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Phasers, Tasers and Stun Guns, oh my!

Posted by Hemos on from the bang-bang-freeze-'em-up dept.

Thoth_Ptolemy writes "Here's an article on a ranged non-lethal weapon that freezes the targets body without killing them. Wonder how long it'll be until we can whack people with Light Sabers and such. I see a lot of potential for the SCA. " Geez-if I could have a copy for when Rob gets...frisky things would be much better in my day. To be fair, they haven't build a prototype yet, but the concept is just too neat.

3 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Tesla already thought of this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    Nikola Tesla described many such beam weapons that use UV light (no lasers then) to ionize a path in air and then use a high-voltage-high-frequency pulse to send the "shock" or "stun". This was also the priniciple behind many "Star Wars" weapons.

    I would think that anyone with access to a physics lab could hack something together with a UV flashlamp, or a UV laser or better ($$$). A tesla coil would make a great source of power, and there are many miniturized or even solid-state tesla coils available. (www.amazing1.com) You only need a conductive path through the air for a VERY short time to zap someone, and you can get a pretty good charge from a tesla coil - even a small one.

    Those of you south of the border might have some problems with the ATF though hehe.

    If anyone has access to the flashlamps/lasers that could directionally ionize air, send me a msg and I'll share some tesla coil circuitry :).

    Steve
    n706@unb.ca

  2. Anti-storm technology... by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 5

    In a similar vein, would not firing a UV laser at an approaching thundercloud force it to discharge? You'd need a large Faraday cage/lightning rod around the laser to protect it, but otherwise lightning storms could be controlled and directed.

    Wouldn't that be neat? Seeing arcs of lightning, as performance art?


    -AS

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*
  3. Very dangerous weapon by Guinnessy · · Score: 5
    I actually broke this story on New Scientist (1 November 1997 'Set phasers to shock') so I'm very interested to see the Sunday Times take on it. For example, they don't mention that Herr's patent says you can kill someone in under 2 seconds with this device, nor that you can torture an individual over 100 m's away using it. The potential for abuse is very high and its also very easy to build, a lot easier than he describes in the article.

    Considering the UK's record at shipping this sort of stuff out to dodgy regimes I would be quite worried.