Pistol Magic
5th March 2019
When smart phones first appeared it was believed there would soon be an app for improving rifle and pistol accuracy and there were. But at first these apps were only for rifles, especially for long range shots. Over time the technology got better and in 2016 MantisX appeared. This $150 dollar device looked like a small laser sight, of the sort attached to the bottom of a pistol equipped with a rail. MantisX took advantage of better sensor tech (accelerometers and gyroscopes) and combined these with app software downloaded to your smartphone. This combination of hardware and software provided an instant and accurate record of y0ur shooting (with bullets or “dry” without ammo). The MantixX hardware detected the motion of the pistol up to when the trigger was pulled and, using a Bluetooth connection to your to your smartphone to grab the data, analyzed each shot (whether real or simulated) and tells you how well you did and what you did wrong if you were making mistakes with trigger pull or how you were holding the pistol (or rifle). MantisX did this by adapting the software to a wide variety of specific pistol and rifle models. As expected, MantisX underwent constant improvements since it was first introduced and these fixes were automatically distributed via app updates.
March 5th, 2019 at 11:00
I have a MantisX that I purchased a couple months ago. It’s really interesting and challenging. The tiny box slipped on the pistol (or rifle) is bluetoothed to the phone and analyzes each shot, making recommendations to improve the accuracy. All those neat little gadgets buried in the phone can be used for other purposes, and the phone can become the database and analyzer for the data. Best of all, you can get great data for very affordable pricing.
Reminds me of back when Polaroid developed a simple chip system for determining distance for their cameras. They put the system out for a very cheap price and let people develop new uses. Quickly, grocery store doors stopped having rubber pressure mats to automatically open doors. Most cars now have warning systems for lane encroachment and backing up. When the tools are available, it’s just a matter of what things people can dream up.