Oculus was founded by five different individuals, all of which have got their separate ways. Palmer Luckey, one of the most impressive founders when it comes to the understanding of the technology, left Facebook and Oculus back in 2017. He left to start his own defense technology company called Anduril Industries.
The company has been in production of AI software, threat detection systems, and even autonomous drones. Anduril Industries is now headed in a different route according to a business insider interview. Luckey is working on an AR/VR software that is going to assist the warfighters on the battlefield. He also has toyed with the idea of making an AR headset, but he is uncertain as of now.
In the Business Insider interview, the co-founder and CEO of Anduril Brian Schimpf, said that they ideally would only provide the software that would be running an AR headset that is used in the field. This would give soldiers some diagnostics of their situations, threat detection, and would be extra sensitive to specific noises giving soldiers a heightened alert to gunfire and more prominent threats. The headset then would be able to find appropriate places to take cover.
Anduril isn’t interested in making the headset as of right now, as they are wanting to foley focus on the software that would go inside of it. They are working hard to find a reliable and consistent software system that will give the soldiers a view of the things they want to see while on the battlefield. There is a lot that goes on out there, and having a cluttered view of it all isn’t going to help. Having a clear view and essential information in your view does help, and that is what the company is working on right now.
“The real moonshot for us is the idea – you want to have every soldier, every operator, be able to have total awareness of what’s going on,” Schimpf tells Business Insider. “They know everything they need to know to do their job, and all of this is available to them in a millisecond, and just the critical information they need.”
The AR software being used in combat is a “far future” project, but the company has been working on a “couple of very cool things on virtual reality.”
While the projects and the deploying of the projects seem to be far out, the future is very bright for virtual reality ad augmented reality. Much like training in the medical field, both of these technologies are looking to be deployed to the most important people in the field very soon. A VR headset is great at simulating what you might see in combat, but it won’t serve you any good while you are on the battlefield. As for the AR headset, it wouldn’t be too useful while you are trying to gain an understanding about what the combat will be like. It will, however, give you plenty of information when you are in the heat of battle. None of these things are possible without the furthering of the technology, just like Anduril Industries are doing.
At the moment, Anduril has no contract with any military force. With both founders of the company being from the United States, you would assume that they would be inclined to make a deal with the US Military. With that being said, these decisions often come down to which is the best for the bottom line. The US Army has a huge deal with Microsoft AR headsets, so putting Anduril’s tech in their might be the best move going forward. For more VR news and c community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
