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Competitions, contests and challenges have become a potent way to inspire and fund innovation.
比赛，竞争以及挑战困难和极限一直以来都是激发及开创创新之路的有效途径。
The X PRIZE alone is shelling out tens of millions of dollars to incentivize scientists and engineers to develop new medical technologies, study the oceans and explore the moon.
仅仅X挑战这一项赛事就正用数十亿美元刺激着科学家和工程师们去研发新型医疗技术、研究海洋以及探测月球等项目。
Now one of the more unlikely competitions out there seeks to make firearms safer.
而现在最新一项脱颖而出的不像比赛的比赛则是寻求使得手枪等武器变得更安全的方法。
What's called the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation last month launched its Firearms Challenge.
被称为智能科技挑战基金会的这个组织上个月开始了一项枪支武器挑战赛。
The goal: find technology that reliably authorizes approved use—and blocks the unauthorized use—of guns and ammunition.
这项赛事的目标是针对枪支和军火等武器装备开发一项可靠被认可的授权技术—并阻断非授权用户的使用。
So-called smartguns have been in the works for years but haven't gotten much traction.
而这种智能手枪已经投入使用许久，但一直并未展现出明显亮点。
The German company Armatix makes an intelligent pistol that requires the shooter to wear a special radio-frequency-ID-equipped wristwatch to activate the weapon.
德国公司Armatix制造出了一把智能手枪，只需射击者佩戴一件配备特殊无线电频率ID身份的腕表即可激活这把武器。
Ireland's TriggerSmart likewise makes a gun unlocked by radio waves, as long as the shooter wears a special ring.
而爱尔兰的TriggerSmart同样也制造出了一种可通过无线电波激活的手枪，它需要射击者佩戴一枚特殊戒指。
Other companies rely on fingerprints and other biometrics or even sensors and smartphone apps to unlock their weapons.
其它公司则基于指纹及生物识别技术甚至是传感器和智能手机app程序也开发出了相关武器。
Questions about the reliability of such high-tech weapons—and, of course, politics—have kept them from catching on the U.S.
对这些高科技武器的可靠性的质疑，当然还有政治在内的因素使得该武器只能在美国境内使用。
But efforts to improve firearm safety, including via smartguns, are worth a shot.
但致力于提高武器安全性能，包括通过开发出智能枪支等是值得为之努力的。
