I dreamed of inventing something like this but never actually followed through with it, so I was delighted to see that somebody else also had the idea and actually did something about it. CueSight a laser aiming site for you billiard cue (or pool cue to us UK lot).

The CueSight serves two main purposes, the first is it will help you perfect your stroke:

Any dip or twist will be revealed by the crosshairs. With a perfect stroke, the crosshairs will remain fixed in the “strike spot”, narrowing in on that point as the cue approaches the cue ball. Obviously, the idea is to keep the crosshairs motionless throughout your stroke to eliminate the possibility of mis-cueing or striking at an unplanned angle.

Once you’ve perfected your cueing action you can use the CueSight to line up your shot:

The CueSight cue can help tremendously when it comes to lining up your shot. Simply use the laser to draw a line fronm the center of the cue ball to the point where the center of the cue ball will be when it impacts the object ball.

By lowering the butt of the cue from your normal shooting position, and perhaps raising the shaft slightly, depending on your technique, the vertical line of the crosshairs will illuminate not only the cue ball, but positions “down table” as well. For a straight-in shot, you want to have the top portion of the vertical line illuminate a position in the center, left-to-right, of the object ball…

I’d love to give one of these a try to see how my cueing action changes as the evening progress down the local pub, I find my optimum playing ability coincides with pint three and it’s all down hill after that.

Further info and availability over at CueSight, found via our gadget forums, thanks.