First commercially available 'smart guns' are available for sale in the US
First commercially available 'smart guns' are available for sale in the US
The Broomfield-based company Biofire has produced a gun that can only be used by someone with the right fingerprint or face scan. Experts have differing visions of what a post-smart gun world might look like.
You're viewing a single thread.
If it works that’ll be fantastic, though I imagine always working quickly in all circumstances is a tough order to deliver on.
They have two methods right now, finger print and face scan. If either method verifies, then the gun authenticates. It's designed for indoor use rather than daily carry. The face scan camera uses an infra red light projector to illuminate your face in dark conditions and rain (if you have to go outside for some reason, not recommended)
So, in the specific circumstances of being a gun you leave on the night stand and don't carry around everywhere it seems pretty good. I wish it had a third verification method though.
In addition to fast and reliable authentication in an emergency, the other issue smart gun manufacturers need to pay attention to is how secure they are. For example, here is a video showing a security researcher thoroughly defeating a different type of smart gun with methods that allow unauthorized firing and even preventing the owner from firing.
Still it's interesting to see the tech develop from science fiction to something real.
My understanding from the Forgotten Firearms video is that so far the system looks pretty mechanically secure. No silly magnet tricks or RFID stealing here. As for electronic security, neither him or me are an expert in that domain so the jury's still out, but it's encouraging to know that all biometric data (print, face scan) is encrypted and stored locally! In fact, it's stored directly on the gun. How's that for data security? You have to steal my gun out of my hand and then decrypt it to get my deets :3
Fuck, decrypting a gun to steal biometric data is so cyberpunk.