> Ng Security Industries Semi-Autonomous Guard Unit #A-367 lives in a pleasant black-and-white Metaverse where porterhouse steaks grow on trees, dangling at head level from low branches, and blood-drenched Frisbees fly through the crisp, cool air for no reason at all, until you catch them.<p>/Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson/
Doggles are, like so many products, both clearly a good idea and not something I would have expected to ever exist even just five years ago.<p>I hope there are also civilian models — entertaining dogs doesn’t <i>just</i> need to be about throwing balls, and I can imagine AR hare chasing could be a lot of fun for some.
> In current combat deployments, soldiers usually direct their animals with hand signals or laser pointers - both of which require the handler to be close by.<p>Handlers also use radios with earpieces for the dogs and cameras and microphones to provide feedback to the handlers. This AR system may enable the handlers to give more precise instructions to their dogs.
A less cool sub-story here is the way brilliant animals like dogs are considered disposable on our behalf in the name of violence created by us.<p><i>The goggles are designed to let their handlers direct them, safely out of harm's way.</i>
Awesomely Dystopian, the comments in this thread all point out a different distinct horror.<p>Everything applied to these dogs will be applied to a person at some point.<p>On I haven't seen is that the dogs could be directed by a goal seeking ML agent instead of their normal human handler. The same AI that wins at Starcraft now has dog based actuator in the physical world. No need for robots.
It's all fun and games until someone fields CBIEDs.<p>Bonus story: <a href="https://archive.org/stream/thegameofratandd29614gut/29614.txt" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/stream/thegameofratandd29614gut/29614.tx...</a>
Makes sense, you could easily train a dog to react with aggression towards targets outlined in a certain way, even point it in the direction it should go etc. Dogs are not stupid and they are always very eager to learn and decode what you want them to. (Well, most dogs, when they are at a certain age at least)
Wow, an actual use for AR.<p>It takes a humans applied intelligence to give a dog augmented reality.<p>So to give a human augmented reality, using napkin maths, would take an intelligence well above ours. General AI.<p>That fits.
So great to see our taxpayer dollars being put to good use.
My dog Brutus can hardly wait to get his paws on a pair of these AR goggles.<p>Brutus loves Modern Monetary Theory. Today we have hotels for dogs, shoes for dogs, scuba diving gear for dogs... Jerome Powell sure knows how to keep my mutt satisfied.<p>Maybe I should start walking around on all fours and the economy will start treating me well.