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Opposition to smart gun The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), lobbyists for the gun manufacturers, has said it would not oppose Clinton’s efforts for funding, but would fight against any moves to make all guns “smart”. Anti gun advocacy groups in the US, however, are said to be opposed to smart gun technology altogether. This is because it could encourage large numbers of Americans, who have previously been reluctant to buy a gun, to reconsider their options.
into the camera to allow the recognition process to take place. According to Spring Technologies, identification generally takes between one and two seconds. Each user can be assigned various access classifications, and access authorization and parameters can be adjusted or cancelled at any time. If the system is implemented at other airports, there will be the possibility to share the registered IrisCodes electronically. All hardware, software and the supporting network at Charlotte will be operated and maintained by Spring Technologies. This will allow it to take advantage of advances in technology without having to purchase expensive new hardware. For security and privacy reasons, the airport will maintain its own database of enrolled personnel. The performance of the iris recognition system will be evaluated throughout the programme in order to compare the iris-based system with the airport’s existing card/password setups. In particular, the Federal Aviation Administration (Btt July/August ’99, p3) is expected to monitor the results closely. Charlotte/Douglas International is the 20th busiest hub airport in the USA with around 500 flights/day. Spring Technologies told Btt it has also received “considerable” interest from other air carriers and airports. Although the programme at Charlotte focuses on employee security, Spring does have a product that addresses the passenger side of the airline business. EyeTicket positively identifies passengers for ticketing, check-in and boarding. The EyeTicket Online Ticketing Director serves as a central gateway guiding enrolled customers to participating air carriers for direct ticketing. Further announcements of applications for this product are likely in the near future.
the money as part of his fiscal year 2001 federal budget. The US president already signalled his approval for so called “smart guns” last year, in particular a version which incorporated fingerprint sensors to verify the owner of the gun. Clinton said: “You will have technology available which you can put into the guns that will raise the costs in the beginning. But…the costs will come down quickly, which will mean that only people who have the right fingerprints can fire the gun. And that will be a huge thing.” The gun issue is emotionally charged in the USA, where some 100,000 people, including 3,000 children under 14, are killed or injured each year. Various companies have been busy developing smart gun technology, such as Oxford Micro Devices (Btt November ’99, p12), which has been working on a fingerprint-based solution using Thomson-CSF (Btt March’99, p14) technology. According to Oxford Micro Devices, putting fingerprint technology into a gun has been difficult as a result of the carefully designed human interface that is required, the space and power restrictions, the response time needed, the severe mechanical shock and the reliability required. Other systems under development include radio signal devices, where the gun does not work unless it receives a signal from a transmitter worn by the user, either as a wristband or ring. This type of system is under review by Colt (Btt February ’99, p13), America’s oldest gun manufacturer. Another non-biometric solution has been put forward by Swiss-owned gun maker Sigarms. Its personalised gun will only fire when a code is punched into a battery-operated keypad located under the gun barrel.
Contact: Catherine Kaliniak at Spring Technologies, Tel: +1 703 827 5700, Fax: +1 703 827 5705, email:
[email protected]
Fingerprint
Fingerprint
Clinton goes for gun money US president Bill Clinton has said he will attempt to secure US$10 million from Congress for research into technology that ensures a gun can only be fired by its owner. He will try to secure
Contact: Steve Morton at Oxford Micro Devices, Tel: +1 203 445 0562, Fax: +1 203 445 0564
Fingerprint Cards and Stralfors get together Swedish producers Fingerprint Cards (Btt March ’99, p6) and Stralfors have signed a letter of intent to collaborate in the development of products using biometrics for access control, computer log-on and for use with smart cards. Fingerprint Cards’ president Lennart Carlson told Btt that Stralfors will run two pilots. One of
Btt February 2000 • 3