 Lt. Carol Ellis, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology Police, demonstrates a gun programmed only to fire when she pulls the trigger. (Photo by John Munson) |
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Posted on 04/28/2008 3:36:07 PM PDT by Incorrigible
By RICK HEPP
| Lt. Carol Ellis, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology Police, demonstrates a gun programmed only to fire when she pulls the trigger. (Photo by John Munson) |
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[Newark, NJ] -- Five years ago, New Jersey became the first state to limit the sale of handguns to weapons equipped with technology that prevents all but the gun's owner from firing a shot.
The controversial law, aimed at reducing the number of children killed by handguns through accidents, suicide or acts of violence, had one very big caveat: It would not go into effect until the state was convinced these futuristic "smart guns'' actually work.
Today, after gun manufacturers, engineering firms and research universities have spent millions competing to perfect the weapon, the quest has wandered onto the slow track.
The federal government has all but ceased its funding, crippling research. Legal squabbles over patents shelved promising technologies. And gun manufacturers got out of the business entirely, wary of potential lawsuits and marketing guns that would cost far more.
However, one of the few remaining hopes for a "smart gun'' lies in the laboratories of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The school has spent nine years and $4 million in grants to develop a technology that identifies gun owners based on how they squeeze the trigger.
NJIT officials say their gun works 99 percent of the time. But they know that's not good enough. Getting it to work all the time, they say, could take years and substantially more funding than the university now gets.
"It's still very crude,'' said Donald H. Sebastian, senior vice president for research and development at NJIT.
He said it would take "about two years of steady effort with proper funding'' to develop a working smart gun prototype.
"We haven't had the steady effort or the proper funding,'' Sebastian said. "It's a million-dollar-a-year effort to keep people working on it full time.''
Instead, the university is banking on a $250,000 federal grant — its first in two years — to continue working on its "dynamic grip recognition'' technology.
NJIT's technology works on the same principle as software that verifies signatures on electronic credit card machines at supermarkets. It relies on unconscious, reflexive actions unique to each person.
The credit card machines look at how shoppers sign their name — how hard they press the pen and the tempo of their signature — and not actual signatures. The "smart gun'' uses sensors to measure how a person pulls the trigger.
The gun has one-tenth of a second to decide. In that blink of an eye, the circuitry must receive millions of pieces of data from 16 pressure sensors in the weapon's grip, compare them to stored images of how authorized users of the weapon squeeze the trigger and decide if the two match.
If it does — bang! — the gun fires. If not — click — nothing happens.
So far, NJIT has relied on an off-the-shelf handgun outfitted with green and red lights to indicate whether the embedded circuitry decided to fire. They have tested it successfully with shooters wearing gloves, under timed conditions to simulate stressful conditions and using alternate hands.
Now, NJIT must develop an electronic firing mechanism that can be used with the grip technology to free up space in the handgun for the computer circuitry and battery, Sebastian said. This new research is needed because an Australian firm that was supposed to do this for NJIT dropped out.
If NJIT can get a prototype with both technologies to work, Sebastian said, "Then at least we've demonstrated to the world that this is not bogus, that what you get is either a 'click' or a 'bang.'''
"We need to demonstrate that you can reliably turn a gun off in real time,'' he said.
That is not good enough for Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire New Jersey, which pushed for the law five years ago.
"They went about inventing the Ferrari of recognition technology when they could have used the money to build a Ford,'' Miller said. "They've run out of money and they can't marry it to a handgun and, frankly, I think it's shameful.''
Miller said he believes the nationwide effort has been sabotaged.
"We know that gun manufactures have already developed these technologies, they just don't want to put them in guns,'' he said. "The National Rifle Association doesn't want them to do it.''
Rachel Parsons, spokeswoman for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, said they don't work.
"The technology has been worked on for a decade and it still isn't reliable,'' she said. "It fires sometimes when it isn't supposed to and it sometimes doesn't fire when it's needed. We don't see that (it) does anything to reduce crime and accidents.''
In a 2005 study, the National Academy of Engineering said developing a smart gun posed engineering and technical challenges to overcome false readings, high-stress situations, bad weather, poorly maintained weapons and users who might wear gloves. It concluded bringing a smart gun to market could cost $30 million or more and take another decade.
"It is very complex,'' said Louis Behling, a retired range foreman at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey who worked on the study. "If it was so simple, the handgun manufacturers would have already done it.''
(Rick Hepp is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be contacted at rhepp(at)starledger.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
The gun grabbers don't really care if the gun is smart or not. They want to confiscate them all!
Questions to ask:
1) Does it involve technology/mathmatics/science?
2) Do liberals approve of it?
If yes to both, run like hell. Liberals and technology do not mix. Think about it...English or eduction degrees and global warming. Political science degrees and economics. QED.
Questions to ask:
1) Does it involve technology/mathmatics/science?
2) Do liberals approve of it?
If yes to both, run like hell. Liberals and technology do not mix. Think about it...English or eduction degrees and global warming. Political science degrees and economics. QED.
So if they get them to work reliably, I guess the government will have to confiscate all those millions of “dumb” guns that pose such a grievous threat to the public safety.
If they're saying gun makers don't want to try to sell something their customers don't want, that's probably correct, but that's as it should be. It's their job as a seller to sell what I, the buyer, want, not my job to alter my expectations to what they've been ordered to push on me by some third party who hates their product anyway (See Microsoft, Vista, RIAA; also Staples, recycled paper).
If, OTOH, they're saying rational companies spend megabucks developing ultimately successful technologies that their market wants so they can refuse to sell them, they need to attend a rememdial econ course.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Agree 100% !!
Note all these idiots pushing this crap fire and work in clean controlled environment of a range......:o)
And they want their troopers to pack that crap ?
What a joke these bean counting bureaucrats are...... I will say this . One of travel guns where I may cross into a state or city etc where a blue gun with 3 rounds is illegal I pack a SW 696 44 Special that has the magnatrigger modification. My effort too never exceed the BS grabbers local ordinances.........
And guess who pays.
***If it does — bang! — the gun fires. If not — click — nothing happens.***
The most frightning sound in the world when your life is on the line.
The gun has one-tenth of a second to decide. In that blink of an eye, the circuitry must receive millions of pieces of data from 16 pressure sensors in the weapon's grip, compare them to stored images of how authorized users of the weapon squeeze the trigger and decide if the two match.
What's the worst that can happen if a credit card machine rejects a legitimate signature? OK, now what's the worst thing that can happen when you pull your smartgun in a defensive situation? This is why 99% reliability isn't good enough.
Gives new meaning to "the blue screen of death," doesn't it?
“OK, now what’s the worst thing that can happen when you pull your smartgun in a defensive situation?”
And it’s not like in the pressure of a defensive situation, you might ‘pull’ faster, more spastically or anything, right?
This is wrong. There will be no "Click" of a firing pin banging into an empty pipe, it'll just be time to either grab your "real gun" back up, or kiss your ass goodbye.
Or have sweat, blood, dirt, grease, etc. on your hands.
It will be a gun buy-back, turn them in, wait 30 days and we'll get our replacements in the mail. Of course they won't work, but that's the idea.
And not only that, Folks will pay 10 thousand dollars for one of these programable guns, instead of 1000 dollars for a colt python in 357 magnum. ( sarc.) I figure my glove machine will make big bucks.
Great stuff.
LEO's will be exempt, along with federal employees and military. As usual.
Well that sucks pond water now doesn’t it ........:o(
Stay safe !
Or due to an injury that you just sustained in the course of the emergency!!!
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