Taurus International Partners With the New Jersey Institute of
Technology in a 'Personalized Weapons Technology' Research and
Development Project
[url]archive.nandotimes.com/newsroom/prn/archive/data/062701/prn0543.html[/url]
MIAMI, Jun 27, 2001 -- Taurus International Manufacturing, Inc.
(www.TaurusUSA.com) announced today that it has partnered with the
prestigious New Jersey Institute of Technology (www.NJIT.edu), in the
pursuit of "Personalized Weapons Technology" which will provide user
identifiable firing controls for firearms. Sometimes erroneously
referred to as "Smart Gun Technology" the NJIT has been working on this
project for some time.
Photo:
[img]http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010105/FLF004LOGO[/img]
In a presentation recently made to the State of New Jersey Legislature,
NJIT made the following observations:
*A personalized weapon with an automatic authentication system that
allows discharge of the weapon only by an authorized user has not yet
been developed for consumer usage.
*However, biometric technologies have matured sufficiently to enable
creation of such a weapon.
*Researching, developing and implementing the technologies for such
a weapon to meet reliable automatic authentication requirements will
take a minimum of three years at an estimated cost of at least $5
million.
*Gun manufacturers lack the resources to create a personalized
weapon.
As a result of these observations, NJIT requested and has received
approval to create a public/private R&D partnership to ensure
competitive commercialization of a personalized weapon.
Forjas Taurus has been researching user-identifying technology for over
two years. At this time, the product is still sensitive to environmental
factors, power source levels and can only "identify" one user. With this
in mind Taurus International Manufacturing, Inc., of Miami, Florida, has
enthusiastically agreed to join with NJIT in this partnership to make
strides as quickly as possible to achieve the creation of a biometric
solution to this perplexing problem.
At the historic signing of this R&D partnership, Taurus International's
Executive Vice President, Robert G. Morrison, made the following
statement: