Slashdot Mirror
Sniping Could Be the Next Killer iPod App
An anonymous Coward writes "Knights Armament Corp. who supply sniper rifles to the US military have developed a iPod Touch mounting system and software for the US Army M110 sniper rifle system. The use of off the shelf hardware no doubt cut costs and allowed rapid development of this system." If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever.
Forget my aimpoint and NV gear...hook me up with the FLIR-enabled Ipod!
This should be played after every bullet is fired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8C4AIFgUg&feature=related
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
MMMONSTER KILL
they chose a closed piece of Apple hardware... I can hear slashheads exploding.
now i can easily check my kill:death ratio!
err wait...
This makes it so much easier to find the Dinty Moore Beef Stew.
Photo face recognition can help you identify who you just shot!
So this really is a killer app...
The Knights Armaments page on both the software and the mounting system.
Really allows you to reach out and touch someone with your iphone.
Test your net with Netalyzr
If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever.
Am I the only one who found this attempt at humor disturbing and objectionable?
(And yes, I know my comment will get me modded down, but I strongly doubt I'm alone in thinking a real life killing is quite different from killing in an FPS.)
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
The military was the last bastion of "pen and paper" score tracking. Thanks to Apple's great products and a little ingenuity, the DoD finally has a tool to automatically keep track of scores. All we need now is a database for it to upload to automatically via wireless, and we can have a global real-time kill count and score!
Crackin' Wise - Blogging about whatever we want
If it does it can do a lot of the math for the shooter.
However even if it does detect the angle to a decent tolerance, I doubt this will replace the battery-less Angle Cosine Indicator http://www.snipertools.com/store/show/ACIMIL-A2
Isn't that part of the Apple iWhatever Schtick? Showing it off in public? Instead of a "I am rich" application, a "I can waste you at 1000 yards" application?
I'm not sure how the general public would react to your iPod Touch US Army M110 sniper rifle system, while you stand in line with it at your local Starbucks.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Coincidence?
Finally, a good use for Geotagging!
It seems as if the site has been taken by the Slashdot effect...
It's all fun and games till someone divides by 0. Then it's hilarious.
Now in the middle of a "situation", snipers will get a "you have already authorized this iPod on 5 sniper rifles" error...
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
Stop looking for things to be offended by.
Is the iPod an accessory for the rifle or is it the other way around?
Wish I could read TFA... short of being able to see what the point is this is just stupid.
Your iPhone was rebooting!
I can see it now, "Special Flops"... *lol*
I saw the video of your story here, but it's not like you told it. This Scotty guy seems to be about forty, not "just out of his teens". And it wasn't about him trying to fuck the donkey either, but the other way round.
This should help not just snipers but hunters and perhaps some day main force ground troops. At the listed link, the article's author states that the application software is available at the iTunes store. Contrary to some stories on the 'net, it is a general rifle ballistics application that allows someone to enter a different rifle and ammunition profile. So it's good for less specialized rifles, and not just the M110.
The article didn't mention the availability of the mounting hardware. It attaches an iPod Touch mounted in an Otterbox protective case to a side-mounted picatinny rail. That seems much more handy in combat situations than digging an iPod out of one's pocket. This is what makes it not just another ballistics app for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Mounting it on the rifle could be a big deal in certain situations, and lots of rifles can be fitted with picatinny rails on the side.
.. I thought it would be an article about sniping eBay bids at the last second from my iPod.
Slashdot's name? When my compiler sees
So much for "Don't ask, don't tell."
My eastern-european friends didn't like being sent cryptically named .wav files containing the Starcraft audio "WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS", either.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Seems like it would be a problem w/r/t revealing the sniper's position.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
This is awesome :)
Where can I buy one?
if this is necessary I would think that the military already has a computing system that performs this function. If not, there are many reasons an iPod would not be the choice of device to use. It bleeds EM all over the place, doesn't use secure radio techniques. it isn't field durable. I really don't see the point other than to just prove a concept, which in reality may be all it needs to do.
will have an online list of who is being targetted in real time.
Nullius in verba
.... To point out this YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXh3EfX_CqA&eurl=http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=igun&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=&feature=player_embedded
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
doesn't crack jokes about it. unless they are a cretin or a sociopath, or have never actually taken a human life
so if you found the headline funny, please self identify as moron or psychopath or ignorant, and go about the rest of your day, content in the fact that you know a little bit more about your personal failings
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Because what every sniper needs is to have his face lit up when he's trying to remain hidden.
You can install Rockbox on the Ipod but then you need the gun mounting for the BFG-9000.
[Insert pithy quote here]
But they are charging an arm and a leg for the wifi seeking missiles they are selling to our enemies.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Don't run from the Spice Girls mix, you'll only die tired!
This just in: the Dept of Defense has categorized the iPod Touch as munitions and therefore cannot be exported without a DoD license.
Ibid.
Are you playing too many video games mixing up reality with fiction?
What kind of reality do you have stored in your brain - playing music as result of destroying another human - howsoever you are trying to justify it?
Yes - this is a flame!
I can't believe this kind of crap is going on on /. - maybe it's time to move on or start filtering...
Yucc!
Why would you want to mount an ipod onto a rifle? I would think this is would be a distraction to the soldier rather than a help. Instead of keeping an eye out for a target, they'll be watching the screen.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I doubt it'd be used much in the field, at least not without some heavy modification to the iPod. I can't imagine it's resilient enough to meat mil-spec standards off-the-shelf. Once it's out there, I'd bet the spotter uses it more to get rapid numbers to feed to the shooter than the shooter uses it. The spotter can keep it mostly concealed and hide the light.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
This is just the beginning. Next thing we know, we'll be seeing WMDs with Apple logos on them. I see it now: the iBomb (tm)
Computing ballistics in the field has been an ongoing issue for long-range shooters, as determining the required elevation & windage settings for precision shots depends heavily on a variety of factors (wind speed, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, bullet weight, ballistic coefficient, barrel length, powder burn rate, barrel twist, target angle, distance, and even latitude & direction). Until recently, sharpshooters/snipers addressed the problem by computing ballistics tables ahead of time, memorizing or taking paper copies into the field, developing a reliable "gut feel", and even using specialized slide rules (ex.: Mil-Dot Master); only recently have portable computers been adapted or built (Palm Pilot, Barrett BORS) to improve situational accuracy. Bringing the iPod Touch into the picture via a convenient mounting system allows tremendous improvement & flexibility in creating applications to solve ballistics problems, as there are already at least 3 apps available, and both professionals & hobbists can easily develop their own apps. That this mounting system is provided by Knights Armament, a well-respected name in high-quality small arms, helps as well.
Those with snide remarks should be aware that (A) this is legitimately needed by military and police to keep your life safe and comfortable, and (B) long-range target shooting is a legitimate and popular sport.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
"Boom HeadShot!"
"Reach out and hit someone!"
(This works with iPhone too right?)
I find it hard to improve this as a creative idea. NEDM.
we killed the website. More deadly than a rattle-snake ... slashdot
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
"Am I the only one who found this attempt at humor disturbing and objectionable? "
I also found this attempt disturbing; if you try to be funny, you need to kill with the joke, or it's pointless. The guy who called it a killer app? Funny stuff, and that's the level of quality that we expect, especially those of us who pay to access /.
Not to mention that it would probably need to be quite rugged to withstand recoil.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Do you calibrate its accuracy like a touchscreen and a stylus? Except with live human heads?
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
One of the "terrists" in the movie aimed and fired an automated rifle mounted in a window using some sort of PDA. I'll have to re-watch now to see which it was.
use the iphones camera to upload intel via 3g to the base to confirm target identities, maybe even upload gps data. whats the pin to pair with my bluetooth sniper rifle again?
perhaps snippet just short enough to fall under RIAA radar screen
Mall Ninjas are now dancing with glee. One more tacticool toy to bolt onto the side of their EBR's .
Groan.
the screen backlight seems a bit counterproductive... "You've been fragged by.."
maybe not the US military but I'm sure many of the poorer militaries around the world could use something like this. not to mention hunters everywhere, the majority of whom aren't wealthy.
But I thought Apple was more protective of its branding to an extent of not allowing its computers to be depicted in movies as killing people for example. This application is available from the iTunes store for $11.99; I would have thought Apple would refuse to carry it and they'd have to use hacked devices to run it.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Now if only it would say, "Thanks for standing still, wanker."
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
please remember to put your iPhone on silent. Thank you.
C-x C-s C-x k
So obviously there are some pretty funny comments on this, and some incredulous "why?" or "won't this give away a snipers position?" posts as well.
To address the latter: /. community can appreciate, projectile ballistics isn't as simple as a game; The hardest I've seen in a game is "move the crosshair around to simulate breathing" Obviously, its more difficult than this, or *everyone* at war would be sitting back at 1200 meters, sniping from safety.
As most of the
When you get into precision shooting, you need to take into account so many factors, it boggles the mind. Muzzle velocity, wind (and wind isn't constant at the point of your muzzle and where the target is, humidity, bullet mass and aerodynamics, barrel twist rate, etc. This ballistics computer helps you input that data, and will spit out how you need to adjust your crosshair to account for all this stuff.
A system like this would also make it easy to log past shot data, which is very important for precision shooters.
I've seen wrist-watch ballistics computers as well; beats the crap out of charts.
As for when it would be used:
In training.
In competitions.
By police snipers in some situations (where, perhaps, concealment isn't important, but getting that first cold-barrel shot exactly on target is.)
By a sniper's spotter, perhaps.
disclaimer: despite my username, I'm not military, nor am I a precision shooter; i've merely had experience shooting as a major hobby.
-- My Sig is a P228.
If you get a no scope?
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
maybe not the US military but I'm sure many of the poorer militaries around the world could use something like this. not to mention hunters everywhere, the majority of whom aren't wealthy.
And maybe some non-governmental enemy combatants?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Take your concern trolling somewhere else, douchebag.
... between the Unreal Tournament "HEADSHOT!" and the Fallout 3 "ka-ching" sound (when you fire a mini-nuke).
No, no such admission has been made. That someone may make light of, e.g., a new technology that could be used to support sniper operations, does not make that person a sociopath. You are simply and patently incorrect.
Depends on the round they're using, and the rifle's setup/weight. A heavy rifle chambered in something smaller (like the 6.8 Remington SPC for example, which has been gaining some favor with the military brass, though it likely doesn't have quite the range for sniper duty) with a muzzle brake can be pretty light recoiling. Certainly light enough that it wouldn't damage anything that used solid state storage.
Problem is that the muzzle brake tends to make a rifle insanely loud. What the sniper gains in reduced recoil probably wouldn't be worth it.
If you use something like 5.56 NATO though (which is the standard infantry round - not normally used for military sniper applications but it's commercial equivalent the .223 Winchester was what was used by the DC snipers several years back), then it's light enough that you wouldn't even need a brake to reduce the recoil.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Coping mechanisms aren't formed when someone does a 'wrong' action, merely a stressful one. How many people in high stress jobs have a drinking or drug problem as their coping mechanism?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping_skill
In a normal circumstances I will probably not be exposed to a situation where I will have to kill someone. However, if I'm the victim of a mugging gone bad and I have to kill him or he will kill me, believe that's what will happen. There is no sense of right or wrong, merely that I must survive. It will probably be stressful afterwards, and I will probably adapt dark humor to avoid thinking about it.
And thank you for showing you have no concept of how military chain of command and subordination works.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
Doesn't the EULA for iTunes have a clause in it that says you can't use it for "the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." or something like (exactly) that?
Assuming the iPod is under an identical or less restrictive license, it'd be fine to use it for the calibration and/or targeting of such weapons, right?
Forgive me for being cynical, but have they just engineered a widget that ties something to something else, both of which happen to be cool? Either that's not news or I'm in the wrong business.
Always back up, never back down. ---- Think you're cool 'cos your uid is prime? Take mine, modulo the one digit integers
The newest equipment has sensors for air pressure, humidity, temperature, range finder, wind speed and direction.
Punch in 1 of the 100+ loads you might use, then sight on the target, squeeze lightly on the trigger.
The box adjusts elevation and horizontal clicks, re-sight on the target, fire.
If I took a man's life that had a knife to my child's neck, that would not be wrong to me.
However, I may have a hard time coping with it, and there are different paths I could take.
The easiest path may very well be to joke about how I took that bastard out, especially when dealing with others, who feel just that way and that he was a bastard. Consider that I have an uncle, who half of his family disowned, because he didn't kill his daughter's rapist.
Also, if I stick a gun to your head, you just might be able to pull an erection to gay midget porn, that doesn't mean you would like it... or would you learn to like it?
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
This really ads new meaning to the term "kill switch."
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
to make light of death and gallows humor is perfectly acceptable, its a mechanism for catharsis. works of fiction, or natural deaths, these come to mind
but what of real life killing equipment?
how's that funny again?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
BOOM HEADSHOT!!
"You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!" -- General William Tecumseh Sherman, address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, 1879.
No wonder you posted anonymously; that is the single most tasteless "joke" I've ever seen here, and that's saying a lot. War is easy to joke about for those who've never seen blood and brains spilled in actuality, or experienced the stench of a battlefield.
and some guy kills her
in the courtroom, i stand up, and with the gun i snuck in, i blow the guy away
if, for the rest of my life, i am haunted and tortured by what i did, i'm not a sociopath
if i enjoyed it, i'm a sociopath
your visceral reaction to taking a life is completely different from your higher mental faculties. your higher mental faculties might reason that it is necessary for you to take another human life in the name of justice. but in doing the act of taking another human life, as commanded by your forebrain, your emotional reaction will vary from horror to revulsion to strange excitement. you will find utter revulsion, or enjoyment, in what you are compulsed to do by your allegiance to a sense of justice. which reveals your honest natural predilection, regardless of the context of the life taking
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I guess I'm the only one here who has a hard time believing that a slightly-better-than-standard-grade AR setup with a 20" barrel is considered a "sniper rifle".
Snipers with real hardware based on a Remington bolt action capable of "ragged-hole" MOA would probably be able to actually utilize this tech.
Mounted on MOA hardware, configured in what many would consider a poodle-shooter caliber, is a toy or marketing gimmick. You choose. At least it does pave the way for COTS hardware and fast development.
you are forced to take another human life due to circumstances where your life is threatened
perfectly acceptable
however, during the taking of another human's life, you will find a number of emotional reactions to the event in different people
some will be revulsed and horrified and tormented by what they have done, even though all of society and their own sense of reason and higher faculties completely condones the act as necessary
then another person might find themselves playing the event out inside their mind again and again, and find excitement, titillation, enjoyment even
this person is a sociopath
it is their natural honest emotional reaction to the taking of another human life
that their natural predilection was revealed in a perfectly socially acceptable situation has absolutely no bearing on their inherent nature
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
An iPod touch is a completely solid-state device last I heard. You can turn the WiFi off, and it should be mostly silent except for the light. Toss it in a waterproof case, and you have a fairly robust device, it's a device that many troops already have, and it's cheap as hell as compared to many other specialized pieces of equipment. I'd rather our military not spend more money than they have to... they're already pissing lots of money away tilting at windmills set up by the now previous administration.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Problem is that the muzzle brake tends to make a rifle insanely loud.
Tell me about it. I have hearing loss in both ears from muzzle blast.
I agree on the 5.56 not having that much recoil. I have not fired a sniper rifle. Most look heavy enough to soak up a lot of energy. I don't know how the .30-06 compares to the 7.62 NATO, but I do know about the '06 recoil, with the scope cut to prove it (eye relief mean never having to say "#&$*@!!!"). I just don't like the idea of electronics on a rifle.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
but i am going to suppose for the moment you are being perfectly honest
in which case, i applaud your honesty for admitting a brutal truth about yourself
it is completely possible to be a moral psychopath. and what i mean by that is, you realize what and who you are, you get excited from inflicting pain, and your higher faculties works against your inherent nature to keep yourself from committing horrible acts
such a psychopath is actually a preferable person to someone who refuses to explore or accept their essential nature, psychopath or not
ugly honesty is always preferable to pleasant lies, but many people refuse to admit that there are dark corners of their mind. and when such corners remain unexplored, such a person has a potential to go out of control, and inflict real damage to themselves or others
willful blindness is never preferable to a cold reckoning of your darker self, and in such brutal honesty with yourself, you develop a sense of control over your darker side such that you don't bite yourself in the ass by losing control in certain situations
as a corollary, lets suppose for a moment you are a pedophile. you find yourself sexually excited by little boys. person A is horrified by these impulses, denies them, never admits them, runs away from them when they rear themselves. what happens to such a person? they wind up buggering a child in a moment of weakness and loss of control
meanwhile person B depressingly accepts these impulses, learns to recognize their appearance, explores them in their mind, and develops mechanisms for mollifying them and shortcircuiting them, going up to and including reporting oneself to others to prevent oneself to harming a child. a moral pedophile
everyone has a dark side. acceptance of it leads to an ability to control it and prevent it from hurting yourself or others. those who deny their darkside and never explore it, are in danger of succumbing to it and losing control and committing vile acts
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So is it just me or does this seem to be the equivalent of smoking on the battle field? You know like from in the movies, a soldier lights up a cigarette giving away their position and likely getting shot in the process. Now instead you get your rifle mounted iPod to shine it's back lighting on your face / body to do the same. Seems this wasn't quite thought through.
Cool rifle accessory though.
Regards,
Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies
"by simply admitting they need a coping mechanism, you are making a tacit admission of the wrongness of what they are doing. you don't need a coping mechanism to cope with a neutral experience or a good experience"
Don't forget that "right" and "wrong" are not more than matters of social conditioning which is dictated by current social fashion.
We are taught one set of rules for being good little Wal-Mart shoppers, then find out that those are just absurd in other situations. Part of the lies we are told about how we should behave is that they are more than a convenience for maintaining social order. Some understanding of the utility of situational rule sets would be useful.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It doesn't need a theme song, just a short sample. "America, FUCK YEAH!"
I can tell you that, on the whole, doctors and nurses have VERY morbid senses of humor and deal with death, disease and dying every single day. I certainly hope that you aren't suggesting we are all sociopaths?
Plenty of tools the military uses can not be used in the same capacity at night. Even normal rifle sights are pretty difficult to use at night.
In Soviet Russia meme tires of you!
"If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever."
Particularly if it was a head shot of the moron who wrote the above statement. This moron is obviously ignorant of how much of U.S. federal tax dollars support the U.S.A military-industrial-Congressional complex. '
Yours In Socialism,
Kilgore Trout.
...what the comment "Military tested" on my iPhone protective sheet meant ^^
I always was under the impression that the drop-height should be around 80cm onto concrete floor, without damage. Good luck in performing the tests with "rugged ipods" and re-certifying them. Also i would imagine that a certain degree of maintainability would be required. And checking humidity/temperature/dirt/continuous/vibration stability will also be necessary. The qusetion "how many of these fail after being enclosed in the freight space of an transport plane, beein cooled down, left for a day in +70 degrees in the inside of an box in the sun, dropped when unpacking" is a question which should be answered.
We will see if "cutting the costs" by "of the shelf HW (and SW)", which was not designed to make such certifications easy will be cheap after upgrading it with these certifications.
I have a high stress job, but I don't have a problem with drinking or doing drugs.
In fact, I find it quite enjoyable.
Captcha: Generals
ok google is you friend
BOOM HEADSHOT
1up
HEAD SHOT
loltastic!
The real question: is Apple okay with the use of its iPod for the purpose of killing people? I guess this won't go down too well with the Apple crowd. On the other hand, Microsoft could benefit from this. "Hi, I'm a Mac, and I kill people". (Not saying Microsoft doesn't kill people, albeit not on purpose).
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. La---
*thwick!*
Will they ban the manufacture and import of the iPod Touch along with all the other semi-automatic 'assault weapons'?
score two for completely supporting my argument
thanks for both
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the sort of thing with which Apple would their products associated? I mean, aside from the immature, dolts in the slashdot crowd who think boring out someone's skull with a 50 cal is cool there has got to be a lot of folks who are going to frown upon their favorite consumer electronics product being used to facilitate taking human life.
Ballistic calculators for mobile devices isn't new. Exbal has been around for Palm and Windows Mobile devices for several years now. The only interesting thing is that this application was approved by the iTunes Application Store. I guess people are surprised Apple would allow a firearms/shooting related application on the App Store.
I think ballistic calculators on mobile devices is a gimmick anyway. I just use JBM to generate a ballistic table for a specific gun/ammo that I use in competition, make a hard copy, and keep that with the gun (some people even print it out on a small card and tape it to their stock).
if i enjoyed it, i'm a sociopath
Your problem is that you're holding on to outdated views of that some people are "normal" and others are not. Psychology has done away with that a long time ago. Nobody is "normal".
Now we only consider something to be a disorder if it interferes with the normal life of the person in question. It doesn't matter if a soldier is ecstatic after killing others in battle, as long as he never has the need to "get that feeling again" and starts considering killing people he's not supposed to. That would be interfering with his normal life, and he would be a psychopath.
On the other hand, if a soldier gets excited and a sense of adventure in battle, but is completely normal in order circumstances while another is completely distraught at having killed and has nightmares every day since, the person with a disorder is the one that is distraught (its interfering with his life). The one who got excited and giddy and has now adapted just fine to his life after service is perfectly healthy.
This has been around for ages. It's common ballistic calculator software, but for the iPod. There are multiple similar software packages for Windows Mobile/CE as well as desktop applications dating all the way back to DOS.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Considering who just got sworn in... ... I am just saying... not condoning or anything. Just seems like interesting timing.
the first and only time for a disambiguating ! tag and it's missing
should be tagged !ebay dammit
+1 for making me google w/r/t
I largely assumed that this was the trend -- integrate a laser ranegfinder, upload your ballistic info or use the canned data in the scope, and you get digital data overlay in-scope. It can't be all that long that we get the all-digital scope where the image is entirely digital and not an overlay on an optical image.
I personally think that if they were going to mount something this big on the rifle to use as a ballistics calculator, a GPS with an integrated rangefinder would make much more sense. The GPS could provide elevation deltas between the shooter and the target, barometric pressure, wind speed, and so forth, not to mention being kind of handing for directions..
Anyway, I thought Real Snipers (TM) could do mil-dot calculations in their head.
The big problem with "mil-spec" is that it is often cheaper and easier to buy a bunch of off the shelf COTS equipment. These will be "deployed" by soldiers who by it themselves anyway. The procurement process in the DOD is so long that the ipod touch will be old and useless before they get it fielded.
I have an iphone, fairly happy with it, but I have to say as often as apps randomly crash (mail app crashed 3 times today while typing an email), I wouldn't want to trust my life to it...
WAYYY too much excess crap on that thing in my opinion. Now if they created a custom OS and just used the iPhone/Ipod touch hardware, they might be on to something.
The recoil from a .30 caliber round is pretty hard, even with a muzzle brake. Even with a soft mount, how many shots would a consumer-grade phone survive? It's nice to have a ballistics table handy, but a printed page works just as well and won't break after you shoot!
You can't bundle software with accessories (hardware or software for another platform).
I'd be pretty pissed if I bought this fancy iPhone balistics calculator clip thing, got it home and found I had to pay ANOTHER $12 to get the software for it.
I'm sure we'll see more and more accessories like this - A rifle can't be the only thing that's more useful if you clip a specialized calculator or some data entry on it. And while the iPhone/iPod touch probably isn't even the best off the shelf device to use for this type of application, the iPhone still the cool gadget and will get you headlines if you do something weird like this with it.
The opinions in this post are ficticious. Any similarity to actual opinions, real or imagined, is purely coincidental.
Hellmarch, from the Red Alert games ;)
So when the enemy is hiding behind a wall, blocking your headshot, you can call him. The poor reception will force him to stand, presenting a perfect target.
When I saw the thing attached to the rifle, the first thing that went through my head was someone was using the accelerometers in there to automatically calculate the distance that the bullet would hit at when shot from the current angle. Given a known load, this should be child's play. You could have a real-time display of how far away your zero is based on where you're pointing the rifle at the moment. When I read the article and found out that it's simply a ballistics program, and the fact that the device is attached to the rifle is irrelevant, I was no longer interested. Really, a ballistics program isn't big news. A way to attach it to the rifle isn't big news, or even particularly useful, necessarily. Actually making good use of the device that's attached to the rifle, *that* would be interesting news.
How about "Boom, Headshot!". ;)
Edit: Lameness filter? Wow, talk about fucking dumb. "Boom, Headshot" is supposed to be in all caps. 'Cause, you know, it *is* meant to denote yelling. :rolleyes:
I worked for a bit in europe as a sniper with the M24. We used calculators attached to our sleeves to calculate distance vs Mil reticle adjustments. It seems like this might be of use, but the bright screen would be a deal breaker in my opinion. Smoking at night looked like a flare, so a bright ass LCD wouldn't be helpful.
Should I? No really, should I? *fights with self* Geotagging? ... yup definitely going to hell.
*loads iPod with Wolfenstein 3d samples* -MEIN LEBEN!-
If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever.
Just wow. And Americans wonder why they're hated abroad...
If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever.
This must be among the most ignorant and stupid things I've EVER read in a summary.
My dear friend samzenpus, you are cordially invited to join a sniper into war territory and witness some of your beloved head shots in real life. Hint: No, you're never going to forget that sound of a head exploding and brain splatting against a wall. Yes, you'll dream of it for the rest of your life.
You know, a friend of mine was in Kosovo as a sniper for the UN troops back in the 90's. Seeing what that war did with him rid me of most of my "war humor".
Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
I doubt it'd be used much in the field, at least not without some heavy modification to the iPod. I can't imagine it's resilient enough to meat mil-spec standards off-the-shelf.
Milspec is all but over. We had more civilian-grade GPS devices in the hands of soldiers in the gulf than military-rated units and for the most part they performed.
Milspec will stick around for things upon which your life depends on a firefight, that sort of thing, but the military is using ever more hardware without such ratings.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Always take killing seriously. But the art of violence management is to kill killers to prevent killing. At some point, rapists, torturers, conspirators, supporters and even thieves may merit killing. Take enough money or rights or sanity from people, and you ruin their lives, causing poor health, starvation or suicide. You can save lives by killing, if you know what you're doing, and you don't make mistakes. That's why we have police and soldiers. Make a mistake, and you're just another killer everyone else wants to kill.
Always take it seriously.
...who said anything about headshotting humans? It could just as well be the head of an animal or even a cardboard target.
It sounds like you made an assumption and took offence at that assumption.
For sniping regular run of the mill soldiers, the perfect sniping shot is thru both butt cheeks.
Requires 1-2 soldiers to carry guy off the field, and to provide more targets perhaps.
Requires medical care from limited medical staff like surgeons to remove the clothing,etc pushed into the wound.
Soldier will not be returning to the field anytime soon.
Best shot for depletion of enemy resources.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Correct. I remember a project to replace military truck dashboards with LCD panels. The critical flaw was that, at least for night driving, this would light up the driver's head. Obviously, this is not a desirable situation.
~!Positronic brain malfunction!~ #Unpreventable First Law violation pondered by this unit#
They're charging a lot of money for a PDA app that is essentially a table lookup of established ballistics data. Nice idea for practice shooting but I doubt it would be practical in a real situation.
"If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever."
What an asinine editorial comment which betrays this blog's slavish devotion to the cause of violence in video toys. The military and sniper rifles are all part of the big fragfest, right?
How much processing power is needed for these sort of calculations? Couldn't they write their own TI-89 program that would end up being cheaper and better suited to the military's needs?
... get modded funny. That's impressive!
-- dnl