TRACER — FRIENDS & FAMILY ROUND · 2026
TRACER
Vest-free, camera-AI laser tag. Play anywhere.
Provisional patents filed — US & Canada.
ANDY SWORYKtracertechsupport@gmail.com
THE PROMISE 02
Every backyard becomes an arena.
Every tree becomes cover.
The laser tag you've wanted since you were ten — no vests, no arena, no referees, no arguing. Grab your phone, grab your TRACER, and the game starts anywhere.
THE PROBLEM 03
You shot them. They say you missed. The game stops.
Everyone's lived it — backyard blasters, home laser tag, driveway Nerf wars. No one can prove who got hit, so it ends in an argument. And every alternative makes you compromise:
- Laser tag — needs an arena, and you wear the vest.
- Airsoft — hurts, costs a lot, and needs a controlled field.
- Paintball — welts, mess, and a pricey dedicated field.
- Gel blasters — messy, and still can't tell who got hit.
- Nerf & blasters — no way to confirm a hit.
Why now: every phone is a camera + screen that supports advanced computer vision. On-device, it can finally confirm a hit on a person — with nothing worn by the target.
THE EXPERIENCE 04
Your backyard is the arena.
No vests. No arena. No referees. No arguing. Grab your phone, grab your TRACER — and the whole yard is in play.
Muzzle camera→your phone→on-device computer vision
WHERE WE ARE 05
A working product — not a concept.
V2.1
Fully functional, near production-ready build in hand today.
5
Hardware versions built since April 2026.
US + CA
Provisional patents filed in both countries.
Field-tested
Works accurately at 100+ feet and on moving targets.
FROM FIRST CIRCUIT TO FLEET — MAR 29 → JUL 20, 2026 06
Four months. Six builds. Zero to field-tested.
Mar 29 – Apr 15
V1
The proof of concept. An ESP32-CAM and muzzle camera running the full loop — trigger, capture, Apple Vision, hit or miss. The printed shell was dremelled out by hand to fit the parts, no designed cavities yet. Sealed shut with a known one-behind capture bug still in it. Seventeen days from first circuit to working system.
Apr 23 – Apr 26
V1.1
The trust pass. Fixed the one-behind bug with a firmware buffer flush read from the frame logs, added the audio system and a laser, rebuilt the iOS app. Shell still hand-dremelled to fit the parts. Every shot now fresh and correct.
May 18 – Jun 4
V1.5
The platform rebuild. New processor, 5MP autofocus camera, and a move to WiFi — plus an interior designed around the components: custom cradles instead of a hand-dremelled shell. The end of the dremel era. US and Canadian patents filed in this window.
Jun 13 – Jun 19
Gen 2 Shell
The identity. An original pistol platform designed in CAD from scratch, replacing the borrowed silhouette. Where TRACER stopped looking like an existing firearm and became its own product.
Jun 26 – Jul 3
V2
The integration. Real haptic recoil, an animated LED strip on a custom diffuser channel, and true battery reporting, all brought onto the new platform at once. Firmware grew to match — I2C haptics, FastLED states, a shared sensor bus. Rough and open-shelled, to prove the whole stack runs. It did.
Jul 13 – Jul 20
V2.1
The clean build. Full board bring-up: haptic auto-calibration, a fuel gauge fixed after a months-long bug, the complete BLE-to-WiFi handoff with gameplay over UDP. Firmware past 3,000 lines. Routed, closed, field-tested — the basis for the 25-unit Shilo fleet.
WHY WE WIN 07
Three moats, in order.
01 · IP
Provisional claims on muzzle-mounted camera hit detection.
02 · Cost
No wearables, no base stations.
03 · Data
Per-shot frames, replay, and analytics that IR systems structurally can't produce.
MARKET 08
The people who already play.
- Families & kids who've outgrown Nerf but can't host laser tag.
- Airsoft & gel players who want the fun without the welts.
- Birthday parties, camps, youth groups, dorms, bachelor parties.
~$8B global recreational-shooting market, growing 7–9% a year.
Second act — Defense & training
The exact same tech works for military and police training — a far bigger market, at far higher prices, off the same product.
BUSINESS MODEL 09
Land with hardware.
Expand into a platform.
- Land: sell the TRACER pack — the hardware every player starts with.
- Expand: wearable haptics, app subscription, premium games & features, a smart-TV arcade mode, and match data.
REGULATORY — MAPPED 10
We know exactly where we can sell.
- US: nationwide — New York restricted, California requires warning labels.
- Canada: pending legal opinion.
- Institutional / defense: sits outside consumer replica restrictions.
A mapped constraint — not an open risk.
TEAM 11
Andy Sworyk — Founder
Solo, self-taught, no engineering team and no outside funding — Andy built five working hardware generations, the firmware, the iOS app, and an on-device computer-vision hit-detection system in four months.
Product design, enclosure, embedded hardware, firmware, Apple Vision integration, UX, field testing, and provisional patents — all in-house.
A multidisciplinary founder who turns capital into working product.
THE ASK 12
Raising $75K on a SAFE.
$2M post-money cap. Enough to make TRACER sellable — production PCBs, radio certification, safety compliance, and liability insurance.
- Milestones
- Certified & insured · first production PCBs · 25 Founders Edition units to friends & family — set up for a priced seed.
TRACER — LET'S TALK
Let's build it.
A working product, provisional patents, and a clear path to market. The hard part is done.
Andy Sworyk · tracertechsupport@gmail.com · jointracer.com
TRACERFRIENDS & FAMILY · 2026
Appendix · A1
COMPETITION
Where TRACER sits vs. the field.
| Laser tag | Consumer blasters | Airsoft / gel | TRACER |
|---|
| Confirmed hit detection | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No vest / wearable | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Play anywhere (within reason) | ✗ | ✓ | ◐ | ✓ |
| Scoring & stats | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Connected app + data | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No welts / injury risk | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Appendix · A2
TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE
Muzzle camera → UDP → on-device Vision.
Capture
OV5640 camera on an ESP32-S3 fires a windowed JPEG on every trigger pull.
→
Transport
Custom UDP protocol tuned for the iPhone hotspot — keepalive + burst recovery.
→
Vision
On-device Apple Vision person segmentation — no cloud, low latency.
→
Adjudicate
Hit / miss scored on-device → haptics, audio & live match stats.
Why now — enabling tech
Silicon shrank: a camera (OV5640) + Wi-Fi MCU (ESP32-S3 / Seeed XIAO) is now thumbnail-sized, a few dollars, and battery-friendly — small enough to live inside the muzzle. Vision matured: Apple's Neural Engine runs person segmentation on-device in milliseconds, no cloud, no per-match cost. Those parts are commodity — the moat is the integration: tuned CV hit-detection, a custom low-latency UDP transport over a phone hotspot, five hardware generations of firmware, and provisional patents.
Appendix · A3
ROADMAP
From V2.1 to production.
Now · V2.1
Working, field-tested build. Detects hits at 100+ ft on moving targets. Five hardware versions in.
Next
Custom PCBs. Sharper image + more reliable connection. A redesign so it doesn't look like a real firearm. Government radio certification.
Then
First small production batch. 25 Founders Edition units for friends & family.
Later
Sell direct to customers through our own Shopify store. Add haptic wearables, app subscription, premium game modes, and a smart-TV app for arcade shooters like Big Buck Hunter.
