New From the Lab-- Airsoft and NERF® Reactive Targets for Indoor and Outdoor Target Practice.

For the technical details on how to build your own Reactive Targets MKIII system, complete with schematics, project notes and source code, please go here

A barrage of bullets pinged off the targets. Sounds of merriment echoed throughout the store.

Einida clapped with delight and said, "Oh Viktor, we simply must build one of these at the Lab." ("One of these" being a pellet rifle range of toys with lighted targets.)

The targets were mounted onto the sides of stuffed anime character toys. When a target lit up, Einida shot it with a pellet rifle. The final score was the number of toys shot in sixty seconds.

"I do suppose," replied Viktor, "we need more games to train the staff in such important skills as reaction times, precision shooting, how to handle a fire arm....Oh, and Dr. Phil has been asking for a training range to develop his 'quick draw from a holster' technique. Ever since he started watching Spaghetti Westerns, he's been trying to learn how to shoot like an outlaw."

Einida blinked for a moment and then said, "I'm not sure that teaching Dr. Phil how to shoot like an outlaw is a good idea or a bad one, but I'm all for an electronic shooting range. And let us offer thanks to the Lord Jehovah, to Zeus, or to the ghost of the late Sergio Leone that Dr. Phil's Spaghetti Western obsession has at least thus far not caused him to start wearing Eastwoodian ponchos and smoking stinky little Italian cheroots."

And so, months passed....

"Oh, this does call for a celebration," chirped Einida."The 'Reactive Targets MKIII system' finally works!"

"Isn't the act of shooting NERF® bullets at these interactive targets celebration enough?," retorted Viktor with the raised eyebrow of an expert attorney engaged in cross-examination.

"Well, actually yes," Einda conceded, settling into the exposition portion of the article. "Being able to use the NERF® system of guns and bullets to train on the targets has changed everything. It actually adds a light-hearted aspect to what was formerly a serious activity. Back when we first started prototyping the reactive targets, I used my Airsoft Profession Training Pistol on these targets.Training was more formal."

"Quite, and it was because of the difficulty some of the staffers had in shooting Airsoft that led me to consider NERF®. Though Laboratory rules clearly state that Airsoft training sessions shall be conducted with all of the care and safety one would use when training with a real firearm, I kept hearing incidents of astonishing violations, such as staffers shooting after experiments with intoxicating beverages, staffers getting unhinged and shooting at everything in the range, or...."

Viktor got a faraway look in his eyes which meant that he was either having flashbacks about episodes of colic from his infancy, or that he was floating away on a gentle wave of scientific and intellectual ponderings. He thought about the fact that the word "NERF" has more than one meaning. Not only does it refer to a delightful foam toy, it also means "to take something difficult and and to make it easy," as in the popular saying around the Lab that someone "NERFED the physics engine."

"Tee-hee, I NERFED the NERF® targets," Viktor tittered to himself, while mentally patting himself on the back.

Einida, interrupting his reverie, said, "It would seem that the staff has been seeking out the fun part of 'Super Fun Adventure Quest Time' to the detriment of safety."

"Ah, but now, by using indoor toys, we can train their shooting accuracy and reaction times in a safe, yet fun manner," Viktor smiled.

"Oh, and I can still use this system to practice my Wild West Outlaw shooting method with Airsoft and NERF®, since both types of guns work," added Dr. Phil, who had slipped into the room wearing brand-new cowboy boots which added at least three inches to his height. He brushed his new three-day growth of beard with the back of a sun-tanned hand, and slowly loaded his NERF® gun with a steely squint in his eye.

For the technical details on how to build your own Reactive Targets MKIII system, complete with schematics, project notes and source code, please go here.