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April 9, 2008 11:30 AM

Putting up a sentry!Commercially available paintball sentry guns. Optional extras include a VR heads up display. If $1399 is too much you could build your own. Watch out for spies! Previously (and slightly more lethally)
posted by Artw (21 comments total)

honestly, if anyone so much as mentions "kids" and "lawns" and "this being a good answer to", im freaking out.


just letting you know
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 11:45 AM on April 9, 2008

The linked paintball firing robot is pretty cool also.
posted by Artw at 11:49 AM on April 9, 2008

Cool, but if it doesn't automatically identify and engage moving targets without remote human control, it's not a sentry gun.
posted by nicwolff at 11:52 AM on April 9, 2008

Are you OK with anyone welcoming new overlords?
posted by DU at 11:59 AM on April 9, 2008

Yeah, exactly. Telepresence =/= autonomy.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 11:59 AM on April 9, 2008

I would get covered in paint. I would smash it to shit. I would win.
posted by jimmythefish at 12:07 PM on April 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

This is all fun and games until someone puts an eye out.

It's not often I get to use that phrase literally.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:17 PM on April 9, 2008

EMRJKC'94: Seriously. The fact that these will typically be used against unprotected people coupled with the lag and coarse control inherent in the system is a good way to find oneself on the wrong end of a (well-deserved, IMHO) lawsuit.

The automated water gun linked here before is a much better idea.
posted by jedicus at 12:21 PM on April 9, 2008

Let the lawsuits begin!

having said that, I think this would attract kids on the lawn. They'd constantly be challenging it and trying to get away or out wit it. Hasn't anyone ever watched a single episode of Bevis and Butthead?
posted by Ironmouth at 12:30 PM on April 9, 2008

Here's a pretty slick DIY sentry gun I just stumbled upon. Now does anyone else remember an episode of "Macgyver" where he outsmarted a few of these things?
posted by waxboy at 12:43 PM on April 9, 2008

Still useless against an ubered pyro.
posted by Dr. Grue at 12:44 PM on April 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

A Brief History of Robotics in Physical Security
posted by Artw at 1:03 PM on April 9, 2008

For lawn protection, it's useless without automatic-tracking and a sign which reads "1 in 100 is a marble. Do you feel lucky?"
posted by quin at 1:09 PM on April 9, 2008

But what if Monty Hall takes away the other 99 non-marbles?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:19 PM on April 9, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

The fact that these will typically be used against unprotected people

For $2000 they're going to be typically used against hardcore paintball enthusiasts.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:56 PM on April 9, 2008

this reminds me a lot of the Selbstschussanlage (lit. "self-firing construction") that the east german military installed at the inner-german border (though not on the berlin wall itself). I could only find a german wikipedia link to those.

I remember being on a class field trip in then west-germany up the brocken mountain and the folks there telling us to stay well clear of the fence to the east as there were these automatic rifles installed. I gather from the wikipedia entry that those were actually mines in a funnel directing the explosion into a specific direction but that paintball thing the OP linked to above is exactly how I always imagined them as a kid.

all that bring me to my main question: how long (and how much) until some nut puts a live firearm on top of this?
posted by krautland at 3:07 PM on April 9, 2008

That would be the previously link...

On the teleoperation side theres also remote deer hunting.
posted by Artw at 3:11 PM on April 9, 2008

yeah, found this video, too.
posted by krautland at 3:15 PM on April 9, 2008

Still useless against an ubered pyro.

Blowback, my friend. Blowback.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:06 PM on April 9, 2008

Google translating the Selbstschussanlage page makes it come out weird.

Doing a search on the SM-70 I found this:

The SM-70 mines were a particularly lethal deterrent to border crossers and eventually became the mainstay in the East German barrier system. An observer who came upon a deer killed by an SM-70 reported that "an approximately 5 meter area appeared as if it had been worked over by a rake." The SM-70 was a self-firing device that consisted of a small, funnel-shaped barrel resembling a shaped charge, a trigger mechanism with trip wire, electrical connections, a detonator, and a mounting bracket holding two quick or guide wires. Each pair of guide or "bird" wires protected a trip wire, which was electrified by a distributor box on the ground (see FIGURE 10). Subsequently, a plastic housing was added to protect the SM-70 from the elements and attempts to disarm it by illegal border crossers. When detonated, a charge of 110 grams of TNT propelled approximately 80 steel pellets from the barrel, which had a killing radius of approximately 25 meters. They were installed at three levels on the fence poles, aimed parallel to the fence at the top, middle, arid bottom of every other pole. Each line of devices had two guide wires and a trip wire, for a total of nine wires along the fence. Normally, 120 mines were installed on each kilometer of fence.

Which sounds pretty damn nasty, though more Claymore than autogun.
posted by Artw at 5:09 PM on April 9, 2008

For $2000 they're going to be typically used against hardcore paintball enthusiasts.

Stop firing! Stop firing! I'm dead for fuck's sake!
posted by biffa at 4:01 AM on April 10, 2008