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Connected Gun Lets Anyone Watch What Or Who You Are Shooting
DavidGilbert99 writes A gun that lets novices make mile-long shots likes experts and which allows the owner to stream live video to show what the gun is aiming at to anyone, anywhere around the world is being showcased at CES. From the article: "Previously the longest range TrackingPoint’s weapons could accurately hit was about 1,200 yards with the company’s XM1 bolt-action rifle; the 'Mile Maker' adds 600 effective yards onto the range of the XM1 by using different rounds, a longer barrel, and most importantly, updated software in the computerized tracking scope. Aside from the 'Mile Maker,' TrackingPoint also announced that it will be expanding its weapons’ audio and visual capabilities—rather than streaming videos directly over local Wi-Fi or recording and uploading things after the fact to YouTube or Facebook, TrackingPoint firearms will gain the ability to live-stream the scope’s picture to remote users using TrackingPoint’s smartphone app. Later in 2015, the company will be shifting its lineup somewhat, removing all of the XS-class weapons from its catalog and replacing them with two, new lighter-frame options. The two, new bolt-action options will be chambered in .308 and .300 Winchester Magnum and will use the smaller scope from TrackingPoint’s AR platform. Finally, the company will also begin selling a smaller 'varmint gun' chambered in .260 Remington.
Live-streaming of a rifle-scope? That sounds like death-porn. Who's the audience?
And what's next? Cameras installed in the bullets?
Despite the chill this technology gives me, I can see military applications (e.g., real-time mission-monitoring) but its use by consumers makes no sense to me.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Not to be pedantic, but lasers most certainly have drop. In fact, the photons in a pulse of laser light fall towards the center of the Earth at exactly the same rate of acceleration as bullets do (namely 32 ft per second per second). It's just that they travel so fast, the transverse velocity they develop (v=gt) and distance off target that they move (d=1/d g t^2) during their short time of flight (t) are negligible.
Have you ever shot a rifle at long range? There is this this thing called atmosphere that actually slows down a bullet such that it slows and drops far out of proportion to the gravitational effects or even the Coriolis effects. Those damn lasers are hardly effected by the atmosphere. I'd even wager that the laser, traveling at the speed of light, reaches it's target so fast that drop is irrelevant where line-of-sight is a limiting factor. Now, when there is mirage, all bets are off. The target doesn't appear where it really is so laser or regular optics are going to be frustrated. So remember to start a big ass fire between you and the snipers or plan to be in the area only when bright sun is heating the air between you and the sniper.