Patents by Inventor Kai Thorin Kloepfer

Kai Thorin Kloepfer has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11933570
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques that can be implemented in a gun. The gun may include or be coupled with a slide cover. The slide cover may include a first slide cover recess along a latitudinal axis of the slide cover, the first slide cover recess comprising a first cavity of a first portion of the slide cover and a first cavity of a second portion of the slide cover. The slide cover may include a second slide cover recess along the latitudinal axis of the slide cover, the second slide cover recess comprising a second cavity of the first portion of the slide cover and a second cavity of the second portion of the slide cover. The slide cover may include a first retainer coupling a sight component with the slide cover such that a longitudinal axis of the sight component is substantially parallel with a longitudinal axis of the slide cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Bryan Edward Rogers, Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Donna Kelley, Benjamin William Dwyer, Sara Elizabeth Falcone
  • Patent number: 11920881
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for identifying gun events. A gun event may include a nominal event, such as the discharging of a projectile or the ejecting of a cartridge shell, or an anomalous event, such as a misfire or a failure to feed. An apparatus may include a sensor that measures motion of a gun along multiple axes. The apparatus may identify a gun event based on the measured motion of the gun satisfying a motion condition. The motion condition may include an acceleration threshold value, and the measured motion of the gun may satisfy the motion condition based on a measured acceleration value exceeding the threshold acceleration value. The apparatus may transmit an electrical signal based on the measured motion of the gun satisfying the motion condition. The electrical signal may reset a charging circuit, increment a shot count, or decrement a round count.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Benjamin William Dwyer, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Christopher James Owens
  • Patent number: 11913744
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an attachment that can be fastened to a gun. The attachment may include a top surface having a longitudinal axis and an aiming sight that is parallel with the longitudinal axis, a front surface having a latitudinal axis that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the front surface including a muzzle aperture, a left surface, a right surface, and a fastening system. The fastening system may include a first mounting aperture of the left surface, a second mounting aperture of the right surface, and a locking pin capable of being positioned in the first mounting aperture and in the second mounting aperture such that the locking pin fastens the attachment to the gun. The attachment may be fastened to the gun such that the longitudinal axis is parallel with a longitudinal bore axis of the gun.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin William Dwyer, Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Bryan Edward Rogers, Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Christopher James Owens
  • Patent number: 11900742
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for dynamically operating a peripheral component of a gun, such as a flashlight, an electronic sight, or a haptic motor. The gun may perform an authentication procedure to identify a user operating the gun, retrieve a configuration file from memory housed in the gun in response to the authentication procedure, and perform a function at the peripheral component based on the configuration file indicating that the function is to be performed for the user. The gun may collect authentication data, such as biometric data or token data, and the gun may identify the user operating the gun based on the authentication data. The user operating the gun may be identified in response to matching the collected authentication data to authentication data stored in the memory, and the gun may determine the function based on the configuration file indicating the function for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Bryan Edward Rogers, Christopher James Owens, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Benjamin William Dwyer, Donna Kelley, Timothy Joel Thorson
  • Patent number: 11892254
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for authenticating a user at gun. The gun may include an authentication manager capable of implementing logic, processing signals, or executing instructions. The authentication manager may receive first query data from a first authentication sensor of the gun, receive second query data from a second authentication sensor of the gun, perform an authentication procedure to determine whether the first query data or the second query data matches enrollment data, where a match is determined based on the first query data or the second query data and the enrollment data satisfying a similarity threshold. The authentication manager may determine that the user is authorized to operate the gun and transmit a signal in response to the determining that the user is authorized to operate the gun. The signal may cause the gun to enter an active state which allows the gun to be fired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Bryan Edward Rogers, Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Timothy Joel Thorson, Christopher James Owens
  • Patent number: 11846478
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an electromechanical sear that is implementable in a gun. The gun may include a fire control manager, and the fire control manager may identify a trigger break based on a trigger sensor, transmit, based on the trigger break, a first signal to a first actuator located in a displacement path of a sear, so as to cause the first actuator to be displaced in a first direction, and transmit, based on the trigger break, a second signal to a second actuator located in the displacement path of the sear, so as to cause the second actuator to be displaced in a second direction. The transmitting the first signal to the first actuator and the transmitting the second signal to the second actuator may cause displacement of the sear and firing of the gun.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Donna Kelley, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Katherine Joanne Lund, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Timothy Joel Thorson, Benjamin William Dwyer, Christopher James Owens, Joseph Ray Wilding, Karl Fredrick Brakora, John Andrew Tomasik
  • Patent number: 11822413
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for reducing power consumption at an electromechanical gun. The electromechanical gun may transition to an inactive state to reduce power consumption, and the electromechanical gun may transition to an active state to perform a system check procedure or to allow a projectile to be fired from the electromechanical gun. The electromechanical gun may identify a sleep event based on an analysis of an output of a first electronic component, compute an estimated time duration based on an amount of electric charge remaining in the energy store, set a sleep timer according to the estimated time duration, and transition to the inactive state by terminating a power supply of a second electronic component. The electromechanical gun may transition to the active state in response to the sleep timer elapsing or a second output indicating that a user is touching the electromechanical gun.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher James Owens, Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Karl Fredrick Brakora
  • Publication number: 20230314097
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides techniques, systems, and devices that support indicating gun state information. One or more electronic components may be used to indicate the gun state information, and the electronic components may be coupled with a gun. The gun may identify a state of the gun based on a compute component including a data signal, and the compute component may be coupled with the gun. The gun may select a representation of the state of the gun, where the representation of the state of the gun is compatible with an electronic component coupled with the gun. The gun may indicate, at the electronic component and based on the compute component, the state of the gun with the representation of the state of the gun. Indicating the state of the gun may include displaying an icon, illuminating the electronic component with a color, or pulsating the electronic component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Kai Thorin KLOEPFER, Bryan Edward ROGERS, Benjamin William DWYER, Donna KELLEY, Jack Hugo THIESEN, Christopher James OWENS
  • Publication number: 20230304761
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for authenticating biometric data while protecting user privacy. Aspects of the present disclosure include collecting biometric query data at a biometric sensor of the gun, generating a set of query features from the biometric query data, each query feature of the set of query features including a first number of dimensions, generating a projection matrix, each element of the projection matrix being drawn independently from an identical distribution having zero mean and unit variance, transforming the set of query features into a transformed set of query features according to the projection matrix, retrieving a transformed set of enrollment features from memory of the gun, identifying a data match based on the transformed set of query features and the transformed set of enrollment features satisfying a similarity threshold, and unlocking the gun in response to the identifying the data match.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2022
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Christopher James Owens, Patrick Eduard Moffitt Ekel
  • Publication number: 20230243611
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems, devices, and techniques that can be implemented at a gun, such as an electromechanical gun. The gun may include a barrel located within a slide and a cylindrical spring enveloping the barrel. The barrel may be configured to act as a guide rod for the cylindrical spring, and the cylindrical spring may be configured to bias the slide in a forward battery position. The gun may include an electronic component such as an energy store, a processor, or a circuit board, located under the barrel and forward of the trigger when the gun is in an upright position. The gun may include a physical transmission medium that electronically couples the electronic component with an additional electronic component located rearward of the trigger, and the physical transmission medium may be at least partially encapsulated by a trigger guard.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2023
    Publication date: August 3, 2023
    Inventors: Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Katherine Joanne Lund, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Benjamin William Dwyer, Kai Thorin Kloepfer
  • Patent number: 11674767
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides techniques, systems, and devices that support indicating gun state information. One or more electronic components may be used to indicate the gun state information, and the electronic components may be coupled with a gun. The gun may identify a state of the gun based on a compute component including a data signal, and the compute component may be coupled with the gun. The gun may select a representation of the state of the gun, where the representation of the state of the gun is compatible with an electronic component coupled with the gun. The gun may indicate, at the electronic component and based on the compute component, the state of the gun with the representation of the state of the gun. Indicating the state of the gun may include displaying an icon, illuminating the electronic component with a color, or pulsating the electronic component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Bryan Edward Rogers, Benjamin William Dwyer, Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Christopher James Owens
  • Publication number: 20230113679
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an electromechanical trigger that is implementable in a gun. The gun may include a trigger mechanism, a trigger sensing mechanism, and a fire control manager. The fire control manager may identify a trigger break based on the trigger sensing mechanism generating a voltage, and the fire control manager may transmit a signal to an actuator mechanism based on the trigger break. A detent mechanism may be dislocated in response to a force applied to a trigger mechanism, and the trigger sensing mechanism may generate the voltage based on the dislocating of the detent mechanism. Dislocating the detent mechanism may correspond to satisfying a trigger break threshold. The actuator mechanism may be displaced in response to the signal, and displacing the actuator mechanism may result in a projectile being propelled from the gun.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2022
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Donna Kelley, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Katherine Joanne Lund, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Joseph Ray Wilding, Benjamin William Dwyer, John Andrew Tomasik
  • Patent number: 11624575
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems, devices, and techniques that can be implemented at a gun, such as an electromechanical gun. The gun may include a barrel located within a slide and a cylindrical spring enveloping the barrel. The barrel may be configured to act as a guide rod for the cylindrical spring, and the cylindrical spring may be configured to bias the slide in a forward battery position. The gun may include an electronic component such as an energy store, a processor, or a circuit board, located under the barrel and forward of the trigger when the gun is in an upright position. The gun may include a physical transmission medium that electronically couples the electronic component with an additional electronic component located rearward of the trigger, and the physical transmission medium may be at least partially encapsulated by a trigger guard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Katherine Joanne Lund, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Benjamin William Dwyer, Kai Thorin Kloepfer
  • Publication number: 20230014931
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems, devices, and techniques that can be implemented at a gun, such as an electromechanical gun. The gun may include a barrel located within a slide and a cylindrical spring enveloping the barrel. The barrel may be configured to act as a guide rod for the cylindrical spring, and the cylindrical spring may be configured to bias the slide in a forward battery position. The gun may include an electronic component such as an energy store, a processor, or a circuit board, located under the barrel and forward of the trigger when the gun is in an upright position. The gun may include a physical transmission medium that electronically couples the electronic component with an additional electronic component located rearward of the trigger, and the physical transmission medium may be at least partially encapsulated by a trigger guard.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Inventors: Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Katherine Joanne Lund, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Benjamin William Dwyer, Kai Thorin Kloepfer
  • Patent number: 11555663
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an electromechanical trigger that is implementable in a gun. The gun may include a trigger mechanism, a trigger sensing mechanism, and a fire control manager. The fire control manager may identify a trigger break based on the trigger sensing mechanism generating a voltage, and the fire control manager may transmit a signal to an actuator mechanism based on the trigger break. A detent mechanism may be dislocated in response to a force applied to a trigger mechanism, and the trigger sensing mechanism may generate the voltage based on the dislocating of the detent mechanism. Dislocating the detent mechanism may correspond to satisfying a trigger break threshold. The actuator mechanism may be displaced in response to the signal, and displacing the actuator mechanism may result in a projectile being propelled from the gun.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Donna Kelley, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Katherine Joanne Lund, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Joseph Ray Wilding, Benjamin William Dwyer, John Andrew Tomasik
  • Publication number: 20230010645
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an electromechanical sear that is implementable in a gun. The gun may include a fire control manager, and the fire control manager may identify a trigger break based on a trigger sensor, transmit, based on the trigger break, a first signal to a first actuator located in a displacement path of a sear, so as to cause the first actuator to be displaced in a first direction, and transmit, based on the trigger break, a second signal to a second actuator located in the displacement path of the sear, so as to cause the second actuator to be displaced in a second direction. The transmitting the first signal to the first actuator and the transmitting the second signal to the second actuator may cause displacement of the sear and firing of the gun.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Donna Kelley, Sara Elizabeth Falcone, Katherine Joanne Lund, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Timothy Joel Thorson, Benjamin William Dwyer, Christopher James Owens, Joseph Ray Wilding, Karl Fredrick Brakora, John Andrew Tomasik
  • Patent number: 11514735
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for authenticating biometric data while protecting user privacy. Aspects of the present disclosure include collecting biometric query data at a biometric sensor of the gun, generating a set of query features from the biometric query data, each query feature of the set of query features including a first number of dimensions, generating a projection matrix, each element of the projection matrix being drawn independently from an identical distribution having zero mean and unit variance, transforming the set of query features into a transformed set of query features according to the projection matrix, retrieving a transformed set of enrollment features from memory of the gun, identifying a data match based on the transformed set of query features and the transformed set of enrollment features satisfying a similarity threshold, and unlocking the gun in response to the identifying the data match.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Biofire Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Christopher James Owens, Patrick Eduard Moffitt Ekel
  • Publication number: 20220373284
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques that can be implemented in a gun, such as an electromechanical gun. The gun may charge a capacitor bank, identify a trigger break based on an output generated by a trigger sensor, and transmit a signal based on the trigger break. Transmitting the signal may result in the capacitor bank discharging electric charge such that electric current is directed at an actuator mechanism so as to cause displacement of the actuator mechanism, and the displacement of the actuator mechanism may result in the propulsion of a projectile through a barrel of the gun. The gun may determine that a projectile has been fired based on an output of an accelerometer or a gyroscope, and the gun may recharge the capacitor bank in response to determining that the projectile has been fired.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2022
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Inventors: Jack Hugo Thiesen, Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Karl Fredrick Brakora, Christopher James Owens
  • Publication number: 20220349665
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for determining whether a user is holding a gun. The gun may include a sensor, such as a laser proximity sensor, a capacitive proximity sensor, a load cell, an accelerometer, or a biometric sensor, and the gun may determine whether a user is holding the gun based on an output generated by the sensor. A processor housed in the gun may identify activation of a proximity sensor, determine that a user is holding the gun based on the activation of the proximity sensor, and perform an action in response to determining that the user is holding the gun. The action performed by the processor may include performing a boot procedure, performing a health check procedure, visually indicating state information about the gun, audibly indicating state information about the gun, or tactilely indicating state information about the gun.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2022
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Inventors: Christopher James Owens, Bryan Edward Rogers, Benjamin William Dwyer, Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Kai Thorin Kloepfer
  • Publication number: 20220341694
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and techniques for an attachment that can be fastened to a gun. The attachment may include a top surface having a longitudinal axis and an aiming sight that is parallel with the longitudinal axis, a front surface having a latitudinal axis that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the front surface including a muzzle aperture, a left surface, a right surface, and a fastening system. The fastening system may include a first mounting aperture of the left surface, a second mounting aperture of the right surface, and a locking pin capable of being positioned in the first mounting aperture and in the second mounting aperture such that the locking pin fastens the attachment to the gun. The attachment may be fastened to the gun such that the longitudinal axis is parallel with a longitudinal bore axis of the gun.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2022
    Publication date: October 27, 2022
    Inventors: Benjamin William Dwyer, Kai Thorin Kloepfer, Bryan Edward Rogers, Donna Kelley, Jack Hugo Thiesen, Christopher James Owens