Find the Sniper before its too Late

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 7/25/2017 | C Buckner

[w1n1]

We’ve got a little test for you. Can you find the sniper in the video before he gets a shot off at you?

We’ve found a good test for you today. The following clip has a sniper hidden somewhere in the woods and waiting to take the shot. Your challenge is to find the sniper before it’s too late and he manages to squeeze the trigger and take the shot. Will you survive?

A good sniper like this one is only seen if you happen to be looking right near the weapon at the time the shot is fired, and many rifles now have additional accessories to help hide that as well. See the full sniper footage here.

[Steely Tom]

The human eye can see higher than 4K, so any video that isn’t at least 4K isn’t even serious.

The human eye can see higher than 4K in the fovea centralis — or area of highest resolution — which subtends a circular region about 2° across in the center of the visual field.

If the target is stationary against a stationary background, you don't have much choice but to move that 2° high-resolution region across the area of interest step by step, making sure you give each spot a good, thorough examination, because if you miss what you're looking for when you happen to be looking right at it, you won't be coming back to it again.

In humans, the visual field is about 160° x 100° (width x height) without turning one's head. Even if we say (as in this case) that the vertical field is less than the whole 100°, that still means we have to check something on the order of a thousand fovea-sized angular regions, spending second or two on each one.

One thousand seconds is more than a quarter of an hour.

[TalonDJ]

Yes yes. Lovely science. All of which is impossible to do with a video at that resolution. So his point stands.

[teeman8r]

I found him. Used the pause button. We adapt or die.