Microsoft's HoloLens headsets are giving US Army testers nausea:
Microsoft's HoloLens headsets for the US Army have some teething troubles. Bloomberg and Insider say a recent unclassified report reveals the current Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) iteration is creating problems for soldiers in tests. Some testers suffered nausea, headaches and eyestrain while using the augmented reality goggles. Others were concerned about bulk, a limited field of view and a display glow that could reveal a soldier's position even at long distances.
A Microsoft worker talking to Insider claimed IVAS failed four out of six elements in one test. The Defense Department's Operational Test and Evaluation Director, Nickolas Guertin, also said there were still too many failures for essential features. Soldier acceptance is still low, according to the report.
[...] The military appears to be aware of and addressing issues. In a statement to Insider, Brigadier General Christopher Schneider said IVAS was successful in "most" criteria, but that there were areas where it "fell short" and would receive improvements. Army assistant acquisition secretary Doug Bush cleared the acceptance of an initial batch of 5,000 HoloLens units in August, but that the armed forces branch was modifying its plans to "correct deficiencies." Microsoft told Bloomberg it still saw IVAS as a "transformational platform" and was moving ahead with delivery for the initial headsets.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 14 2022, @08:17PM (8 children)
We want to operate these things in the dark. We realize that few of you engineers have experienced true darkness. We're talking about the kind of darkness, where a cigarette can be seen burning from miles away. The light has to turn down to -10. If it won't dial down that far, we will take you waaaay outback, deep in the mountains, deep in a forest, with no electricity within 50 miles. We will drop you off at midnight, during a new moon. You will understand darkness before we pick you up again. We want headsets that won't glow in THAT KIND of darkness. Now get with the program.
Extra points if your gadgets don't cause nausea, vertigo, and assorted other side effects.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday October 14 2022, @08:31PM (1 child)
Sounds to me like the product requirements stage (step two of product design) was botched.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 15 2022, @02:49PM
Disclaimer: I haven't tried on a Hololens for 5+ years.
Last time I tried a Hololens, the overlay field of view was only something like 60 degrees. If you look straight at the "target" it appears, but there's absolutely no peripheral, artificial things disappear from view when you look even a little bit away. Your eyes can scan left and right further than the artificial rendering portal. It takes "you're holding it wrong" to a whole new level, expecting the users to train to how to move their head to scan the artificial environment for content. Further, the demo was of a shark coming at you, and it's about on top of you, but you don't see it until you move your head in the correct direction. The potential of the tech is obvious from the demonstration, but the actual implementation is lame bullshit, kind of like 4 color 640x480 graphics on a 15" CRT.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Friday October 14 2022, @08:52PM (3 children)
I'm starting to wonder if they didn't take some serious kickbacks from the enemy camp. It's very hard to be an effective warrior if you are constantly vomiting form the motion sickness, that might possibly be a thing that you eventually overcome if you can ever get used to it. But having an extra heavy item attached to your head that also glows somewhat in the dark would seem like a blunder.
Come to think of it -- the future of warfare is going to be just like a video game, some nerd or drone is going to sit miles away with a sniper rifle and shot enemy targets in the head over and over and over again. Microsoft probably just wanted to offer an assist by painting and extra glowing ring around the head area to aid with the long distance aiming.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 15 2022, @12:15AM
I dunno. You would be surprised to learn how many career sailors stay seasick pretty much all the time. I never understood that. If being underway makes you sick, why on earth would you stay in for 20+ years?
If I could get my hands on a headset, I'd be willing to give it a shot. The only times I got seasick, my alcohol levels were topped off. If these things made me "seasick", I think we could safely suspect that it's not exactly motion sickness. Maybe someone should have done a study on that very thing?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Saturday October 15 2022, @03:06AM
I had started to collect links but when I saw this submission in the queue already, decided to save them for a comment. M$ has bribed heavily in other countries and exists mainly as a lobbying entity inside the US so it would be no surprise if what went on could be categorized as plain old bribery. Or else someone in the DoD read Harrison Bergeron [archive.org] back in school and and took a wrong interpretation to heart.
First, it's not a new problem.
US Army soldiers experienced a range of physical ailments from headaches and nausea to neck strain while donning Microsoft's militarised HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) system during testing last year and they were unable to complete essential combat tasks, according to the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.
Service leaders postponed the initial operational test and evaluation benchmark for the new Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) last year after deciding they first needed to fix several hardware and software shortcomings. Pending changes include reducing the heads-up display's field-of-view from 80° to 70°, addressing a humidity issue with one component, and fixing software ‘reliability and stability' issues that sometimes ‘crash' the system, Janes has previously reported.
Second, there are far more problems than just described in the Engadget article.
Soldiers testing the headsets have complained about their “mission-affecting physical impairments,” and say that wearing the goggles can cause headaches, nausea, and eyestrain. Acceptance of the tech “remains low,” says a summary prepared for Army and Defense Department officials and seen by Bloomberg, with soldiers complaining that the headsets don’t “contribute to their ability to complete their mission.”
One testimony reported by Insider was even blunter. “The devices would have gotten us killed,” said the tester — referring to the light emitted by the goggles’ head-up display, which could alert enemy troops to the wearer’s presence.
More than 80% of those who experienced discomfort had symptoms after less than three hours using the customized version of Microsoft’s HoloLens goggles, Nickolas Guertin, director of Operation Test and Evaluation, said in a summary for Army and Defense Department officials. He said the system also is still experiencing too many failures of essential functions.
Over 80% of the soldiers who experienced symptoms after strapping on the headsets did after less than three hours of use. HoloLens reportedly failed four out of six of the Army’s evaluation tests, with at least one tester expressing concern the device could put soldiers’ lives in danger. Glowing lights emanating from the headset are reportedly visible from hundreds of meters away, a crucial flaw that could potentially give off a soldier’s position during battle.
“The devices would have gotten us killed,” one of the testers said, according to Insider. In addition to the lights, testers claimed the device limited their field of view and restricted their movement due to its bulky, heavy design.
More than 80% of people who complained of discomfort reportedly started to feel their symptoms less than three hours after donning the specially adapted HoloLens glasses from Microsoft. The system itself continues to fail far too frequently at performing crucial tasks, according to officials.
Bloomberg reported today that a study by the Pentagon’s testing office found most soldiers using HoloLens suffered “mission-affecting physical impairments,” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea. The numbers are significant, with more than 80% of Army users experiencing discomfort after less than three hours of using a customized version of HoloLens (pictured).
Headaches are one thing, but it gets worse. It was also found that the HoloLens was not reliable. In a report for Defense Department officials, Nickolas Guertin, director of operation test and evaluation, said the system fails at many essential functions. The findings were outlined in a report that was not meant to be made public.
If it weren't so farcically tragic and typical of m$ products, it would be humorous. Windows™ is not the answer, it is the question. "No!" is the answer.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 15 2022, @02:51PM
>miles away with a sniper rifle
Thousands of miles away piloting a MQ-9 Reaper drone... the future was 10 years ago, and it's only accelerating.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday October 15 2022, @01:08AM (1 child)
Or they could just remove the blue "Power On" LED's from them.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Saturday October 15 2022, @08:10PM
You just made me realize: all of my blue "power on" LEDs have some kind of tape over them- mostly beige masking tape, so I can still see something coming through. Who ever designs things that way? At least Apple uses tiny pinholes that somewhat limit the lumens.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Friday October 14 2022, @08:27PM (1 child)
Yet another Microsoft product that makes me want to vomit.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2022, @09:16PM
There's no "want". It's uncontrollable.
(Score: 4, Funny) by SomeRandomGeek on Friday October 14 2022, @08:33PM (1 child)
But not before infantry have become completely obsolete and disappeared from the battlefield.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Saturday October 15 2022, @08:16PM
That's quite funny, but suddenly I'm worried wondering if that's their goal: software to control robots of war.
And maybe the current system is a way to weed out people who can't handle the visual complexity, to find people who are best suited to control those robots. Not unlike astronaut, fighter pilot, Seal and other special services training and weedout processes...
(Score: 5, Funny) by srobert on Friday October 14 2022, @11:04PM
Now, all the Army has to do is figure out how to get enemy soldiers to wear them.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by PiMuNu on Saturday October 15 2022, @01:19PM (1 child)
They have 5000 hardware units ready to deploy in the field at Y1.5 in a 10 year contract; probably a pre-production run for UAT. That's not bad. These sound like minor teething problems that can be resolved in the next couple of iterations.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 15 2022, @02:54PM
They've been iterating this BS for 10 years already, I tried on a Hololens developer kit in 2015. They're repackaging the same old stuff, not innovating, because they've got a lock on the development contract so why try harder?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday October 15 2022, @01:25PM
Many people get sick reading in a car, I did when I was a kid. It has to do with your eyes not agreeing with your inner ear. If a roller coaster makes you hurl, or especially reading while in a moving vehicle makes you barf, spending a grand on one of these things is a really bad purchase. Try before you buy!
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience