The smart gun

The smart gun

TRACKINGPOINT, PGF

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

TRACKINGPOINT, PGF
TRACKINGPOINT, PGF

Just weeks after the firing off the world’s first 3D printed handgun, a smart rifle that allows the user to accurately hit targets up to 900 meters away has gone on sale in the US.

Made by TrackingPoint, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, the new $22,000 weapon is a precision guided firearm (PGF). According to company president Jason Schauble, it uses a variant of the “lock-and-launch” technology that lets fighter jets fire air-to-air missiles without the pilot having to perform precision aiming.

   i-HLS Israel Homeland Security

According to the New Scientist the PGF lets the user choose a target in the rifle’s sights while the weapon decides when it is the best time to shoot – compensating for factors like wind speed, arm shake, recoil, air temperature, humidity and the bullet’s drop due to gravity, all of which can affect accuracy.

To do this, the PGF’s tracking system includes a computer running the open-source Linux operating system, a laser rangefinder, a camera and a high-resolution colour display in an integrated sighting scope mounted on top of the weapon. The user simply takes aim and presses a button near the trigger when a dot from the laser illuminates the target.

The computer then runs an algorithm using image-processing routines to keep track of the target as it moves, keeping the laser dot “painted” on the same point. At the same time, the algorithm increases the pressure required to pull the trigger, only reducing it when the gun’s crosshairs are right over the laser dot – and the bullet is then fired.

The gun is novel at another level: it has Wi-Fi. This allows imagery from the sight to be streamed to a smartphone or tablet, so the user can share what they are seeing with others. In addition, it lets the user key a PIN into a smartphone to activate the guided aiming.

In tests, the system has proven astonishingly accurate – even with novices – at hitting targets at a range of 500 to 900 meters.