Visually impaired persons commonly are unable to perform tasks or use devices created around sight or visual cues. This is especially pronounced in long distance interactions in the physical world, where sight enables highly efficient reaction. There is, perhaps, no better example of a sight dependent activity than marksmanship with a firearm. The very design of a firearm relies on the alignment of the eye with the firearm and a target at distances far beyond physical reach. By enabling visually impaired persons to participate in such an activity, such persons will have the chance to enjoy an experience previously denied to them by their disabilities. While unable to rectify their disability, this device will provide visually impaired persons with a greater sense of equality with their sighted peers.
Beginning in January of 2015, The Demmer Center and the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) began a collaboration to create a method for visually impaired persons to operate .22lr rimfire rifles at the Demmer Center shooting range. This involved the mounting of a large spotting scope on top of a standard rifle clamped into a vice/benchrest. A photo-resistor was mounted to the eyepiece of the spotting scope and connected to an audio circuit that produced a tone upon a sufficient change in brightness. To generate the contrasting brightness, a target with a large black circle on white paper was used. The magnification of the spotting scope allowed focusing on this circle to reduce the light passed through the scope to diminish to a detectable degree.
This system was reported during interviews to have little to no ability to discern the exact center of the target, principally due to the on-or-off nature of the audio feedback. Furthermore, the weight of the spotting scope prevented it from being used in any position except for in a bench mount. Other complaints mentioned the difficulty of following audio feedback in the high noise environment of gun fire. Thus the customer need emerged: the need for a system with greater shooting flexibility using a haptic method of feedback with greater feedback precision and scaling.
The OTS MGS utilizes a static digital camera to replace the firearm mounted scope and photoresistor. This reduces the number of components mounted on the firearm to a small laser sight, a light-weight and readily available consumer accessory. This reduction in weight and bulk allows a visually impaired user to operate the firearm in any position in which a sighted user is able. To resolve the inability of the previous targeting system to discern the center of the target the new system computes the center of the target from its edges enabling far more precise aim. Precision and sensitivity is further enhanced through the finer gradient of the haptic feedback system over the previous audio feedback system. Combined, these changes minimize modifications to the firearm and raise responsiveness and performance of the targeting system to a level on par with a sighted shooter.