Hardware, Military, News, Virtual Reality (VR)

Canadian government invests in VR training technology

The Government of Canada announced this week that it has awarded a $1.1 million contract to Halifax, Nova Scotia-based IT firm Bluedrop Training and Simulation Inc. The funds are being used to procure the company’s virtual reality Rescue Hoist Simulator product. The contract comes as part of the Canadian government’s Build in Canada Innovation Program, which has seen over $126 million invested in 285 contracts since 2010. Bluedrop is currently the country’s largest provider of courseware. “Bluedrop is extremely happy that the Build in Canada Innovation Program recognizes and supports the innovative capabilities of our company,” said Jean-Claude Siew, Vice President, Technology & Simulation at

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Artificial Intelligence, Military, News, Technology Security, Wearables

China starts with AI facial recognition in fighting terrorism

Just a few weeks before Chinese Lunar New Year festivities starts, Chinese authorities decided to take even more precaution measures. The Chinese will be making around 3 billion trips during these days and there is a new high-tech law enforcement tool that will help them feel secure. Facial recognition eyeglasses have already been tested and proven useful in Zhengzhou’s East Railway Station when they helped local police capture seven people connected to major criminal cases, and a further 26 traveling on false documents. The station, one of the busiest in China, has its own police force but it can be hard for an individual policeman to

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Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Google, Hardware, Microsoft, Military, News, VR World, Wearables

Apple Manufacturer Quanta Partners With Lumus For AR Displays

Quanta Computer Inc. is a manufacturing partner for Apple and many other hardware manufacturers in the PC/smartphone space. They’re one of the most important companies that consumers have never heard of. Recently,  they reached out to Lumus, an Israel-based business that designs displays for AR glasses and headsets. If you recall Google’s “Glass” project from a few years back (which included very limited shipments of Google Glasses), Lumus works on similar hardware and has been doing so for quite a while. In 2008, they sold the PD-18, one of the first AR glasses of its kind, and just a few years later they started producing hardware

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Augmented Reality (AR), Breaking, Business, Military, News, startups, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables, Wearables

ODG Launches Heavy Duty Mixed Reality, VR AR Combo Glasses

Osterhaut Design Group, or ODG for short is expanding its lineup of combined AR/VR glasses targeting the heavy duty use in industrial markets. After a successful launch of R-7, the company is expanding the product family with R-7HL, short for Hazardous Location. This headset comes with a complete eye protection, shielding its wearers from the most hazardous environments. “ODG built the R-7HL to answer the demands and needs of customers who operate in extreme environments,” said Ralph Osterhout, ODG CEO. “R-7HL brings a durable, hands-free, wearable computing platform to professionals in oil exploration and production, energy, mining, utilities, chemical production and pharmaceuticals and enables heads-up, hands-free checklists, guided

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Business, CPU, Hardware, Internet of Things (IoT), Military, Mobile, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables, Wearables

Lattice just announced iCE40 UltraPlus

After launching Ultra family in 2014, and the UltraLite Family in early 2015 – Lattice just announced a new member of the iCE40 FPGA family. ICE40 Ultra Plus delivers eight times more memory (1.1 Mbit RAM), twice the digital signal processors (8x DSPs), and improved I/Os over previous generations. Available in multiple package sizes, the programmable nature of the iCE40 UltraPlus device is ideal for smartphones, wearable tech, drones, 360 cameras, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and industrial automation, as well as security and surveillance products. The variety of sensors needed to implement innovative HMI solutions are rapidly changing the I/O landscape. Today’s mobile devices require ever

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AMD, Analysis, ARM, Breaking, Business, Enterprise, Exclusive, Hardware, HP, Intel, Military, Nvidia, Qualcomm, VR World

China Now Leads the Server Race: Meet the Phytium MARS Processor

Two decades ago, the US high end microprocessor industry was a lively, diverse market where about five various instruction set architectures battled it out across the workstation and server fields. You had choices like DEC’s Alpha – the speed leader; MIPS – the Silicon Graphics heart; SPARC from Sun Microsystems, IBM POWER, HP PA, the nascent X86, and a few custom architectures for MPP massive parallel processing, for instance. The rest of the world pretty much had nothing – British Transputer and German Hyperstone platforms died out due to lack of funding, while ARM was still keeping to the low end embedded arena after the end of the

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Augmented Reality (AR), Breaking, Business, Hardware, Military, Mobile, News, Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables, Wearables

OTOY and ODG: Look Into the Future of Virtual Reality

Hot on heels of last week’s announcement that OTOY is teaming with Osterhaut Design Group to deliver a consumer version of their Augmented / Virtual Reality glasses, Jules Urbach Founder, Chairman and CEO of OTOY came on CNBC’s SquakBox. In a two minute, thirty second video Jules described the work they are doing with ODG in bringing this new and exciting product to market. We reached to Jules for comment and here’s what he said: “Video of live Light field streaming working on a Samsung Galaxy S6 is really a milestone we’ve been working on for a while. But the ODG glasses are pretty amazing as

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Augmented Reality (AR), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Gaming, Hardware, Military, News, Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables

Vuzix Launches New AR and VR Products

While there is a lot of focus on companies that are announcing their VR and AR products, the realities are that those ‘loud’ announcements serve to hide the fact that those companies are not shipping. On the other hand, there are companies such as Vuzix Corporation, which ship AR/VR products for years now – just not in the limelight. “Augmented and Virtual Reality are no longer concepts from science fiction movies, and we are at the forefront of bringing that technology to the world,” says Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. “Our award-winning lineup of AR/VR solutions and patented technologies reflect our extensive experience

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aerospace, Auto, Military, News, Space and Science, VR World

HRL’s 3D Printed Ceramic could Change Everything

 3D printing is slowly, but certainly becoming an evolution or even a revolution of manufacturing. Every week we receive news pitches from companies claiming they’re the next big thing in the world of 3D printing, but there are innovations which are really making you think we’re changing for the better. From 3D printed vertebrae and skin in medicine to airplanes and rockets, 3D printing or ‘additive manufacturing’ is becoming an everyday reality for mission critical tasks. One company known for its innovation since inception – Hughes Research Laboratories (known today as HRL Laboratories, LLC – a joint-venture of General Motors and Boeing) just announced a technological breakthrough in

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Military, VR World

Inaugural Deployment In Europe For F-22 Raptor

In its inaugural deployment, the F-22 Raptor has arrived in Europe earlier last week. There are be four F-22 Raptors, one C-17 Globemaster III, and approximately 60 Airmen who have arrived at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, to train with allied air forces and U.S. services through mid-September. This marks the first time the F-22 Raptor has been deployed overseas, namely Europe and bases there. This first-ever F-22 training deployment to Europe is funded by the European Reassurance Initiative, and provides support to bolster the security of our NATO Allies and partners in Europe. The F-22s and Airmen are from the 95th Fighter Squadron, Tyndall AFB,

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Business, Military, News, Space and Science, VR World

Who Will Buy Airbus Defense Business?

When EADS, the crown company mostly known for Airbus commercial planes and Eurocopter planes, as well as booming Satellite business -renamed itself Airbus Group SE, information start to leak from the company – sale of unwanted, non-core assets. It started with selling shares of private jet / military jet maker Dassault Aviation, evaluating exit from ATR, its joint venture with Finmeccanica etc. Now, Airbus Group wants to focus on commercial sector, and a spin-off of its core defense business is under way. While the buyout companies are prominent and mostly attracted to various parts of the Airbus Defense overall, there are a few specialty companies in the defense

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Military

Watch The Sky Get Painted By Military Airplanes At Red Flag

Exercise Red Flag is an advanced aerial combat training exercise hosted at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. It’s an event that gathers American, alongside other nation’s pilots, preferably allied ones and friendly countries. In the series of air combat simulations, the pilots are tested through various and daunting challenges like dogfighting, reconnaissance and ground attack for example, all while enjoying the full open spaces of the scorching desert below. Under the aegis of the United States Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC) at Nellis, the Red Flag exercises, conducted in four to six cycles a year by the 414th Combat Training Squadron (414 CTS) of the

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Military

A Block 50 F-16CM from the U.S. Air Force Crashes In Germany

A Block 50 F-16CM from the USAF crashed in Germany earlier today, with the pilot ejecting and safely landing in the nearby area. The crashed airplane was found headed for a dense Bavarian forest, leaving the plane in a heap of smoke and ruble at the scene of the crash as well. The jet in question is an F-16CM from the U.S. Air Force 480th Fighter Squadron, named the “Warhawks,” which is based at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. According to the 52nd Fighter Wing, the aircraft was on a training mission and it was carrying a set of six 25 pound Mk-76 training bombs.

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Military, VR World

Top Five Best Looking Jet Fighters

For as long as there are military jets, there was a heated debate running about the best looking jet fighters ever made. The usual internet discussion participants always have their own particular favorites. For the most part, particular choices are subjective. However, common sense and the general feeling of what’s good looking, can help us yield some rather viable candidates for the top five looking jets ever made. We’ve kept this short for the sole purpose of adding just what we feel is best looking. Some will argue a few of these planes shouldn’t have a place on this list, while some will vocally support them. On

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Breaking, Military, News, Technology Security

Possible Cheaper Fighter Attack Airplane for U.S. and its Allies?

As the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter finally receives active combat clearance, and enters the Air Force as a battle-ready aircraft, we saw a lot of caveats of the troubled Lockheed Martin’s fighter program. In a nutshell, it’s over budget, over the planned timeframe and over the much needed operational limit for current USAF and NAVY fighters as well. Sadly for the program, it is also weaker in combat than a 40 year old F-16, yet alone F-15 and F-18 fighters. This means, that in true facts and reality the F-35 is so much delayed, that current F/A-18 and F-16 fighters are nearing their operational limit. It also

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Military

Video: Watch A B-1B Refuel From A Stratotanker

There are several phenomenal looking airplanes in the USAF’s inventory and the B-1B Lancer is definitely a part of that group. Featuring a swept-wing design, it has been the designated bomb truck for many of the USA’s recent and past conflicts worldwide. With impressive four big GE-F101 turbofans pointing out the back, the aircraft is capable of producing some gorgeous images and videos thanks to its often used afterburners. This means that the B-1B often produces that bluish smoke coming out of the four engines and entertaining the airplane geeks inside of pretty much anyone interested in flying military hardware. In the video below, you

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Military

A B-52 Had A Daunting Landing At Oskosh Airfield

America’s biggest air show, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin, finally had their biggest visitor yet! It’s a B-52 Stratofortress bomber, visiting one of the most appealing air shows held in the territory of United States and it made a big impression. The reason why BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fucker – an affectionate term used for this awesome aircraft) never visited this airfield is its sheer size! The B-52 is pretty much as wide as airfield’s main runway, making landings a daunting challenge for even the most experienced pilots. The occasion for the big airplane’s visit was a celebratory one for both the show and the

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Military

Israel Sent Cobra Attack Helicopters To Jordan To Fight The Islamic State

According to Foxtrot Alpha, Israel has just sent sixteen AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships to Jordan, to fight the Islamic State and the growing threat of terrorism in that area. This is a rather daunting showcase of how much the neighboring states are actually perplexed by the issue of attacks within their borders, thus once sworn enemies are now helping each other in ways like this. The deal was set and done months ago, with the reveal for the public happening right now. The helicopters have been refurbished, upgrades were made, done by U.S. contractors on site according to the source in question. The AH-1 “Tzefa”served

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Military, VR World

The Navy’s 9th Littoral Combat Ship, the USS Little Rock Gets Launched

The USS Little Rock (LCS-9) is the ninth Littoral Combat Ship made for the US Navy. It features all the goodies, or better yet, lacks all the goodies, headed for this ship class overall. If the F-35 is the air force bottomless pit, it seems the Littoral Combat Ship is the Navy version of the money draining program, destined to be more expensive and to do less than their peers in various missions. While its role still isn’t decided, these ships are being churn out at a steady rate and some of them are waiting for retrofitting, as will be the case with USS Little

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China, CPU, Enterprise, Global Politics, Intel, Military, News, Technology Security, US

USA Embargo Cannot Stop China: Tianhe-2 Supercomputer Keeps #1

Couple of months ago, we exclusively reported that the U.S. government blocked Intel from selling its products to Chinese supercomputer firms such as Inspur, responsible for building the Tianhe-2 supercomputer. Originally, Tianhe-2 was planned to expand all the way to almost 100,000 Xeon processors and Xeon Phi co-processors, targeting to beat the 100 PFLOPS barrier. Initial deployment included 4,096 Chinese Galaxy FT-1500 processors (Chinese SPARC) and 16,000 processor nodes with two 12-core Xeon E2692 processors and three Xeon Phi 31S1P co-processors for a grand total of 3.12 million cores. Full installation of Tianhe-2 was scheduled to feature 48,000 processor nodes, or 9.93 million cores. However, those

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