8 Insane Inventions Ripped Straight From Video Games
3. Auto-Aim/Aim Assist - Many, Many Shooters
Auto-aim has existed in various forms in video games for decades at this point, from basic lock-on aiming to more subtle "aim assist" features, each intended to help players shoot their target with a greater degree of accuracy.
And so it's hardly a surprise that a real-life rendition of this idea was soon enough worked up. In 2011, the world's first precision-guided firearm was revealed - the TrackingPoint XS1.
The weapon, which costs $17,000, allows the user to tag a target and then let the gun calculate variables such as wind speed to ensure an accurate "kill shot."
The tech quickly evolved to allow tracking of fast-moving targets from vast distances, enough that the U.S. Army began experimenting with it in 2014.
As for why it hasn't been rolled out in the field for real? In 2017, software vulnerabilities revealed the possibility of the aiming technology being hacked by a third party, the implications of which are naturally horrific in a combat scenario.
Since then the XS1 has largely fallen out of public view, even if the bones of the idea remain as genius as they are unnerving.