Uncoventional hobby makes FIT student improve shooting range equipment

Twenty-three-year-old Jana Gregorová, like her classmates, did not get to see her school for much of the past academic year. Perhaps she feels even more strongly about the closed shooting ranges, which she has been visiting for about two years, as she says, to relax. The only thing that distracts her on the range are the not very functional cameras displaying the target. Therefore, she decided to program her own system, which also continuously calculates her score.

"When I first went to the shooting range, there was a system that captured the target on camera and transmitted the image to the shooter's screen. However, the system did not work well and took ages to respond. When I needed to see a shot in detail, the camera froze for about a minute and I had to wait," recalls Jana Gregorová, a student of the Faculty of Information Technology at BUT. Despite the fact that she was shooting from pistols at shorter distances of 15 to 25 metres, the need to walk close up to the target to check her score delayed her and threw off her concentration. "I thought I could create something better. I figured the system could not only detect hits but also calculate scores." This eliminates the part where to shooter has to walk to the target and count the score manually.

The system makes it easier for the shooter to work with continuous scoring. | Author: Jana Gregorová archive

If it is not speed shooting, the shooter sees not only the current score on the screen, but also the precise location of hits. He or she can then easily and in real time check the spread and adjust his or her grip if needed.

This young shooter's innovation requires only a camera, a computer and a connection between them. "My system can detect changes in the image and, depending on the nature of the change, evaluate whether it was a hit or just a movement of the target or the background. During the round, the system compares the current frame with the previous frame and it can locate the hit, thus deciding how many points to award. The camera is connected via USB or wirelessly to a computer, and the system processes the data from the camera," explains Gregorová. According to her, it would be more technically demanding to deploy this system for longer distance shooting, for example up to 100 metres. In such a case, it would be necessary to place the camera beside the remote target and solve the long connection to a computer. However, Jana Gregorová is preparing to test her system at the shooting range only after she has passed the State examination.

One of the weapons that Jana Gregorová used is the BREN light machine gun. | Author: Jana Gregorová archive

Even though she mostly fires from pistols at shorter distances in indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, she is also attracted to longer weapons: "Because I have not been shooting for long, I try to explore and try different weapons. I have never fired an AR-15 before, a weapon that almost everyone knows. And I would also like to try a rifle with Tikka T3x TAC A1 optics."

Jana Gregorová tries to visit the rang at least once a week, but she needs supervision, because she could not get a firearms licence due to the pandemic: "Shooting is a great means of relaxation for me, because in order to have good results, you have to concentrate a lot. Shooting may seem like some crazy action, but you need to remain calm."

The fact that she has applied for a master's degree studies in the field of cyber security at FIT also shows that she is not afraid of challenges. "I find it challenging and therefore interesting," Gregorová concludes.