Smart person-specific pistol

Published 11 August 2006

One way to improve airline safety is to put more armed air marshals on board; trouble is, this means that weapons are already inside the plane, and would-be hijackers may over-power them and grab their weapons; the solution: a smart gun which allows only its owner to use it

One way to beef up airline security is to put more armed air marshals on board. Some experts and airline industry insiders are not comfortable with this solution. The reason: It means that weapons will be on board. Would-be hijackers would then concentrate on developing tactics to identify and over-power these marshals so they can and take away their weapons — a task considered easier than smuggling weapons through check points equipped with sophisticated technology.

What to do? The U.S. government gave the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) $2 million to develop a commercially viable smart gun, that is, a gun which recognizes its owner’s grip. If the gun is seized by an unauthorized person (or, we should say, an unrecognized hand)