First There Was a Smartphone Then a Smartwatch, Now a Smartrifle

The list of devices with the word smart appended to it is fast expanding. Beginning with smartphone, soon smartglasses and smartwatch followed. A smartcar that could drive or park by itself, while a U.S. company had introduced the smartrifle.

Developed by Tracking Point, based in Austin, Texas, this rifle permits the user to hit a target up to 1,000 years away with almost 100 per cent accuracy. The distance is equivalent to 10 football fields.

Tracking Point has started to ship the rifles in May and plans to manufacture 400 to 500 units for 2013, but these smartrifles have actually been sold and new customers would have to wait for six months for delivery after an order is placed.

The rifle has a price tag of around $25,000.

John McHale, founder of Tracking Point, recalled that the idea fir a smartrifle is the result of frustration when he returned after a 21-day hunting trip in Tanzania with failure to hit the elusive Thomson's gazelle.

Actually, at one point, Mr McHale was close to the animal by 300 yards, but after three misses, the gazelle run away.

This prompted the frustrated hunter, who was familiar with technology because he began and operated several start-up companies, to develop a smartrifle.

The Tracking Point rifle he developed contains a log of every variable for every shot (or dope book), which the user could use to improve future shots. The rifle gathers the data in real time and given to the shooter through the display in the rifle's scope.

With such type of information, people who do not even know what a dope book is, can hit a long-range target like a pro does.

The rifles, which weight up to 20 pounds and measure 4 feet long, are designed to kill large animals. It produces a deafening sound even if the user wears earmuffs.

Most of the buyers are hunters bound for an African safari or Alaskan bear hunt, and they don't have time to learn and practice long-range shooting. But customers, like buyers of other types of firearms, must pass a background check.

Tracking Point expects to sell 1,000 smartrifles in 2014.