LED Incapacitator

[amachinist]

Saw this on fox news, any comments on potential validity of this one?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292271,00.html

Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., of Torrance, Calif., has been granted a contract by the Department of Homeland Security to develop what it calls the "LED Incapacitator," according to a DHS online newsletter.

The handheld device using light-emitting diodes to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it's pointed at

"There's one wavelength that gets everybody," says IOS President Bob Lieberman. "Vlad [IOS top scientist Vladimir Rubtsov] calls it 'the evil color.'"

Phase 1 of the contract — creating a working prototype — has already been completed, and Phase 2 will begin this fall as researchers at Penn State's Institute of Nonlethal Defense Technology put the puke-saber through its paces.

Phase 3 will be our shrink phase," Lieberman said, admitting that the prototype, 15 inches long with a 4-inch lens, is too large and heavy to be comfortably carried on a belt.

DHS hopes to equip police, Border Patrol agents and National Guardsmen with the barf-beamers by 2010.

[Hirudinea]

Sounds like Ray-Bans are going to be Wetback de reguire in 2010. :)

[Enkidu]

A new non-lethal weapon for fighting criminals, border-jumpers, terrorists (probably), and god damn hippies.

Have you bought your reflective clothing yet?

[Hirudinea]

Have you bought your reflective clothing yet?

Ah hell, I'll just tie a space blanket on myself with some string.

[megalomania]

Oh, defeated with a mirror. It just simple enough to work. There might be a waste of a few million bucks.

"Their simple minds came up with a simple trick." Duke Leto Atreides.

[Jacks Complete]

Corner cubes. No need to aim.

Of course, it's a load of BS. I've seen every colour with a name, and many without, and I've never felt sick from it. It's like the sonic defense systems that use a really loud noise to drive people away. You just ignore it, and carry on. If it's powerful enough that you need something to defend against it, then basic PPE will stop it - a bit of tissue in the ears is good for -20dB on sound, and shutting one eye and looking away will be good for this. Or mirrored Raybans. Or even two pairs.

If there were one specific frequency of light that gets everyone, we would all know about it, because there would be signs on the walls at paint mixing machines, stating that they can't make 30% blue, 4% red and 66% green. And your monitor would have a like warning in Photoshop. :roll:

[W4RGASM]

It could be that it requires a certain frequency of flash as well as the colour, to trigger an epileptic-style response.

[Enkidu]

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/17/video.seizures.update/index.html

[powium]

Corner cubes. No need to aim.


Absolutely. And there's no need to reinvent the wheel either - high visibility safety vests worn by millions of workers already have them, in the reflective stripes. Thats why when you take a photo of them (or car number plates) the reflective bits are really overexposed - the flash is reflected right back at the camera.

The question is whether these vests would reflect this magical frequency. They appear to reflect white light, so if the magic wavelength is within the visible spectrum I would expect them to.

Wouldn't the easy way to defend against this be to wear dark sunglasses? Sounds pretty bogus to me.

[reamio]

I don't know if any of you gentlemen have already seen it, but in case you haven't the 1981 sci-fi movie Looker (directed and written by Michael Crichton) contains a blinding/dazing flash weapon named the L.O.O.K.E.R. (Light Ocular-Oriented Kinetic Emotive Responses) gun.

Guess what, the protection from this weapon was a very cool pair of sunglasses.

More info about the movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looker

If you're interested in downloading the movie:

http://www.warezws.com/viewtopic.php?t=46888&highlight=looker

I really did enjoy it.:D