If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth thousand pictures.
Hi, my name is Devereaux and I’m the founder of XERAPHINA. As an innovation engineering firm, we solve very difficult problems and that often means building prototypes for my clients. A lot of my clients are law enforcement or military, let me show you something fun from 6 years ago.
THE BACKSTORY
Diode lasers became commercially available in the 80s, and as a kid I was obsessed with the Sharper Image. For a cool $100, an executive could point to their presentation with a laser and feel like Gordon Gecko at the same time. As this component became a fungible part over the next decade, it didn’t take long for 650 nanometer lasers to make their way to everything from cat toys to aim assists for firearms.
THE PROBLEM
For decades everyone felt the laser dot was good enough, but it has real unspoken problems. Long range optics for sniper rifles have mil-dots and laser range finders. What’s the equivalent of that when you have milliseconds to shoot within meters?
First problem, to the operator a dot is essentially 1-dimensional. It does not convey any dimensional information about your target such as distance or angle to target. Second, in certain environments containing weather and dust, laser aiming devices also point the adversary to you. That could be a problem.
THE SOLUTION
In 2020 I was in Los Angeles and this client project presented new challenges. How do I help dimensionalise a target for an operator to quickly make height, width, and depth determinations, and at the same time obfuscate the operator’s position.
The prototype I developed a laser reticle and some interesting features came through rapid prototyping. With an adjustable choke, it was easy to set standard ranges for a specific use case. As an airborne cross-air, height and width information are visually communicated as overlayed on a target. Having planes of laser light, instead of a single line, helped mask the location of the operator. And unlike a dot that doesn’t have a clear up or down, ensuring the reticle always floats up was key.
SUMMARY
In summary, this is not an article or video about firearms. This is a video about how if I told you about a laser reticle you might not care. But if I demonstrated the problem with the status quo and prototyped an alternative, now we’re on the next curve together; and that’s what innovation is all about.
