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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.
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!
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.
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.
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Finally, a real choice!
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.
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
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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.
EM radius *can* be aimed, you know. Like, say, a flashlight. Or a directional antenna. This isn't an EM spectrum from a nuclear airburst. It's directed radiation, probably in the microwave spectrum (the goal is to use frequencies at which circuit traces, or even better, conductive paths within ICs become antennas, causing current to flow in unintended ways)
> What happens when a person going 70mph suddenly loses control of their
> vehicle?
The run into somebody and kill them. Just like they do when being chased at high speed.
> How accurate can that sort of gun be?
It cannot be accurate at all, but the cops will become convinced that it is laser-like.
> Over what sort of angle and distance is it will effective?
The field will be blob-shaped, with slightly more range forward than back. It will only wreck cars at a fairly short range but will destroy unshielded electronic equipment (cellphones, 'Pods, laptops...) at a much greater range.
> 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?
A bit of filtering and shielding will suffice, and the cop cars will get it. So will the vehicles of some criminals.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
- it would be a field day for attorneys as police destroyed people's cars (and other property) while they were chasing a criminal.
The standard answer used by many municipalities (and accepted by many courts) is that they are not liable. There won't be a field day -- it'll be something covered by insurance, and sucks to be you if you don't have any.
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Good luck with that ... and when it happens, I bid you welcome to the infamous blue wall of silence. After NYPD cops illegally confiscated and damaged a camcorder of mine, it took nearly six months for them to acknowledge that the incident even took place! Despite having excellent video evidence, from other videographers.
O lord, bless this thy holy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
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."
Your average high-speed chase participant is not a criminal mastermind. They're somebody who got caught doing something stupid, and panicked.
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.
You don't need a wide spectrum for a EM pulse weapon to be effective. The microwave band is actually quite effective at destroying electronics, in addition to working as a pain-inducing less than lethal weapon, if you choose the right frequencies. And making a directional microwave gun is reasonably easy, Create a large scaled magnetron, and use say a parabolic reflecting dish. Voila. Having a portable power source for the gun is a bit tricker, but still quite possible.
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You're going to zap a car from behind with microwaves and fry the engine electronics. Sure. Might work on some rear-engine cars.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
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.
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?
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.
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