RT NewsA new Google Glass application would allow shooters to aim around corners while protecting them from return fire, the app developer claims.
Tracking Point, a Texas company that develops precision-tracking technology for firearms, announced via a YouTube video on Thursday that it has combined wearable technology, like Google Glass, with a Precision Guided Firearm (PGF) in a way that allows users to shoot around corners. The new combined system is called ShotView.
“When paired with wearable technology, PGFs can provide unprecedented benefits to shooters, such as the ability to shoot around corners, from behind low walls, and from other positions that provide exceptional cover,” the company said in the video description. “Without PGF technology, such positions would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fire from.”
Vice’s Motherboard website compared the new technology with a jet’s heads-up display (HUD), a transparent display that allows pilots to read data without looking away from their normal view. “Much like a jet fighter’s head’s up display (HUD), TrackingPoint’s wearable PGF app gives users the visual aids needed to take their aiming and shooting chops to previously impossible levels.”
Oren Schauble, Tracking Point’s director of marketing, told Motherboard in April, “Being able to shoot around corners and over hills is a little mind-blowing when you actually do it. Things keep on rolling.”
The ShotView app works by streaming video from the tracking scope’s HUD to WiFi devices. “This enables direct device streaming for phones, tablets and many wearables. For additional networking, phones can connect via bluetooth and the Internet to share the apps data with additional devices,” the promotional video claims. Combining the PGF with Google Glass “allows for accurate shots around corners, from supported positions, behind-the-back, to the side and over barricades.”
The application is not available for the public yet, and a rep from the company told Huffington Post there are no plans to make the app available to consumers. Glass integration is still in the testing phase, Time reported.
The company began selling its (non-ShotView) PGFs to consumers in 2013. These rifles use a tracking scope and a guided trigger to allow users to reliably hit targets from 1,000 yards, according to their website. Their products have a variety of calibers, barrel lengths, chassis systems, applications and ammunitions.
Tracking Point already provides the US military with six of its so-called “smart” rifles, which come equipped with an internal computer system as well as sensors that gauge environmental factors to help a soldier aim. Google Glass is no stranger to the military, either, as a US Air Force research team is in the process of beta-testing Google Glass headsets for possible utilization in battlefield scenarios.