

US military developing multi-focus augmented reality contact lenses - mrsebastian
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/126043-us-military-developing-multi-focus-augmented-reality-contact-lenses

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bdunbar
I'm not sure 'contacts' are a good match with 'soldier'.

Gear for soldiers needs to be rugged, idiot proof, and easy to work with.
Inserting contacts to gear-up for a patrol would seem to be none of those.

I'm not adverse to the idea .. I would have liked to use this myself, back in
the day .. but we need to keep in mind that information overload is a very
real problem for these guys.

" A screaming red display flashes up on the goggles informing him that the
millimeter-wave radar has noticed a stream of bullets headed in his direction
and would you like to know where they came from, sir?

He turns off all of the techno-sh __in his goggles. All it does is confuse
him; he stands there reading statistics about his own death even as it's
happening to him. Very post-modern. Time to get immersed in Reality, like all
the people around him."

~Snow Crash

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Synthetase
Contacts are a horrendous ideas. In fact soldiers are specifically not to wear
contacts into a combat zone because the heat of an IED explosion can fuse it
to the cornea.

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bdunbar
I _knew_ wearing Birth Control Goggles were a good idea. Best glasses I've
ever owned - sturdy and difficult to break.

Pity that on me they made me look mildly retarded.

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walru
You can spend the rest of the day thinking of practical and non-practical uses
for technology such as this.

I'm more interested in this tech as I see it as humanity's next, and perhaps
biggest, step towards the singularity. The introduction of eye optics such as
this is going to create a very clear division in our culture.

Just like my grandmother wants nothing to do with a PC there will be those who
will want nothing to do with wearing, or implanting anything that gets them
closer to their computer.

You can argue that those who have never touched a PC/Internet have evolved
differently than those who haven't. So to the people who do embrace this tech
will spin off and start to 'evolve' at a different pace/way than those who do
not. This isn't like an iPad though. It's pretty easy for most to digest why
that's better than always lugging around you laptop. I don't see this tech
being so popular among the masses. However, I do see it being very popular
among certain pockets of people.

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lee337
$ puts "US military developing #{Faker::Company.catch_phrase}"

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rollypolly
Seems like there's a lot more entertainment potential than military.

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littlegiantcap
I disagree. The ability to have a myriad of information as an individual
soldier on the field could prove to be invaluable. Think about squad mates
that get separated from groups. With technology like this you could see a top
down map over your location what his/her position is and where you are
relatively ala a Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3 esque mini map. Also
consider the ability to reduce friendly fire by being able to see exactly
where an artillery strike is being painted and your relative position to that
strike. These are just a few applications off the top of my head, but I think
that augmented reality has the potential to dramatically aide the armed
forces.

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ilkandi
Then they need a lot of smarter military who can integrate this info, while
keeping a clear head in the middle of a firefight, and yet be able to follow
orders to the death. Soldiers aren't supposed to win every battle. I expect
that between the mental load, the cost of deployment, possible data changes by
enemy hackers, and simply being able to pick up dead soldier's equipment and
use it, that this will never be something for general rank and file infantry,
likely just the officers. 99% of usage will be for entertainment.

~~~
daenz
> Then they need a lot of smarter military who can integrate this info, while
> keeping a clear head in the middle of a firefight, and yet be able to follow
> orders to the death.

Not trying to start a flame war, but I believe that modern video games are
prepping for that. If you've played any of the modern shooters, you need to be
good at keeping an eye on your HUD while tracking targets and navigating
through your environment.

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JohnLBevan
How long until a YouTuber does a Google Glass / iOptiks on the battlefield
parody. . .

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excuse-me
Can't wait to see this.

Was involved in the British Army BOWMAN (Better Off With Map And Nokia) system
which when finally delivered included a mobile base station that needed a
specially strengthened LandRover to carry, a wrist mounted data terminal that
weighted 5lbs and batteries that were the size/weight/cost of a small car.

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mrsebastian
Ha, I had to check out that 'map and Nokia' acronym... it's true!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowman_%28communications_system...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowman_%28communications_system%29)

