Mechanism Of Holographic Sights

If you are a regular, you will know how a conventional optical scope works. The shooter aligns his eyes with the scope in order to place the reticle over the target. In case the shooter’s head is not properly aligned, the reticle would not point to the exact spot as the target on the gun. For many shooters, this poses a problem with the conventional scopes. The arrival of the holographic sights has helped to sort out this problem. The reticle on the holographic sight is always on the spot of the target. It will always point to where the weapon is being pointed. The shooters can move the gun to the left or the right, but the reticle will keep its focus on the point of the aim.

The Mechanism Behind It

In holographic sights, such as, Eotech Red Dot sight, unlike the view of the conventional scopes, what one sees through the holographic sight is not real. It is just a reconstruction of the original view. In addition, the reticle seen through sight is unreal too. What is seen is not actually a sight. Rather it is a projection of the image through the reticle.

 

Does all this sound confusing? Well, there’s a better way of understanding this. Imagine you are watching a movie. What you see onscreen is a recorded reflection of the objects that is achieved by projecting the recorded scenes on the screen. The recording is real but the projection is not. All this happens with the help of the light-medium. The process is similar in holographic sights where it involves the reconstruction of the light waves by reflecting them on an object. Light is generally a spectrum of waves. The sight will encode the wave patterns that are reflected from the target area. It then projects these patterns upon a clear window that falls within its sight. The laser illuminates the wave patterns and reconstructs them. As a result, what you get is a 3D image of the target area view.

Unlike a film, though, the holo sight is recording and then projecting the light waves in real-time onto the clear window within the sight. As you move your sight up or down or left or right, the sight is reconstructing the view instantly.

Whether you compare Eotech Red Dot Sight vs Aimpoint Red Dot Sight or go over a review, the mechanism for the holographic sights remains the same for all brands.

As far as the reticle is concerned, it is in the form of a laser beam that is projected onto the same window. The reticle mask helps in hiding the shape of the reticle. This mask may be available in the shape of a dot, triangle, or circle. The laser reticle works in a similar fashion as the laser sight. One of the biggest advantages is that the beam is visible to only the shooter.

With such advantages, holographic sights are becoming increasingly popular with the shooting community.