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Electromagnetic Pulse Gun To Help In Police Chases
adeelarshad82 writes "In an attempt to put an end to dangerous, high-speed police chases, scientists at Eureka Aerospace have developed an electromagnetic pulse gun called the High Power Electromagnetic System, or HPEMS. It develops a high-intensity directed pulse of electricity designed to disable a car's microprocessor system, shutting down all of its systems. Right now the prototype seen in a video fills an entire lab, but they have plans to shrink its size to hand-held proportions. Some form of this is already featured in OnStar-equipped vehicles though the electromagnetic signal used to disable the vehicle is beamed via satellite, and doesn't cripple the in-car computer, but rather puts it into a mode that allows police to easily catch and then stop the fleeing criminal."
You bet - I'll be able to disable cop cars chasing me.
I mean, _criminals_ will. Ahem.
I wonder if they'll test it on Pacemakers.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I wonder if it works on helicopters also?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
How the heck is this similar to the Onstar system? This uses a directed EMP to disrupt electronic engine control, Onstar uses a built-in remote kill switch. That's like saying shooting a lightbulb is the same as turning off the switch.
What if you drive a car without a microprocessor system?
Um. The electromagnetic signal that can be sent from a satellite to an OnStar-equipped vehicle is certainly not any form of an electromagnetic pulse. It's a radio signal encoded with a command telling a microprocessor to disable power to the ignition.
Who writes this mess?
I can see the fnords!
Old news is old. I still remember when this was a new and shiny idea. Just wish I remembered where I put that onion for my belt... Hmm....
Oh, and get off my lawn!
From realpolice.net:
In this 9 year period (1994-2002), the data showed that there were 2654 fatal crashes involving 3965 vehicles of which there were 3146 fatalities. Of these, 1088 were to people not in the fleeing vehicle.
If frying someone's car results in a better outcome than the above, I'm all for it.
Sounds like a great replacement for caltrops.
That might prevent the technology from widespread use - it would be a field day for attorneys as police destroyed people's cars (and other property) while they were chasing a criminal. I'm sure that the vendor also says they can target one car specifically while they disable it - but it's not going to work that way in the real world. Their EMP pulse will spread as a spherical field and any electronics within range will get fried.
I have to wonder a few things after seeing that video:
What happens when a person going 70mph suddenly loses control of their vehicle?
How accurate can that sort of gun be? Over what sort of angle and distance is it will effective?
Is there a way to shield the car with a faraday cage to prevent this sort of thing from happening? And if not, wouldn't this just mess up the police cars? What's going to stop the police (or **AA) from "accidentally" frying your computer with one of these?
This is certainly cool technology that I'd love to get my hands on.. but more info would be nice...
I'm not sure I like the sound of this. Consider the lesson of the taser. Now that the cops have a weapon that doesn't kill or maim, they've gotten increasingly slap-happy about using it. Cops were at least cautious about using firearms, least they have to defend themselves against using deadly force. But they're happy to pull out the taser at the drop of a hat.
This may sound like a good idea, but I suspect the cops will be using this a lot more liberally than intended.
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
If only they called it the:
High ElectroMagnetic Power System
the headlines could read:
"Cops Use HEMPS to Catch Criminals"
Hemp - is there anything it _can't_ do?
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
"In an attempt to put an end to dangerous police high speed chases," might also read: In an attempt to make lots of money...
Sure, but not intentionally. They'll also "test" it on parked vehicles, tv sets, computers, iPods, traffic light controllers, and anything else that happens to get into the "beam" as the cops treat it as a precise magic car-killer that affects only cars and only the ones they aim at.
Eventually there will be an "underground" business in installing filters and shielding. It will become illegal to possess ferrite beads without a license.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Would build a faraday cage around the sensitive electronics in a vehicle once a device like this comes to fruition for the authorities... I guess it's good for your ho-hum car-jacker though
1. It will kill the car, not merely create a carefully programmed disabling like the Onstar system. Most likely this leads to a car crash and quite likely require complete replacement of all electronics.
2. As others stated, pacemakers, watches, cellphones, laptops, etc. will also be affected.
3. This will get into the hands of criminals. I am quite frankly they don't already have it. Here are some of the things I think people might use it on:
ATM's If there is a 1 in 100 chance of it malfunctioning and spitting out the money, then ATM's will be hit 100 times.
Toll machines - obvious
Red lights (and the cameras aimed at them).
cop cars
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
This is interesting in that a TV show from 1994 used a Dodge Viper equipped with such a device to stop vehicles the 'Good' guy was chasing. They were also able to morph the car. I can see that coming soon as well.
No one mentioning Viper, where this was used? Come on, Slashdot!
Since I have a car w/o any electronics, I'm fine. Not that a diesel Rabbit is really going to outrun a cop car anyway.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
A focused EMP beam from a gun? What a great way to destroy video cameras & alarm systems! It sure would make robbery a LOT easier.
Did anybody stop to consider the possibility of collateral damage? Aside from beloved portable electronics, what about a hostage with a pacemaker? We don't want to disable that device do we? And to penetrate the body of the car (which side of the engine block are these microprocessors located on, anyway?) they're probably generating a pretty significant pulse.
What about residences or businesses down range??
This is the #1 reason why you should NOT ever had OnStar in your car. Ever. Not even for free. You do NOT need any 3rd party being able to disable your car, let alone be able to monitor where you are and the conversations going on inside your car. If you have OnStar, stop paying for it, find all the antennas associated with the system and cut the leads, preferably shorting them out in the process.
Just wait until it's used in a high population density area, and everybody within three blocks who has a pacemaker keels over. And how many bystanders do you think are going to want their watches, cellphones, laptops, etc., replaced by the cops? Free upgrades for all!
One more reason to never let go of my supercharged '68 Oldsmobile 442 getaw^H^H^H^H^H ride... no integrated circuits. Except the sound system, of course - which, to keep up the stereotype, plays only 8-track tapes, preferably from the mid-Jurrasic rock period.
C'mon coppers, let's see your puny little raygun take on some Detroit Iron!
O lord, bless this thy holy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
The first time an officer fires this at a suspect vehicle, and hits the Cadillac dealership right in back of the suspect???
Automotive electronics are fairly tough, because of the noisy environment they operate in. I would bet that in the typical case, the voltage pulse just confuses the computer, and/or latches a few inputs, causing it to shut down. You could likely start it right back up afterward.
Terrorists stage a high-profile robbery to incite a police chase, which leads to the use of one of these EMP things, aimed at Mae West. Th' InterTubes go dark, civilization collapses.
Suddenly there's a big market for pre-electronic-ignition muscle cars.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Let me inspect your computer without a warrant or this EMP gun might just accidentally discharge in an inconvenient direction.
Will it work on my neighbor's stereo?
Are these guys nuts or con men? They want to design a portable device to generate a directional EMP to help police stop fleeing cars. Point and click, off goes the suspect's car computer and the thing rolls to a stop. Whee! Sounds great, doesn't it? But physics and legal liabilities will stop them from getting this out of the lab. First, EMPs are not directional. So the first time a cop uses it, off goes his car and every car around him along with every bit of electronics in the cars. And every bit of electronics in the homes nearby and the stores and the hospitals, etc. Permanently. Thousands, maybe millions of dollars of damage and potentially many deaths. Let's not forget the folks with pacemakers, hearing aids or insulin pumps, either. The power required to make an EMP strong enough to disable a car isn't trivial either. It takes some huge high voltage capacitors or nasty explosives to manage the job. Los Alamos Labs can do this, but it's very expensive for each EMP produced. The car computers are pretty well shielded and located in protected areas in the car. So the EMP will have to be much stronger than what's needed to damage the computer. Almost all of the EMP will be reflected. Reflected only God knows where. Jerks.
The bigger news is that the town of Eureka is real. I always thought it was fictional.
I do believe this is a dupe. I seem to recall a article about this device from months and months ago. Someone who cares more can dig for it if they want to, I won't bother seeing as the search capability here on slashdot blows.
build one of these
Use a mile of copper wire for the inside windings, and several turns of flexible copper pipe for the outer ones. Not directional, but it WILL disable a lot of the nearby electronics while in operation.
You mean I don't have to spend 100 bucks on bulbs, ammo and spackle every month?!
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
this is even worse then road spikes since taking out the tyres atleast slows the vehicle down a lot. this thing could only be used after the cops have blocked off traffic and there's no chance of the car running into anything.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Who writes this mess?
Only one of the world's largest industrial corporations - DUH!!! Ermm, well they *were* one of the largest. Then their sales dropped off. Wonder why. Hurray, I can buy a car that the government can control!!! Morons.
What happens when a person going 70mph suddenly loses control of their vehicle?
They won't "lose control", exactly. It'll just get a lot harder to steer, and the car will slow down rapidly
How accurate can that sort of gun be? Over what sort of angle and distance is it will effective?
Not terribly accurate. The spread of the beam is determined by the antenna geometry and the frequency of the radiation. The range, of course, is subject to the power level. With a big antenna, and enough power, you could disable a car from miles away. Practically speaking, it'll probably need to be effective from 100 yards or so in order to be useful. I expect that the effective width of the "beam" would be several lanes wide at that range.
Is there a way to shield the car with a faraday cage to prevent this sort of thing from happening?
Not really. I mean, you *could do so*, but it'd be hard to make the car 100% shielded. It's probably 90% covered already, actually.
And if not, wouldn't this just mess up the police cars?
Well, the bulk of the radiation pattern will go forward, obviously. The backward-facing component can be made arbitrarily small.
What's going to stop the police (or **AA) from "accidentally" frying your computer with one of these?
Probable cause? The police can't just destroy property because they feel like it. Unless you're currently engaged in a crime, they wouldn't have a reason to try to kill your computer.
If it fails to stop the car at least it may knock out the onboard GPS. Then after they get lost and run out of petrol the police can just pick them up.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Your average high-speed chase participant is not a criminal mastermind. They're somebody who got caught doing something stupid, and panicked.
Don't worry about this. The cops can only get it after a 15 killstreak which is pretty hard to get for noobs..... or a random care package (oh no).
I guess most of the EMP comes through the windows/body panel seams, etc, but building a faraday cage would stop that.
Although most criminals are being stopped because they stole the car, and aren't usually preparing for such an event.
I do like the idea of criminals preparing for a robbery with one of these in their get away car though; they can hit the cop car with it, or just a bunch of other random cars, making a roadblock.
What we really need is the CARPOON (tm) an explosive fired harpoon from the cop car, designed to hook on to the fleeing car. If it happens to hit some meat - the TooBad (tm) clean up kit can be of use.
..........FULL STOP.
Eureka Aerospace can call it "HPEMS", but really it is just another HERF device, and it is certainly not a new thing. In fact you can buy kits from places like this and build your own.
This is a High Energy Radio Frequency (HERF) gun not an EMP weapon, although the two are very similar in their final effects. EMP devices are omnidirectional and create a blanket pulse across a far larger portion of the EM spectrum. HERF affects a much smaller part of the spectrum, which allows the generating electronics to be tuned for higher efficiency and allowing the antennas to be directional. EMP devices are usually much higher power that fry the electronics, whereas HERF devices typically only cause disruption (requiring pulses to be sustained to prevent the normal function from restarting).
It will shut down the engine computers of most modern cars, but cars with carburetors and mechanical based ignition systems (ie. distributors) and diesel engines without electronic injection will be unnafected. While this may affect most cars and trucks made since 1970, it does not include them all.
To get to the power output that will stop a vehicle from distances usually seen in car chases would require a massive arrangement, capacitor bank, and a dedicated power supply to keep the HERF pulses sustained. This certainly will not be the kind of device that will be mounted on police cars any time soon.
I have to also wonder how effective it would be in an actual car chase (assuming they could find as way of making it mobile). They would typically be shooting it at the rear of the car where the bodywork would act as shielding for the engine computer, and there is nothing to stop portions of the RF pulses reflecting off the metal bodywork and disabling chasing police cars.
Don't taunt them . . . their next toy will be designed to disable the microprocessor between your ears. Why bother zapping the central nervous system of a human body, when you can design a gadget that turns criminals' brains into 7-Eleven microwaved burrito goo.
When "Make" comes out with an issue of how to build these thingies, I will be encouraging the local teenage miscreants to stay on my lawn . . .
. . . at least long enough to give them a lethal dose of that death ray.
Do you think that the police might be concerned about piles of dead teenagers on my front lawn?
In Detroit, probably not.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
The idea of MAD is silly these days with regards to loss of human life. However indirectly, millions would parish who rely so much on modern technology should an atomic weapon be detonated at high altitude. In such an event, you would see a flash in the sky and then suddenly the power going out. You look to your cell phone only to find it's turned off. Cars humming along the highway slowly coast to a stop - engines no longer idling. Kit airplanes having to make an emergency landing without power (hope it's not at night). Basically, if it's got a micro chip, the gates get fried. Your fucked. Start walking pal.
That is your EMP holocost. This new COP toy aint shit in comparison.
Time to bust out that old points distributor.
Got Code?
a emp blast on a car will not damage the car. it will stall it. but the car will run again when the emp is shut down. only magentic storage like a pc hdd can be permenty whiped by one. cars dont use hard-drives thow normal rom chips for the cpu.it will disrupt not damage. emp blast on cars have been tested on the past guy blast car with emp gun car stalls car restarts and drives off. of course in a high speed chase stalling out the car for a few mints is all they need.in essence crashing that cars computer but once you restart the computer it can run again. you radio wont be effected btw. studys on this where done heavly on what would happon if there was a nucler blast and what the emp effect would actually be.of course most movies dnt use fact its just more drama to have every car die. also a old car whont be effected at all being they are not computer controlled.
...but nothing will actually come of it. It isn't practical.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
"Good news, we've recovered your car and caught the person driving it. Bad news, we broke your car's computer in order to do it."
Some form of this? I'm sorry, a computer telling another computer to stop functioning and an electro magnetic pulse weapon are not some form of each other in any universe!
How much will they cost? How many cars do they plan to put them in? Does this make any economical sense as compared to the benefit?
loss of power steering / brakes can be very bad that is why stop sicks are better.
I just wonder what will happen when they use this on a car hurtling down suburban streets at 100+mph. Killing the electronics would presumably knock out handling and stability controls as well (no power steering, no assisted or anti-lock brakes, no traction control, no airbags). Sure they can stop the engine, but they can't stop momentum. They would just turn the car into an virtually uncontrollable hunk of metal hurtling down the road at 100+mph.... until it hits something.
"use of lethal force has been approved."
-- Sig under construction...
Another issue is friendly fire you're going to be more likely to fire your fellow police car then the suspect's car. The HRF pulse also could accidentally or purposely reflected back at the source and damage radios,camera's and cell phones these are a lot less robust then an engine control computer. Last it's not exactly hard to defend against a little copper mesh and foil here and there and you can make a car almost invernable to anything less then a nuclear EMP.
What is a "stop sick"?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
...and picture this:
Cop1: There he is, fire'er up!
Cop2: Steady....steeeaady.... BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!
Cop1: Damn, you missed, good going - now our battery is depleted, and the chase is over!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I grew up buying Chevies. So did my family. GM cars had practically become a religious tradition in our family until a few years ago.
When On-Star appeared, my first thought was, "I'll only buy the lower end models without it". Then GM made it standard.
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to BUY a car that helps big brother track my whereabouts and allows him to remotely disable my vehicle. The fact that they would do something like this sends a very strong, very clear message the company is anti-American. They just don't get this "freedom" thing the Bible-belt takes so seriously. And as if to add insult to injury, they're cars are now more expensive - in some cases by as much as $20k - than their Japanese counterparts.
Who do they think they're kidding? Does it really surprise anyone that GM is going bankrupt?
It's a FREEDOM thing, GM - you wouldn't understand.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Both systems disable the vehicle against the driver's consent.
Imagine, for a moment, what would happen if a thief could - using OnStar - remotely disable your daughter's vehicle on a lonesome stretch of highway. He doesn't need an EMP gun with a giant capacitor bank when a tethered laptop will do.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Obviously you've never had 2-4 flat tires at 100mph.
See, thing about tasers, in order to be issued one you have to agree to be tazed. Most cops are pretty much fine just shooting a fleeing suspect in the leg rather than be tazed once a year. As they say, you don't give em a gun so they can chase ya.
... no one has considered that not all vehicles are cars. The first time this device disables a motorcycle which is leaned into a turn, whether or not the bike was the target, there will likely be a dead or severely injured motorcyclist whose family will win the lawsuit jackpot.
Does any one else remember that tv series Viper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viper_(TV_series)?
In Google we trust.
Here you go.
The good news is the EMP will magically avoid trashing people's smart phones. It'll leave the computers, digital cameras, etc. in perfect working order. Best of all, it absolutely will not kill the person with a pacemaker.
And they will never, ever, miss, doing all that damage to another motorist, knocking out the street lights the car was passing through and causing other accidents or hitting a building and fragging the poor bystanding company's network.
This kills an opportunity to improve vehicles.
We've had fly-by-wire for ages. It's used in all the giant passenger jets, and in all the modern figter planes. It's wonderful.
Drive-by-wire would let us get rid of the steering column. That improves layout under the hood and is a bit safer even than a collapsable steering column.
It would have beaten traditional steering for reliability if implemented with redundancy. An EMP kills **all** the redundant devices at once.
OK then - that's a drill that light aircraft pilots have to do on occasion to keep their licence IN AUSTRALIA - landing without lights, manually lowering gear and whatever else uses electricity. I don't know what happens where you are or even if you do.
So much for the first insult, plain ignorant anger.
Second thing - lights, lowering and raising gear, radio etc run from the battery - how on earth do you think I was talking about the engine when cars will also run if the battery is flat? So much for the second insult, I can't help it if you read bullshit that doesn't exist into things.
I don't know much about this stuff but I know what I've seen and are way off the mark there with your petty bullying insults.
Now it'll be even easier to carjack and rob armored cars.
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2010/01/usaf-seeks-airborne-car-zapper.html
Apparently it's the Air Force that's interested in such a device, which would be used from the air, not via police car.
And since I bothered posting I guess I'll add that the comparison to the On-Star solution is bizarre. Obviously the On-Star approach has nothing to do with EMP but instead is a command sent to the on-board computer via satellite. I suppose it's comparable in that both solutions involve things above us adversely affecting motor vehicles (and to that extent I guess it's also like a traffic jam caused by drivers looking at the Goodyear blimp).
JAGga.me ----> Producing video games addressing emotional health and wellness issues affecting teens.
In "don't taze me bro", the kid might have been making scene and being disruptive, but that just shows that the cops are willing to use the Tazer on a kid who is just making a scene and being disruptive.
How long do you think it will take for some disgruntled cop to point one of these at his ex-wives plane on take-off?
1999 and more recently.
The argument that this is being designed for car chases is complete BS. And while the technology is very cool, the potential for abuse is tremendous.
Good luck trying this on me my twin Weber 40DCOEs. They can throw all the EMP at my all alloy twin cam hemi and I expect I will keep running just fine thank you very much. Computers don't belong in cars!
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
What if the car was stolen. EMP, will damage the owners property.
Actually READ the linked article on On-Star before trying to summarize it please! On-Star doesn't "beam" a signal down from a satellite - it uses CELL PHONE technology. The only satellite involved in that scenario is the ones in the sky enabling the GPS. Unlike in some crap movies GPS is actually ONE-WAY and you're not beaming your location or anything else back UP. They're simply querying the GPS to find out the current location of the vehicle via cell phone - nothing else. CSI TV technology this ain't.
Also - if you READ the article the signal sent to the On-Star simply tells it to not START the next time the thief tries to use it. It does NOT cripple the computer, it does not degrade the performance, it simply tells the computer not to restart. "Block the ignition on the next restart" is that NOT clear enough? REstart as in the NEXT time someone turns the key for a start. So if it's running this article doesn't say squat about turning it off remotely.
On-Star has plenty of things going for it that I don't like and wouldn't want in my car - to include at one point the ability for law enforcement to remotely eavesdrop on you - so you really don't have to make up crazy things and lose credibility.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Please don't EMP me, bro!
Which is roughly the only way to get my car to break any speed limit :)
Still I think it is all a bit silly. I can stop any car with just a pistol, that most cops carry already. 1 stop sign, after that, your rights to continue breathing are temporarily suspended.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
But the more realistic measures of getting your tires punctured or your car pushed off the road are no picnic either.
Still, it says a lot about the GP that he is glad his car can run from the cops. Mine has no need to. And if people think carjackers are going to use it... then you are to stupid to function. What would a carjacker want with a car that can't move anymore?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So now we got to worry about a tool to stop criminals because it might kill them. Better recall police guns then, people could get hurt if you shoot them.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
If you get tired of the anti-cop sentiment then you have to block all the teen boys who want to watch the world burn.
This system is only of use to cops to stop people trying to evade arrest. They are NOT going to use it to pull you over for a drink driving test, JUST as they do NOT puncture your tires with a nail-mat at this point in time.
But if it stops some idiot from speeding through a residential area not caring who he/she kills in their maddness, then I don't care if they MIGHT be killed when the police tries to stop them. In fact, I don't understand why they don't just shoot the drivers. The bleeding hearts have gone out of control.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I know of only one practical device that disabled a car in this manner, developed more than 10 years ago - it was a little sled with a wire that fired forward from underneath a cruiser to slide under a fleeing vehicle. The designers of the device specifically noted that this was the only way you could disable a car with EMP, because it is extremely difficult to get a pulse to punch through the car's metal to the bits that matter.
So who is this guy who's apparently made a major technological breakthrough? Some Joe Blow in a garage who apparently claims that in 5 years we will have hand-held EMP rifles. Reporters don't know crap about engineering - I call bullshit.
Make a date when by all cars and trucks are requires to have a "slow down"
chip in their computer. Not to stop the car, but more of a governor to make
30mph the top speed for a car in that area. A audible warning lets the driver
know the governor is about to go into effect.
Authorized vehicles would have the governor disabled.
They could even implement the system in school zones.
Carburetors: Not just for bongs anymore.
Furries make the internet go.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Knight Rider yet... "KITT! Try using microwave jam to stop their vehicle!"
Bah. I bet this one won't even make the cool sound!
It's been some while I've been installing these things in an car; but there are 3 types of alarm systems and 3 types of anti-carjack systems.
All of these systems include a box with a relay or circuit breaking off the key ignition towards the computer and a box shutting off the gasoline supply when the alarm or carjack system is armed. This box has a dozen of wires, colorcoded but impossible to "hack" into without knowing what you'd be doing.
The Onstar system can easy be defeated by removing the SIM card; although; it would also defeat the real purpose of the system (mostly used by companies) and that's CARJACKING.
In Belgium we call these VV1, VV2 and VV3 for the alarm systems and CJ0, CJ1 and CJ2 for carjacking systems.
Carjacking systems, alike on-star:
None of these systems got an easy "override" button and are mostly built in deep under the dashboard -or- under the hood. The only thing you can do is remove the sim card or stop paying your subscription if you value your privacy over the value of your car. Yet, a nice thing to know ; The on-star system will not listen to conversations, UNLESS the car is on the move without authorization; so there is no immediate privacy risk of on-star listening with the system.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
A magnetic pulse will disable a pacemaker and/or defibrillator. For those of us who are pacemaker dependent (It works all the time to replace the electrical system of the heart (or something)) if it shuts down so does the the wearer of the device - it's called DEATH. No way around it if you are pacemaker dependent and this device hits you - bye, bye. Can'r believe they would allow such a device to be marketed.
Use a hammer instead .. throw it and yell "FIRE IN THE HOLE" .. works every time to turn off your light without any environmental impact.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
If cars are this susceptible to microwave energy, then Iran will shortly have the ability to shut down much of our country, in an instant.
Exo-atmospheric nuclear EMP is easy to generate if you have a nuke (even a small one, although the area affected would be somewhat less) and can put it in a low orbit satellite. Iran has the latter (and is about to launch a couple more) and will soon have the former. Their nukes can be small (they have implosion technology).
They have also been testing an alternate delivery system - a SCUD launch with the warhead detected at the top of the trajectory - EMP is the only explanation for such tests.
So, if they are nutty enough (and do you want to bet your survival on the sanity of President ImANutJob?), they can kill tens of millions of Americans, with no warning at all. They can orbit a nuke in a satellite, to be detonated on command. Or, they could launch a few SCUDs from merchant ships hundreds of miles off our shores.
Imagine a US where a large area (say, 1000mi in diameter) suddenly has a destroyed electrical transmissions system,almost all telecoms down, and almost all vehicles unusable. It's not a pretty thought.
See US Gov report at http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf (pdf)
The only good weather is bad weather.
http://www.paramounthotel.vn/
if the police officer needs to erase the *you know* off his hard drive, he can do it without going to the trouble of dragging it into the trash.
I've heard conspiracy theories that EMP can be used to bring down airplanes to assasinate the occupants. Maybe I should have believed those theories.
"This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."
Disabling a car is a decent idea. One that should have come to reality years ago (before the police video camera and TV looking on).
One issue I have with this though. We have enough rogue cops tasering old ladies. Since the courts seems to have looked the other way I wonder how many stories we are going to get with cops using this for catching their wives boyfriends while fleeing?
Too bad we cannot trust cops to use good judgement anymore.