StunRay Incapacitates With a Flash of Light

Hugh Pickens writes "Scientific American reports that a newly patented method of non-lethal incapacitation can render an assailant helpless for several minutes by overloading the neural networks connected to the retina with a brief flash of high-intensity light. 'It's the inverse of blindness—the technical term is a loss of contrast sensitivity,' says Todd Eisenberg, the engineer who invented the device. The device consists of a 75-watt lamp, combined with optics that collect and focus the visible light into a targeted beam, which can be aimed like a flashlight to project a controlled beam of white light more than 10 times more intense than an aircraft landing light with a range as far away as 150 feet. Recovery time ranges from 'seconds to 20 minutes,' says Eisenberg. 'It's very analogous to walking from a very bright room into a very dark room.'"

Comments

...liabilities

[SpiralSpirit]

...and I'm sure the long term effects of overloading your sensitive, incredibly difficult and costly to regrow optic nerves to this degree are well known, and this represents no long term danger. right?

Re:...liabilities

[stonewallred]

If tasers were used to prevent someone from harming themselves or others, then I would be AOK with them.

But they are used as offensive weapons to enforce compliance by most police departments.

And it is so much less paperwork to fill out if you enforce compliance with a taser, as opposed to if you actually had to beat the fucktard's as with your billy club, ASP or baton.

I personally have seen an inmate hit with a taser, and then get beat because he refused to lay stils ordered.

Ignoring the fact that the CO with the taser kept jolting him, which lead to muscle contractions, which lead to four other COs hitting him with 4' long hickory riot batons.

This went on for almost 5 minutes until a Lt showed up, seen me and a co-worker obviously writing down the names of the officers involved.