Smart Gun with Minicam and Biometric Access 616
StrawberryFrog writes "Ya well no fine, those crazy South Africans are at it again, this time with a "intelligent firearm". You may have heard of guns with fingerprint recognition before, but this also uses a laser to ignite the propellant, has multiple barrels and incorporates a minicam to record as evidence what you are shooting at. It's a very different gun design, and one that depends on electronics to make it work."
Next headline... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Next headline... (Score:5, Funny)
I can see it now.....
This just in
Cop can't get off shot at criminals because of annoying pop-ups.
Re:Next headline... (Score:5, Funny)
When it hits the US shelves...Can't wait for the TV show:
Americas funniest homicides
as long as they dont get bob saget to commentary. "oooh right in the groin, thats got to hurt"
Re:Next headline... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Ha", say the manfacturers, "our in built camera will be an admissible piece of evidence in a homicide case".
"Ha", says user, "Just let me find a piece of duct tape".
Goblin
Re:Next headline... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Next headline... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Next headline... (Score:2)
Judge Dredd Comes to Life. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Judge Dredd Comes to Life. (Score:2)
Re:Judge Dredd Comes to Life. (Score:5, Insightful)
Thinkgeek? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thinkgeek? (Score:4, Funny)
Only one thing missing... (Score:4, Interesting)
graspee
Re:Only one thing missing... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Only one thing missing... (Score:5, Funny)
I smell a lawsuit! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I smell a lawsuit! (Score:2)
Oh no (Score:3, Interesting)
Backup (Score:5, Funny)
You might want to carry a revolver in your sock for when the OS crashes.
Re:Backup (Score:2, Funny)
ya well no fine (Score:5, Funny)
am i having a stroke and losing the ability to decipher english? what does this mean?
Re:ya well no fine (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ya well no fine (Score:5, Informative)
It can be used to indicate agreement about something that will soon be done. "Ja well no fine, let's go sort it out" would be a classic use.
It is a sort of shorthand. "Ja" = "Yes". "Well" is used as in English meaning as a scatting word "welllll", or to mean that things (or you) are well. "No" indicates that nothing is wrong (as if the other person had asked if there was a problem), and the "fine" is to back this up.
"Ja well no fine" = "Yes all is well, no really, it's fine"
or
"Ja well no fine" = "Yes! ummmm... no, definitely, it's fine!".
The second use would be when you have made a strong decision.
It's hard to pin down, but I think that will do as a start. The link some other guy posted about it meaning "I'm bored" is just wrong, in my opinion.
There. I bet you wished you never asked.
Re:ya well no fine (Score:2)
Zimbabweans and, I think to a lesser extent, Namibians will grok it too.
I still love the look of confusion I see on Americans' faces when I greet them with "Howzit?" without thinking.
Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sigh (Score:4, Insightful)
The military will always have their own weapons; they won't be stuck using something so failure-prone. This is great for civilian use. It doesn't hamper legitimate uses while making illegitimate ones more difficult to execute and get away with.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
This is horrid for legitimate use. You no longer have a cheap detachable magazine, you've got to remove your whole barrel assembly to reload. That's not cost effective. You can't reaload it yourself, and you can't purchase amoo in bulk. When I take a 9mm out to the range for training I'll typically blow through 100 to 150 rounds. I'd need 10 to 15 barrel assemblies to do this. That's not good. Also, remember that whenever you change the tiniest thing about your firearm you will throw off the impact point. In the case of this firearm -every- round goes through a different barrel, meaning each shot will have a slightly different path.
This alone doesn't promote responsible use. If you can't predict where your round will land you shouldn't be taking any shots. If you can't actually use the firearm for training it's entirely useless for a civilian.
Video of shooting may help 2nd amendment rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Video of shooting may help 2nd amendment rights (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Video of shooting may help 2nd amendment rights (Score:3, Insightful)
Stopping the killing is the key to bilateral acceptance.
Produce a gun that won't fire unless the target deserves it.
WRONG! the NRA wont let that happen (Score:2, Informative)
for example, the best idea was to not mark the bullets but rather the gun powder with plastic micro-taggants (basically a dust whose particles are made up of snadwhiched layers of plastic that form a sort of bar code that can be read under a
Re:Video of shooting may help 2nd amendment rights (Score:3, Interesting)
but then again, who'd kill someone with one of these??
Not so hot... (Score:5, Insightful)
This 'technologizing' of firearms is only viable for certain military applications - useage scenarios far removed from those of civilian owners; yet there are enough dumbass lobbyists and politicians who don't understand that one can NOT ask an attacker to 'wait while I reboot my gun'.
Re:Not so hot... (Score:2)
Re:Not so hot... (Score:2)
Re:Not so hot... (Score:3, Insightful)
The beauty of simplicity (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't this what most geeks hate about Microsoft... too busy building in every gee-whiz feature, so that they neglect the basics, like stability and reliability? Situation seems pretty analogous to me...
No chance anyone who trusts their life to a firearm would ever carry one of these.
Re:Not so hot... (Score:5, Insightful)
I learn somthing new every day. (Score:3, Insightful)
For a street-legal weapon that complies with civilian laws, it would have a 10-round magazine and fire single shots only, requiring the trigger to be pressed each time.
So....A "street-legal" gun is one that can only shoot 10 people in about 15 seconds or less? What street would this be? Then again this is being developed in south africa. I guess even warlords have to keep their goons under a tight leash.
Re:I learn somthing new every day. (Score:5, Interesting)
You do understand that guns are still legal in the US, right? Despite the misguided efforts of those who can't read...
Re:I learn somthing new every day. (Score:2, Flamebait)
Oh no, a ten round magazine is far more terrifying than that. With armor piercing rounds and careful alignment of your shots it will kill at least 20 people! Of course, any competent shooter will have one round in the chamber in addition to the magazine, so there's another two dead innocents. Naturally one should consider using tiny gas dispensers in the rounds for an area effect. Certainly that would be good for 100 or more! At some point the NRA will finally suc
good idea... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
If one wanted to design a gun that would last for hundreds of years, what would one have to do?
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
Build it out of rock, obviously. Concrete is just too darn susceptible to water erosion.
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
I do think it's pretty worthless as a military weapon -- when the M16 was released the first ones were notoriously unreliable and it took some time (and a lot of de
There are advantages (Score:2)
There are other ways to do it that require less electronics, though.
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
Just in case anyone was wondering these figures are BS. His link does not take you to any CDC figures. Actual CDC figures for year 1998 show 158 accidental deaths amongst children aged 17 and under, so it is totally implausible that the year 2000 figure for under 20's would be around 80(!) times higher.
Take a look here some actual figures (from an anti-gun source):
http:/
Re:good idea... (Score:2)
I don't think so... (Score:2, Interesting)
Great... (Score:4, Funny)
Then you can add blue tooth so you can fire it remotely...just make sure it doesn't get hacked.
Is the gun powered by Windows? (Score:4, Funny)
"This gun has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down..."
The Fifth Element (Score:5, Funny)
What is the logic behind the safeguards? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What is the logic behind the safeguards? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want to do something illegal, you probably won't use this type of gun in the first place, you'll use the regular old kind. But imagine that you are a cop accused of shooting someone irresponsibly. Having picture evidence of exactly what they were doing when you shot them could be quite useful to you.
If I run out of memory, does the gun lock up?
Why would it lock up? Obviously it wouldn't be able to store any more data without first deleting something else, but it would be up to the manufacturer to decide what it should do. My guess is that they would delete the oldest photo to make room for the new one.
These guns aren't designed to be criminal-proof, they are designed to be accident-proof, theft-proof, and self-documenting. As the article says, they are designed to be used by government officials and the military, not necessarily by Joe Civilian.
Re:What is the logic behind the safeguards? (Score:2)
Actually the article states: "Van Zyl says when the IFA goes into production it may well be for military applications, which saddens him a little. He's always viewed the IFA in terms of safety, specifically in cases of theft and shooting accidents involving children."
Sounds to me like they "adjusted" their marketing strategy after realizing that nobody wants an intrusive "nanny-gun"
Cops won't use these (Score:3, Informative)
Check this link... NJ put a smart gun law into effect, but law enforcement is exempt. [newstribune.com]
You may form your own theory about why that is... mine says that this technology is nowhere near ready for prime-time, and police officers know it. They have enough problems with regular guns malfunctioning, and those are simple, blow-back operated mechanical devices that any machinist can make. I
Fantastic! (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone think of covering the camera? (Score:3, Funny)
Goes great with America (Score:2, Troll)
So if that happens, well, when the black storm troopers try to take away ma and pa's surburban homestead, we'll protect it.... what? 'central control has declaired use of this firea
Re:Goes great with America (Score:2)
How smart? (Score:2)
In matters of home defense, it'd be really bad if it was as reliable as something like a child-proof lighter.
And then they mention it being for soldiers? WTF! I thought it was for home defense.
Of course, the area of guns is one of the few areas where I agree with ESR.
How many 'pictures' can it actually hold (Score:2, Insightful)
The only way for it to really keep an image of every shot ever fired is to have an unlimited storage. I don't think they've invented the new un
Hacking (Score:2, Insightful)
Ahh yes (Score:2)
simplify, simplify, simplify (Score:4, Funny)
Useless... (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Requires at least a thumbprint, possibly a smart card as well.
The smart card being proximal means that someone could easily use it near you if the thumbprint recognizer false positives. This may seem like a stretch, but odds are the thumbprint devices will have to settle for partial matches - a gun that doesn't fire when you need it to is useless. So if you keep your smart card locked up anywhere near it, genetically similar people (like your children) will probably still be able to use it.
2. It has a camera on it. It takes pictures of everything you shoot.
Circumvention device: Chewing gum.
3. We'll install a GPS device on it to record every position you fire it from.
That'll go over really well with those who think that gun registry databases are intended to empower the gub'ment to take away their guns when "the time comes."
What happens when you "lose" the murder weapon?
4. We'll use specially manufactured barrels and bullets that people won't be able to reload themselves.
Bull. Where there's a will, there's a way. The only honest motivation for this is to prevent people from using unregulated ammunition. Anyone who wants to kill someone will simply use whatever tool best facillitates it.
If you don't really care about long range accuracy, you can make a workable gun out of pipe, lead shot and something that goes boom (available in your local grocery store).
What this all really amounts to is a desire to uninvent something that has nefarious uses. If you really want to protect children, throw irresponsible parents in jail. If you are going to have a gun in the house and not properly teach your children to respect it - lock it up. Children can be taught to respect some basic rules regarding firearms (they somehow manage to not stab each other "accidentally" and to not walk out into moving traffic "accidentally"). If you just TALK TO YOUR F***ING KIDS rather than hide the truth from them, they can and will actually listen.
However, I understand that some parents are unfortunately incapable of exercising any real parenting skill. It would be nice if we could do something about it, but natural selection seems to be a moot point on humans anymore.
Re:Useless... (Score:3, Insightful)
I *don't know* but it is not sure at all.
2. and 3. If you have obscured the camera or lost the weapon, you may have a hard time convincing the judge that you used the gun for self-defense purpose..
> If you really want to protect children, throw irresponsible parents in jail.
This doesn't help the victim of the children with irresponsible parents as he is already dead!
For the victim's POV it is much better to prevent than to p
Not a solution (Score:2, Informative)
I found this line to be quite scary. Next thing you know it'll be against the law to keep your curtains closed. The device is quite interesting and all, but I have object to it. Sure, you'll stop some of the low level crime, but a black market for modifying these things will exist and it will be run by high level criminals. Have they yet to understand t
People are missing the best application of this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People are missing the best application of this (Score:3, Insightful)
Suppose for example that the "perp" throws his hands up just as the cop fires. The gun would give us a nice picture of the cop shooting a guy with his hands in the air. Good luck to any
I can see it now... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's, oh, say... 50 years from now. You're a soldier, say a blue-helmet, supposed to be keeping the peace in some crappy country that's chock-full of gang lords and private armies. You're on patrol with your partner.
Suddenly, a crack and your buddy is down, choking on his own blood. You take cover behind whatever is available, try to figure out where the fire is coming from.
Another shot, and your Intelligent Rifle is hit, damaged beyond repair. Shit.
Luckily, the rifle dropped by your buddy is close. You grab it, jam your thumb into the stock's biometric window. No response. Damn! Covered with dust again, frickin' dirt... Still cowering, hoping you're covered, you wipe the window and try again.
"BZZZZZ... User's Smart Card does not match profile. Please ensure that you are using the proper weapon."
You jab the control button to force the gun to authorize a new user, but it's too late. You just got killed by a rifle made in your great-grandfather's day.
I think some militaries might have reservations about a few of the "features" on these guns. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
This sucks! (Score:2)
A few points to consider. (Score:2)
Keeping guns out of criminal hands - long term.
This gun will not do it, and I doubt if any feasible security system could. No matter how well designed, unless it actually wrecks the gun when tampered with, any security system could potentially be by-passed. I doubt if it would take criminals long to figure out how to do it.
Keeping guns out of criminal hands - short term.
If the only aim
FAKE The fingerprint! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:FAKE The fingerprint! (Score:2)
What? That doesn't even make sense, man. You've obviously never been in the military. War doesn't stop when you come back from patrol; it goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... and often you don't have to go out to find it-- it comes to YOU, sometimes even while you're SLEEPING. Are you saying no one in camp should have a working weapon? Get real. This would be a GREAT "
Not a chance (Score:2)
Failures (Score:2)
Can't wait for this to happen (Score:3, Funny)
-Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
would this help this guy? (Score:2)
How long does the battery last? (Score:2)
Rus
very easily disabled... (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine bank robbers going in and firing an EMP blast to disable the guard's guns.... and then going in with traditional weaponry and shooting up the unknowing guards.
Intelligent gun? (Score:3, Funny)
when this thing locks up... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I wish... (Score:2, Funny)
Off topic troll, mod appropriately (Score:2)
Re:I wish... (Score:2)
OK, let's see if I've got this straight. Your counter-argument is that Saddam is not an evil man, and we are trying to free Iraq's oil from sanctions because spending billions of dollars to go to war costs less than simply... oh... waving a pen and lifting the sanctins?
No wait, that doesn't make sense. It must be because the oil companies want to make lots of money by putting Iraq's oil back on the market, thus making oil cheaper.
Hmm. That doesn't make any sense either. Maybe you can enlighten us
Re:I wish... (Score:2)
I suppose that's what passes for a rational argument in your neck of the woods?
Re:Newfangled boomsticks... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Newfangled boomsticks... (Score:2)
Re:Newfangled boomsticks... (Score:2)
There is no device you can buy to prevent murder. Bruce Schneier. http://www.counterpane.com/commerce-testimony.html
Does anyone forsee ammunition restrictions? (Score:2, Interesting)
I can forsee all current types of ammo being banned one day, and only a new non compatible design being allowed. The gun that can use this ammo will be highly restricted. Eventually the existing ammo supply for "pre-legal" weapons will run out, rendering them useless to all except those willing to pay high prices for the remaining ammo stocks. A black market ammo industry will arise though.
Re:Does anyone forsee ammunition restrictions? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes I have. (Score:2)
Re:I'm not proposing anything. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Clint Eastwood's next famous line (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, I think the next movie could be kind of short:
Dirty Harry:I know what you're thinking punk. You're thinkin did he fire six shots or only five. Well to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is the 44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off. You've got to ask yourself a question, Do I feel lucky? Well do you, PUNK!
Punk: Umm... Umm...
Smart Gun: WARNING! Chamber is empty! Load a new magazine to continue shooting! WARNING! Chamber is empty! Load a new magazine to continue shooting!
Punk: Fuck you, cop! Tackles Dirty Harry and bashes his head in with a brick.
Re:Criminals will still be Criminals (Score:2)
As opposed to now?
And, well, what happens when it becomes illegal NOT to use guns like this?
You eventually get most of the illegal guns out of circulation thru attrition, and then there is accountability with the guns. Of course, someone can just haxor a stolen gun to not use the ID function...
Crooks will be crooks; thats why my solution doesn't lie in the gun, it lies in the criminal; work on figuring out why people use guns inst
Re:Windows Hand-Gun Edition (Score:5, Funny)
- Research legalities of shooting burglars in your house, based on your current location?
- Look up cleaning services that specialize in removing bloodstains from carpets?
- Remind you that the safety is still on?"
not flamebait -- this is a good question (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ugh (Score:3, Insightful)
you raise your gun to fire and . . . it crashes.
This comment gets dragged up over and over again in this thread, and its getting tiring. People, NOT EVERYTHING RUNS WINDOWS.
When was the last time your cellphone software crashed? The controller in your microwave? The controllers in modern cars? The controllers that thousands of aircraft pilots rely on every single day? HP calculator? Digital watch? Ethernet switch? Home hi-fi? Video machine? DVD player? Alarm clock? The list goes on and on.
Not everything