Colorado-Based Gun Company Develops 9mm Smart Gun with Fingerprint and Facial Recognition Sensors
Biofire, a Colorado-based gun company, has developed a 9mm smart gun that can only be fired by its owner.[0] The gun looks like a regular handgun but has a small fingerprint sensor on the grip where the middle finger rests and a 3D facial recognition sensor on the back.[0] However, smart guns have not yet become a reality due to technological and political challenges.[1] Biofire's founder and CEO, Kai Kloepfer, says his goal is to “have an incremental positive impact on sort of the uniquely American challenge of gun deaths.”[2] Kloepfer began thinking about smart guns after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded dozens more at a midnight screening of a Batman movie in the Denver suburb of Aurora in July 2012.[0] He developed a 3D printed model with a fingerprint sensor as a science fair project. Now, Biofire has 40 employees and $30m in venture capital funding. Biofire is focused on home defense, and has done extensive testing to ensure the gun works in all conditions, including super hot and cold environments, wet and muddy conditions. A test conducted by NPR saw the gun successfully unlock and fire when Kloepfer picked it up, but remain locked when an unauthorized user attempted to use it.
0. “The first smart gun with facial and fingerprint recognition is now for sale” WAMU 88.5, 29 Apr. 2023, https://wamu.org/story/23/04/29/the-first-smart-gun-with-facial-and-fingerprint-recognition-is-now-for-sale/
1. “The first smart gun with facial and fingerprint recognition is now for sale” South Carolina Public Radio, 29 Apr. 2023, https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/2023-04-29/the-first-smart-gun-with-facial-and-fingerprint-recognition-is-now-for-sale
2. “The first smart gun with facial and fingerprint recognition is now for sale” GPB News, 29 Apr. 2023, https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/04/29/the-first-smart-gun-facial-and-fingerprint-recognition-now-for-sale
