Predator Sight Triangulation
- Thread starter Art Andrews
- Start date
tommynator1024
New Member
Interesting question, I for one never noticed there's a difference between P1 and P2 locking mechanisms.
The more I think of it, the way I see it is this: Both are kind of silly. Art, you mentioned Hellfire missiles. Point is, they need the laser beam to track the target after being detached, because it's way easier and more reliable to track then by image recognition. But the target has to stay painted for it to work. At this point, the missiles is obviously not connected to the targeting computer anymore and operating independently so it needs to guide itself on to target.
The plasmacaster on the other hand is always connected to the targeting computer, and also keep in mind the burst itself is fire-and-forget. You could align the gun so it fires at whatever the Pred is staring at directly, like a simple crosshair mechanism. For all camera shots from P1 that I can remember, that would be enough. In P2, the plasmacaster stays locked on to a target after the Predator turns his head in another direction, so more sophistication here. But even so, the locking triangle appears, locks the target and then the gun can be fired directly at what you are aiming for. The laser however doesn't ever seem to move independently from the helmet other than in scenes where we see the triangle from inside the helmet, which is inconclusive to me to determine whether the laser moves at all. If it doesn't, the targeting computer can't lock on to anything out of the Predators most centered field of vision.
Now think, what is aligning the gun? I think it's the computer, because that makes more sense. Alternative would be for the gun to have a separate optical laser tracking system, but why?, if it stays connected to the targeting computer all the time? Third, the laser wouldn't work for the other vision modes like utraviolet, right?
My point is, the laser is ********. Image recognition and gyro sensors should be able to interpolate the position of the target and align the gun accordingly. Lasers are the hollywood way.
So. You asked how the thing works, and I think it doesn't ;-) But to get back to the initial question, I think laser turning on, triangle acquiring target, locking on then firing makes more sense, so that would be P2.
The more I think of it, the way I see it is this: Both are kind of silly. Art, you mentioned Hellfire missiles. Point is, they need the laser beam to track the target after being detached, because it's way easier and more reliable to track then by image recognition. But the target has to stay painted for it to work. At this point, the missiles is obviously not connected to the targeting computer anymore and operating independently so it needs to guide itself on to target.
The plasmacaster on the other hand is always connected to the targeting computer, and also keep in mind the burst itself is fire-and-forget. You could align the gun so it fires at whatever the Pred is staring at directly, like a simple crosshair mechanism. For all camera shots from P1 that I can remember, that would be enough. In P2, the plasmacaster stays locked on to a target after the Predator turns his head in another direction, so more sophistication here. But even so, the locking triangle appears, locks the target and then the gun can be fired directly at what you are aiming for. The laser however doesn't ever seem to move independently from the helmet other than in scenes where we see the triangle from inside the helmet, which is inconclusive to me to determine whether the laser moves at all. If it doesn't, the targeting computer can't lock on to anything out of the Predators most centered field of vision.
Now think, what is aligning the gun? I think it's the computer, because that makes more sense. Alternative would be for the gun to have a separate optical laser tracking system, but why?, if it stays connected to the targeting computer all the time? Third, the laser wouldn't work for the other vision modes like utraviolet, right?
My point is, the laser is ********. Image recognition and gyro sensors should be able to interpolate the position of the target and align the gun accordingly. Lasers are the hollywood way.
So. You asked how the thing works, and I think it doesn't ;-) But to get back to the initial question, I think laser turning on, triangle acquiring target, locking on then firing makes more sense, so that would be P2.
Similar threads
- Poll
