According to foreign technology media MIXED reported that the U.S. Army plans to officially use the HoloLens 2-based Integrated Audio Visual System (IVAS) in 2023. A few months ago, there were reports that the IVAS headset had many problems in the testing process, which is good news for Microsoft if the news is true.
According to the 10-year agreement signed by Microsoft and the U.S. Army, Microsoft will receive a huge return of $21.9 billion if the project is successful. But after the agreement was signed, the IVAS project didn’t go well, with numerous reports of problems.
Douglas Bush, the assistant secretary for acquisition, made a public statement about the IVAS program in September, saying Microsoft had begun delivering the first IVAS combat headsets. He said at the time that the test results performed well and was confident that the project would be successful.
But Bloomberg published an in-depth opinion piece in October that said IVAS had serious negative effects on soldiers. 80 percent of soldiers experienced “mission-impairing physical impairments” (including headaches, eyestrain and nausea) after three hours of wear. Another report revealed by Business Insider stated that IVAS affected soldiers’ performance on the battlefield. At the time, it was reported that Microsoft had addressed the issue, but the IVAS still failed the entire six-point evaluation process.
