Smart rifle with jet fighter 'lock and launch' targeting tech

Credit: TrackingPoint

The days of needing actual shooting skills are over. Firearm company TrackingPoint has developed a software that is integrated with its Precision Guided Firearms (PGF) to provide shooters with near perfect accuracy. Named "Tag Track Xact" or TTX, the advanced target-tracking technology (say that three times fast!) delivers on-point shots over a range of 1,200 yards, or about the length of 22 Olympic swimming pools.

In order to provide an exact, accurate shot, TTX accounts for the coriolis effect, magnus, temperature, pressure and spin drift when aimed at the target. The software is displayed through TrackingPoint's Integrated Networked Tracking Scope, which also houses a compass, microphone, Wi-Fi server, batteries, ballistic calculator, laser rangefinder and filters for shooting in bright or dim light.

Three Steps To Total Annihilation

In conjunction with the firearm's guided trigger, TTX works in three steps: Tag, Track, and Xact. In the Tag step, you press the Tag button to select your target and lock on, even if the target is moving. A red tag appears on the display and the tag button can be released after moving the red tag on the image of the target. A ballistic computer in the gun's "Networked Tracking Scope" goes to work for the Track step, accounting for all range and environmental factors. The reticle is adjusted onto the target.

Finally, for the last step, Xact, the reticle is aligned with your tag, and after squeezing and holding the guided trigger in place, the reticle turns red. The shooter must then physically align the reticle exactly up to the tag, and the bullet is released at the precise moment to ensure a hit. Sounds deadly, huh?

Additionally, the Wi-Fi capability of each PGF unit allows real-time video to be streamed from the gun to your phone via the ShotView app, available for both Android and iOS. The TrackingPoint app also helps configure your PGF, downloads updates and transfers videos from the firearm to your phone. As a security measure, it disables advanced features when the firearm is stored away.

The demand for these high-tech firearms have been so great, the company has sold out of them and are backordered for six months. Clearly, plenty of people have $25,000 laying around, which is the starting price of a TrackingPoint PGF. If someone used this PGF with Boston Dynamic's LS3, we bet they'd be pretty unstoppable.

TrackingPoint, via CNET

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