What does the little red button do?
Posted on 09/25/2006 11:42:27 AM PDT by Dr. Zzyzx
A Smart Shooter? Scientists debut a computerized pistol engineered to recognize the grip of its owner
By Patrick Di Justo
Armed with $2 million in federal grants, researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) are close to perfecting the first commercially viable "smart gun." The prototype pistol, unveiled last month, is designed to recognize specific people's grips. When seized by an unauthorized hand—say, that of a child or a criminal—the gun locks its shooting mechanism. The gun relies on Dynamic Grip Recognition, a biometric technology embedded in its handle. 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.
Gun-safety advocates hail the device as a way to significantly reduce the estimated 29,000 firearm deaths in the U.S. each year, although some gun-rights advocates worry that the technology could prove more error-prone than traditional guns. Sebastian says the NJIT prototype currently has a failure rate of 1 in 100 trigger pulls, but his team aims to improve that rate to 1 in 10,000—the Pentagon's standard for military weapons—by increasing the number of grip sensors from 32 to "hundreds" and further refining the pattern-recognition software. If all goes well, Sebastian expects a commercial version by 2008.
Educating the Smart Gun Users will probably Program the NJIT gun at a local police station's firing range. During the registration process, the owner will test-fire the weapon 10 times. Each trigger pull will activate the pressure sensors embedded in the gun's handle. Microprocessors will analyze the data and create a permanent profile of the user's grip.
Half of the 29,000 deaths in which a firearm was used are murders and homicides. The other half are suicides. A very small number, like 400, are accident related deaths of children under the age of 14.
Or your normal shooting hand/arm is injured so you have to use your other hand.
I would just want a gun that shoots where I want it to, with no frills attached.
You took the words right outta my mouf...
So: The bad guys break into my house and my sphincter tightens up, my grip does too I pull the trigger nothing happens, I concentrate knowing that my gun wont shoot because my grip changed due to the fact i am about to crap my pants, I concentrate more, by that time the person I am about to shoot has popped a cap in me and I lay there and as I gasp my last my bowels loosen, I crap myself and the gun in my hand finally goes off.
Don't push the red button!!
What does the little red button do?
> A very small number, like 400, are accident related deaths of children under the age of 14. <
Seems to high to me. What are your sources?
Right. When I grab my pistol in self-defense in my greasy, sweaty, bloody, dirty hand I want to know that the sensor may recognize me as much as 50% of the time. Geez, what bozos!
I'm at work and can't access that site.
Point is the number of accidents are very low.
Pretty stupid to build in the potential for malfunction at a life-or-death moment.
No thanks.
Not if you're a liberal. Any way to decrease the population of lawful gun owners is a public good for them.
Well, I didn't mean LITERALLY!
:0)
I know. I was talking to the ninnies pushing this junk.
I would think you would have to be a gun grabber to even consider thinking about it in the first place.
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