Methods and systems for enhancing firearm safety through wireless network monitoring

• US 9,400,150 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2013
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yardarm Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Yardarm Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Menezes, Joaquin, Stewart, Robert J
• Primary Examiner(s): CLEMENT, MICHELLE RENEE
• Application Number:
  US13/913,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20140290110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,143 Days
• Field of Search: 42/701.1, 42/10.1, 421/06, 340/542
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 45/005 Chain-locks, cable-locks or padlocks with alarms
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 45/06 Electric alarm locks E05B45/005 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F41A 17/063 comprising a transponder
• CPC Class Codes: F41A 17/08 for inhibiting firing in a specified direction, e.g. at a friendly person or at a protected area F41A27/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F41A 17/46 Trigger safeties, i.e. means for preventing trigger movement F41A17/02 - F41A17/40 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0802 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3883 Arrangements for mounting batteries or battery chargers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 between corresponding nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A firearm includes a firing mechanism and a sensor device. The sensor device includes a subscriber identity module configured to communicate with a server over a signaling channel of a wireless communications network. The Sensor device is configured to enable/disable the firing mechanism in accordance with instructions received by the SIM from the server. Movements and/or attempted operations of the firearm may be monitored using an application running on a mobile device, which application receives information concerning the firearm over the signaling channel of the wireless communications network.

Claims

1. A firearm, comprising a firing mechanism and a sensor device, the sensor device including a subscriber identity module (SIM) that reports an attempted operation of the firearm to a server using unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) messages transmitted over a common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network, wherein the sensor device further detects a safety mechanism of the firearm being deactivated and reports said detection from the SIM to the server using USSD messages over the common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network in response to said detection and stores undated location area identity (LAI) information received from a base transceiver station (BTS) via the wireless communications network in a dial buffer the SIM.

2. The firearm of claim 1, wherein the sensor device is configured to enable or disable the firing mechanism of the firearm in accordance with instructions received by the SIM from the server.

3. The firearm of claim 1, wherein the SIM comprises a SIM configured to communicate over a Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) network.

4. The firearm of claim 1, wherein the signaling channel is a signaling systems 7 (SS-7) signaling channel of a mobile telecommunications network.

5. The firearm of claim 1, wherein the SIM is configured to send information to the server upon the motion sensor detecting movement of the firearm.

6. The firearm of claim 1, wherein the SIM is configured to respond to attempted voice communications from the server by returning information stored in a dial buffer of the SIM.

15. The firearm of claim 1, further comprising a solenoid coupled to receive signals from the sensor device and responsive to said signals to cause a blocking or gating means of the firearm to move from a first position to a second position or vice-versa.

7. A system, comprising a sensor device of a firearm including a subscriber identity module (SIM), and a home location register (HLR) storing information concerning the SIM, the SIM reporting an attempted operation of the firearm to the HLR using unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) messages transmitted over a common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network, wherein the sensor device further detects a safety mechanism of the firearm being deactivated and reports said detection from the SIM to the HLR using USSD messages over the common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network in response to said detection and stores updated location area identity (LAI) information received from a base transceiver station (BTS) via the wireless communications network in a buffer of the SIM.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the HLR stores some or all of:

information concerning permitted times and/or days for operation of the firearm, and geo-fence information for the firearm.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising an application running on a mobile device, the application configured to communicate with the SIM over the signaling channel of the wireless communications network.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the sensor device is configured to enable/disable operation of the firearm in accordance with instructions received by the SIM from the HLR.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the sensor device is configured to enable/disable operation of the firearm in accordance with instructions received by the SIM from the application.

16. The system of claim 7 wherein the firearm further includes a solenoid coupled to be responsive to signals received by the SIM from the HLR, and to cause a blocking or gating means of the firearm to move from a first position to a second position or vice-versa.

12. A firearm, comprising a sensor that includes a subscriber identity module (SIM) configured to communicate with a home location register (HLR) storing information concerning the SIM, the SIM reporting an attempted operation of the firearm to the HLR using unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) messages transmitted over a common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network, a controller coupled to receive signals from the SIM, and a solenoid coupled to receive signals from the controller and responsive to said signals to cause a blocking or gating means of the firearm to move from a first position to a second position or vice-versa, detects a safety mechanism of the firearm being deactivated and reports said detection from the SIM to the HLR using USSD messages over the common channel signaling channel of a wireless communications network in response to said detection and stores updated location area identity (LAI) information received from a base transceiver station (BTS) via the wireless communications network in a dial buffer of the SIM.

13. The firearm of claim 12, further comprising a rechargeable power source.

14. The firearm of claim 13 further configured to receive a charging clip.