Palmer Lucky’s military technology company Andrill recently announced a partnership with Meta to build “the best US military AR and VR systems in the world.” In two recent public conversations, Lucky provided details about the XR helmets his company is building for the military and how it happened for years after his VR company Oculus was acquired by Meta, and then for years after his gross fire.
Following the announcement, Lucky Core Memory On stage with author and creative technologist Stephanie Riggs during a conversation at the podcast and awe awe USA 2025 conference. From these conversations we’ve detailed the most interesting information about Anduril’s upcoming military XR headsets.
Eagle Eye
Lucky said Andrill’s upcoming military XR devices will be called “Eagle Eye.” The goal is to build a complete helmet replacement (with built-in XR capabilities) for soldiers, rather than just an add-on device to wear and attach to a standard question helmet.
“The Eagle Eye is more than just a head-mounted display. It’s a fully integrated ballistic shell with hearing protection, vision protection, head protection, onboard computing, onboard networking, radio and more. Core Memory. “And what we’re doing is working with Meta to take building blocks where they invested huge amounts of money and expertise. And we can use Eagle Eye building blocks without replicating them from scratch.”
More specifically, he adored, saying, “The Eagle Eye isn’t like that. 1 Head-mounted display. In fact, it is a platform for building vision enhancement systems. Because people with different roles are different, they are building different versions. The man, the frontline infantryman being shot, does a different job than the man who is a logistic person or aircraft maintainer, or someone who works in a warehouse. The field of vision they need, the level of ballistic assessment they need is very different. So Eagle Eye is actually a platform for hosting multiple vision augmentation systems. ”
While many technical details have not been shared so far, Lucky said the headset uses multiple microdisplays per eye. This indicates that the headset may be a pass-through AR headset rather than a transparent one. That may seem surprising (in light of the need for battlefield recognition), but he repeatedly emphasizes the goal of providing helmets. big Soldiers’ perceptions through enhancement rather than less.
Lucky acknowledged that the layout of the multi-microdisplay results in visible seams in the surrounding images (this reminds me of the old Ultra Wade Field of View headset prototype from Panasonic).
He said that seams would not be acceptable in the consumer market, but the trade-offs are worth it as headsets are built as a tool to keep people alive.
“One of the things we do with Eagle Eye is to use multiple microdisplays per eye, using eye seams. So it becomes this little kind of warped seam that will live in the surrounding vision. And you can really see it easily. “Apple can’t (for example) make something like that (because it’s not acceptable to the consumer market). They can’t make anything with a seamless magical experience, except for this strange warped foam seam on either side of your vision around you.
With adoration in regards to costs, Lucky suggested that the cost of a headset could exceed $10,000.
“The (US military) have something that performs significantly, even if it’s a bit expensive. I’m not saying you need to charge an indecent price from the government, but if you can see a $1,000 sensor that can see a double range of one or half range of sensors, you can lose a $1,000 sensor. He said, “So, what’s fun for me is, from a technology standpoint – you can build a headset that costs tens of thousands of dollars. Even Apple can load better image sensors than putting things like the Vision Pro. You can afford to put in a very high-end display that the consumer market can reasonably withstand today.”
Without consumer cost limits, Lucky said Eagle Eye has some specifications that far exceed what is available in today’s consumer market.
“The Eagle Eye will be the best AR and VR device ever made. It’s not even close either. We run at very high frame rates and very high resolutions. I’ll tell you the specs, but unfortunately the customers don’t want me at this point.” “But I’ll tell you that it has a few times higher resolution of capabilities than the Apple Vision Pro. There’s nothing in the consumer market that can meet that, because I have different requirements. I’m making tools that keep you alive, as I’m not making entertainment devices you buy with Best Buy.
He also highlighted not only the XR technology of the helmet, but also the integration of artificial intelligence, highlighting that the ultimate goal is “the vein of the Cortana” “the Master Chief’s artificially intelligent sidekick” (hero heroes). halo Franchise).
“(… talking about Iron Man’s sci-fi armor suit) wasn’t it just the suit? It was also an expanded vision paired with (some) kinds of AI Guardian Angels in the form of Jarvis. haloBut this idea of having this ever-present companion who can operate a system that can communicate with others, can offload tasks, it’s looking for you with more eyes than you can see yourself, it’s there in your helmet.
One of the key features of the headset is related to threat detection, Lucky said on awe.
“Eagle Eye has a 360° threat awareness system that can detect drone threats, vehicle threats, and foot threats, automatically classify what “threats are, what is there?” and present them to you. ”
He also spoke of AI as a way to make all helmet features easier to use without overwhelming the wearer.
“You shouldn’t switch between ten different sensor menus. Just look at the seamless view built by the kind of AI interprorator peering into the world, and you know that “OK, he wants to see all the hot human signatures. “(…) Maybe I’m not the one who argues that high tech is easy to use, as I’m a hardcore technohead from birth and can make quirky things work. But you can put it on a normal person… They can see the world, do things, and see things with zero training that they couldn’t.
Regarding manufacturing, Lucky said that as an operational security issue, the Eagle Eye XR helmet will be built “without the Chinese part” on the US or US allies. He is hoping for the first prototype of Eagle Eye this year, and says the company already has a prototype that is working.
“We’re going to provide the Army with our first prototype this year. That’s just an intention, as long as everything goes along with the plan in the way I want it to,” he told Vance. “But we’ve been working on technology that supports Eagle’s eyes for many years, and at this point we’ve been putting up a really serious hardware effort for over a year.
Meta and Zuckerberg reunion
But what was it like when Lucky got a VR startup (Oculus) in Meta, was fired from Meta for political backlash, started a military technology company (Anduril), raised it to a multi-billion rating, then partnered again with the company that launched him?
Well, Lucky’s narration began last year when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg provided a quote for an amazingly reconciliated article about Lucky. Openness from Zuckerberg (and a full apology from meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth) has opened the door to a new relationship.
“We’ve been reconnected (after the article). We’ve talked about some of the issues that are happening in America, some of the inefficiencies that exist for terrible reasons. Are there people who die unnecessary between the tech industry and the national security community?” Core Memory Podcast. “We decided this is something we need to work on together. Meta has done more in terms of national security. They’ve done more with the government.”
Lucky says he moved out of the rage he embraced due to the firing by Meta. That’s not culturally, but that many people who advocate for his expulsion are no longer working in meta.
Lucky sees the partnership as Andrill’s victory (as there’s no need to rebuild the major XR technologies). At the same time, American taxpayers will save them from paying for technology that already exists in the private sector.
“(…) There’s a lot to the meta I invented, and my team has been acquired before (Oculus). “And this partnership is adapting to embracing the entire foundation of technology and IP, applying it in hardware, software, AI, VR and AR spaces, solving the most pressing challenges of the military. Many people working on these technologies for consumer applications are adapting their work to solve national security issues at a very low cost.
Lucky says the partnership will allow Andrill to build “the best in the world” XR technology for the US government and allies.
Meanwhile, he said details of the partnership with Meta and Qualcomm and others mean that they hope future innovations will return to the consumer side.
“The way I see this is the technology we’re building – working with partners like Qualcomm and Meta, they can get them back on their consumer devices. That’s how licensing agreements work,” he told Riggs. “The technology we co-develop it… I’m the one who deploys it to the military. They’ll be people who will bring it back into the consumer realm.”
It will still take some time to learn more about what Eagle Eye actually looks and how it works, but it may overlap with Microsoft’s prototype IVAS system.
