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High School Student Builds Gun That Unlocks With Your Fingerprint
An anonymous reader writes: Kai Kloepfer is a 17-year-old high school student from Colorado who just won the Smart Tech for Firearms Challenge. Kloepfer designed and built a smart gun that will only unlock and fire for users who supply the proper fingerprints. "The gun works by creating a user ID and locking in the fingerprint of each user allowed to use the gun. The gun will only unlock with the unique fingerprint of those who have already permission to access the gun. ... According to him, all user data is kept right on the gun and nothing is uploaded anywhere else so it would be pretty hard to hack." The gun can have up to 999 authorized users, and its accuracy at detecting fingerprints is 99.99%. For winning the challenge, he won $50,000 in funding to continue developing the smart gun. Some of the fund have already gone toward 3-D printing portions of the prototype.
Just what I need in a firearm. One more area that can fail epically. Also yet another battery to carry and eventually run out of.
Call me crazy but none of my firearms accidentally go off.
<happiness>beer</happiness>
This one will insist on checking your fingerprints first.
As soon as the Police and Military adopt these guns,I'll start considering doing so.
Until then, my old-fashioned guns will have to suffice.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
...the deaths caused by an innocent person not being able to defend him- or herself with such a gun due to no battery of malfunctioning electronics or software? Why is this risk not taken into consideration?
> The gun can have up to 999 authorized users
This really bothers me. What current memory hardware stores stuff in base 10? Just either use a byte or the wordsize of the device and be done with it!
If you are too incompetent to control the use of your own gun, then you should not have one. Period. Take the money you were going to spend on this smart gun and take a basic gun safety class.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
This is certainly not the first time someone came up with this idea, nor the first time an actual implementation was made. This article and the award sounds like a publicity stunt, and it has all the usual elements: young wunderkind, technical gadgetry to solve some social or politically charged issue.
And other posters here are right: the last thing you need is a weapon that fails when you need it most. If you want a weapon that's safe at rest, get a gun safe with a fingerprint scanner so you can get at it quickly when needed. And if you really want a gun that is disabled when it's taken away from you, I'd go with a simple mechanical solution like a pin on a lanyard that will lock the gun when removed. But in reality, if you've pulled out your weapon with intent to use it, you want nothing to stand in the way of a shot being fired when you pull that trigger.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
anybody who has had to deal with fingerprint scanners knows how this will turn out.
Was that 99.99% test done on a fire arm that has been used much? I kind of remember one of the big problems with these kinds of devices is that if you practiced regularly with the gun the shock from all those firings tended to break this kind of hardware. (And yes, you're supposed to practice with the actual gun you're going to use to protect yourself with. Picking up a random gun and getting off a perfect only happens in the movies.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
You are totally right. Because most of the guns used in America are used to prevent people from being "stabbed by a crazy" or shot by a terrorist.
Oh wait. Yeah, I can live with the 1/10,000 chance because THOSE THINGS NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPEN EXCEPT IN YOUR IMAGINATION. Or do you think the "liberal media" is covering up the hundreds of thousands of people who use guns to prevent themselves from being stabbed in our (incredibly safe) country every day?
(Bears aside - and you're usually not in a quick-draw situation against a bear. Well, maybe YOU are, Rambo, but most of us aren't.)
Guns must not be simply reliable. They must be infallible. They must work instantly, every time. Otherwise, any gun is useless.
See how fucking idiotic that sounds?
Forget guns, sell the technology to Samsung.
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Is that none of the politicians demanding them, most of whom are big city liberal politicians, are saying "well if we had smart guns, of course we'd let all law-abiding citizens carry in public." It's just a measure intended to further lock down legal gun ownership disguised as a way to keep criminals from using stolen weapons. Even though theoretically smart guns should make it easier for police to account for gun crime, the people pushing this aren't going to let up because their goal isn't even really to balance freedom and security.
Yeah, I just bet it is.
This kid managed to make a rugged, reliable piece of hardware that recognizes many fingerprints, will withstand regular impacts from firing, and managed to make the failure rate only one in ten thousand.
Oh, wait - he made a plastic prototype, and hasn't actually tested it in a firing weapon?
Do tell.
So, I gather that you think that the "liberal media" is covering up the hundreds of thousands of people who shoot themselves accidently in our (incredibly safe) country every day?
Because, face it, that doesn't actually happen all that often either. Note that the average is somewhere around 600 fatalities per year in a nation of 330 million. Which puts accidental shootings way below traffic deaths (33000 per year) as a problem to worry about.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Human beings have been "barely domesticated." When you manage to domesticate the average criminal, we can talk about domesticating the best defense against one.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Was that 99.99% test done on a fire arm that has been used much?
If you check out the pics in TFA, you'll see that not only didn't they test fire this the hundreds of thousands of times it would take to come up with that claim of accuracy - This "proof of concept" wouldn't ever work in a real gun.
Apparently, this genius 17YO knows so little about the functioning of an actual gun that he simply filled the receiver with electronics (because nothing important goes in all that empty space) and produced what amounts a gun-shaped fingerprint reader. Because, y'know, who needs all those silly little things like springs or hammers or firing pins or magazines to also fit inside a working gun?
Your attacker almost certainly has their weapon ready before you do, even when you have a normal firearm. You go for your gun. Your attacker kills you.
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
There are an average of ~4,400 construction workers were killed per year on the job in the US and there are about 3 million construction workers in the US. There are an average of 500-600 accidental deaths per year caused by firearms, and about 100 million gun owners in the US. It seems like guns are actually safer than most other tools ;)
That handgun can carry 16+1 rounds. But I carry it with 15+1 rounds. My backup gun, can carry 7+1 and I carry it that way. Yup, I carry a second gun so I can lend it to someone if needed.
... yet.
How did you get the magical number of 12? Why not 11?
My five year old daughter has a 17 round 22 rifle. It is a training tool in my view, but, a "weapon of war" to you. My four year old daughter has a 22 rifle that only holds 1 round and is pink, so we can agree it is a training tool. She has been shooting since she was three and is a good shot with great fundamentals. My 21 month old and 2 day old don't have guns
I introduce firearms, not at a set age, but when I feel they are ready. I have a process of reviewing safely rules and shooting concepts long before guns are introduced. Shoot with my brother who helps teach girls. One of us can tech shooter, other can ensure others at safe. My hope is they become better with guns than me by their early 20s.
Just last night my 5 year old and I were waiting for a fox that has been messing with our chickens, will do the same tonight until we get him. Ran him off few months back with intentional warning shot right under him. I was hoping to not have to kill him, but he's back and he is to comfortable around house and barn. By letting him live that one time, three chickens have died. Sadly he'll have to go so chickens can live. I cannot use traps because lots of baby deer and I don't want to catch them (until they are bigger and more delicious).
I think my safety mechanisms work better than any smart gun ever can.
Respect the Constitution
Hospitals give you blanks for the moment the baby is born.... DUH.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Last Tuesday night, I heard the neighbor's dog going nuts at the fence. It's 1:00 a.m. and I go out to see what the problem is. We have livestock after all. On the way out to the gate, I think I should probably pick up a few rocks, just in case. When I shine my flash light on the fence, I can see the eyes of my neighbor's McNab and on the other side of the fence, I can see another pair of eyes looking back at me. It charges at me and instinctively I throw the rock and nail, what I now see as a very large coyote charging me, right between the eyes and it changes it's mind and high tails it to the brush. I'll not go outside without my .22 revolver. A gun is a tool.
Several years ago, I was hiking back up from the falls by my home. I see a family coming down towards the falls. The 3 year old daughter 1/4 of a mile ahead of the adults running full steam down the hill. I tell her to stop and wait for her parents in a very stern tone. When I get to her parents, I ask them what the hell are they thinking. We have mountain lions and their daughter is prey. They gave me a dirty look. The 6 year old that was attacked in San Francisco several weeks ago, he was ahead of his group as well. The problem is a sizable portion of our population doesn't recognize the perils of our world. They want to live comfortably in their own little cocoon and believe the world would be Gaia if only those nasty guns were taken out of circulation. Funny how liberal San Francisco had no problem sending people out with guns to take out that bad evil mountain lion. Never mind that the mountain lion was only following it's instincts. City people are so self absorbed and naive.
And you would want to ride 40 minutes, while in labor, in a car that smells like fresh skunk spray?
I'm sure she was very happy to avoid that.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.