Apparatus for synthetic weapon stabilization and firing

A method of determining a firing time for a weapon, comprising:

• using a motion detector and a processor executing computer instructions stored in a memory to cooperatively perform the acts of:
• tracking motion of the weapon by analyzing relative motion of a barrel of the weapon;
• determining a range of motion of the weapon over a time period of interest while the weapon is directed substantially toward a target, responsive to the tracking, and without an identification of a target by the motion detector or the processor;
• and
• generating a fire control signal when a direction of the weapon is within an offset threshold of a centroid of tracked motion, the threshold being below the range of motion of the weapon.

A method of determining a firing time for a weapon, comprising:

• using a motion detector and a processor executing computer instructions stored in a memory to cooperatively perform the acts of:
• tracking motion of the weapon by analyzing relative motion of a barrel of the weapon;
• determining a range of motion of the weapon over a time period of interest while the weapon is directed substantially toward a target, responsive to the tracking, and without an identification of a target by the motion detector or the processor;
• sensing a plurality of images over the time period of interest with an image sensor fixedly coupled to the weapon while the weapon is pointed at the target;
• processing the plurality of images to determine a motion-estimation history over the time period of interest responsive to changes in the plurality of images;
• determining a centroid of the motion-estimation history;
• and
• generating a fire control signal when a direction of the weapon is within an offset threshold of the centroid of the motion-estimation history, the threshold being below the range of motion of the weapon and responsive to a current image position being within the offset threshold from the centroid.