The current version of the Army Edition of HoloLens 2 prototype uses the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS). It was produced under an initial $480 million contract and looks much more like battle-ready technology, with a much larger visor and sensors bundled in a rugged-looking, beige enclosure. The US Army has extended a five-year, $21 billion contract to Microsoft to produce approximately 120,000 military-grade HoloLens 2, Microsoft has revealed some additional details from behind the scenes. The IVAS prototype is the product of two years of close collaboration between vendor and customer, where Microsoft team members participated in several week-long boot camps and the Army was exposed to Microsoft's user-centric design approach. The team logged nearly 80,000 hours of soldier feedback by February 2021. Soldiers tested the headsets mostly at Fort Pickett, Virginia, with additional testing in Puerto Rico and Alaska to account for more extreme climates. Microsoft cycled through dozens of prototypes and refined them based on user input.
While Microsoft met Army requirements for hardware to resist battlefield conditions in early prototypes, soldier feedback showed that additional design adjustments were needed. For example, early sensor placement impeded the ability of soldiers to aim their rifles, and initial versions of the device limited their peripheral vision. An early version of a computer pack included a dial that, while easy to operate, was prone to breakage as soldiers crawled through rough terrain. The result is a convergence of HoloLens AR technology with thermal imagery, sensors, GPS technology and night vision capabilities that will provide soldiers with 3D images and maps as well as a compass in their field of view. The 3D maps will enable the US military to plan missions and, in the future, see the view of the battlefield from the enemy's point of view. Soldiers will also be able to determine the position of their fellow platoon members using location information transmitted over a secure network. When paired with their weapon sight, soldiers will be able to use their scope to peek around corners safely while viewing the scope view in their IVAS headset.
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