Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec provides facial recognition for gun safe

Biometrics for digital identity come with risks, but they are unlikely to get you shot. Biometrics for gun safes, however, are not the same story. A product safety warning from the U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission (CPSC) “urges consumers to immediately stop using” the biometric locking feature on Stack-On biometric gun safes, warning of a risk of severe injury or death.

The CPSC says that biometric locks on Stack-On biometric gun safes, pistol vaults, and lock boxes, distributed by Alpha Guardian and Stack-On, “can fail without consumers realizing that the safe’s contents, including firearms, can be accessed by unauthorized users, including children.”

In this case, simply turning off the biometric feature is not sufficient: owners are advised to deal a killing blow. “CPSC urges consumers who own affected safes to remove the batteries that power the biometric feature, disable the biometric feature by puncturing the biometric reader with a screwdriver, and only use the keys to lock and access contents from the safe.”

It being the United States, this has happened before. In February 2024, the U.S. Consumer Rights Protection Committee recalled more than 119,000 biometrics-enabled safes after a 6-year-old boy was able to open one without authorized access for the biometric lock.

In 2022, a 12-year-old boy in Nevada who accessed a gun stored in a safe with faulty fingerprint biometrics shot himself to death.

Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec provides biometrics for first facial recognition gun safe

The point of a biometric safety lock is, of course, safety, and manufacturers are still banking on biometrics as a reliable tool for security, which also enables quick access to guns in the event of a shakedown.

A company release says that safe company Hartmann Tresore has partnered with Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec to release what it claims is the first gun safe with facial recognition technology.

Similar to unlocking a cell phone with biometrics, the so-called Safe Solutions tech identifies authorized users based on their facial scan. It uses two cameras for stereo depth estimation and includes liveness detection, so kids can’t just hold up a picture of mom or dad to get at the rifles.

Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec’s algorithm uses machine learning to evaluate the facial profile and analyze RGB and infrared images; spoofs are detected either by deviations in the 3D facial structure or by inconsistent RGB/infrared readings.

Article Topics

3D liveness detection  |  access control  |  biometrics  |  DERMALOG  |  facial recognition  |  gun safes  |  Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec