The United States Army has teamed up with Seattle-based company Command Sight to test augmented reality goggles on military dogs.
The goggles would be used for human servicemembers to guide the dogs through dangerous operations around explosive devices.
Through Small Business Innovation Research, Command Sight has already completed a phase 1 prototype and secured funding to make improvements in phase 2.
Military dogs typically follow commands from hands or laser pointers, but the prototype allows humans to see what the dog sees and give commands while not in sight.
“The military working dog community is very excited about the potential of this technology,” Army Research Office senior scientist Dr. Stephen Lee said in a news release Tuesday. “[It] really cuts new ground and opens up possibilities that we haven’t considered yet.”
Command Sight founder A.J. Peper said much of the testing was done on his own dog.
“Much of the research to date has been conducted with my rottweiler, Mater,” he said. “His ability to generalize from other training to working through the AR goggles has been incredible......We’re excited about getting this into the hands of the soldier, hopefully in just a few years.”
Each pair of goggles is custom designed for each dog.