Highly reliable and highly available, it has been a staple of wastelander kit since the day the bombs fell. (wearenotliableforanymishapswitholdammunition)
Ironically, the 'trying to be the next big everything' is a hazard of a lot of technological products, be they engineering or the next big 'killer app'. I don't know why it becomes so strongly fixated in the minds of designers for so many things, kudos to Biofire to realizing the trap that can be. The recognition speed really was impressive. VERY glad that its all stored locally, no wifi. Though I can see somebody exploiting the USB not to break it, but to try and run DOOM on their gun.
"[...] 'trying to be the next big everything' is a hazard of a lot of technological products, be they engineering or the next big 'killer app'. I don't know why it becomes so strongly fixated in the minds of designers for so many things [...]" There's a very specific reason for that on tech industry: It's creation of monopoly on a standard of design. When a tech company comes up with the "big thing", they essentiatly set up a standard by which the entire market will follow, that can be a very wide range which can come from businesses pratice to actual architecture and design of products (for example on the first we have MS-DOS vs DR-DOS, thanks to a very smart move from Microsoft, PCs that were sold came with a license to use MS-DOS whenever they liked, basically, you wouldn't need to buy the operating system, meanwhile DR-DOS was sold separately since Digital Research couldn't get this type of contract worldwide, this is the reason why you can download Windows 10 for free now and also why pretty much every PC software follows the standard design of Office and why Microsoft holds a monopoly operating system [there's Apple, but Mac is only a thing in the USA, outside It's dominated by Microsoft and one of the reasons why It's a nightmare to find compatible software with Mac] and why your PC [if It wasn't Mac] came with a Windows; for the second we've got the monopoly of Intel on processors, thanks to this we've got that every PC follows the same architecture regardless of the who produced the CPU, this is very handy since It allows for inputs producers to base their production lines on a single standard and propose competition [It's more competitive on basic hardware, but It's monopolized on the end of the industry, that gives companies like Intel the power to stabilish price of their products AND the price they will be paying on their suppliers, this is quite literally the heaven of any company, they would need to actively try to ever see their balance on the red]). It pretty much sets an standard in the industry for other companies to follow and that gives a gigantic headstard for who came up with the idea (examples: Microsoft with PCs, Apple with smartphones, UBER with service apps, TH-cam with free streaming videos, Intel with processors) since other companies will have to study the competitor and come up with their way of doing without copyright infringement, combine that with the fact that tech industry is extremelly onerous (meaning that It requires credit from banks to work, softwares and and new hardwares can take several years to come to the market makes so that companies won't see any operational income, that's the pratice of "seed sale", "IPO", etc. are so important, It can define if the products will ever see the light of day or not) we've got the perfect storm for an "all or nothing" business pratice since conservative practices (minimal risk, for example try to come up with a very limited product with low development time and cost would solve the onerosity since It would generate income, but these products would aways be on the margin of any serious market since at best would be a niche market, they would never have a market share) will inevitably make companies stay as small a competitor. Not sure how much of all this applies to firearms since I really don't know a whole lot about them, but this is mostly the reason why tech companies do what they do (well, the ones that try to enter the market). Can't wait to see Doom running on this gun, though. If you're interested, Schumpeter goes on this type of economy, can't say much more since I never read all of It, It mostly comes from a professor in my university that studies this theme.
@tomisabum, it's so politicians can sit back in their luxury homes, and decide who you can and can't shoot. If you aim the gun at a favored bad guy, they shut it off. If they can turn you're car off, the only thing left is you're self defense. Help me reinforce a concept, Tech-Amish: Today the check engine - light in my truck came on. After a brief inspection, it went off? I was confused, so I went back to the gas tank, and intentionally unscrewed the cap, and left it on sideways. I went back, and surprise, the check engine light is on again! I wonder how many people spent money by sending their cars in for a check-up when all they had to do is screw the cap on in good alignment? The key word is, "analogue". Us Tech Amish folk reinforce analogue component usage in our homes, car's, and guns. I saw a thing the other day where a computer hacker hacked into someone's car, and had all kind of fun with the gadget's. In the near future, if you say something distasteful about a protected species, like pedophiles, someone will intentionally wreck you're car for a racist statement! But with a little elbow grease, and determination, you can build a 68 Camaro with only "out-dated" electronics. All tube guitar amplifiers are the only thing left where you have the option to stay old-school. Soon, they will say tubes are racist, and the only amps will be digital! If you play masculine music, they will hack you're amp!
Movie companies have already done smart gun props, usually they're just regular pistols with a glowing "hand scanner" looking screen wrapped around the guard, and random little lights scattered across the gun that go from red to green when the user holds onto the grip
I like this gun, it knows its flaws and problems and it knows its strengths and protections. It doesn't try to overstep these boundaries, it doesn't try to play you an ad after a magazine, you literally just pick it up and use it like normal.
@@JTAmina its unlikely for that to happen as there's no heavy components on the boards and anything connected to the gun would use wires to connect back to the main board. Not only that but this gun wouldn't get that much use since its mainly for home defense or a situations that rarely happen where you only fire a few rounds. I do like the way you're thinking though, its always important to look at things critically especially for guns like these where a problematic component could mean the gun will not fire when you need it to.
@@T1GIB Possibly because all of the imperatives in consumer products manufacturing press towards the continual cheapening of every mass-produced good to provide the appearance of constant growth? Sure, the carefully hand-assembled prototype will be tested for thousands of discharges... but when the value engineeres and MBA managers keep demanding ever cheaper production costs, do you think they're going to validate every design change with tens of thousands of dollars of additional testing? "C'mon, we're just changing the screw-retention of the mainboard for an industry standard heated-staking process. Everyone does this and it saves like $.06 per replaced fastener. What could really go wrong? Besides most people aren't going to shoot this thing more than a couple dozen times anyhow. No sense making it more durable than it has to be"
I hadn't considered the main use-case being for home defense for people with kids/family, but that makes so much sense. I thought this would be more used by guards/cops to prevent danger of their gun being grabbed at and used. I wonder how much adoption it will see by law enforcement.
@@janneskoneczny4989 Could possibly have a network of people who can access the department's firearms. Each time the list is updated, the guns, when connected to the department's internet, will update who can access the firearms.
@@doomersnek3878 sounds super complicated. Adding (many) more faces to a face recognition database also slows the system. Would make more sense to use RFID or something for an entire department
Presumably there is no issue with keeping a full mag and one up the spout. With the gun on the nightstand. The only downside of that from a gunsmithing view is keeping the mainspring cocked for days or weeks on end without the gun being unloaded and the hammer dropped to de-stress the mainspring
@@samrodian919Isnt the whole "compressed springs = bad and wears them" a concept that is debunked as completely false? I get that you are a gunsmith but you could still be wrong. Ive never heard of springs wearing out being compressed. Especially modern day ones. Its the stress of being extended and compressed that causes wear.
@@yououttapocket Fairly certain modern springs have no issues of degregation while compressed. I assume airsoft mags are made of a weaker spring steel but I never had any issues with my mags. I have a good 5 AR-15 mags fully loaded since 2018 and they aint degrading last I checked. If you have mags from thr 60-70s it will be an issue, or you have mags you use a lot. Which could be why you see airsoft springs wear out quickly.
Given the intended use, I can see this working fairly well. A home defence weapon that focuses on safety for other residents is something I can see taking off as a good extra bit of caution
Unfortunately I don't think it will ever take off. For some reason the majority of gun enthusiasts I've talked to about this absolutely hate smart guns. Even in the case where they are proven to be more reliable.
@@itwasaliens it’s the “government wants to take away your guns” principle… They think that if this technology takes off, it will be possible for the government to deactivate their guns if they ever want to rebel against the government. (Sigh) these people can be really paranoid at times…
@@itwasaliensprobably due to the fact that anything 'smart' can be hacked, or at the least it's electronics can fail. By all means, if you choose to use this as yoir home defense firearm then hats off too you! That being said, don't question the rest of us who are sticking with more tried and true methods of protection.
This probably has good potential for correctional officers. Some prisons don't allow the officers to carry guns because of the risk that inmates could take it and use it. I look forward to seeing this gun in your future videos.
@@my9thaccount140 my guess is that it's bc the barrier to entry, both in terms of what features you need to have and the thing actually being adopted (individual buying it vs whole department/company adopting it), for this purpose is much lower. then once you've shown it's a viable product you can try to expand
There is a very real balance this channel has been consistent at, in terms of acknowledging the very real and very impactful laws around firearms, measured against the absolutely fascinating engineering processes and techniques gunsmiths use to solve problems on a technological level.
This firearm reminds me of the dominator from a sci-fi anime called Psycho-Pass where it one has to authenticate the user as an authorized user and then allows the use of the firearm. Its really cool to see technology catching up to media.
@@trianglemoebius true it would depend on if the company that manufactures it can gain access to your firearm or track it etc. plus how hack proof is it.
Not really considering Psycho-Pass is a dystopian future where a gun can decide who is psychologically abnormal and the people who do use those guns are themselves deemed as psychologically unstable.
The addition of a lit front sight is super fascinating, way more versatile than tritium vials. I really hope for a lit rear sight in the production model.
i was thinking the same thing, two led dots on the rear sight that correspond with front sight just seems like a no-brainer, but it is a prototype after all
@@McMuster Only needs to power the slide lights while in battery[sic], in fact could be a good indication of being out of battery[sic], such as a feed failure blocking full return. A couple of simple contacts would do the trick.
It could be nice, but it might also be an intentional choice not to clutter the sights - 3 LEDs that likely don't have a reliable means of automatically changing the brightness could just end up with the 3 LEDs washing each other out in a dark room. It'd likely add complexity to the slide as well, requiring a cable or spring contacts to get power to the rear LEDs.
I like the idea of a home defense gun that doesn't *need* a lock. Something like this is exactly what I want for my bedside firearm. I plan on getting a safe once I have children, and I can't stand the idea of not being able to access protection when things go bump in the night. All guns should be locked if they're not going to be used/at the ready, but this is a nice alternative.
Ideas like home and personal defense and avoiding misuse or mishandling by others is a pretty big plus, but I wouldn't be surprise the suspicion or hassle over the guns' computer will be a big turn off.
Ya the big problem with something like this, who do you believe will have the option to turn it off for use when they want. Maybe not this model, but a gov shutoff switch will be included at some point. Bet on it. Might be the safest bet ever made.
@@Tyler.Rude. please, its obvious that the govt is never going to come for anyones guns, even the most unhinged of us. We live on a PvP server, good luck out there.
That is a cool and innovative product. I don't think it is or should be a replacement for traditional fire arms, but it shows a great deal of potential for its specific purpose. That is all that one can ask of a tool - which is what a gun is.
In many cases, it should replace your home defence/fast approach side arm, as there are many curious kids that every year take their parents guns and make some bad mistakes
@@liansandoval8866 Exactly my thoughts. There are way too many shootings in today's society, so I can only hope that this gun is the pioneer for Biolocked weapons.
@@m.w.2401 I'm not going to keep a home defense weapon in the safe, lmao. Unless you think the burglars breaking in are going to pause for you to run over to your safe and open it.
It's been years since I've seen a forgotten weapons video (due to my time on TH-cam and tastes changing) But it's still so amazing to see GunJesus spreading knowledge to this day. The most informative firearm videos I've watched (good being from down under where anything that makes a loud noise brands you a terrorist) And also the inspiration for my growing a moustache Amazing channel that puts in some good work
I have the utmost respect for the company undertaking such a tremendous challenge but I think most gun enthusiast (me included) just wont trust this kind of stuff on both sides of the issue, I would not trust it NOT TO FIRE when handled by a non authorized user (lets say a child) so I'd still would take the same safety precautions I'd take with a normal gun, like not leaving it loaded and ready around kids or other people (defeating it's purpose) and in the other hand that implies that it's hard to trust it to work reliably in a scenario where I need it TO FIRE in a self defense situation. I might be wrong and our mindset might change in time but most firearms users I know are very into safety and reliability and I think this fails against both perceptions (even if it's just that, a mere perception).
Hi I'm Ian McCollum, and this is the Biofire, "smart gun." I reviewed a prototype of this weapon twenty years ago, and I thought it had some neat features. Unfortunately they only ended up making about twelve hundred of these guns before going bankrupt. So it's a interesting collectable oddity. One thing to note is after going bankrupt a film armory company bought all of the remaining stock to use as a sci-fi gun movie prop.
This wouldn't surprise me. Honestly, I can see this thing being WAY too expensive for the target audience, and NATURALLY the gun lovers will reject it. All these sensors and cameras and stuff are going to make it inaccessible, defeating the purpose.
@@jesuszamora6949 The sensors, cameras etc are already pretty mature technology. It's all basically repurposed smart phone tech, and that already has the bonus of high volume production. Besides, have you seen what some new parents pay for baby-related stuff? $1500 for a pistol that baby can't accidentally use. It'll sell like hot cakes in its target market.
I wish you'd do a collaboration with Lock Picking Lawyer. He has shown has the majority of gun locks are an absolute joke. They can be opened with a twig. There are a lot of guns out there with terrible locks on them and their are many tutorials out there on how to open them without even needing a lockpick. If we can mandate a safety in every gun, we can mandate a lock built in to every gun as well. How the fuck is a safety a thing but not a way to lock that safety on with a key? For the most part, troubled youths who are going to commit violence don't get their guns from the black market, they get them from their negligent parents. But is it really negligence if they think that their gunlocks and lockboxes aren't so insanely easy to get into. Gunlock companies are not concerned with preventing a tragedy, they are concerned with profits, so they make the cheapest shittiest locks possible and mass market them.
I don't think this is even a path we need to go down to begin with. Biometric weapons are not nearly as necessary as some are led to believe. Gun knowledge and proper storage are the only thing you really need to ensure children can't get a gun and harm someone. My concern is, like the New Jersey law that isn't on the books anymore, other anti 2A states can always begin to require biometric components on all guns.
I think this idea would work great in the prison systems where guards could be armed without the possibility of prisoners taking their weapons Kinda like the videogame riddick escape from butcher bay
That's what I was thinking, too! Prisons or maybe even in a plane's cockpit. Could just put the authentication software into tazers, too, for the same but usually non-lethal results.
I really hope it keeps the cool look for the final production model. Also literally the first time I have thought i want this type of firear, not because I atually meet their use case, but because it looks really cool and I really love that they actually thought of so many different scenarios and design elements.
@@bigguy7353 except in reality, no this doesn't solve all problems. Kids make bad judgement calls. Lockboxes are slow and clunky if you suddenly wake up to an intruder in your room because you're a heavy sleeper etc... I can go on and on. Don't be so dense.
@@SusSpooder I saw a video from lockpicklawyer recently where he had a lock box with a simple code you could punch in. It also had a manual key part for itf you forgot to change batteries or whatever, but perfectly suitable to stop a child, you can choose any gun you want for whatever type of shooter you are/ are comfortable with, and if you know the code it took one second. I really don't see how this pistol is better than this option.
@@upkz762 A prism optic would definitely not be necessary, you could pretty easily do this with a reddot. Much as I love prisms, I don't know if they're quite ready for pistol optics.
@@jmjedi923 I was thinking that too but it would probably be really hard to route power reliably to the side to power them. Maybe tritium rear sights...
I see it being particularly attractive for use among prison guards, or employed in platforms designed for riot control. Basically, environments where the authorized user might be at risk of being overrun and having their weapon taken. One might say that a situation like that is already the worst case scenario, and yes it would an awful situation, but having a firearm render itself inert would greatly mitigate the threat level of one of these situations.
Man.... That's got some cool tech, you could also make the rear sights light up as a loaded chamber indicator, and with a fixed barrel you don't need a booster for a suppressor
@@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz why not both? If you can set up a good locking device like a lever delay you could change out calibers with a barrel and slide replacement and still keep the fixed locked barrel for QD cans. Because the fix barrel means you don't have to mount directly to the barrel. The suppressor can be a attached to the frame via a regular rail.
@@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz oh! Well... The fining mech is tied directly into the electronics... Do you think you could make a set up where the main information module like a USB essentially, the part that grants permission to use it could be interchangeable? Or do think it would have to be something more mechanical for a SN to frame transfer?
@@motokaichou2010 that's basically a non-issue. How much do you think an apple watch would weigh if you removed the thick glass screen and backplate? Probably only a few grams at most, and this thing needs even less onboard tech than that.
@@none-ro9dzI’m not sure if that’s quite accurate, the watch has very few components, this will still need the sensors and mechanism to fire the weapon in addition to the processor. That said I do agree that the weight increase would be inconsequential for its intended use case.
Wait, roommate having a gun. Geez, never thought of that possibility as a person who lives in a country where we don't think we need firearms to defend ourselves. That's just scary idea that almost random person living in same house with you has a loaded gun in their room... Damn
Even if that New Jersey law is off the books currently, the farther this technology gets developed, the more likely it is for states to start requiring all new guns to be smart guns.
I was wondering about the liability impact of smart guns on the market. Once one is marketed other manufacturers will have to comply or be driven out of business. SawStop is a similar case to what can happen liability wise
which shouldn't be an issue once multiple users can be set for each weapon and they have a 98-99 of a 100 reliability to authenticate. No gun is 100 of 100 all the time.
@@The_John_Highway you DO realize that doing so takes YEARS to work through the court system. For example the one that recently struck down some of the California Handgun Roster, which included microstamping, took two full years to get to the point where it is now. And it still easily has at least several years before it may even be finally decided. It's simply better to not allow or encourage such things in the first place.
Concerningly, there being an electrical firing mechanism sounds like it would be exceedingly simply to "hack" into firing in an approximation of full-auto. Might be a problem on the horizon if this style of firearm design takes off. Certainly physical modifications have existed, but opening the digital market to do so as well no doubt changes the equation.
Possibly, but that would likely require serious dismantling and electrical knowledge. Since it looks to be built for single fire, auto would likely cause jams. Right now a skilled person can make a full auto sear for a pistol for under $20 in metal and replace the sear in minutes with the right tools, so I would still consider this more secure than current pistols.
The smart gun mandate is gone, for now. As the technology develops, you know it will come back. The question is, how long before they manage to make the gun measure your psycho-pass?
I'm super impressed by the authentication system. You can tell they got engineers on board that actually knew what they were doing, everything from ease of use to security. I really like the little touch of the LED in the front sight, it's right in your view while using the weapon, and has a second function of, well, being a lit up front sight. It's simple, reliable, and I can't think of any way to bypass it (you could try to hack it using the USB port, but from how it is designed i assume the gun itself won't allow software modifications unless authenticated). I really hope the gun itself turns out to be reliable, and even if it's not, the tech may be retrofitted into a different platform. The convenient storage cradle along with sensors that put it to sleep should make the battery last pretty long too. Great system all around. The only potential physical bypass i can think of, would be trying to engage the firing mechanism solenoid using a strong magnet, but that's not practical to use, and is possible to prevent by design. I wouldn't give that a great chance of success.
When it comes to smart guns there will always be those out there that are worried about the collection of biometric data. If any government entity gets a hold of that data there is worry of easy tracking of firearm owners. I understand that since this device doesn't connect to WIFI and the data is encrypted there is no worry for that. My thoughts are about when other manufactures dip their toes in this market, the government setting up legislations that require the collection of this data, or legal loopholes about data collection can be concerning. Currently as we stand someone's data hasn't bee recognized in all aspects of it as private.
You bought the pistol, you've probably given more information to the government in the process of buying the pistol than you've given the pistol in authenticating it. Not to mention that little metal box in your pocket that has literally your entire life logged in it, all day every day. Relax brother, if the government wants to put you in a big list of gun owners so they can do Comically Evil Things, they're not going to bother using the smart gun to do it.
im a huge gun guy but i pray to god smart guns dont become something similar to a smart car where the features become an issue..otherwise this one is a dope concept
It won't be reliable if you don't keep the battery charged or when the battery dies. Also, if this ever became more widespreadly used and became a mandate for law enforcement couldn't it be rendered useless with EMP?
Cool idea in concept and it makes me excited being closer to Halo type weapons with the integrated electronic components, but all I hear is “too many variables, too many potential failures when my life is on the line”. Mechanical simplicity is still the reining champion in my opinion.
Doesn’t mean it’s not useful, just not useful for you. For parents? Prison guards? Police? I can certainly see a use for a gun that fires for only one person.
Not only that, if something happens to the owner before he can authenticate another user that gun is a paper weight. If wearing gloves good luck shooting from retention. Hope it can read your face while wearing a mask for covid restrictions if finger print doesn’t read for whatever reason. Don’t drop this thing or you could potentially damage the electronics. Don’t go fishing and accidentally get water in this thing either lol. I could go on and on with the “what ifs” but I’d rather just stick to my common sense guns lol. If New Jersey had a law on the books for this concept that should tell you all you need to know.
This is exactly the reason it's not intended to be your EDC. Mechanical guns will likely always be more trustworthy, hardy and reliable (until we get into the far future of guns with no moving parts). But for people who can't carry a gun because the risk of it being used against them/misused is too high, an electronic gun is better than no gun.
This is a very cool concept and seems like Biofire have put a lot of work into designing it intelligently. I'll be very interested to see the follow-up video after it hits the market. I always liked the videos about guns with weird early engineering but this is a really cool example of modern firearms engineering.
Smart guns will always be problematic, because electronics especially solder points hate vibrations and impact. The same problem a lot of modern washing machines are facing. In a gun the impact and vibration is basically x100 so eventually the electronics fail. In a home defense situation, this could be fatal
Should be simple enough to use the trigger switch, to actuate the electronic sear directly. And you have everything you need already available right there. Your just need a small length of wire and a soldering iron I'd be willing to bet, that it would only require a single wire jumping between the trigger switch and the sear's solenoid (or applicable supplementary high current circuit) to bypass all of that fanciness, since ground would be common. And it will still fire "electronically" it just won't care about authentication. Rather it will still care, but be unable to interfere... Systems like these will only keep honest people honest.
I feel like this concept would be perfect for a bedside shotgun, since shottys are really the ideal defensive weapons. Also, I would love to see Lockpickinglawyer do a video tryig to bypass this, and a collab between Ian and LPL would be a dream come true.(I reckon both of them would be interested.)
You can choose what kind of ammo to use for whatever situation. Buckshot is the classic go-to, but flechettes are good for countering body armour, but not generally ideal for home defense. In a house, you're at close range, so bird shot would actually stoll carry enough energy, while minimizing penetration.(Prally not a good idea to shoot the neighbor through the wall) Of course, then you have less-lethal munitions, like rubber balls, beanbags, or rock salt. Rock salt has shallow penetration, but from a 12 guage it still packs a wallop, and salt burns like hell, but also stops bleeding. Overall it's pretty certain to stop whoever gets hit with it, but very unlikely to kill them.(All munitions carry some chance of lethality, though.)
@@swancrunch no, it's not a far IR camera, but near IR. Has nothing to do with heat. But a picture would have to be printed with colors that look the same under NIR illumination. And it should not be too hard to implement a 3D scanner, if not already done, to also recognize the shape of the face.
@@jepulis6674 a person isn't going to have a picture of you on hand if they're trying to take the gun from you. And they probably won't know how it works anyways. But if it uses an IR camera and laser grid like the Kinect and iPhone use, it would be able to detect depth too and a photo wouldn't work.
The design of the gun puts me in mind of the standard side arm from the Doom reboot and also the 10mm from the Fallout series. The identification feature puts me in mind of those used by Judges in the Judge Dredd movie. It really has a movie or video game look to it.
I'd say the Dominator from Psycho Pass is probably the closest in terms of design, especially accounting for the camera. Sure, it's pointing the wrong way but a frag is a frag.
At fist I though this idea seems useless in a home defence situation, which it is. Then I thought about how many accidental/negligent discharges occur due to people not knowing a round is chambered. People thinking they are empty, when they are not causes large percentage of accidents. Some kind of sensor to detect this might be a good idea if the idea is to create a very safe firearm that is difficult to misuse.
By not requiring an Internet connection to work, and not attempting to do more than it needs to, it avoids the two failings practically every other "smart" device out there. An actually smartly designed smart device, never thought I'd see the day.
Yeah, too many companies have corrupted the idea of "smart" devices to mean "connected to a datamining server". There are countless devices that can benefit from computer aided control, but very few that benefit from an internet connection.
Man, imagine a gun that doesn't fire until it has phoned home for the session to deliver its stream of user and usage data. Then it plays an ad after you shot someone.
@@Reindeer-ry2lf The hell? This gun isnt for apocalypse scenarios. Prepper-headass take right there. "What if we get emp'd" well shit guess you have a paper weight, and your car is one too. 😂 And yes your significant other can use it if its programmed to them. It supports more than one user. Attention deficit moment, can't pay attention to video.
@@Reindeer-ry2lf I can't even unlock my phone half the time. If I have time to get a sight picture for the camera... What if they're closer than my arm's length. Yeah no thanks. Or what if there's a light drizzle... Maybe arm teachers with these since they're unwilling to admit there's a problem with society.
You should give one of these to ‘The Lockpicking Lawyer’ and see if he can work out a hack or bypass for its security systems. He’s done a few videos on gun safes etc, it’d be right up his alley.
@@markoredano9141well, it's caused good intentions but lack of critical thinking. They do genuinely believe gun control will save lives, even if they're wrong, they genuinely believe that lives will be saved. Saving lives is a noble goal. It's just being done by idiots. If you think saving lives is not a noble goal, go start a fight with a fireman.
@@markoredano9141 it's not "controlling guns", the intent is more "ensuring that the guns people buy are safe". Same reasoning that puts seatbelts in cars and labels on food. Like, the bill *failed* to do this. But it had honest intent.
@@pavarottiaardvark3431 The guns people buy are safe, the people are not safe. Trying to put limits on the guns themselves is idiotic, especially when, as Biofire themselves have stated, this gun does not suit all use cases. The New Jersey law would've forced guns like this to be shoehorned into all applications.
@@liyifennand it should fit all use cases, because the end user is unpredictable. The MAIN selling point of this gun is that a gun-safe is not required. Therefore it becomes a slippery slope. I have teen that's competent enough with electronics that they'd bet that it wouldn't take 10 minutes to bypass this gun's safety, and fire it using it's own hardware, not by fooling it into thinking it's an authorised user, but by hardwiring the trigger to the sear directly. Everything it needs to function is there, it just has an electronic system that scans biometric data to decide whether or not it wants to ALLOW the completion of the circuit. That portion of the circuit will have no say, it will show he's unauthorised, but it WILL shoot when the trigger is pulled, because the trigger is directly actuated - hardwired, and no longer subject to biometric authentication. It's just an e-trigger then, like you'd find on a paintball marker. That is weak security my friend, and it should be regulated into oblivion. So unless this is a sealed unit with potted electronics that cannot be opened/serviced/repaired, it is a bad idea, and if it is, it becomes a disposable gun with planned obsolescence, and nobody wants that...
This reminded me of the Lawgiver pistol from the Dredd movie. Only that one used DNA authentication and exploded like a grenade if anyone but the authorised Judge attempted to use it.
I'm an electronics technician and have soldered and assembled hardware for various military programs and defense contractors. Biofire approached me about a job proposition last year due to my training and work history, but I didn't reach the final round of interviews because they got some dudes in with decades more experience. Glad to see they managed to get their design into functional market model.
@@NerdGlassGamingPA For real. One scary thing with Class 3 and Mil Spec hardware is that it's not truly tested until it needs to operate in a true life scenario. That's one of the reasons the quality standard for things like jet engines, satellites, and weapons is so high and uncompromising. They want it spec'd to precise increments and verified, and tested and re-tested over and over again, with many redundancies in between, before they send it into operation where someone's life will hang in the balance.
@@BigStrap Thanks, dude. To stay afloat I usually take temp contracts if I'm between regular jobs. I got something more permanent lately, and it's mostly private sector, so a bit less stress than some of the defense contractors.
The Unity is a compact, .45 caliber, semi-automatic, magazine-fed handgun. Due to its simplicity, inexpensive materials, relatively high fire rate , and 12 round magazine capacity, it is a well sought after and popular pistol in Night City.
Cool technology, eh. No. You have it in your phone. It may work in perfect conditions, but you don’t get to choose the conditions. The judge dread gun litterally takes a DNA sample via blood and instantly compares it to a database every time you pick up the gun.
I wonder how hard it will be to repair it if the electronics are damaged? Anyone who's watched Right To Repair videos know how hard some manufacturers make it to fix your own stuff. I hope you can have it repaired at a shop and not just authorized dealers
The part is likely only buyable from manufacturer, its not a conventional gun after all. unless the owner is tech jockey or such then I don't see it being repaired by your everyday joe.😅
This would be a rare situation where that's a good thing since it means if the gun gets stolen the person who stole it will have a much harder time bypassing all the checks
I'm sure the safety system could be broken electrically, but probably not within seconds by an attacker or by a curious small child, which is all that really matters for that use-case. I could see it being useful for some police and prison use in certain situations too, just for preventing someone grabbing it and instantly using it on the carrying officer.
I hope the finger print sensor is high quality and can't be beat with a kid's detective kit lifting off prior prints. Also, the facial recognition..........idk man. They need to be as good as Apple for that to be secure. A cheap facial recognition system can be beat stupid easy.
Anyway, it's a moot point, because I live in California, and ironically, this gun is not legal to sell here because it is not on the safe handgun roster and cannot be added to the safe handgun roster.
That standard usb-C just screems "hack me", but that will take time as you said. That facial recognition thing is what I'm worried about. Most phones won't unlock if you have sun glasses for example. If biometrics work 100% in all posible situations than I say it is ok for some application.
It’s nice to see that they are upfront about it’s intended design use. Saying “we designed it for this specific use case” instead of pushing it as something it’s not says a lot of good about the company
@@mybossisdrunk there's nothing to "fall for", the design makes sense for this use case. It's not trying to be a magical all-in-one super gun for everybody from nightstands to cops to prison guards to military, it's designed to sit on a charger and shoot when authenticated.
I'm a little sad that given the features of this sidearm, you didn't register the gun under the name 'Dredd' The security features this thing has seem to be the pre-cursor to the infamous 'Lawgiver' from Judge Dredd fame.
Biggest hurdle I think will be that it's a very unproven platform. Hard to stomach being an early adopter when you can buy a Glock for cheap and know it'll go bang if you need it to.
"not only am I going to drop gun law news that might surprise you, I'll even give you a second to confirm it-- hell I'll even give you all the info you need to find it easily." Never change, Ian.
I appreciate that there's an easy way to attach to the USB port without looking down the barrel of the gun. Even as a Smart Gun, it's obeying firearm safety.
Lol, yeah that could be an issue if you had to dick with a usb-c cable right below the muzzle. Docking station was definitely the way to go, but I think a non-physical terminal, electromagnetic charging solution would make even more sense. Probably saving that for the Gen 2... Gotta leave some features out so that people are forced to upgrade! Wouldn't be a "smart" device without planned obsolescence...
Just wait until Apple comes out with the new "iShoot" smart handgun. It will require you to install a barcode on your temple that is read by the barcode reader below the barrel of the gun. To activate it you will have to "gently" pull the trigger halfway through. It will be an inovative system that allows the gun to tell it is being held by its rightfully purchased owner. Stellar, sleek, and very human design. :)
@@mfallen6894 a plug is way easier to implement, and trying to add too many features to your first ever product is a good way to miss your planned launch date and run out of money before you're able to manufacture a single production unit
Just want to thank you for mentioning the quirks and it's a prototype. So many TH-camrs getting early access content tend to fail to understand their words have weight and even something as minor as not stating it's still in development can have massive impact on public perception of the end product.
@Perky Bellsprout No troll. Someone would just do a home break in while the home owner is away and then take the weapon to a hacker to jail break the gun. It will happen
@@reaper_exd7498 this won't happen, there are enough regular pistols around that people can steal without having to worry about taking them to a hacker. Once they realize it's a bio gun they'll probably just toss it in a lake.
@@leeboi222 no. They just remotely disable it using the same back door the government regulated to be installed. “Beep Beep” on a little Arduino board and your gun no longer works.
It looks like an early version Lawgiver. Or rather, somewhat similar to the versions in the movies. Presumably missing the explosion when the ID fails to match.
Good point. The Judge Dredd lawgiver firearms also put the DNA fingerprint of the authenticated user on every round fired. This sort of applies to the Bio-fire gun too. If a corpse is found with a bullet in it that can be matched to your specific authenticated gun then that's pretty damn solid evidence that YOU shot them.
Honestly, even if you can easily get past the lock, it will always take two things; time and knowledge. That's all it needs. Make it hard enough to be not worth it. And since it's uncommon, no thief or mugger would reasonably know about it
the problem is, once this thing hits the market its only a matter of time before a hack comes out. There's nothing easier to steal than something that someone thinks cant be stolen
@@JimTrivial Not the problem and not the purpose of it. A home invader who gets to the gun before the homeowner is not going to instantly be able to use it on the homeowner, A criminal who takes a law enforcements officers weapon will not be able to use it on the officer, A mugger who forces it from a victim can not now use it on them. And it's MAIN purpose have a ready to fire weapon that can't instantly be used by the wrong person.
@@JimTrivial As far as I know from another video, the gun's computer is isolated from the outside, accessible only by a USB port. Sure, you can pre-program a USB stick or something to hack the gun...but that would realistically take a hot second (or minutes even) for the hack to succeed and hack into the gun. That's if the non-owner had such a hack ready in the first place. Given how much time it would take to break the gun security as well as the action of inserting the USB, I'd say the gun is a dud in a fight or a struggle if it's not used by the owner. The legit fingerprint unlock, on the other hand, apparently happens faster than the person can even begin to aim the gun.
@@shaler950 Exactly, people are missing the point here, its not impenetrable, nothing is, not even a 10k mounted in the ground gun safe. but your not going to break into this without alot of fiddling, which means your guns not going to be used aganst you and MOST IMPORTANTLY, considering its the cause of most non intentional gun deaths in the US, your kids not going to grab it and turn your failure to secure a weapon into a tragedy.
The green authenticated light on front sight post is operationally the best feature. You KNOW when the pistol is ready for you to use. Their setup application and health status appear to be well thought out as well. Very cool.
@@alexmoore1506 The same way a regular gun can get jammed or misfire if it's not maintained properly. Notice that the console specifically has an issues notification window. The owner just has to check up on the gun's health every now and then.
@@DawidKov I have to disagree with you on that. There is a big difference between a mechanical malfunction and an electrical/system malfunction. One can be fixed in a matter of seconds and the other is an issue that would require a deeper inspection that typically can’t be fixed in the heat of the moment, which completely defeats the purpose of a defensive firearm.
@@ThatSoonerGuy That's why you keep the gun in its console state so it's health is constantly monitored. The gun won't randomly develop an electrical issue right when you need it too. Yes Murphy's Law exists but if the gun isn't doing anything, then nothing is going to happen. I haven't had ANY electronic device in my life randomly crap itself out without an event causing that device to die. If the system was built to be inside a firearm and tested as such, then the system will do just fine inside of a firearm. As far as mechanical failures, there are still mechanical failures that can happen in a gun that can cause an issue that can't be fixed by field stripping/re-racking the gun. You are thinking waaaayyyyyy too negatively about this. It's a non-issue.
I had all the usual complaints lined up when I saw another quick video of two retired SEALs shooting some of these, but it looks like they've already thought of and dealt with all of them. At this juncture, the biggest complaint I can think about is that if this takes off, we're going to see a lot of second-rate copies that do have all the usual issues that crop up every time someone tries to make a smart gun - and I feel that's the highest praise one could think of for one.
I know it's designed for home defense, but that generally seems like a good interior gun. I could even see it be good for shooting classes and general gun education since it's so easy to add and remove authorized users.
Buy a 1911 in 1911 you can still use it in 2023. Buy a phone in 2019 no longer works in 2023, what are the odds of this still "Smartgun" working in five years yet alone in 100 years?
If this thing had an ammunition count and a shotometer, it would be cool af. But for being the first commercial egun, it seems pretty solid for it's intended purpose. Edit: Definitions. Ammunition count: Displays the total remaining cartridges in the magazine and chamber. Shotometer: For the purpose like an odometer. A sensor or system that records the total number of cartridges the gun has ever fired. This number would be displayed on the weapon or weapon interface.
@@TheA1ternative That makes sense and they were smart to keep it to it's core purpose. It may be wishful thinking but I believe ammo counts and shotometers are a practical feature for eguns. Of course, given they are reliable and don't hinder performance etc.
My first thought was the fact it's a fixed barrel system, meaning most of the surface at the top doesn't cycle when the gun does Which immediately makes me think "oh, you could slap an optic there, regardless of even having a large footprint" However with the front sight illuminating green to notify the user it's ready for use, that is sort of an issue. Maybe if the rear sight also lit up? But, that's still trying to make it too "extra", considering the intentions for the design
Really? How is the grouping. Trigger pull? How is the trigger reset? Single or double action? Holster options? 1000-5000 round review. What about cleaning and maintenance? There are still so many questions unanswered.
@@myhusyatemysandwich4591 So the double/single action thing originally threw me for a loop, but after considering it, I'd have to assume that it's a single-action trigger, acting only as an mechanical/electronic sear. I would assume the rest of the action would not be felt in the release. But that's just my assumption from what I've seen here.
@@myhusyatemysandwich4591 forgotten weapons has never been a review channel that has always been a firearms technology channel. This is a good video about firearms technology. Currently developmental technology. The reason Ian makes a good ambassador is because she communicates interesting information very clearly and consumably.
Building both the electronic side AND the gun side from the ground up is something special all on it's own, that it works so well is another level of cool!
Smart gun can break even if it has face and finger magic. Sometimes it say friend, but not friend, or no say friend when it is friend. Bad guys can make magic to open gun or make gun stop working. Also, gun may stop working if parts no work. Gun need power, or it no work. Make sure smart gun work well.
@@Asghaad even mechanical guns malfunction, and this is a prototype, its not full production yet, you're probably more prone to malfunctions by buying a taurus than one of those when its fully developed
@@splintergp no, modern handgun from reputable manufacturer does not malfunction twice in one magazine... Even one or two malfunctions in THOUSAND+ rounds is unacceptable today... And all they are doing is putting extra crap that can malfunction on obviously BADLY designed firearm ...
The initial bypass will likely take some fairly clever sleuthing of the circuit board diagrams and software but after I imagine you will just need soldering skills to set up a bypass on certain electronic parts.
If you took it from Ian, couldn't you just turn the gun around while holding it, so the camera sees Ians face? then it would authenticate and you could shoot him?
@@mikesully110 Well the camera is at the rear of the gun so if you're pointing the rear of the gun to his face then...well you're...pointing the barrel towards you...
So if there is no link between the trigger and the sear, and the sear is just released electronically, does that mean a software bug could potentially fire the gun by it self?
I really really like how it's all offline and the computer can be stored separately from the stand/charger. That means you can lock the device in a safe and be sure nobody is gonna sneak some malware in it.
@@hanshubert6675 The gun is offline, not the computer, which is connected in Wi-Fi, but only if you decide to do so. Anyways, connecting to the internet won't make malwares magically appears on any computer :v It takes a lot of knowledge, and it means retroengineering the software of the computer, finding any flaw that could exist Since it appears to be running on Android (Google keyboard), I doubt that it's vulnerable in this way. The USB port, on the other hand...
@@levanane2413 android software is pretty vulnerable as we can see with their phones and how you can accidentally download malware from the google play store pretty easily. Malware that can affect your whole phone. Should have used apple's software if possible it's been proven countless times to have way better security.
Ian, I found this channel in 2016, I was about 19yo. I’m not too articulate and not too sure you’ll ever see this, but I wanted to sincerely thank you for inspiring me in this hobby, the pursuit of knowledge in firearm & firearm history. Your ability to convey all this information in a consistent, non-biased & effective means is just beyond remarkable, especially in the current media vs. what I remember media being years past. thanks again, and I’ll be viewing until I’m 86’d. Cheers!
That's awesome I too love the mechanics of firearms and all the different types of actions they have and put more into learning about all things firearms than I ever did in school 😊
I feel you... I've started watching Ian in like 2013 or something.. back then I wasn't that into TH-cam and even today I'm not even into guns... but the Ian's storytelling and mechanical aspects keep me rivetted to this channel :)
Very interesting, and a very good use for biometric security... And I'm glad it's not automatically connected to the internet - the idea of an IoT firearm is terrifying. XD
The 10 mm pistol is a staple of wasteland combat
Piper liked that.
Highly reliable and highly available, it has been a staple of wastelander kit since the day the bombs fell.
(wearenotliableforanymishapswitholdammunition)
Damn, that's actually really uncanny lol
I knew it looked familiar. I couldn't quite place it.
War, war never changes
Ironically, the 'trying to be the next big everything' is a hazard of a lot of technological products, be they engineering or the next big 'killer app'. I don't know why it becomes so strongly fixated in the minds of designers for so many things, kudos to Biofire to realizing the trap that can be. The recognition speed really was impressive. VERY glad that its all stored locally, no wifi. Though I can see somebody exploiting the USB not to break it, but to try and run DOOM on their gun.
Accelerometers to move, trigger to shoot.
"[...] 'trying to be the next big everything' is a hazard of a lot of technological products, be they engineering or the next big 'killer app'. I don't know why it becomes so strongly fixated in the minds of designers for so many things [...]" There's a very specific reason for that on tech industry: It's creation of monopoly on a standard of design. When a tech company comes up with the "big thing", they essentiatly set up a standard by which the entire market will follow, that can be a very wide range which can come from businesses pratice to actual architecture and design of products (for example on the first we have MS-DOS vs DR-DOS, thanks to a very smart move from Microsoft, PCs that were sold came with a license to use MS-DOS whenever they liked, basically, you wouldn't need to buy the operating system, meanwhile DR-DOS was sold separately since Digital Research couldn't get this type of contract worldwide, this is the reason why you can download Windows 10 for free now and also why pretty much every PC software follows the standard design of Office and why Microsoft holds a monopoly operating system [there's Apple, but Mac is only a thing in the USA, outside It's dominated by Microsoft and one of the reasons why It's a nightmare to find compatible software with Mac] and why your PC [if It wasn't Mac] came with a Windows; for the second we've got the monopoly of Intel on processors, thanks to this we've got that every PC follows the same architecture regardless of the who produced the CPU, this is very handy since It allows for inputs producers to base their production lines on a single standard and propose competition [It's more competitive on basic hardware, but It's monopolized on the end of the industry, that gives companies like Intel the power to stabilish price of their products AND the price they will be paying on their suppliers, this is quite literally the heaven of any company, they would need to actively try to ever see their balance on the red]). It pretty much sets an standard in the industry for other companies to follow and that gives a gigantic headstard for who came up with the idea (examples: Microsoft with PCs, Apple with smartphones, UBER with service apps, TH-cam with free streaming videos, Intel with processors) since other companies will have to study the competitor and come up with their way of doing without copyright infringement, combine that with the fact that tech industry is extremelly onerous (meaning that It requires credit from banks to work, softwares and and new hardwares can take several years to come to the market makes so that companies won't see any operational income, that's the pratice of "seed sale", "IPO", etc. are so important, It can define if the products will ever see the light of day or not) we've got the perfect storm for an "all or nothing" business pratice since conservative practices (minimal risk, for example try to come up with a very limited product with low development time and cost would solve the onerosity since It would generate income, but these products would aways be on the margin of any serious market since at best would be a niche market, they would never have a market share) will inevitably make companies stay as small a competitor.
Not sure how much of all this applies to firearms since I really don't know a whole lot about them, but this is mostly the reason why tech companies do what they do (well, the ones that try to enter the market). Can't wait to see Doom running on this gun, though.
If you're interested, Schumpeter goes on this type of economy, can't say much more since I never read all of It, It mostly comes from a professor in my university that studies this theme.
That sounds like a scary version of DOOM if you aren't the one playing.
I play doom on my gun to shoot guns in doom while I shoot my gun to decide of my neighbours doom
@tomisabum, it's so politicians can sit back in their luxury homes, and decide who you can and can't shoot. If you aim the gun at a favored bad guy, they shut it off. If they can turn you're car off, the only thing left is you're self defense. Help me reinforce a concept, Tech-Amish: Today the check engine - light in my truck came on. After a brief inspection, it went off? I was confused, so I went back to the gas tank, and intentionally unscrewed the cap, and left it on sideways. I went back, and surprise, the check engine light is on again! I wonder how many people spent money by sending their cars in for a check-up when all they had to do is screw the cap on in good alignment? The key word is, "analogue". Us Tech Amish folk reinforce analogue component usage in our homes, car's, and guns. I saw a thing the other day where a computer hacker hacked into someone's car, and had all kind of fun with the gadget's. In the near future, if you say something distasteful about a protected species, like pedophiles, someone will intentionally wreck you're car for a racist statement! But with a little elbow grease, and determination, you can build a 68 Camaro with only "out-dated" electronics. All tube guitar amplifiers are the only thing left where you have the option to stay old-school. Soon, they will say tubes are racist, and the only amps will be digital! If you play masculine music, they will hack you're amp!
Even if this doesn't take off, I guarantee it will be used as a movie prop for years to come. It's got sci-fi space gun written all over it.
Movie companies have already done smart gun props, usually they're just regular pistols with a glowing "hand scanner" looking screen wrapped around the guard, and random little lights scattered across the gun that go from red to green when the user holds onto the grip
Looks like the designer was a big fan of the Fallout games
I don't have a need for a smart gun, but I'll probably still get this (unless the price is truly egregious) for the sci-fi factor alone
My initial thought was Judge Dredd.
I swear I saw it in TimeCop starring Jean Claude (super splits) Van Damme
I like this gun, it knows its flaws and problems and it knows its strengths and protections. It doesn't try to overstep these boundaries, it doesn't try to play you an ad after a magazine, you literally just pick it up and use it like normal.
Until the soldering loosens after a few recoil impacts and it decides that it's user isn't themselves anymore.
@@JTAmina its unlikely for that to happen as there's no heavy components on the boards and anything connected to the gun would use wires to connect back to the main board. Not only that but this gun wouldn't get that much use since its mainly for home defense or a situations that rarely happen where you only fire a few rounds. I do like the way you're thinking though, its always important to look at things critically especially for guns like these where a problematic component could mean the gun will not fire when you need it to.
@@JTAmina Why do you imagine they wouldn't test how the circuitry interacts with being fired several hundred times?
@@T1GIB Possibly because all of the imperatives in consumer products manufacturing press towards the continual cheapening of every mass-produced good to provide the appearance of constant growth? Sure, the carefully hand-assembled prototype will be tested for thousands of discharges... but when the value engineeres and MBA managers keep demanding ever cheaper production costs, do you think they're going to validate every design change with tens of thousands of dollars of additional testing?
"C'mon, we're just changing the screw-retention of the mainboard for an industry standard heated-staking process. Everyone does this and it saves like $.06 per replaced fastener. What could really go wrong? Besides most people aren't going to shoot this thing more than a couple dozen times anyhow. No sense making it more durable than it has to be"
I cannot wait until you have to watch a 5 second ad before every reload, that would be the funniest thing ever
I hadn't considered the main use-case being for home defense for people with kids/family, but that makes so much sense. I thought this would be more used by guards/cops to prevent danger of their gun being grabbed at and used. I wonder how much adoption it will see by law enforcement.
What if another officer needs to use the gun in an emergency.
@@janneskoneczny4989 Could possibly have a network of people who can access the department's firearms. Each time the list is updated, the guns, when connected to the department's internet, will update who can access the firearms.
@@doomersnek3878 sounds super complicated. Adding (many) more faces to a face recognition database also slows the system. Would make more sense to use RFID or something for an entire department
It seems to be an expensive gun, i don't know if arming a large quantity of officers with it would be that possible
None whatsoever except in woke cities that call for defunding police because they would love seeing officers die from using this novelty pistol...
The front sight turning green is cool. I was wondering how the user would know if the gun was ready
This way: th-cam.com/video/5jDMSK1Vu88/w-d-xo.html
Presumably there is no issue with keeping a full mag and one up the spout. With the gun on the nightstand. The only downside of that from a gunsmithing view is keeping the mainspring cocked for days or weeks on end without the gun being unloaded and the hammer dropped to de-stress the mainspring
@@samrodian919Isnt the whole "compressed springs = bad and wears them" a concept that is debunked as completely false? I get that you are a gunsmith but you could still be wrong. Ive never heard of springs wearing out being compressed. Especially modern day ones. Its the stress of being extended and compressed that causes wear.
@@sebastianriz4703I'm not certain, but I know for a fact that airsoft mags suffer from that issue, even modern ones with high quality springs.
@@yououttapocket Fairly certain modern springs have no issues of degregation while compressed. I assume airsoft mags are made of a weaker spring steel but I never had any issues with my mags. I have a good 5 AR-15 mags fully loaded since 2018 and they aint degrading last I checked. If you have mags from thr 60-70s it will be an issue, or you have mags you use a lot. Which could be why you see airsoft springs wear out quickly.
Given the intended use, I can see this working fairly well. A home defence weapon that focuses on safety for other residents is something I can see taking off as a good extra bit of caution
Unfortunately I don't think it will ever take off. For some reason the majority of gun enthusiasts I've talked to about this absolutely hate smart guns. Even in the case where they are proven to be more reliable.
@@itwasaliens it’s the “government wants to take away your guns” principle…
They think that if this technology takes off, it will be possible for the government to deactivate their guns if they ever want to rebel against the government.
(Sigh) these people can be really paranoid at times…
@@itwasaliensprobably due to the fact that anything 'smart' can be hacked, or at the least it's electronics can fail. By all means, if you choose to use this as yoir home defense firearm then hats off too you!
That being said, don't question the rest of us who are sticking with more tried and true methods of protection.
@@Cakesadamant I don't think you know how "hacking" works.
@@maxgehtdnixan4913 I don't think you understand how irrelevant you actually are.
This probably has good potential for correctional officers. Some prisons don't allow the officers to carry guns because of the risk that inmates could take it and use it. I look forward to seeing this gun in your future videos.
I'd think it would be pretty good for security in general.
I’m surprised this wasn’t designed around law enforcement specifically.
@@my9thaccount140 my guess is that it's bc the barrier to entry, both in terms of what features you need to have and the thing actually being adopted (individual buying it vs whole department/company adopting it), for this purpose is much lower. then once you've shown it's a viable product you can try to expand
just snap off the guard's middle finger to use it, or wave his photo ID badge at the camera
Great observation, I hadn't thought of that. I just couldn't stop thinking about Judge Dredd.
Biofire....it doesn't just blow the lungs out of the body, it also sets them on fire....
There is a very real balance this channel has been consistent at, in terms of acknowledging the very real and very impactful laws around firearms, measured against the absolutely fascinating engineering processes and techniques gunsmiths use to solve problems on a technological level.
You use so many words to say nothing. That paragraph slides off my brain like melting icecream...
The third authentication method asks the user to select all the squares with the stop lights.
This firearm reminds me of the dominator from a sci-fi anime called Psycho-Pass where it one has to authenticate the user as an authorized user and then allows the use of the firearm. Its really cool to see technology catching up to media.
Yeah.
Correct, but I suppose this isn't exactly a stunning endorsement. Y'know, given how it went in Psycho-Pass.
@@trianglemoebius true it would depend on if the company that manufactures it can gain access to your firearm or track it etc. plus how hack proof is it.
I would say it would add another type of “arms race”.
Not really considering Psycho-Pass is a dystopian future where a gun can decide who is psychologically abnormal and the people who do use those guns are themselves deemed as psychologically unstable.
The addition of a lit front sight is super fascinating, way more versatile than tritium vials. I really hope for a lit rear sight in the production model.
i was thinking the same thing, two led dots on the rear sight that correspond with front sight just seems like a no-brainer, but it is a prototype after all
@@djentisnotagenre_ probably tricky to get power up onto a moving part like the slide
@@McMuster Only needs to power the slide lights while in battery[sic], in fact could be a good indication of being out of battery[sic], such as a feed failure blocking full return. A couple of simple contacts would do the trick.
It could be nice, but it might also be an intentional choice not to clutter the sights - 3 LEDs that likely don't have a reliable means of automatically changing the brightness could just end up with the 3 LEDs washing each other out in a dark room. It'd likely add complexity to the slide as well, requiring a cable or spring contacts to get power to the rear LEDs.
its a really intuitive indicator too, doesn't require looking anywhere else and provides instant assurance that the gun is active
13:00 Hey, the front sight lights up. Nice touch.
I like the idea of a home defense gun that doesn't *need* a lock. Something like this is exactly what I want for my bedside firearm. I plan on getting a safe once I have children, and I can't stand the idea of not being able to access protection when things go bump in the night.
All guns should be locked if they're not going to be used/at the ready, but this is a nice alternative.
Now game writers will have an easier way to explain why you can only pick up weapons off of some of your enemies.
MGS did this in the early 2000's. Its a key part of the tech that leads to "not ID tagged" weapons having a black market in the games.
Metal Gear Solid 4 was way ahead of us all.
Ideas like home and personal defense and avoiding misuse or mishandling by others is a pretty big plus, but I wouldn't be surprise the suspicion or hassle over the guns' computer will be a big turn off.
Ya the big problem with something like this, who do you believe will have the option to turn it off for use when they want. Maybe not this model, but a gov shutoff switch will be included at some point. Bet on it. Might be the safest bet ever made.
@@Tyler.Rude. kinda like thermostats being controlled by the government.
@@Tyler.Rude. if it's not connected to the internet no one can do anything with it
@@Tyler.Rude. please, its obvious that the govt is never going to come for anyones guns, even the most unhinged of us. We live on a PvP server, good luck out there.
So far, as demonstrated by Ian (under, admittedly, ideal circumstances), setup and use do not appear to be any hassle at all.
That is a cool and innovative product. I don't think it is or should be a replacement for traditional fire arms, but it shows a great deal of potential for its specific purpose. That is all that one can ask of a tool - which is what a gun is.
In many cases, it should replace your home defence/fast approach side arm, as there are many curious kids that every year take their parents guns and make some bad mistakes
@@liansandoval8866 That doesn't happen if they don't know the safe combination.
@@liansandoval8866 Exactly my thoughts. There are way too many shootings in today's society, so I can only hope that this gun is the pioneer for Biolocked weapons.
@@m.w.2401 You assume they have a weapon in a safe. When in reality most have their weapons at fast reach in an emergency case
@@m.w.2401 I'm not going to keep a home defense weapon in the safe, lmao. Unless you think the burglars breaking in are going to pause for you to run over to your safe and open it.
It's been years since I've seen a forgotten weapons video (due to my time on TH-cam and tastes changing)
But it's still so amazing to see GunJesus spreading knowledge to this day. The most informative firearm videos I've watched (good being from down under where anything that makes a loud noise brands you a terrorist)
And also the inspiration for my growing a moustache
Amazing channel that puts in some good work
I have the utmost respect for the company undertaking such a tremendous challenge but I think most gun enthusiast (me included) just wont trust this kind of stuff on both sides of the issue, I would not trust it NOT TO FIRE when handled by a non authorized user (lets say a child) so I'd still would take the same safety precautions I'd take with a normal gun, like not leaving it loaded and ready around kids or other people (defeating it's purpose) and in the other hand that implies that it's hard to trust it to work reliably in a scenario where I need it TO FIRE in a self defense situation. I might be wrong and our mindset might change in time but most firearms users I know are very into safety and reliability and I think this fails against both perceptions (even if it's just that, a mere perception).
Hi I'm Ian McCollum, and this is the Biofire, "smart gun." I reviewed a prototype of this weapon twenty years ago, and I thought it had some neat features. Unfortunately they only ended up making about twelve hundred of these guns before going bankrupt. So it's a interesting collectable oddity. One thing to note is after going bankrupt a film armory company bought all of the remaining stock to use as a sci-fi gun movie prop.
And all are specifically to be used in films Alec Baldwin acts in to prevent any more "accidents"
@ThePwNzclan the armourer temporarily authorising Baldwin for twenty seconds for one take like
This wouldn't surprise me. Honestly, I can see this thing being WAY too expensive for the target audience, and NATURALLY the gun lovers will reject it. All these sensors and cameras and stuff are going to make it inaccessible, defeating the purpose.
@@jesuszamora6949 its $1500. People pay more for bone standard guns
@@jesuszamora6949 The sensors, cameras etc are already pretty mature technology. It's all basically repurposed smart phone tech, and that already has the bonus of high volume production. Besides, have you seen what some new parents pay for baby-related stuff? $1500 for a pistol that baby can't accidentally use. It'll sell like hot cakes in its target market.
I wish you'd do a collaboration with Lock Picking Lawyer. He has shown has the majority of gun locks are an absolute joke. They can be opened with a twig. There are a lot of guns out there with terrible locks on them and their are many tutorials out there on how to open them without even needing a lockpick. If we can mandate a safety in every gun, we can mandate a lock built in to every gun as well. How the fuck is a safety a thing but not a way to lock that safety on with a key? For the most part, troubled youths who are going to commit violence don't get their guns from the black market, they get them from their negligent parents. But is it really negligence if they think that their gunlocks and lockboxes aren't so insanely easy to get into. Gunlock companies are not concerned with preventing a tragedy, they are concerned with profits, so they make the cheapest shittiest locks possible and mass market them.
I don't think this is even a path we need to go down to begin with. Biometric weapons are not nearly as necessary as some are led to believe. Gun knowledge and proper storage are the only thing you really need to ensure children can't get a gun and harm someone. My concern is, like the New Jersey law that isn't on the books anymore, other anti 2A states can always begin to require biometric components on all guns.
I think this idea would work great in the prison systems where guards could be armed without the possibility of prisoners taking their weapons
Kinda like the videogame riddick escape from butcher bay
Good point.
That's what I was thinking, too! Prisons or maybe even in a plane's cockpit. Could just put the authentication software into tazers, too, for the same but usually non-lethal results.
Prisons getting new technology? Don't make me laugh.
A person of culture I see
Good point.
I really hope it keeps the cool look for the final production model. Also literally the first time I have thought i want this type of firear, not because I atually meet their use case, but because it looks really cool and I really love that they actually thought of so many different scenarios and design elements.
For its intended use of nightstand gun / home defense / safe-for-people-with-kids, it looks like a fantastic idea
Get a lockbox, and at 6 or 7 years old, teach the child what a firearm is and how it operates. Problem solved.
@@bigguy7353 except in reality, no this doesn't solve all problems. Kids make bad judgement calls. Lockboxes are slow and clunky if you suddenly wake up to an intruder in your room because you're a heavy sleeper etc... I can go on and on. Don't be so dense.
@@bigguy7353 children are very good at not learning and being stubborn
I would know I was one
@@SusSpooder I saw a video from lockpicklawyer recently where he had a lock box with a simple code you could punch in. It also had a manual key part for itf you forgot to change batteries or whatever, but perfectly suitable to stop a child, you can choose any gun you want for whatever type of shooter you are/ are comfortable with, and if you know the code it took one second. I really don't see how this pistol is better than this option.
Till you forget to charge it up and the gun won't fire
I think I really like its application for if you have roommates or kids as a fighting tool to get to the gun safe. That's about it
I'd love to see this with a dot sight that changes color with authentication
and a white light
It's actually a very simple fix: a prism optic that only allows the reticle to be illuminated when authenticated
Disco time:)
@@upkz762 A prism optic would definitely not be necessary, you could pretty easily do this with a reddot. Much as I love prisms, I don't know if they're quite ready for pistol optics.
Geniuenly, by far my favourite thing about this whole thing is the Lightup Front sight! The rest is also cool, but i love that little detail!
I'd like if the rear sights lit up as well, to be kinda like fiber optic sights
@@jmjedi923 I was thinking that too but it would probably be really hard to route power reliably to the side to power them. Maybe tritium rear sights...
I see it being particularly attractive for use among prison guards, or employed in platforms designed for riot control. Basically, environments where the authorized user might be at risk of being overrun and having their weapon taken. One might say that a situation like that is already the worst case scenario, and yes it would an awful situation, but having a firearm render itself inert would greatly mitigate the threat level of one of these situations.
I'm curious as to how a battery replacement will happen, given it's likely to be the electronic first component to fail.
Are you faster, and more certain, to deactivate the gun's security or load a mag? They can always put the law back on the books.
Did you really have to blast my speakers with that first clip and then talk at a tenth of the volume right afterwards?
I would love to see the lockpicking lawyer get his hands on this.
yes! i second this.
What if I need to defend myself against the KGB while wearing SCUBA gear (again)?
That requires a laser in your watch.
I think this is an incredible concept for a home defense weapon and with further reaching applications like private security.
Man.... That's got some cool tech, you could also make the rear sights light up as a loaded chamber indicator, and with a fixed barrel you don't need a booster for a suppressor
@@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz why not both? If you can set up a good locking device like a lever delay you could change out calibers with a barrel and slide replacement and still keep the fixed locked barrel for QD cans. Because the fix barrel means you don't have to mount directly to the barrel. The suppressor can be a attached to the frame via a regular rail.
@@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz oh! Well... The fining mech is tied directly into the electronics... Do you think you could make a set up where the main information module like a USB essentially, the part that grants permission to use it could be interchangeable? Or do think it would have to be something more mechanical for a SN to frame transfer?
Now we need to evolve this into a retrofit kit
I imagine that once they've got this fully worked out, the next iteration would be some form of shotgun. I hear those are still popular defence items.
Or even rifles, you never know
@@enraikow6109 a smart rifle sounds like it has aim assists 😅
I guess the only downside to all these 'smart' weapons is the weight increase due to small computers attached to it.
@@motokaichou2010 that's basically a non-issue. How much do you think an apple watch would weigh if you removed the thick glass screen and backplate? Probably only a few grams at most, and this thing needs even less onboard tech than that.
@@none-ro9dzI’m not sure if that’s quite accurate, the watch has very few components, this will still need the sensors and mechanism to fire the weapon in addition to the processor. That said I do agree that the weight increase would be inconsequential for its intended use case.
Wait, roommate having a gun. Geez, never thought of that possibility as a person who lives in a country where we don't think we need firearms to defend ourselves. That's just scary idea that almost random person living in same house with you has a loaded gun in their room... Damn
Even if that New Jersey law is off the books currently, the farther this technology gets developed, the more likely it is for states to start requiring all new guns to be smart guns.
Then just fight the law
I was wondering about the liability impact of smart guns on the market. Once one is marketed other manufacturers will have to comply or be driven out of business. SawStop is a similar case to what can happen liability wise
which shouldn't be an issue once multiple users can be set for each weapon and they have a 98-99 of a 100 reliability to authenticate. No gun is 100 of 100 all the time.
@@publicdomain4890 it doesn't matter if it's a problem or not. I should be able to choose if I want this or not.
@@The_John_Highway you DO realize that doing so takes YEARS to work through the court system. For example the one that recently struck down some of the California Handgun Roster, which included microstamping, took two full years to get to the point where it is now. And it still easily has at least several years before it may even be finally decided. It's simply better to not allow or encourage such things in the first place.
Concerningly, there being an electrical firing mechanism sounds like it would be exceedingly simply to "hack" into firing in an approximation of full-auto. Might be a problem on the horizon if this style of firearm design takes off. Certainly physical modifications have existed, but opening the digital market to do so as well no doubt changes the equation.
Possibly, but that would likely require serious dismantling and electrical knowledge. Since it looks to be built for single fire, auto would likely cause jams. Right now a skilled person can make a full auto sear for a pistol for under $20 in metal and replace the sear in minutes with the right tools, so I would still consider this more secure than current pistols.
The smart gun mandate is gone, for now. As the technology develops, you know it will come back.
The question is, how long before they manage to make the gun measure your psycho-pass?
I'm super impressed by the authentication system. You can tell they got engineers on board that actually knew what they were doing, everything from ease of use to security. I really like the little touch of the LED in the front sight, it's right in your view while using the weapon, and has a second function of, well, being a lit up front sight.
It's simple, reliable, and I can't think of any way to bypass it (you could try to hack it using the USB port, but from how it is designed i assume the gun itself won't allow software modifications unless authenticated).
I really hope the gun itself turns out to be reliable, and even if it's not, the tech may be retrofitted into a different platform.
The convenient storage cradle along with sensors that put it to sleep should make the battery last pretty long too. Great system all around.
The only potential physical bypass i can think of, would be trying to engage the firing mechanism solenoid using a strong magnet, but that's not practical to use, and is possible to prevent by design. I wouldn't give that a great chance of success.
So... your saying someone might 'glock it'?
Looks great in theory, I have a feeling it won't sell however.
I can get parts for my 1915 Beretta...Go figure on this when they go bust.
When it comes to smart guns there will always be those out there that are worried about the collection of biometric data. If any government entity gets a hold of that data there is worry of easy tracking of firearm owners. I understand that since this device doesn't connect to WIFI and the data is encrypted there is no worry for that. My thoughts are about when other manufactures dip their toes in this market, the government setting up legislations that require the collection of this data, or legal loopholes about data collection can be concerning. Currently as we stand someone's data hasn't bee recognized in all aspects of it as private.
In other words, it's government that's the problem. As usual.
You bought the pistol, you've probably given more information to the government in the process of buying the pistol than you've given the pistol in authenticating it. Not to mention that little metal box in your pocket that has literally your entire life logged in it, all day every day.
Relax brother, if the government wants to put you in a big list of gun owners so they can do Comically Evil Things, they're not going to bother using the smart gun to do it.
An amazing move towards self-securing weaponry. This is some hard work, and it looks like it's going well.
These have been around for a decade. The nra lobbied against them
No
@@Kawasaki10rr yes
im a huge gun guy but i pray to god smart guns dont become something similar to a smart car where the features become an issue..otherwise this one is a dope concept
"Your State Approved Home Defense firearm has been disabled by the Government pending Permission of Use for your safety"
They should add a personal tracker if it gets stolen
It won't be reliable if you don't keep the battery charged or when the battery dies. Also, if this ever became more widespreadly used and became a mandate for law enforcement couldn't it be rendered useless with EMP?
This Gun reminds me of the Tamayura in Cyberpunk 2077 where in the future every gun has fingerprint sensor
he looks fr excited that shows how impressive it must be
Cool idea in concept and it makes me excited being closer to Halo type weapons with the integrated electronic components, but all I hear is “too many variables, too many potential failures when my life is on the line”. Mechanical simplicity is still the reining champion in my opinion.
Can’t wait for my self defense weapon to have a subscription service.
Exactly
Doesn’t mean it’s not useful, just not useful for you. For parents? Prison guards? Police? I can certainly see a use for a gun that fires for only one person.
Not only that, if something happens to the owner before he can authenticate another user that gun is a paper weight. If wearing gloves good luck shooting from retention. Hope it can read your face while wearing a mask for covid restrictions if finger print doesn’t read for whatever reason. Don’t drop this thing or you could potentially damage the electronics. Don’t go fishing and accidentally get water in this thing either lol. I could go on and on with the “what ifs” but I’d rather just stick to my common sense guns lol. If New Jersey had a law on the books for this concept that should tell you all you need to know.
This is exactly the reason it's not intended to be your EDC. Mechanical guns will likely always be more trustworthy, hardy and reliable (until we get into the far future of guns with no moving parts). But for people who can't carry a gun because the risk of it being used against them/misused is too high, an electronic gun is better than no gun.
With all electronic, I'm always worried about batterylife and how is it going to function in a cold weather?
When it said smart gun, I thought he was going to talk about the Titan fall 2 smart pistol
Your hoodie over shirt takes the cake.
This is a very cool concept and seems like Biofire have put a lot of work into designing it intelligently. I'll be very interested to see the follow-up video after it hits the market. I always liked the videos about guns with weird early engineering but this is a really cool example of modern firearms engineering.
This gun was designed by a bunch of zoomers that never had to use and maintain a real gun.
Smart guns will always be problematic, because electronics especially solder points hate vibrations and impact. The same problem a lot of modern washing machines are facing. In a gun the impact and vibration is basically x100 so eventually the electronics fail. In a home defense situation, this could be fatal
Should be simple enough to use the trigger switch, to actuate the electronic sear directly. And you have everything you need already available right there. Your just need a small length of wire and a soldering iron
I'd be willing to bet, that it would only require a single wire jumping between the trigger switch and the sear's solenoid (or applicable supplementary high current circuit) to bypass all of that fanciness, since ground would be common. And it will still fire "electronically" it just won't care about authentication. Rather it will still care, but be unable to interfere...
Systems like these will only keep honest people honest.
I feel like this concept would be perfect for a bedside shotgun, since shottys are really the ideal defensive weapons.
Also, I would love to see Lockpickinglawyer do a video tryig to bypass this, and a collab between Ian and LPL would be a dream come true.(I reckon both of them would be interested.)
why is a shotgun the ideal defensive weapon.. you can rack it once and they hear it and go running or something?
@@gahaaa325 it also is The most effective close quarters weapon bar none
You can choose what kind of ammo to use for whatever situation. Buckshot is the classic go-to, but flechettes are good for countering body armour, but not generally ideal for home defense. In a house, you're at close range, so bird shot would actually stoll carry enough energy, while minimizing penetration.(Prally not a good idea to shoot the neighbor through the wall)
Of course, then you have less-lethal munitions, like rubber balls, beanbags, or rock salt. Rock salt has shallow penetration, but from a 12 guage it still packs a wallop, and salt burns like hell, but also stops bleeding. Overall it's pretty certain to stop whoever gets hit with it, but very unlikely to kill them.(All munitions carry some chance of lethality, though.)
It needs to have extra magazines including a 33round magazine.
This is the closest thing to a lockpickinglawer and forgotten weapon collaboration as we'll ever get
Somehow I doubt they want that :) Face id with camera is overridden with a picture. You need fancier stuff for secure stuff
Lmao I’m def subbed to both
@@jepulis6674 it's an IR camera, so you need to heat up your picture)
@@swancrunch no, it's not a far IR camera, but near IR. Has nothing to do with heat.
But a picture would have to be printed with colors that look the same under NIR illumination. And it should not be too hard to implement a 3D scanner, if not already done, to also recognize the shape of the face.
@@jepulis6674 a person isn't going to have a picture of you on hand if they're trying to take the gun from you. And they probably won't know how it works anyways. But if it uses an IR camera and laser grid like the Kinect and iPhone use, it would be able to detect depth too and a photo wouldn't work.
The design of the gun puts me in mind of the standard side arm from the Doom reboot and also the 10mm from the Fallout series. The identification feature puts me in mind of those used by Judges in the Judge Dredd movie. It really has a movie or video game look to it.
I at first thought of the pistol from Halo. I'd love one in polished aluminum because of that...
@KitsuneRogue same. I thought it looked like the magnum too
I'd say the Dominator from Psycho Pass is probably the closest in terms of design, especially accounting for the camera. Sure, it's pointing the wrong way but a frag is a frag.
i hope it has internet, so it totally cannot be hacked whatsoever
Wait for the day I can say "grenade" and my gun switches to explosives.
It would be really cool if it had a round count on it too.
At fist I though this idea seems useless in a home defence situation, which it is. Then I thought about how many accidental/negligent discharges occur due to people not knowing a round is chambered. People thinking they are empty, when they are not causes large percentage of accidents. Some kind of sensor to detect this might be a good idea if the idea is to create a very safe firearm that is difficult to misuse.
Since it's all local, there will be people who jailbreak it and then mod it. It's possible.
Just take the magazine out and check the control holes
This ain't COD. next you be wanting a heart rate sensor
@@alexgrenlie862bruh. Imagine thinking about the future and saying "this ain't CoD"
I bet you think a .308 is still more viable than a 6.5, fudd.
By not requiring an Internet connection to work, and not attempting to do more than it needs to, it avoids the two failings practically every other "smart" device out there. An actually smartly designed smart device, never thought I'd see the day.
That criminals will figure out how to hack, just like our voting machines that shouldn't be connected to the internet.
Yeah, too many companies have corrupted the idea of "smart" devices to mean "connected to a datamining server". There are countless devices that can benefit from computer aided control, but very few that benefit from an internet connection.
That is honestly the most impressive thing about this product, no requiring an internet connection or subscription
Man, imagine a gun that doesn't fire until it has phoned home for the session to deliver its stream of user and usage data.
Then it plays an ad after you shot someone.
Depends on right to repair policy. Analog guns can be serviced, this gun can have a bugg.
Honestly impressed that they developed a decent weapon that is safe for home defense in a family setting that isn't goofy or a peashooter
Warning you are now entering a PvP Zone.
DARK zooone
Good old div 1
Excuse me what happened PvP?
@@Reindeer-ry2lf The hell? This gun isnt for apocalypse scenarios. Prepper-headass take right there. "What if we get emp'd" well shit guess you have a paper weight, and your car is one too. 😂 And yes your significant other can use it if its programmed to them. It supports more than one user. Attention deficit moment, can't pay attention to video.
@@Reindeer-ry2lf I can't even unlock my phone half the time.
If I have time to get a sight picture for the camera... What if they're closer than my arm's length.
Yeah no thanks. Or what if there's a light drizzle...
Maybe arm teachers with these since they're unwilling to admit there's a problem with society.
You should give one of these to ‘The Lockpicking Lawyer’ and see if he can work out a hack or bypass for its security systems. He’s done a few videos on gun safes etc, it’d be right up his alley.
I'm hoping that the solenoid sear can't be activated by putting a neodymium magnet on the side of the gun.
@@faeron8036 I could definitely see that working, but it would likely scramble the electronics and disable the gun
One magnet later….
th-cam.com/video/JDQOvzFetxs/w-d-xo.html
I've seen clips of young children using pictures of there parents to unlock face scanning phones.
That New Jersey law was a perfect example of 'noble intention, terrible legislation'
There's nothing noble about gun controllers
@@markoredano9141well, it's caused good intentions but lack of critical thinking. They do genuinely believe gun control will save lives, even if they're wrong, they genuinely believe that lives will be saved. Saving lives is a noble goal. It's just being done by idiots. If you think saving lives is not a noble goal, go start a fight with a fireman.
@@markoredano9141 it's not "controlling guns", the intent is more "ensuring that the guns people buy are safe". Same reasoning that puts seatbelts in cars and labels on food. Like, the bill *failed* to do this. But it had honest intent.
@@pavarottiaardvark3431 The guns people buy are safe, the people are not safe. Trying to put limits on the guns themselves is idiotic, especially when, as Biofire themselves have stated, this gun does not suit all use cases. The New Jersey law would've forced guns like this to be shoehorned into all applications.
@@liyifennand it should fit all use cases, because the end user is unpredictable.
The MAIN selling point of this gun is that a gun-safe is not required. Therefore it becomes a slippery slope.
I have teen that's competent enough with electronics that they'd bet that it wouldn't take 10 minutes to bypass this gun's safety, and fire it using it's own hardware, not by fooling it into thinking it's an authorised user, but by hardwiring the trigger to the sear directly.
Everything it needs to function is there, it just has an electronic system that scans biometric data to decide whether or not it wants to ALLOW the completion of the circuit. That portion of the circuit will have no say, it will show he's unauthorised, but it WILL shoot when the trigger is pulled, because the trigger is directly actuated - hardwired, and no longer subject to biometric authentication.
It's just an e-trigger then, like you'd find on a paintball marker.
That is weak security my friend, and it should be regulated into oblivion.
So unless this is a sealed unit with potted electronics that cannot be opened/serviced/repaired, it is a bad idea, and if it is, it becomes a disposable gun with planned obsolescence, and nobody wants that...
This reminded me of the Lawgiver pistol from the Dredd movie. Only that one used DNA authentication and exploded like a grenade if anyone but the authorised Judge attempted to use it.
"Intruder!"
Also each bullet had the Judge's DNA trace as an extra safety.
Which would also be very cool, though maybe unnecessarily messy.
@@StressmanFIN too bad those fuckers are all clones created by crypto fascists....
I thought of that too!
Incendiary...
I'm an electronics technician and have soldered and assembled hardware for various military programs and defense contractors. Biofire approached me about a job proposition last year due to my training and work history, but I didn't reach the final round of interviews because they got some dudes in with decades more experience.
Glad to see they managed to get their design into functional market model.
shure
Very cool! Hope you've got a good other job since that one didn't work out.
If it is really functional is yet to be seen I presume.
@@NerdGlassGamingPA For real. One scary thing with Class 3 and Mil Spec hardware is that it's not truly tested until it needs to operate in a true life scenario. That's one of the reasons the quality standard for things like jet engines, satellites, and weapons is so high and uncompromising. They want it spec'd to precise increments and verified, and tested and re-tested over and over again, with many redundancies in between, before they send it into operation where someone's life will hang in the balance.
@@BigStrap Thanks, dude. To stay afloat I usually take temp contracts if I'm between regular jobs. I got something more permanent lately, and it's mostly private sector, so a bit less stress than some of the defense contractors.
The Unity is a compact, .45 caliber, semi-automatic, magazine-fed handgun. Due to its simplicity, inexpensive materials, relatively high fire rate , and 12 round magazine capacity, it is a well sought after and popular pistol in Night City.
And it can also be fitted with a mod that makes all its shots non-lethal….
Honestly this was my first impression. People saying it's like Fallout or Robocop have lost they damn minds 😂
Looks more like the Tamayura than the Unity to be honest.
@@BrowncoatGofAZ Also "Skippy" is available as a free download.
@@inso80 seriously?? I thought you had to buy or find it?
I always wanted my own version of Judge Dredd's Lawgiver, that is pretty cool
Then it's pre-alpha. Lawgiver can change cartridge type and has excellent voice recognition.
Cool technology, eh. No. You have it in your phone.
It may work in perfect conditions, but you don’t get to choose the conditions.
The judge dread gun litterally takes a DNA sample via blood and instantly compares it to a database every time you pick up the gun.
and where is the unauthorised explode function?
@@cpt.spazmo the government will require that added later.
Good luck with the whole “enemies foriegn and domestic” after that.
Hahahah i said the same judge dredds gun hahaha wonder if it talks lmao hahaha be all like “double whammy”
This gives “out of battery malfunction” a whole new meaning.
It would be cool if cycling the action charged the battery.
Alternatively they could put small booster batteries in the mags, that way a fresh mag can charge the internal battery if it's been charged
I think we’re still a couple years away from that, but the potential is exciting
And fires supercharged plasmoids
Small gas turbine in an integrated suppressor
Also make it delay the action that way as well
I wonder how hard it will be to repair it if the electronics are damaged? Anyone who's watched Right To Repair videos know how hard some manufacturers make it to fix your own stuff. I hope you can have it repaired at a shop and not just authorized dealers
The part is likely only buyable from manufacturer, its not a conventional gun after all. unless the owner is tech jockey or such then I don't see it being repaired by your everyday joe.😅
This would be a rare situation where that's a good thing since it means if the gun gets stolen the person who stole it will have a much harder time bypassing all the checks
I would imagine they made the mechanical components easy to disassemble. The electronic components I would assume are more concealed tho
I'm sure the safety system could be broken electrically, but probably not within seconds by an attacker or by a curious small child, which is all that really matters for that use-case.
I could see it being useful for some police and prison use in certain situations too, just for preventing someone grabbing it and instantly using it on the carrying officer.
I hope the finger print sensor is high quality and can't be beat with a kid's detective kit lifting off prior prints.
Also, the facial recognition..........idk man. They need to be as good as Apple for that to be secure. A cheap facial recognition system can be beat stupid easy.
I agree, but the same is true of a quick access safe, and that's been a lot cheaper solution for me.
Anyway, it's a moot point, because I live in California, and ironically, this gun is not legal to sell here because it is not on the safe handgun roster and cannot be added to the safe handgun roster.
What happens when its defeated electronically, used for a murder, and then presented as evidence that only the owner could have fired the gun?
That standard usb-C just screems "hack me", but that will take time as you said. That facial recognition thing is what I'm worried about. Most phones won't unlock if you have sun glasses for example. If biometrics work 100% in all posible situations than I say it is ok for some application.
It’s nice to see that they are upfront about it’s intended design use. Saying “we designed it for this specific use case” instead of pushing it as something it’s not says a lot of good about the company
Man that sure was a common fault in the 80s and 90s, lol.
You fall for that?
The designer is a smart guy. I appreciate that he says he wants it to just be one option of many.
@@Renenko Yeah, that's a much better marketing approach than the solid lies I'm used to seeing.
@@mybossisdrunk there's nothing to "fall for", the design makes sense for this use case. It's not trying to be a magical all-in-one super gun for everybody from nightstands to cops to prison guards to military, it's designed to sit on a charger and shoot when authenticated.
I'm a little sad that given the features of this sidearm, you didn't register the gun under the name 'Dredd'
The security features this thing has seem to be the pre-cursor to the infamous 'Lawgiver' from Judge Dredd fame.
It needs an explosive protection to stop someone else using it. 🙂
@@coreybass3760 okay hotshot
@@john_barnett That's a spicy meat-a-ball
I think it looks remarkably like the Halo CE pistol....
Reminds me of the "Lost in Space" the movie Laser pistol but I still wouldn't want to bet my life or the lives of my family on it‼️👎‼️
Biggest hurdle I think will be that it's a very unproven platform. Hard to stomach being an early adopter when you can buy a Glock for cheap and know it'll go bang if you need it to.
"not only am I going to drop gun law news that might surprise you, I'll even give you a second to confirm it-- hell I'll even give you all the info you need to find it easily." Never change, Ian.
He's a class act.
I appreciate that there's an easy way to attach to the USB port without looking down the barrel of the gun. Even as a Smart Gun, it's obeying firearm safety.
obeying firearm safety sounds pretty smart to me.
Lol, yeah that could be an issue if you had to dick with a usb-c cable right below the muzzle. Docking station was definitely the way to go, but I think a non-physical terminal, electromagnetic charging solution would make even more sense. Probably saving that for the Gen 2... Gotta leave some features out so that people are forced to upgrade! Wouldn't be a "smart" device without planned obsolescence...
Just wait until Apple comes out with the new "iShoot" smart handgun.
It will require you to install a barcode on your temple that is read by the barcode reader below the barrel of the gun.
To activate it you will have to "gently" pull the trigger halfway through.
It will be an inovative system that allows the gun to tell it is being held by its rightfully purchased owner. Stellar, sleek, and very human design. :)
well, it aint a dumb gun, I'll tell you hwut
@@mfallen6894 a plug is way easier to implement, and trying to add too many features to your first ever product is a good way to miss your planned launch date and run out of money before you're able to manufacture a single production unit
Just want to thank you for mentioning the quirks and it's a prototype. So many TH-camrs getting early access content tend to fail to understand their words have weight and even something as minor as not stating it's still in development can have massive impact on public perception of the end product.
0:08
The fact that you referenced both lock picking channels and defcon on forgotten weapons was entirely too satisfying
Ha I was thinking the exact same thing. Coming soon: gun hacker village
@@danmartinell123 lol ohmygosh yes please
Lock picking lawyer here…click on one, two, three is binding..and we’re in
@@SlicesOfPi nah he wouldnt even need to do that with some locks
@@SlicesOfPi I'm sure the LPL could break this thing easily.
I can't wait to see someone at DEF CON talk about how they hacked that thing.
USB jailbreak for sure.
Yeah in the middle of you trying to shoot them they stick a USB in your gun and Haxxx it
@Perky Bellsprout No troll. Someone would just do a home break in while the home owner is away and then take the weapon to a hacker to jail break the gun. It will happen
@@reaper_exd7498 this won't happen, there are enough regular pistols around that people can steal without having to worry about taking them to a hacker. Once they realize it's a bio gun they'll probably just toss it in a lake.
@@leeboi222 no. They just remotely disable it using the same back door the government regulated to be installed.
“Beep Beep” on a little Arduino board and your gun no longer works.
It looks like an early version Lawgiver. Or rather, somewhat similar to the versions in the movies. Presumably missing the explosion when the ID fails to match.
That bottom part is for .5 pouund of c4
I was thinking of the Dominator in Psycho-pass, but it seems a better comparison.
Good point.
The Judge Dredd lawgiver firearms also put the DNA fingerprint of the authenticated user on every round fired. This sort of applies to the Bio-fire gun too. If a corpse is found with a bullet in it that can be matched to your specific authenticated gun then that's pretty damn solid evidence that YOU shot them.
@@natestathes Lol yeah you can pull a pin which activates a timed demo charge, toss it down the hall at your home invader, then GET TO COVER!
"Double whammy"
Honestly, even if you can easily get past the lock, it will always take two things; time and knowledge. That's all it needs. Make it hard enough to be not worth it. And since it's uncommon, no thief or mugger would reasonably know about it
Yea a hardy lock with a decent core on a strong door will keep most out, unless they really want it
the problem is, once this thing hits the market its only a matter of time before a hack comes out. There's nothing easier to steal than something that someone thinks cant be stolen
@@JimTrivial Not the problem and not the purpose of it. A home invader who gets to the gun before the homeowner is not going to instantly be able to use it on the homeowner, A criminal who takes a law enforcements officers weapon will not be able to use it on the officer, A mugger who forces it from a victim can not now use it on them. And it's MAIN purpose have a ready to fire weapon that can't instantly be used by the wrong person.
@@JimTrivial As far as I know from another video, the gun's computer is isolated from the outside, accessible only by a USB port. Sure, you can pre-program a USB stick or something to hack the gun...but that would realistically take a hot second (or minutes even) for the hack to succeed and hack into the gun. That's if the non-owner had such a hack ready in the first place. Given how much time it would take to break the gun security as well as the action of inserting the USB, I'd say the gun is a dud in a fight or a struggle if it's not used by the owner. The legit fingerprint unlock, on the other hand, apparently happens faster than the person can even begin to aim the gun.
@@shaler950 Exactly, people are missing the point here,
its not impenetrable, nothing is, not even a 10k mounted in the ground gun safe.
but your not going to break into this without alot of fiddling, which means your guns not going to be used aganst you and MOST IMPORTANTLY, considering its the cause of most non intentional gun deaths in the US, your kids not going to grab it and turn your failure to secure a weapon into a tragedy.
The green authenticated light on front sight post is operationally the best feature. You KNOW when the pistol is ready for you to use. Their setup application and health status appear to be well thought out as well. Very cool.
Problem is gonna come when no matter what you do, the light doesn’t change
@@alexmoore1506 The same way a regular gun can get jammed or misfire if it's not maintained properly. Notice that the console specifically has an issues notification window. The owner just has to check up on the gun's health every now and then.
I thought the light on the sight was kinda slick too. Good for front sight focus and low light use.
@@DawidKov I have to disagree with you on that. There is a big difference between a mechanical malfunction and an electrical/system malfunction. One can be fixed in a matter of seconds and the other is an issue that would require a deeper inspection that typically can’t be fixed in the heat of the moment, which completely defeats the purpose of a defensive firearm.
@@ThatSoonerGuy That's why you keep the gun in its console state so it's health is constantly monitored. The gun won't randomly develop an electrical issue right when you need it too. Yes Murphy's Law exists but if the gun isn't doing anything, then nothing is going to happen. I haven't had ANY electronic device in my life randomly crap itself out without an event causing that device to die. If the system was built to be inside a firearm and tested as such, then the system will do just fine inside of a firearm.
As far as mechanical failures, there are still mechanical failures that can happen in a gun that can cause an issue that can't be fixed by field stripping/re-racking the gun. You are thinking waaaayyyyyy too negatively about this. It's a non-issue.
I had all the usual complaints lined up when I saw another quick video of two retired SEALs shooting some of these, but it looks like they've already thought of and dealt with all of them.
At this juncture, the biggest complaint I can think about is that if this takes off, we're going to see a lot of second-rate copies that do have all the usual issues that crop up every time someone tries to make a smart gun - and I feel that's the highest praise one could think of for one.
I know it's designed for home defense, but that generally seems like a good interior gun. I could even see it be good for shooting classes and general gun education since it's so easy to add and remove authorized users.
I'd probably get it as a car gun. Can't be used if it's stolen, easy to activate, etc.
@@St33lStrife Depends on the price of the gun, tbh
Im sure its not cheap
@@St33lStrife If your car is stolen, I'd be slightly more worried about that than the gun
Buy a 1911 in 1911 you can still use it in 2023. Buy a phone in 2019 no longer works in 2023, what are the odds of this still "Smartgun" working in five years yet alone in 100 years?
@@simonmaguire5250 That's why I still use a flintlock for home defense /s
If this thing had an ammunition count and a shotometer, it would be cool af. But for being the first commercial egun, it seems pretty solid for it's intended purpose.
Edit: Definitions.
Ammunition count: Displays the total remaining cartridges in the magazine and chamber.
Shotometer: For the purpose like an odometer. A sensor or system that records the total number of cartridges the gun has ever fired. This number would be displayed on the weapon or weapon interface.
It definitely would be cool, but as mentioned the company wants to avoid the “trap” of a gun that has feature creep/does everything.
@@TheA1ternative That makes sense and they were smart to keep it to it's core purpose. It may be wishful thinking but I believe ammo counts and shotometers are a practical feature for eguns. Of course, given they are reliable and don't hinder performance etc.
what do you mean by shotometer?
My first thought was the fact it's a fixed barrel system, meaning most of the surface at the top doesn't cycle when the gun does
Which immediately makes me think "oh, you could slap an optic there, regardless of even having a large footprint"
However with the front sight illuminating green to notify the user it's ready for use, that is sort of an issue. Maybe if the rear sight also lit up?
But, that's still trying to make it too "extra", considering the intentions for the design
@@ARockRaider amount of ammo left in the mag I assume. I’ve seen it called a shot counter
Looks promising. Could prevent a lot of tragedies with something like that.
*Alec Baldwin liked that
Ian is an excellent ambassador for gun owners. Thank you Ian!
🙄
Really? How is the grouping. Trigger pull? How is the trigger reset? Single or double action? Holster options? 1000-5000 round review. What about cleaning and maintenance? There are still so many questions unanswered.
@@myhusyatemysandwich4591 It's still in development. Have patience.
@@myhusyatemysandwich4591 So the double/single action thing originally threw me for a loop, but after considering it, I'd have to assume that it's a single-action trigger, acting only as an mechanical/electronic sear.
I would assume the rest of the action would not be felt in the release. But that's just my assumption from what I've seen here.
@@myhusyatemysandwich4591 forgotten weapons has never been a review channel that has always been a firearms technology channel. This is a good video about firearms technology. Currently developmental technology.
The reason Ian makes a good ambassador is because she communicates interesting information very clearly and consumably.
I like that it doesn't look stupid. It looks sci-fi in a way that is realistic.
It looks stupid and I absolutely love it
Definitely looks stupid.
It reminds me of the Lawgiver from Dredd '12.
@@Kadeo-ms6qw Youre the one coping and seathing by the looks of it
It looks almost exact to the halo pistol
Building both the electronic side AND the gun side from the ground up is something special all on it's own, that it works so well is another level of cool!
Smart gun can break even if it has face and finger magic. Sometimes it say friend, but not friend, or no say friend when it is friend. Bad guys can make magic to open gun or make gun stop working. Also, gun may stop working if parts no work. Gun need power, or it no work. Make sure smart gun work well.
yes its especially stupid thing to do as made very obvious by many malfunctions ...
@@Asghaad even mechanical guns malfunction, and this is a prototype, its not full production yet, you're probably more prone to malfunctions by buying a taurus than one of those when its fully developed
@@splintergp no, modern handgun from reputable manufacturer does not malfunction twice in one magazine... Even one or two malfunctions in THOUSAND+ rounds is unacceptable today...
And all they are doing is putting extra crap that can malfunction on obviously BADLY designed firearm ...
I’m not sure I want a gun that the powers that be can turn off
It will be possible to bypass the authentication, but the question is what skills, what tools, and how much time is needed to get at it.
The initial bypass will likely take some fairly clever sleuthing of the circuit board diagrams and software but after I imagine you will just need soldering skills to set up a bypass on certain electronic parts.
Someone get Lockpicking Lawyer on it, he'll have it cracked in an hour or two.
If you took it from Ian, couldn't you just turn the gun around while holding it, so the camera sees Ians face? then it would authenticate and you could shoot him?
@@mikesully110 pretty sure it has to see the enrolled user to unlock
@@mikesully110 Well the camera is at the rear of the gun so if you're pointing the rear of the gun to his face then...well you're...pointing the barrel towards you...
So if there is no link between the trigger and the sear, and the sear is just released electronically, does that mean a software bug could potentially fire the gun by it self?
- cyberpunk theme -
Or let it run full-auto
@@szylajskippy
softwares dont just bug out if they are manufactured properly.
@@shelleyking8450 That's the first thing I thought of. Jailbreak!
Hearing the actual purpose of the pistol makes me a much bigger fan of it. It's a very good solution for what it's aiming to do.
"for what it's aiming to do"
@@RafaelMunizYT yes thats what he said, whats up rafael?
@@bakedstreetytsounds like a pun
@@RafaelMunizYT I appear to have hit a target that I did not intend too
@@lego007guym8 no gun intended
I really really like how it's all offline and the computer can be stored separately from the stand/charger. That means you can lock the device in a safe and be sure nobody is gonna sneak some malware in it.
i really like how the offline computer knows it runs an up to datet firmware ;)
@@hanshubert6675 The gun is offline, not the computer, which is connected in Wi-Fi, but only if you decide to do so. Anyways, connecting to the internet won't make malwares magically appears on any computer :v It takes a lot of knowledge, and it means retroengineering the software of the computer, finding any flaw that could exist
Since it appears to be running on Android (Google keyboard), I doubt that it's vulnerable in this way.
The USB port, on the other hand...
I would say that the usb port could be wired for power only but it seems to be used for enrolment so that's unlikely
Idk if someone is in your home plugging USBs into your smart gun hub I think you might have already failed on your part
@@levanane2413 android software is pretty vulnerable as we can see with their phones and how you can accidentally download malware from the google play store pretty easily. Malware that can affect your whole phone. Should have used apple's software if possible it's been proven countless times to have way better security.
Ian, I found this channel in 2016, I was about 19yo.
I’m not too articulate and not too sure you’ll ever see this, but I wanted to sincerely thank you for inspiring me in this hobby, the pursuit of knowledge in firearm & firearm history.
Your ability to convey all this information in a consistent, non-biased & effective means is just beyond remarkable, especially in the current media vs. what I remember media being years past.
thanks again, and I’ll be viewing until I’m 86’d. Cheers!
I would love this job.
That's awesome I too love the mechanics of firearms and all the different types of actions they have and put more into learning about all things firearms than I ever did in school 😊
I feel you... I've started watching Ian in like 2013 or something.. back then I wasn't that into TH-cam and even today I'm not even into guns... but the Ian's storytelling and mechanical aspects keep me rivetted to this channel :)
Very interesting, and a very good use for biometric security... And I'm glad it's not automatically connected to the internet - the idea of an IoT firearm is terrifying. XD
Your government has decided that it isn't safe for you to use a weapon 😉