Top Shot competitor Chris Cheng used to work for Google. So who better to speculate about an interface between the precision-guided rifle maker TrackingPoint and the “do no evil” web conglomerate? [Ammoland press release after the jump.] Like the The Firearm Blog post upon which Cheng’s speculation is based, there’s no hint of an official hook-up with Google—a company that bans firearms-related websites (including TTAG) from its AdWords program. That said, there’s nothing to stop TrackingPoint from buying some Google glasses (when available), integrating the technology into their hi-tech aiming system and bilking Uncle Sam of billions securing a military contract. I reckon the Texas rifle maker should start their technological integration efforts with a Braun shaver. Just sayin’ . . .
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- As reported by The Firearm Blog, precision-guided rifle maker Tracking Point has posted an interesting picture of Google Glass, implying that it will somehow be integrated into a Tracking Point system.
If you’re not familiar with Tracking Point, check out this article, as well as the video below.
The Tumblr caption notes “TrackingPoint Labs: Google Glass HUD.” A “HUD” is a “Heads Up Display” that contains useful information such as a reticle, temperature, wind speed, and other data.
TrackingPoint has been a controversial company, with some critics noting how it would take the challenge out of hunting, and thereby raising some ethical issues. Other critics fear that the rifle could take an untrained person, and empower them to kill people at long ranges.
Supporters see a technology that will help protect soldiers whose lives could be saved by placing more accurate shots out in the battlefield.
Having worked at Google, I find it interesting that guns are mostly still “dumb” inert pieces of metal that really haven’t been affected by technology. However, we have been seeing more smartphone apps over the past few years, and TrackingPoint is definitely leading the field in provocative, paradigm-shifting products.
Disruptive technology such as Uber, Square, and the iPhone have had both its supporters and critics, and just like all tech products we’ll see if TrackingPoint survives or not.
I’m not familiar enough with the capabilities of Google Glass to offer a detailed opinion, but if you can have smartphones as instruments and controllers for rifles, this makes sense.
My problem with smart firearms is reliability. Every extra component is a point of failure. Every battery, every screen, every electronic component has a MTBF. Any of them can get lost or break. And with even one of these components out of the system the whole thing stops working correctly. Rifles are simple, dumb RELIABLE pieces of hardware.
That’s what they said about fuel injection. Computers are probably to the point where they are as reliable, if not more than a firearm.
And THAT is what the Navy said about its first crewless, fully automated warship which blue-screened in front of the assembled brass and had to be towed back to port.
Even if every single individual component is pretty reliable it becomes much less so with every additional one you add, especially if they all have to function for the system to work. That’s not even considering the laughable idea of device security.
So they had some bad code, that’s still no big deal. You are comparing something with many sub-systems and tons of sensors to something with the computing power of a smart phone and very simple sensors.
And yet I still have to reboot my smartphone occasionally for no discernible reason save that it’s “just not working right.”
Marrying guns and computers is an intriguing idea, but it’s a long way from where it’d be useful to the average gunny.
What planet do you live on? My cell phone, ipad, and networked computer at work regularly require re-booting. An “upgrade” means the system is not working. Computers work very slowly, if at all, when the memory is nearly maxed out.
Compare that to a Glock 23 which works flawlessly with a full capacity mag, works without batteries, and is ready to go as soon as I clear leather and pull the trigger. My Glock requires no batteries, and has never had a computer virus.
I think guns are at least two order of magnitude more reliable than computers.
Iron Man, sans the iron.
Hmmm… Find a barbecue restaurant near meBANG! Never mind, I’ll be cooking venison this evening!
Pretty darn clever of NSA/Google, wouldn’t you say? Now they’ll be able to have millions – well, hundreds of thousands of roving spy cams on the streets, meeting places and byways. And all will feed data to the NSA new, million-square foot snoop center in Utah.
Thanks for caring, Google.
tracking point + humanoid = exponential growth. lets see what the next ten years brings us.
At those prices, not any time soon for most of us. No, I’m generally not an early adopter. I don’t run alpha code on production machines. And I wait until quality and functionality outweigh the increased price.
I agree:
The ‘unshaven look’ has jumped the shark
If I shave clean then I look half my age. In a year and a half that will be 15 lol. Now if I had the knowledge I do now, when I was 15… But who cant say that?
+1, but by your calculation I guess I look 16.
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite aim assist on the Citadel, uh, TTAG!
I should go.
This is all really cool but in the big picture even if it were 100% flawless and reliable I just dont see any fun in it. Even if I were a tech savy guy and had the money, Id rather point, shoot and miss on my own error and learning curve than (for lack of a better term) “fire and forget.”
Still not one single trackingpoint system sold on the public market and now we are talking about google merging with it? Not one single person here on TTAG will ever own one.
Tech will destroy not only freedoms and privacy but it will destroy the second amendment. All you who support this tech merging with the firearms industry are part of the problem.
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