smart gun with dynamic grip recognitionBy David Ponce

You know what sucks? Getting shot in the leg (or anyplace else) by a seven year old who figured out how to pick the lock on your gun. I wouldn’t know firsthand, I’m just saying… seven-year-old lock-picking kids are rampant these days. And apparently the US federal government agrees with me. They’ve so far granted $2 million to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) for the development of the first “Smart Gun” with Dynamic Grip Recognition technology: a gun with a biometric locking mechanism that will only work with one owner.

The technology consists of a handle outfitted with 32 pressure sensors that record your unique holding pattern.

Sensors and microprocessors analyze the complex interplay of bones and muscles involved in pulling the trigger, all in a fraction of a second. “The way you hold a gun, curl your fingers, contract your hand muscles as you pull the trigger—all of those measurements are unique,” says Donald Sebastian, vice president for research and development at NJIT.

At the moment, the prototype achieves a 1 in 100 accuracy, though the Institute plans on pushing that up to 1 in 10,000 before the planned release sometime in 2008.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. You know what else sucks… staring down the barrel of someone else’s gun the second after you pulled the trigger of your gun and got an error message.

  2. It would also suck, majorleague, that one probably would have to remove one’s glove before one could use the gun. Not great in an emergency

  3. A couple more ways this will suck:

    Having to shoot weak-hand because your normal shooting hand/arm are injured.

    Inability for someone else in your home to use it for self-defense.

    Guns don’t kill people. Stupid guns get people killed.

  6. Jouw persoonlijke pistool

    Hoe hou je Amerikaanse kinderen van de wapens van hun ouders af? Niet. Het New Jersey Institute of Technology is dan ook bezig met de ontwikkeling van wapens die alleen werken als de eigenaar hem vasthoudt. Op het handvat van…

  7. I had a professor in college who got a pattent for a optical crystal lock. Photons from the lock would allow for function when the patterened jewel/crystal was positioned next to the lock. the crystal would be mounted in a ring or some other type of jewelery. nice idea, but not too practical. but, are guns practical???

  8. Well, the real reason for this technology is for law enforcement. Many offers are killed each year because a suspect manages to grab their gun. This way, if a suspect manages to pull an officer’s gun from his holster during a strugle, it will just click uselessly instead of firing.

    Anyone else see the movie Judge Dredd, where the guy grabs an officer’s gun and gets electrocuted? That’s what we’re eventually going to see.

  9. To Guse, you say that the real reason for this type of technology is for law enforcement. Well, would you believe that the police in the People’s Republic of New Jersey are exempt from this so called “smart gun” ban? This “dumb gun” will get law abiding citizens killed.

  10. Just as anything else…this will not stop criminals who will find a way around the device installed and make there weapons they steal and use just like all weapons that are out there today. So tell me who does this work for? Law enforcement? Citizens? Criminals? Who is made safer…

  11. If so-called “smart gun� technology is the panacea to cure accidental shootings why are the military and law enforcement unwilling to embrace it?

  12. To all the government types proposing ‘smart guns’ I say YOU FIRST. If it is NOT good enough for the military and the police, it will NEVER be good enough for WE, the PEOPLE, the BOSSES of those military and police.
    What is it about the phrase “shall not be infringed” that these people do not understand?

  13. This is the stuff that scares me. A gun my wife or son can’t shoot becuase it has my grip on it. What if I am in a self-defense shooting and have to shoot with my other hand. Most of us train with both hands for a reason.
    Hey uncle-sam, the next time you feel like tossing out 2mil, give me a shout.

  14. You know what else sucks – the complete freakout when you are in a life-&-death struggle and the grip you normlly use that works so well in a perfect SmartGun suddenly mkes you look different so the machine locks YOU out.

    How well the programmers accomodate that variable?

  15. Funny how lawenforcement praise biometric but don’t trust it for themselves. Thats why I have no respect for them. They cry how when they lose one of their own, but forget they choosed to be a cop. No special treatment here.

  16. I have the solution on this weapon,as I thought of it and sent it to Invent-Tech a few years ago and never was able to contact the guy named Tim again.If you are interested contact me via e-mail

  18. i would very much like to contack donald triplett. would anybody have his email address. he says that have the solution on this biometric smart gun…

  19. maybe this gizmo gun can have a manual over-ride? in case of emergency? or maybe ‘an unlocking code’ to disable the so called owner grip?

  20. Calm down people. This system is just an early prototype. No one will seriously use it until it will work reliably. Further there is nothing that says the gun could not be keyed to your whole family. Once technology like this is proven I will buy one of these.

  21. Ok your all morons, how many times have you actually been attacked and had to defend yourself, 90% of times your attacked you are more likely to hurt yourself than the attacker you’re all a bunch of idiots

  22. Dear Anonymous…….Why call people idiots and morons for wanting to exercise their 2nd amendment right to protect themselves with firearms? And if your going to post “facts” such as 90% of times your attacked you are more likely to hurt yourself than the attacker. you should state where this “fact” derived from. If you cant hold a civil discussion without name calling please butt out!

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