First pistol with facial recognition should reduce the number of gun victims

Biofire Smart Gun
First check, then boom: First pistol with face recognition should reduce the number of gun victims

A new gun recognizes faces. The developer and producer is only 26 years old. And has a clear goal.

Probably no country is as synonymous with gun injuries in everyday life as the USA. Ironically, a new pistol should help to get this problem under control. The Biofire Smart Gun, just put on sale for the first time, aims to reduce gun-related deaths. And relies on a fingerprint sensor and face recognition.

The developer of the pistol, Kai Kloepfer, who is only 26 years old, wants to use the technology to solve a dilemma of legal firearm ownership for self-defense. If you buy a weapon to protect yourself in an emergency, it must of course be easy and quick to reach in such a case. On the other hand, this accessibility itself represents a danger – be it for children, other adult residents or because a burglar can find the weapon more easily and use it against the residents of the house. The Biofire is designed to prevent that – by only firing when used by the owner.

A gun as a school project

Koepfler had the idea for this while he was still at school. Ten years ago, when the killing spree in the cinema in nearby Aurora near his home in Boulder, Colorado, made headlines, the then teenager also became aware of the extent of the gun crisis in the United States for the first time. As part of a school project, he asked himself how one could prevent the misuse of weapons by children or other unauthorized persons. And developed the concept of the smart pistol that recognizes its owner, he tells “Silicon Valley”. After 150 prototypes, the weapon is now ready for the market, he believes.

The principle is quite simple: like a smartphone, the gun uses a fingerprint sensor or a face recognition system on the back. The 9mm pistol can only be used when one of the two biometric detection methods gives the green light. The fact that two methods are used should reduce the probability of failures. If the lighting conditions are too bad or your fingers are dirty with mud, the second method works. Both systems run on rechargeable batteries, which should last for several months.

Although sales of the pistol, which is not cheap at $1,500, have already begun, buyers still have to be patient. The weapons are not expected to be delivered until later this year. Only then will it become clear whether the detection is actually reliable. And whether this really reduces the risk of firearms at home.

First biometric weapon

In fact, Biofire breaks new ground with the implementation of the biometric weapon. In the past there have been several attempts to link a pistol to an owner. The German manufacturer Armatix links the use of its weapon to a watch that has to be nearby. However, many of the methods are not very reliable, are difficult to use or can be bypassed. US manufacturers have not relied on biometric recognition because a law in New Jersey stipulates that all conventional weapons may no longer be used after the introduction of such a weapon in a few years. However, the law has since been repealed.

Sources:Biofire, Silicon Valley