OrinArch – Digital Archery

Back in the 1970’s indoor golf simulators were created. The idea was by placing computer sensors at different points on nets that you then hit a ball into, the system would predict how far and straight you hit the ball. Over the next few decades these got pretty sophisticated projecting hi-res views of fairways onto the nets, simulating wind and even spin on the ball! This has been expanded to baseball, shooting and even soccer. Archery equivalents have always been a bit basic, struggling to handle the idiosyncrasies of our sport. At least till now …

PST international, a Taiwanese technology company have tossed their hat into the ring with their OrinArch system. This system allows you to actually shoot arrows into a wall where the targets are projected. More than 30 arrows can be detected at the same time and the system has an incredibly fast response time said to be under 0.001 seconds. The detection of where the arrow strikes looks to be very precise indeed registering exactly where you hit so linecutters are possible without a judge being involved! :o) Faces, a moving football, deer can all be projected .. even moving zombies and dragons in the style of a first person shooter!

Can this system let you practice 70m in the wind to fuel your Olympic ambitions? No, it can’t but it does look like its incredibly fun and its great to see advances in simulating real archery beyond Wii Archery and shooting a compound! ;o) This could even allow you to practice blank boss indoors or “reversals” without it being boring as well as obviously playing numerous archery games. (who doesn’t want to shoot zombies?!)

Now its very early days for this system having only been announced at the beginning of Dec 2021 but it does look pretty nifty. The larger system shown (4 person) could be very expensive suitable only for commercial facilities but smaller systems than the one shown in the videos are promised. Cost has not been mentioned but golfing systems start around £1200 so that might be a point to consider before you get too excited and start converting the spare room. (and yes, our editor is chatting to these guys and pricing high ceiling sheds!)

Pretty much all of the information on this system can be found on youtube currently but the developers have promised more demonstrations and information as time goes on. Check out the guys and their system …

OrinArch youtube demonstration videos

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Images taken from screen captures of OrinArch demonstration videos for the purposes of reporting and give the guys a bit more exposure.