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The laser lightning rod
and the laser stun gun
One can defend runways and power plants from the much more likely event of lightning strikes. The other can give police a non-lethal recourse when dealing with ongoing street crime.

A frickin' laser defense system to stop missiles?
For what this costs we could have better-trained eyes on the ground and a lot more of them. Terrorism is composed almost entirely of the human element, technology is merely a means to an end. We can keep building gadgets to stop their gadgets and never see an end to the arms race, or we can better prepare our specialists to deal with the human element directly.

Tazers based on this principle (some sites call them "phazers", see this link, for instance) have been "in development" for years. What makes this one different? I don't know, actually, it appears identical (if somewhat larger and uglier) than the prototype I've seen in an issue of Technika Molodeji 5, maybe 6 years ago.

I remembered about something like that advertised a few years ago. After a couple Google searchs, I found it again: HSV Technologies Inc. - looks like the site is no longer updated... Just wonder if they are still working at it. They even claimed a US Patent as early as 1997!

HSVT last posted a news item on their site regarding a "tetanizing beam weapon" in 2000.

It uses two lasers (not one) to create two ionized pathways through air which are then used to conduct tuned AC; ou choose the power level and frequency which can result in anything from 'lock up skeletal muscles' through 'create excruciating pain' to 'instant death'.

Of course, they have yet to shrink it down to a man-portable size, which is why there haven't been any more press releases.

Well, if you're all 'teched-up' to the max, perhaps you could get yourself a phaser, which would nicely compliment your iPod, laptop, 3G phone, et cetera - as a nifty hi-tech gadget, but also doubles as a self defence device! Can you imagine the police investigation?:
Yes officer, he was trying to steal my copy of advanced calculus... he says what? that I shot him with an alien ray-gun? Sure.... whatever!

Maybe not. This article is fairly old, I wonder how much further along they are:

Phaser

A ray gun that can stop people in their tracks without harming them may sound like science fiction, but some experts believe it could soon be reality.

The gun is designed to zap its victim with an electric current, using a laser to carry the charge along a beam of ultraviolet light.

The light particles, called photons, would create a path through the air that will be capable of conducting electricity up to a distance of about 100 metres (330 feet).

When the current hits someone, it would interfere with the tiny electrical charges that control the victim's muscles, making movement impossible.

Vital organs protected

But vital organs like the heart and diaphram would not be affected because they are protected by a greater thickness of body tissue.

Corinne Podger of BBC Science: "The stuff of science fiction". Weapons that freeze muscles are already on sale in the United States, but in order to work they have to be held against the victim's skin. They also have to be recharged after each use.

Apart from having a considerable range, the new 'freeze ray gun' could in theory be fired around corners if mirrors were used. It could also have a constant power source.

Talks in California

The gun is the brainchild of American inventor, Eric Herr, vice-president of HSV technologies. Scientists from the UK's Defence Evaluation Research Agency have already been to California to discuss it with him.

No details of the discussions have been disclosed, but a spokesman for the UK Ministry of Defence said the weapon's potential uses were being considered.

So far, Mr Herr's ray gun remains just an idea. He has taken out a patent on the device, but has yet to raise the $500,000 needed to build a full working prototype.

'Ideal weapon'

Initially, the 'freeze ray' could be the size of a small suitcase, but might eventually be reduced to something more like a flashlight.

Mr Herr believes it could be an ideal weapon for peace-keeping forces, or police facing violent criminals.

But already the project has its critics. They argue that such a laser would be impractical in many situations, and could easily damage the sight of innocent by-standers.

Link to HSV Tech

I may be wrong, but don't you need a small nuclear device to create an EMP.

At least one company is developing a phaser, and we've seen articles on /. before about scientists transporting atoms (we've still got 300 years to catch up with star trek here)

Research suggesting that Einstein was wrong about the speed of light may mean that faster-than-light travel is a possibility.

Though I don't have any examples off the top of me head, it's not a big leap to think that the same thing happens with books, so I'd say fiction can inspire and influence real science.

It seems I read somewhere that the average car now comes equipped with over 2000 microprocessors.

So now your environmentally unfriendly SUV will have bad Miles per Gallon and Mips per Gallon ratings.

Maybe we should just !#!#ZAP#!#! them all.

HSV Technologies has thrown together two such devices: a tetanizing beam (similar to a Tazer), and a vehicle-disabling weapon (Oops, did you need those electronics?). In case you were wondering, yep, it's patented.

Creeps the hell outta me, but these guys claim they can do it already.

They even filed a patent

According to the manufacturer's site:

HSV Technologies Inc., of San Diego, California is developing a non-lethal weapon that uses ultraviolet laser beams to harmlessly immobilize people and animals at a distance. The Phaser-like device uses two beams of UV radiation to ionize paths in the air along which electrical current is conducted to and from the target. In effect, the beams create wires through the atmosphere wherever they are pointed.

The current within these beams is a close replication of the neuro-electric impulses that control skeletal muscles. It is imperceptible to the target person because it differs from his own neural impulses only in that its repetition rate is sufficiently rapid to tetanize muscle tissue. (Tetanization is the stimulation of muscle fibers at a frequency which merges their individual contractions into a single sustained contraction.)

According to the manufacturer's site:

HSV Technologies Inc., of San Diego, California is developing a non-lethal weapon that uses ultraviolet laser beams to harmlessly immobilize people and animals at a distance. The Phaser-like device uses two beams of UV radiation to ionize paths in the air along which electrical current is conducted to and from the target. In effect, the beams create wires through the atmosphere wherever they are pointed.

The current within these beams is a close replication of the neuro-electric impulses that control skeletal muscles. It is imperceptible to the target person because it differs from his own neural impulses only in that its repetition rate is sufficiently rapid to tetanize muscle tissue. (Tetanization is the stimulation of muscle fibers at a frequency which merges their individual contractions into a single sustained contraction.)

Some links:

The patent

The company with the patent.

Wired article

Warming stuff up isn't as cool as this baby here. it works by ionizing the air with laser, making it conductive (and shimmering blue, i might add), then passing a modulated current through the ionized air, effectively paralyzing the victim.