X6 glasses Imagus Technology is providing facial recognition technology to be used in new spy glasses designed by Osterhout Design Group, which have already confirmed about 500 pre-orders with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Dr. Brian Lovell, director of Imagus, is ecstatic about the startup’s facial recognition technology being used in the X6 glasses.

“This is a good outcome for Australian technology,” said Lovell, as quoted in a story on News.com.au. “It’s incredible we are supplying to these companies.”

Imagus Technology develops a range of solutions for video surveillance, access control, marketing and retail applications, particularly wearable computing devices that are used by military and other government organizations.

For the past few years, Dr. Lovell and his company have been developing a facial recognition app for the glasses, which allows users to match in real time the faces it views through the glasses with those in a database.

X6 glasses U.S. firm Osterhout Design Group designed the Google Glass-style shades, which are not available commercially, to be used by military agencies to collect intelligence on persons of interest in the field.

This has already been a stellar year for Osterhout Design Group. Earlier this year, Microsoft paid up to $150 million to acquire IP assets related to Osterhout’s enhanced reality, head-borne computers, and other related items.

The global facial recognition market continues to see explosive growth. A recent ReportStack report projected that the market would see a 26.6 percent compound annual growth rate.