Hello, I don’t know much about gyros and accelerometers and the like, so I’m coming here with my questions as I’ve read some of the articles posted and everybody seems to be very knowledgeable. I am Hopeful in that I will find some assistance.
I am a programmer who is also completely blind. I use computers and most other pieces of technology with the assistance of a screen reader, which is a program that takes text from websites and documents etc. and translates it into understandable speech. I grew up mostly in Texas, and I’ve always had a strong desire to be able to shoot guns at a shooting range without the assistance of someone who is sighted as it’s usually unreliable and rather hard for the person doing the assisting. Before I go on, I have to explain that me using a rifle or handgun is completely safe, and that I’ve gone through many safety trainings on how to properly use firearms.
Recently I was introduced to gyroscopes and accelerometers and the general ideas of how they work, and I believe I can produce a device and program that can be attached to a rifle and connected to a computer with headphones and assist in aiming the rifle. The general process would be as follows:
Step1: A sighted individual would aim the rifle down range, and once they alert me that they’ve lined the sight up with the target’s center, I would instruct the program to record the readings of the sensors and store those in variables.
Step2: The program would then take those readings and using some sound positioning formulas would place a sound object that mimicked the location of the target’s center, and adjusted the location along the stereo field. It, because the sighted individual and myself will most likely differ in height and rifle placement, will raise and lower pitch according to the required angles.
Step3: The blind individual, being me, would then take the rifle and wear headphones hooked up to the program, and would then manipulate the rifle to line up the shot.
The problem is I do not know how many sensors or what types of equipment I’ll need to purchase. I’ll post some general information about what would be needed and hopefully I can get some guidance. Thanks in advance.
The general idea would be for a small unobtrusive device to be attached to the accessory slot of the rifle. This can be done fairly easily and isn’t much of an obstacle. I’ll need a sensor that measures 3 axes, up down, left right, and forwards and backwards movements. I could get away with 2 axes if the sensor was directly in the middle, that is to say it would be 100% of the time the center of rotation, but human error along with the physical shape of the rifle would most likely end that path.
I’m also not sure what sensitivity would be needed as it’s hard to say how fast or how slowly the rifle would rotate or move, and then there’s also the matter of the kick of the rifle. I do intend to be using a small caliber bullet, most likely a .22, so the kickback wouldn’t be very great.
I hope this is enough information to get me started down the right path, and again I thank all of you in advance.
Alex