The Department of Defense's million-dollar sunglasses.

When it comes to military maneuvers, it’s all about support.  Foot soldiers form the basis of the military’s power, but without air support, artillery, and tanks, they’re not going to properly control an environment.  The modern military works on many layers, but the difficulty in communication can make close air support a dangerous proposition as the birds in the sky can never really be sure what the ground forces are doing, and vice-versa.  This potential for screw-ups can get people killed.  That’s where Vuzix Corporation of Rochester, New York comes in.  DARPA has contacted Vuzix to create some next-generation augmented reality sunglasses that will enable soldiers to communicate more quickly and efficiently.  The sunglasses, which have built-in holographic displays, allow ground forces to see where their air support is, and vice-versa.

“It is all about speeding up the CAS [close air support] mission and eliminating friendly fire issues that can occur if the user on the ground may not have the whole picture of what is around them,” said Vuzix executive Stephen Glaser in an interview with Wired’s Danger Room.  “The head tracker knows where the user is looking, so the information the user is seeing changes as he moves or turns his head.  Theoretically you could look up in the sky and a little green triangle would appear telling you, you have an F-16 30 miles out at 21,000 feet.  It could also tell you what type of ordnance the plane was carrying, so you could make a quick decision if that plane would be appropriate for the mission.”

This is yet another DARPA project.  DARPA is the research wing of the Department of Defense, who you may remember from such awesome ideas as The Crusher, a driverless SUV, and BigDog, a quadruped robot monster thing.  Now they’re throwing money at high-tech sunglasses that allow more efficient communication between the foot soldier and his air support.

Tags: Department of Defense, DARPA, augmented-reality eyewear, holographic goggles, heads-up displays in goggles, HUD sunglasses, heads-up display sunglasses, combat sunglasses with tactical displays, Vuzix Corporation, Rochester, New York, Stephen Glaser, military sunglasses, tactical displays, next-generation tactical displays

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