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The Military Is About To Get New Augmented Reality Spy Glasses
schwit1 writes in with this story about some interesting new eyewear purchased by the Defense Department. Getting secret information to specific people, like the location of the nearest nuclear power plant, in a way that doesn't draw attention from outside is a classic spy problem. Another one is giving agents the ability to match names to faces in the real world, at blackjack tables and fancy soirees and other places spies frequent. The Defense Department is buying some new spy specs to give spooks in the field an intelligence edge over everybody else. The glasses, called simply the X6, are from San Francisco-based Osterhout Design Group. They look like the lovechild of Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, providing more information to the wearer than the small window on Google's much-maligned headset but not obstructing vision like the Oculus Rift. (Admittedly, for spy glasses, they lack a certain subtlety.)
Augmented reality glasses sound awesome, and these look much more interesting than Google Glass, but I'm not sure spies are the market here.
From the article: "Admittedly, for spy glasses, they lack a certain subtlety." A bit of an understatement, I'd say.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
OBEY
The article is all about spooks using spy glasses which are.... well, less than subtle. Not complexed truck who want a bigger tool.
more toys at taxpayer expense...
Yeah, these stand out waaaay too much for undercover work. They might have some use, e.g., for communication within someone's security detail or something like that, but I don't think you could wear something like this and fail to attract attention. And that seems like exactly the sort of thing spies want to *avoid* ...
now that is funny, even a basic non-smart net10 phone with primative browser can pull up that info, it's quite public. Information about people and resources moving in and out of one might be better example of something that might be transmitted
if this were an education project or something i could have at my library id think this is awesome, but we spend more on defense than the next 4 largest spending countries combined. we're constantly sold on the idea that america is broke, so broke that an entire party of the government often times refuses to increase our debt limit. nearly every american highway is riddled with potholes, highschool kids have to pay a portion of their textbooks in many cases, and the entire city of detroit is about to cut off water service to a quarter of its population. The only thing that ever seems to happen in america is war. we dont have the cash to keep street lights on anymore, but we sure as shit have cash to burn for training some syrian rebels. it didnt work the first or second time, but we sent troops back to iraq for a third round of 'father knows best' diplomacy by the gun, and now we have augmented reality for the troops? How about this:
we give them augmented reality but it is designed to simulate a life after 2 tours with stop-loss, a GI bill that no longer pays for college, a medical system thats underfunded and crooked, the hallucinations and nightmares from PTSD, and the constant struggle of putting a shirt on with only one remaining arm. and in 5 years when the defense department finds a way to sell it to civillians like they did the hummer and the barret 50 caliber rifle, it can be recalibrated. here it will simulate a reality where the user has a well paying job, affordable housing, healthy food to eat, clean air and water, social healthcare system, and a highway as nice as the one we built in afghanistan.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Reminds me of Snow Crash:
This is a solution in search of a problem.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Don't bother with him, he's a troll anyways. Everyone knows everything is bigger in Texas and Obama Care will pay for the surgery if his life story is true.
BTW, how to you ask someone if they are from Texas? You don't, you listen for a short time and they will just tell you. Or you can look him up on these glasses.
If everyone started to wear them, they would become subtle.
Gathering Yahoo webcam images of random naked people isn't enough for the GCHQ and NSA. This technology will ensure they see us naked all the time.
Am I the only one who has been thinking recently that soccer might make me less angry if referees had augmented reality glasses? For example, if they could instantly replay for themselves certain situations and rotate angles (enough data is already collected from cameras to make this possible), they would certainly make better calls! If nothing else, this would be a way to completely nail offsides decisions.
You don't say... The whole article was absolutely ridiculous. The glasses are far from unnoticeable (laughable to even suggest that) and the nuclear power plant thing just makes you facepalm through your head.
E: Captcha "sexist" _
Exactly. First they sell to rich early adopters so they can show off. Then you'll get the budget version that looks cool but not ubercool. Of course, the backing software won't be geared towards spies. It will be for gaming, casual face recognition, seeing what barcodes and product numbers mean, "titty highlighting", fake "see through clothes apps" and so on.
Then they get so common that spies too can use them. Nobody will suspect a spy - just another glasshole! Of course the spy version will have different software. Terrorist recognition, and whatever else they need.
As stated by TFA:
They look like the lovechild of Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, providing more information to the wearer than the small window on Google's much-maligned headset but not obstructing vision like the Oculus Rift. ( Admittedly, for spy glasses, they lack a certain subtlety )
If the military can do something like that, so can we
After all, this is what modding is all about
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
For this we'd first have to abandon the dogma that the clock has to keep running at all costs.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I mean, one of the best scenes of Star Trek history would never have existed with such glasses that make it unnecessary to ask for directions.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"(Admittedly, for spy glasses, they lack a certain subtlety.)"
That's a bummer. The US military has been famous for decades because of their 'subtlety'.
Really? The whole point of the GP post was that nearly all of the technological underpinnings of our modern, leisure-infested lifestyle are the result of governmental (and much of it military) research. I hate war as much as the next liberal, but it seems that the efforts of short-sighted humans are focused by the desire to be able to kill as many people as possible as easily as possible. Without it, we'd still be monkeys. Now if we could just quit the actual killing of people we'd be making some progress.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Soldiers already have access to augmented reality when they relax at their local strip clubs.
OR you could go to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website (www.nrc.gov) and get the street address of every the nuclear power plants in the US, then look at them on Google Earth. If that doesn't do it, go to nukeworker.com and get driving directions from the nearest airport and the recommended hotels. Nuclear power plants are BIG. We don't rely on anonymity. We rely on walls, fences, and a LOT of people with guns.
Yet stoppage time is added at the end...why not just stop the clock for penalties and injuries instead?
Have gnu, will travel.
Now the glass to the rescue....the true glassholes
I was thinking that they could review previous events as the game runs, but I guess they could they could limit it to time after they blew the whistle and are deciding about cards. But offsides calls could absolutely be done in real time.
Hey, let's write a article with nothing but buzzwords:
Oculus Rift
Google Glass
Spy
San Francisco
WTF? These have nothing to do with the heavy/HD crappy (1080p not so good 1" away) Rift, Unusable [and 'jerk' label] Glass, Spies? This is DoD C4i not the CIA, and of course... all the geekdom in frisco (World revolves around Frisco... according to Silicon Valley).
These are glamified knock offs to the Epson Moverio. Right down to the snap-in tinted shades. Don't know what it is? Look it up. And you can buy them now (I have a pair). They are basically OSDs, which the military needs. That is all. Yes they are cool, but really, all that above hype wasn't needed.
Heck hype it up when the 1st killer app comes out. No pun intended.
Have you ever sat down with a stopwatch and checked just how long games actually are when you only count "pure" play time? You end up with about 20-25 minutes per half. Including injury time you're still at a laughable pittance of actually play time.
In other words, if they actually stopped the clock whenever the ball exits the play field, whenever a goal is scored, whenever foul play has to be handled... a game would not take those 1.5 hours it does now but would be closer to 3 hours.
And since I don't really think that one should have to endure that amount of time being dedicated to soccer, I should probably shut up...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In huge tournaments like the currently running World Cup, with 30+ cameras pointing at the field with 20+ thereof pointing at wherever the ball happens to be, yes.
It won't work out for "normal" games.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.