{"id":199421,"date":"2007-07-30T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T02:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/07\/30\/a-light-sabre-to-make-you-vomit\/"},"modified":"2007-07-30T21:49:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T02:49:00","slug":"a-light-sabre-to-make-you-vomit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/07\/30\/a-light-sabre-to-make-you-vomit\/","title":{"rendered":"A Light Sabre to Make You Vomit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it appears that Department of Homeland Security has come up with another means of enforcing tyrrany<\/span><\/strike><\/span> controlling unruly crowds<\/a>, a vomit inducing strobe light.<\/p>\n

Enough to Make You Sick <\/span>
Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D,<\/nobr> as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled and reeled from its nauseating strobe call it other names\u2014none printable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Maglite\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A later version of the LED Incapacitator, featuring a trimmer head.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A flashlight designed to make you nauseatingly ill? What fiendish minds would invent such a tool? The minds of Bob Lieberman and Vladimir Rubtsov, president and senior scientist of Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., a small R&D company in Torrance, CA. Under a multiphase contract from the S&T Directorate\u2019s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Office, with technical direction from S&T program manager Gerald Kirwin, the two physicists are refining an ultra-bright, multicolored, pulsing \u201clightsaber\u201d that\u2019s more disorienting, dazzling, and dizzying\u2014though a tad less dangerous\u2014than disco. It\u2019s enough to make you sick. And that, Lieberman says, is not always a bad thing.<\/p>\n

How does the LED Incapacitator incapacitate? By simultaneously overwhelming the subject both physiologically (temporarily blinding him) and psychophysically (disorienting him). A built-in rangefinder measures the distance to the nearest pair of eyeballs. Then, a \u201cgovernor\u201d sets the output and pulse train (a series of pulses and rests) to a level, frequency, and duration that are effective, but safe. The colors and pulses continuously change, leaving no time for the brain or eyes to adapt. After a few minutes, the effects wear off.<\/p>\n

The light could be used to make a bad guy turn away or shut his eyes, giving authorities enough time to tackle the suspect and apply the cuffs \u2026<\/nobr> all while sparing the lives of passersby, hostages, or airline passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
An animated cross section shows how red, green, and blue LEDs are focused through an optical plate.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cThere are often confrontations at border crossings with suspected illegal aliens or drug runners,\u201d Lieberman says. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to hurt or kill them, just take them into custody. With this,\u201d he smiles, \u201cthey don\u2019t need to know English to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Output and size can easily be scaled up to fit the need; immobilizing a mob, for instance, might call for a wide-angle \u201cbazooka\u201d version. Scaling down is more difficult. At 15 inches<\/nobr> long by 4 inches<\/nobr> wide, the current prototype is more transportable than portable. The next-generation weapon must be as short and svelte as a D-cell<\/nobr> Maglite, designed to fit on a duty belt. \u201cPhase 3<\/nobr> will be our shrink phase,\u201d Lieberman says.<\/p>\n

This fall, in Phase 2,<\/nobr> researchers at Pennsylvania State University will test the LED Incapacitator on volunteers at the school\u2019s Institute of Nonlethal Defense Technology. Intelligent Optical Systems will use the test results to evaluate design features and tweak the strobe\u2019s pattern and colors. \u201cThere\u2019s one wavelength that gets everybody,\u201d says Lieberman. \u201cVlad calls it the evil color.\u201d Further tests are scheduled for the fall, and production could begin by December. By 2010, the LED Incapacitator could be in the hands of thousands of policemen, border agents, and National Guardsmen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not to mention enterprising criminals, and private security companies…delightful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it appears that Department of Homeland Security has come up with another means of enforcing tyrrany controlling unruly crowds, a vomit inducing strobe light. Enough to Make You Sick Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D, as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[969,978,1061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evil","category-politics","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}