shows the implementation of newer technology is the thing for the future because we have come this far by actually depending on it with will and dedication.

HoloLens 2 collects user data, and the data being processed live on the cloud works with machine learning. It means every major to minor bugs, updates, and further requirements will be met for future productions. And they can be implemented on the rest of the devices via firmware or software updates. Back in 2019, CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella defended the contract with the US Army for $480 million. HoloLens outcasts computer programs in augmented reality via user inputs. It is possible to do much more and practice complex training scenarios that were physically tough.

In earlier news, according to CNET, a letter has been sent by the American Civil Libraries Union (ACLU) to Amazon for stopping the selling of security and surveillance system to law enforcement. It had 150,000 signatures attached to defend the verdict. And the agreement was put in papers last year. Apple also fought with the FBI in court as the FBI wanted to track terrorist iPhone for investigation. These events made Microsoft the top priority to receive the deal. Even Google had a misfortunate event regarding a censored version of the search engine for China. Being in the sweet spot and good relationship with the government, Microsoft got the deal to work on for an extensive period.

Each piece of virtual reality headset costs about $3,500. It's pretty expensive for the building materials and the software updates that are yet to come. The headset is also built with QUALCOMM systems targeted at enterprise corporations and not for mainstream consumers. We may see more updates on the HoloLens 2 and the defence implantations as more time passes on the news.