http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn10_dighunter/
DigitalHunter is the world’s first all-electronic digital riflescope. It’s made by Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies, part of Raytheon Network Centric Systems’ Operations and Precision Components product line.
Technology Plays a Starring Role
Technically, the DigitalHunter riflescope isn’t a telescopic sight. Instead of glass and metal, it uses the same kind of technology as a digital camera with a 3-megapixel CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor. The hunter can zoom in and out electronically from 2.5 times to 16.5 times magnification.
Tweaking and adjusting the scope’s setting can be made in a flash through an LCD screen that also plays back video, which is automatically recorded whenever a shot is fired. DigitalHunter comes with four reticles (crosshair configurations) pre-programmed into the scope and more can be downloaded from the ELCAN website or custom-designed.
DigitalHunter allows the shooter to load ballistics data — such as rifle caliber, bullet weight, bullet drop, powder charge, barrel length and action — from a computer and download it into the scope. With a couple of presses of a button, the hunter can program in the distance to the target, and the sight automatically adjusts the crosshairs. The sight is also parallax free with an exit pupil that remains constant.
The scope made its way onto the silver screen this year, with a role in Robert Rodriguez's “Predators,” after an armorer working in the prop room at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, suggested it to Director Nimród Antal.
Leveraging Commercial Lessons for Military Applications
Program Manager Alan Wilkerson said that DigitalHunter was initially conceived as a launchpad for the military market. In August, ELCAN won a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency to develop the Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic (DInGO) for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines Corps. ELCAN leveraged the lessons they learned developing DigitalHunter to win DInGO.
DigitalHunter is the world’s first all-electronic digital riflescope. It’s made by Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies, part of Raytheon Network Centric Systems’ Operations and Precision Components product line.
Technology Plays a Starring Role
Technically, the DigitalHunter riflescope isn’t a telescopic sight. Instead of glass and metal, it uses the same kind of technology as a digital camera with a 3-megapixel CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor. The hunter can zoom in and out electronically from 2.5 times to 16.5 times magnification.
Tweaking and adjusting the scope’s setting can be made in a flash through an LCD screen that also plays back video, which is automatically recorded whenever a shot is fired. DigitalHunter comes with four reticles (crosshair configurations) pre-programmed into the scope and more can be downloaded from the ELCAN website or custom-designed.
DigitalHunter allows the shooter to load ballistics data — such as rifle caliber, bullet weight, bullet drop, powder charge, barrel length and action — from a computer and download it into the scope. With a couple of presses of a button, the hunter can program in the distance to the target, and the sight automatically adjusts the crosshairs. The sight is also parallax free with an exit pupil that remains constant.
The scope made its way onto the silver screen this year, with a role in Robert Rodriguez's “Predators,” after an armorer working in the prop room at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, suggested it to Director Nimród Antal.
Leveraging Commercial Lessons for Military Applications
Program Manager Alan Wilkerson said that DigitalHunter was initially conceived as a launchpad for the military market. In August, ELCAN won a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency to develop the Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic (DInGO) for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines Corps. ELCAN leveraged the lessons they learned developing DigitalHunter to win DInGO.
