Smart Guns

[wacki]

Smart Guns linky

Devising a way for guns to recognize their owners was the first challenge. Biometric fingerprint recognition seemed an obvious choice but proved unworkable—people hold guns differently, and fingers don't always line up with readers. Solutions relying on combinations—along the lines of keyless car entry systems—or electronic tokens were out. With a robber in the house, entering passwords or looking for gadgets isn't an option.

A breakthrough came from a chance conversation with Michael Recce, a colleague and an associate professor in the Information Systems Department. Recce was studying dynamic patterns, and suggested that the way people grip their guns might be as unique as fingerprints. Subsequent research at NJIT proved it: An individual's grip is specific and measurable....

More on link.

[RocketManJames]

I work in the biometrics industry.

There is no doubt in my mind that gun handle grip could be unique, or close enough to unique. The problem spots would be how repeatable a particular grip can be and what kind of error rates are you talking about... false reject vs false accept.

In this particular usage of biometric technology, one would want a very low false reject rate. Reason is that if the FRR is high, then you might not be able to fire when you need to do so. Now, a higher false accept rate can be tolerated, because one could claim that it is better than what is currently out there. But if it's too high, then what's the point. I personally haven't seen the numbers or any studies on this particular biometric yet. I am sure I will as more studies are conducted and more papers released.

Quite a few gun safety-related biometric systems have failed to really gain acceptance or any popularity. Most of these were "smart" gun lockers/cases.

For now, I think that proximity rings are the most practical way to have a safer gun. You wear a ring that has a specific code being transmitted to a chip on the gun. The range of the transmission is a couple of inches. I know it's not as sexy as biometrics, and even one in that industry who wants biometrics to really take off, I don't see this being as promising as it sounds. I think that one day as biometrics technology improves, then a smart gun using palm print/fingerprint/grip/etc could be used. But, it's not a good "early" biometrics product. Just my opinion.

-RMJ

[young nut]

interesting post. I think the ring idea sounds pretty cool, seems like it would work fine. Although instead of a few inches, I think a few feet would be fine. I mean what if you had to fire with your other hand [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[BadBoyBenny]

This sounds like something that we should mandate and fund for our police force. Air Marshalls also. A criminal not being able to take an officer's gun and use it... A great idea.

[Ray Zee]

how will it work on steak knives and bottles of beer. ive seen people get it with both of those.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
how will it work on steak knives and bottles of beer. ive seen people get it with both of those.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, this statement is long overdue, but as of right now, Ray Zee is officially my favorite poker pro. Thanks for the good laugh btw.

[wacki]

I should of included this in my original post. This is the part that scares me:

New Jersey, Maryland, and some parts of California have already mandated the use of smart gun technology when it becomes available.

Yikes!!! Mandated for civilians or LEO's?

[Six_of_One]

[ QUOTE ]
I should of included this in my original post. This is the part that scares me:

New Jersey, Maryland, and some parts of California have already mandated the use of smart gun technology when it becomes available.

Yikes!!! Mandated for civilians or LEO's?

[/ QUOTE ]

What is scary about this?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I think proximity rings could be dangerous, as they must be at least somewhat susceptible to interference.