Smart guns controlled by fingerprint production to begin

Whether controlled by one fingerprint or thousands, new gun designs may prove revolutionary for gun control legislation.

U.S.-based firm Safe Gun Technology have developed ways to stop anyone who is not a gun's owner from using the firearm. Co-founder of the firm, Charlie Miller, says that it may help lessen incidents such as the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

"There was a zero percent chance of stopping him because this technology was not available," Miller says. "Let's think about if Miss Lanza [the shooter's mother] had had our technology on her weapon."

Safe Gun's technology is based on biometrics and RFID chips. A fingerprint is required to activate a weapon -- read through infrared technology -- which allows an owner to use the trigger, firing pin and gun hammer. If this technology had been available, Miller argues, the shooter's mother could have programmed her gun to only work on a firing range and them disable them later.

In addition, the gun's chip would be able to record up to 20,000 fingerprints, so in the case of military zones, only soldiers in a division would be able to activate a weapon -- and not enemy forces.

The company hope to have enough backers and funding to begin production of its technology within the next two months. However, a lack of interest from venture capitalists has resulted in current prototypes using old microprocessors and little funding to boost development.

If Miller receives the funding his firm needs, then he hopes that an updated prototype will be available to gun manufacturers within the next year.

Read More: Computer World

Image credit: Flickr

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com