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.'"

Re:Does not sound safe

[pehrs]

A laser is very concentrated light, further focused by the eye, which is why it will cause burning damage to the retina.

This is similar to the flash-bang grenade. A very strong difuse source of light will drain your retina of the signal substance it uses to detect light, and it takes the body considerable time to produce new signal substance. Fire a camera flash in your own face and you can experience a mild form of the effect.

Thereby not said anything about the viability of the product. I doubt something that can be stopped with sunglasses will replace tasers any time soon.

What's old is new

[Lord_Pall]

I saw this as a kid in Looker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odj86eBenWk&feature=related [youtube.com]

Re:...liabilities

[kelemvor4]

Yes, it's generally known as "The man". The man is always trying to bring a brother down.

Re:...liabilities

[Unoriginal_Nickname]

"Excited delirium."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser_safety_issues [wikipedia.org]

Re:Clancy?

[Chemisor]

In "Debt of Honor", Clark and Chavez blind the pilots of a Japanese AWACS. They also use it several times to incapacitate guards. Their device was a 1kW light flash though, so I suppose this new invention is a bit more efficient.

Re:Clancy?

[bmo]

And the Brits got it from Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz06t7PGD-E [youtube.com]

--
BMO

The goggles do nothing

[subreality]

For an example of how this works, go into a mostly dark room with a camera. Have a look around. Turn on the camera, look straight into the flash as you fire it. Have a look around again.... Your wide-open pupils just let the full force of the flash in before you could blink, every receptor on your retina just fired, and it's going to be a few minutes before you can see anything again.

With a high enough power light source, this works just fine in daylight. I know this because I've flashed myself with a MIG welder - It was just a brief flash as I flicked the trigger at an inopportune moment, but the center of my vision was completely blank for several minutes. Simply turning off the machine and finding a safe place to sit down to wait for my vision to return was a challenge. I would have been screwed in a melee.

Anyway, no, goggles won't save you. If it's white light, you can't filter a narrow band like laser goggles. When welding with a shade 10 filter, when the arc is on, you can see what you're working on OK, but the arc itself is just white, completely clipping at the top of your eyes' sensitivity. When you turn the arc off, you're blind if you're indoors unless you have a 150 watt light inches away from what you're looking at. Outdoors you can just barely see what's going on, but at many angles the reflections of light leaking in from behind you overwhelm your forward vision (like with glossy screen laptops used outdoors, but worse). Using those kind of lenses will leave you blind anyway - they wouldn't need to flash you. Anything less and you'll still be vulnerable to the flash.

Re:...liabilities

[circletimessquare]

i'm confused

this is either a whoosh on my part or people don't know about eisenhower's famous speech

everyone should read eisenhower's farewell speech

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html [americanrhetoric.com]

here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is extraordinary and prescient and should be mandatory slashdot nerd reading

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States cooperations -- corporations.

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present -- and is gravely to be regarded.

eisenhower, on the flip side, was the guy who put "in god we trust" as the motto of the usa and "under god" into the pledge. boooooo. i understand he was a religious guy, but he completely screwed up the whole separation of church and state. like any man, brilliant and some respects, moron in others

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-eisenhower-signs-in-god-we-trust-into-law [history.com]

Re:...liabilities

[clang_jangle]

It was very obvious to those of living in affected areas during that event that extraordinary measures were taken by the police to ensure they had the excuses necessary to engage in a violent free-for-all. They were macing people who were in cars stuck in traffic! It was the most horrifying thing, I never thought I'd live to see the day that the police in a major US city would be used as a terrorist organization with the sole goal of violently intimidating peaceful dissenters on such a vast scale. This is not the same USA I grew up in...

Re:...liabilities

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not the same USA I grew up in...

Yes, it is. [wikipedia.org]