Smart Handgun Uses Facial Recognition To Prevent Unauthorized Usage

Gun safety is a crucial aspect of responsible weapon ownership. It involves understanding how to handle firearms properly, as well as how to store and transport them. Unfortunately, there have been many cases where such weapons have fallen into the wrong hands—such as that of children—and have caused fatal accidents.
 
To prevent such tragedies from happening, the demand to make guns smarter with technology has slowly begun to heat up. In the case of Biofire, the company is taking biometrics and implementing them into high-tech weapons.

The Biofire Smart Gun relies on the Guardian Biometric Engine, which uses fingerprints to unlock its safety and a 3D facial scan of its user’s face. This has been fitted onto a 9mm Luger that only recognizes its authorized owner before use.
 

It is important to note that the gun is not hooked up to any onboard WiFi or Bluetooth, so it cannot transfer user metrics. Once its owner has removed their hands from the firearm, it automatically locks again.

The Biofire Smart Gun runs on a rechargeable, high-endurance lithium-ion battery that can fire continuously for hours and lasts several months with average use. In addition, a Smart Dock allows owners to securely add and remove trusted users via a high-resolution touch screen, all while protecting personal information with defense-grade data security.

 
According to TechSpot, there have been concerns about employing such technology, as the need to authenticate to use a gun could also put the user at risk of harm. In a demonstration with Reuters, a prototype failed to fire twice. However, founder Kai Kloepfer assured that the failure came from a mechanical issue, not the biometric safety system.

Previously, another company called LodeStar Works announced its version of such a weapon that used fingerprints and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to prevent unauthorized parties from handling it.

More information on Biofire is available via its website. 
 
 
 
[via TechSpot and Bloomberg, images via Biofire/PR Newswire]