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

Within the newest bid by a Silicon Valley protection agency to claim its personal resolution for the Military’s mixed-reality ambitions, Anduril Industries on Monday unveiled “EagleEye,” a helmeted computing system that seeks to show troopers into AI-augmented warfighters.

The launch is notable provided that the initiative is led by Anduri’s co-founder Palmer Luckey, who beforehand began the pioneering VR firm, Oculus, which was acquired by Meta.

Anduril describes EagleEye as a modular “household of methods” constructed atop its Lattice software program that places command-and-control instruments, sensor feeds, and AI immediately right into a soldier’s sight view.

The corporate claims the system can combine reside video feeds; options rear- and side-sensors to alert operators to threats; and might observe teammates in real-time. EagleEye variations embrace a helmet, visor and glasses.

The launch comes because the U.S. Military appears to increase its pool of mixed-reality gear suppliers. It had been utilizing Microsoft’s Built-in Visible Augmentation System (IVAS), a $22 billion program awarded in 2018, however after years of points, the Military handed management of the contract to Anduril this February.

Then in September, Anduril gained a $159 million award to prototype a brand new mixed-reality system for troopers, a part of a broader Soldier Borne Mission Command effort. Anduril stated the award was “the most important effort of its type” to outfit “each soldier with superhuman notion and decision-making capabilities.”

Earlier this yr, Anduril additionally introduced a partnership with Meta to develop prolonged actuality (XR) gadgets for the army, marking an surprising reunion between Luckey and his former employer.

“I’m glad to be working with Meta as soon as once more,” Luckey stated in a weblog put up. “My mission has lengthy been to show warfighters into technomancers, and the merchandise we’re constructing with Meta do exactly that.”

EagleEye has an extended historical past: the idea first appeared in Anduril’s first pitch deck draft, earlier than buyers satisfied the startup’s crew to concentrate on software program like Lattice.

“Going toe-to-toe with Microsoft and Magic Leap would have been demoralizing windmill-tilting pushed by magical considering,” Luckey said in a post on X in February. “All the pieces is totally different now. The world is prepared, and so is Anduril.”