In addition to the US military, Microsoft’s mixed reality headset has made its way to the military exercises of the Chinese army.
Viewers of a report by China’s state-run CCTV news agency were treated to a deeply ironic scene: a Chinese soldier using futuristic American technology to improve the Red Dragon nation’s defense capabilities.
According to the images presented in the Newsweek report, a technician under Air Force training was using Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset to simulate the maintenance operation of a fighter jet engine without physical contact with it; At the same time, the Chinese news agency did not hesitate to express its satisfaction about the role of this headset in “accelerating combat readiness”.
A new report outlines Chinese President Xi Jinping’s priorities for modernizing the country’s military amid tensions with the United States. Meanwhile, the country’s major technology companies are working hard to develop indigenous augmented reality hardware.
Considering the escalation of strategic tensions between these superpowers, the use of US-made hardware by the Chinese army cannot be good news for the country’s lawmakers.
Although many restrictions have been imposed on the export of semiconductor technologies, artificial intelligence, and other dual-use technologies from the US to China; Legal loopholes still plague all ranks of US senators.
Microsoft is going to provide more than 120,000 units of its augmented reality headsets to the US military in a 10-year contract worth 21.9 billion dollars.
HoloLens 2 was launched in 2019 with a price tag of $3,500 in global markets including China. Although previous reports had announced the possible cancellation of all Microsoft plans for the next version of this headset, the HoloLens 3, a patent that was published earlier this year announced the possibility of a modular design for its future models.
