The US Defense Department is buying some new spy specs to give spooks in the field an intelligence edge over everybody else.According to Defenseone, 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.
Defense One got to get an up-close-and-personal demonstration of the new DOD gear during a recent symposium at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Washington, DC headquarters, Turner wrote, and walked away with more than just an eyeful.
According to the website’s report, the wearables take current, consumer-grade technology to the next level by offering an array of services that without a doubt seem more fit for a spy or military sniper than the nerd next-door.
At a recent innovation symposium at Defense Intelligence Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Bobby King, vice president of special projects for Osterhout, demonstrated how the headset provides situational intelligence.
The glasses at a poster of faces while wearing the X6, a tester using the Imagus facial recognition app sees a pair of small circles appear on the eyes of the various targets and then a quick match showed up in the view as demonstrated in a somewhat unnerving video from General Dynamics Information Technology.
The Defense Department has purchased 500 beta units of the glasses according to King. Unfortunately, the government’s spy specs are not for you. “It’s not yet commercially available, but for the government, yes.”
