A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) investigator who is an expert marksman has found a more intuitive way to aim a pistol. Timothy Kraft, PhD, associate professor in UAB’s Vision Science Research Center, has developed a gunsight design that relies on subconscious ability. Opti-sight, a UAB-protected innovation, updates a pistol-aiming device that has remained unchanged for more than a century. The innovation promises to reduce the time law enforcement, professional, and amateur shooters need for target practice to improve marksmanship. Opti-sight is a precision-milled half-triangle shape that replaces the traditional pistol gunsight. The design relies on subjective contours — an optics principle that explains how the subconscious mind fills in the blanks when the eye sees half of a familiar shape like a circle, square, or triangle.<\/p>\n
The rear opti-sight notch looks like an incomplete triangle sitting atop the gun barrel. When a shooter peers through the notch, the brain tells the eye where the missing triangle apex should appear, and that apex is the precise point of aim, Kraft explains. “This triangular shape that I’ve created allows the brain to visualize concentric triangles whose imaginary apexes focus the shooter’s attention on the exact target bulls-eye,” he says. “Opti-sight makes shooting intuitive by allowing gunsight alignment to become subconscious.” Kraft worked with members of the U.S. Olympic pistol team to test the Opti-sight design.<\/p>\n