Augmented reality goggles connected wirelessly to a bow, displaying accurate real-time projections of the arrow's potential trajectory.

The bow measures a variety of variables, including elevation of the arrow, direction in which it's being pointed, potential energy of the string, wind direction and speed, humidity, air pressure and distances to objects in front of it.

This data is (are) sent to the goggles' processor, which calculates the likely resultant trajectory and displays it in its viewfinder as a semi-transparent red arc. Uncertainty is graphically displayed by less opacity and a wider funnel, so when there is no wind, the trajectory is a tight red line; on a windy day, the trajectory is a wide, transparent cone.

This is all done in real-time, so as the bow string is pulled back, the trajectory will extend and straighten away down the range.

This would be extremely cool.

I particularly like the idea of taking archaic tools, leaving them unchanged, but incorporating complicated modern technology to improve them, without altering the fundamental, primitive design.

It's like steam-punk, but even older. Stone-punk, perhaps.
-- theleopard, Jul 13 2012

Ball Invasion http://www.youtube....watch?v=WHGtvdxTVZk
augmented reality iPad game [JesusHChrist, Jul 13 2012]

Bendy lasers http://www.nature.c.../news.2009.360.html
theleopard wants bendy lasers? Bendy lasers. [imagin8or, Jul 16 2012]

[Stone-punk, perhaps] More likely the next step in modern target archery. Have you seen the gear that goes on a modern competition bow?
-- MechE, Jul 13 2012


I've seen it, but don't know what all the knobs and levers and such actually do. This would pretty cool though, no?
-- theleopard, Jul 13 2012


(+) Very cool.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 13 2012


Depending on the competition, most of them are actually just balance and such. But they (and hunting bows) are available with sights ranging from simple iron sights to as high tech a scope as is available for a rifle.
-- MechE, Jul 13 2012


bun- esp. for your last (2) paragraphs!
-- xandram, Jul 13 2012


[+] for "Stonepunk".

But steampunk doesn't include digitalia. I'd go for making a bow and arrow "old school" but feeling free to use any further knowledge garnered in the last few tens of millenia to make it better: range and windage marks for instance, whatever those rods are that stick out of the front of a competition bow maybe, yet still using the materials and tools available "waaaay back in the day".

F'rinstance a loincloth would be proper stonepunk attire but the historically appropriate tick and flea infestations would not be. And on the other end of the scale making it out of nylon would be a nono too.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 13 2012


I'm seeing a reversal of the previously established theme - steampunk and their ilks recreate contemporary devices using previously available technology, establishing a retrospective code-fork as it were - this is more a case of taking a "classic" item and augmenting its ease of use and function with a facilitating bolt-on.
-- zen_tom, Jul 13 2012


I'd like to see this applied to the sling, atlatl, etc.
-- RayfordSteele, Jul 13 2012


Do you think this can be done on iOS devices?

I'm imagining you can use the face forward camera, to track the hand holding the arrow. Allowing the person to aim with the iOS (or android device) on one hand, and pinch and release the arrow on the other hand.

This is relevant to this idea right? or should i just make a separate post lol.
-- mofosyne, Jul 13 2012


Regarding stonepunk, my only fear resides within one of the world's cinematic abominations; the desperately awful L Ron Hubbard-written Battlefield Earth, in which alien invaders are fought off by cavemen in fighter jets. This is not where I'm going with this, right?
-- theleopard, Jul 13 2012


The goggle approach is a bit clunky.

All that's needed, shirley, is a laser mounted on the bow in a drivable mount. The bow-mounted strain gauges and tilt-meters would then point the laser at the expected impact point. To allow for range, the laser itself could be used to measure the distance.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 13 2012


Or, and admittedly this is a bit of a radical approach, you could just ramp up the laser output until it becomes a useful weapon in its own right ...

<slinks away>
-- 8th of 7, Jul 13 2012


You see, what we want, really, is bendy lasers.
-- theleopard, Jul 16 2012


theleopard: for bendy lasers, see link.

I like the stonepunk ethic more than the steampunk one. Stonepunk we could do in *this* reality; with sufficiently advanced technology, the user could be fed the targeting information via implants, so they don't even look like they're using technology to split the reed at 50 paces.

I'd like a synaesthetic approach to the feedback from the system; such that the user would feel their way to the target rather than seeing numbers and graphics. That is more organic, and enables usage of lots of other parts of the brain. More kung-fu than fighter-pilot.
-- imagin8or, Jul 16 2012



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