Introduce V2K (Voice to Skull)

[Soleilmavis]

American Psychologist article: 1973 Voice to Skull Demonstration
Artificial microwave voice to skull transmission was successfully demonstrated by researcher Dr. Joseph Sharp in 1973, announced at a seminar from the University of Utah in 1974, and in the journal "American Psychologist" in the March, 1975 issue, article title "Microwaves and Behavior" by Dr. Don Justesen. USE YOUR BROWSER'S ZOOM FEATURE TO MAKE READING THE SCANS EASIER. (Try the “View” menu.)

http://www.randomcollection.info/ampsychv2s.pdf

 

V2K (voice to skull), in 2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory patented precisely such a technology: Nonleghal weapon which includes
(1) a neuro-electromagnetic device which uses microwave transmission of sound into the skull of persons or animals by way of pulse-modulated microwave radiation; and
(2) a silent sound device which can transmit sound into the skull of person or animals. NOTE: The sound modulation may be voice or audio subliminal messages. One application of V2K is use as an electronic scarecrow to frighten birds in the vicinity of airports. http://call.army.mil/products/thesaur/00016275.htm

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dod/vts.html

Electronics behind voice to skull

There are 2 types of voice to skull:
1. The pulsed microwave method: every time the voice wave goes from positive to negative we generate a microwave pulse. For every pulse the brain hears a click. All these clicks are a form of digital audio. This goes through walls.
2. The silent sound method: a steady tone is frequency modulated with a voice wave. The ear hears hissing, but the brain hears a voice. This is a form of analog audio. This doesn't go through walls.
Then we can combine the 2 methods: we use the output of method 2 as the input of method 1. This goes through walls.

http://www.hearingvoices-is-voicetoskull.com/ElectronicsBehindV2K.htm

 

MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) is a directional, non-lethal weapon designed for crowd control and exploiting the microwave auditory effect. It uses microwave pulses to generate uncomfortably high noise levels in human skulls, bypassing the ears and ear drums.

MEDUSA is developed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation. 

A device - dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) - exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds. The device was aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses. 

 

Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise,

03 July 2008 by David Hambling

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14250

 

NASA Develops System To Computerize Silent, "Subvocal Speech" http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html

 

DARPA UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENT - SONIC FREQUENCIES TRANSMISSION.

http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@lrfederalregister/documents/...  

NLPis the program that is behing the "voices" by V2K :

"NLP is the branch of computer science focused on developing systems that allow computers to communicate with people using everyday language."                   

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~mooney/cs343/slide-handouts/nlp.pdf

 

Summary Information

Objective of Phase Effort

The main goal of the Phase I project wad to design and build a breadboard prototype of a temporary personnel incapacitation system called MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio). This non-lethal weapon is based on the well established microwave auditory effect (MAE). MAE results in a strong sound sensation in the human head when it is irradiated with specifically selected microwave pulses of low energy. Through the combination of pulse parameters and pulse power, it is possible to raise the auditory sensation to the “discomfort” level, deterring personnel from entering a protected perimeter or, if necessary, temporarily incapacitating particular individuals.

Summary of Results from the Phase I Effort

The major results of the Phase I effort were that - An operating frequency was chosen - Hardware requirements were established (commercial magnetron, high-voltage pulse former) - Hardware was designed and built - Power measurements were taken and the required pulse parameters confirmed - Experimental evidence of MAE was observed

Potential Applications and Benefits

Potential applications of the MEDUSA system are as a perimeter protection sensor in deterrence systems for industrial and national sites, for use in systems to assist communication with hearing impaired persons, use by law enforcement and military personnel for crowd control and asset protection. The system will: be portable, require low power, have a controllable radius of coverage, be able to switch from crowd to individual coverage, cause a temporarily incapacitating effect, have a low probability of fatality or permanent injury, cause no damage to property, and have a low probability of affecting friendly personnel.

http://www.navysbirprogram.com/NavySearch/Summary/summary.aspx?pk=F...
Patented applications
Flanagan GP. Patent #3393279 “Nervous System Excitation Device” USPTO granted 7/16/68.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=3393279
Puharich HK and Lawrence JL. Patent #3629521 “Hearing systems” USPTO granted 12/21/71.
Malech RG. Patent #3951134 “Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves” USPTO granted 4/20/76.
Thijs VMJ. Application #WO1992NL0000216 “Hearing Aid Based on Microwaves” World Intellectual Property Organization Filed 1992-11-26, Published 1993-06-10.

 

4858612 – Hearing device – A condensed summary states that “This invention provides for sound perception by individuals who have impaired hearing resulting from ear damage, auditory nerve damage, and damage to the auditory cortex. This invention provides for simulation of microwave radiation which is normally produced by the auditory cortex. Stocklin, August 22, 1989

4877027 – Hearing system – A condensed abstract states that “Sound is induced in the head of a person by radiating the head with microwaves...” Brunkan, October 31, 1989

5159703 - A silent communication system [which] relates in general to electronic audio signal processing and, in particular, to subliminal presentation techniques. Lowery, October 27, 1992.

6587729 – Apparatus for audibly communicating speech using the radio frequency hearing effect. O'Loughlin, et al. July 1, 2003

Mardirossian A. Patent #6011991 “Communication system and method including brain wave analysis and/or use of brain activity” USPTO granted 1/4/00.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6011991

O'Loughlin, James P. and Loree, Diana L. Patent #6470214 "Method and device for implementing the radio frequency hearing effect" USPTO granted 22-OCT-2002.

 

Video:  V2K Documentary appx 15 mins

Here is a V2K documentary, it has a theme of a reasonable argument:

http://vimeo.com/12294845

 

Book “Twelve Years in the Grave - Mind Control with Electromagnetic Spectrums, the Invisible Modern Concentration Camp”, authored by Soleilmavis Liu, provides the sound facts and evidence about the secret abuse and torture with remote voice-to-skull and electromagnetic mind control technologies.

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/soleilmavis

Please go to LAST PAGE OF "Replies to this Discussion" to read NEWEST Information

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.itu.dk/research/delca/papers/marius/interfacing_ambient_...
Interfacing ambient intelligence
Marius Hartmann
IT University of Copenhagen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 København S, Denmark
[e-mail]
ABSTRACT
This paper describes an interface for disembodied, locationspecific conversational agents (DELCA) called ‘Ghosts’.
The design includes conversation dialogue and a novel, non-intrusive minimal dynamic visualization. The paper presents two discrete visualizations Ghost Wake and Animated Ghost Icons (AGI), which make use of the temporal dimension to increase spatial resolution. The paper argues that design for ambient intelligence must strive for a balance between visibility and nonintrusiveness.
Author Keywords
DELCA, Ghosts, mixed reality, interface agents, voice recognition, ambient intelligence.
ACM Classification Keywords
Primary Classification: H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6).
INTRODUCTION
“ghost … 3: the visible disembodied soul of a dead person….” [14].
The spread of computers is approaching Weiser’s famous vision [13] in which the computer will become invisible.
This paper proposes a discrete visualization method for a mobile computing interface, which makes use of invisible personalized agents that mainly manifest themselves by the use of speech. A prototype of DELCA is currently being implemented that makes use of WLAN tracking, PDA and mobile devices, AIML and an ensemble of more than 30 synthetic voices, each representing a Ghost with individual specialties and character traits. The system consists of audio, mobile displays and the enhancement of physical space with small-size LED signs.[11] [4]
User scenario
Mrs. Jones enters the IT University of Copenhagen a bit late for a meeting with Mr. Hansen. In the reception she is greeted by a male voice: “Hello I am the Butler, may I offer my assistance? Please t u r n o n y o u r P D A ”
Mrs. Jones accepts the DELCA Ghost client on her PDA; it immediately recognizes the invitation for the meeting Mr. Hansen sent her the day before. The Butler continues: “Allow me to guide you to room 2.31 where Mr. Hansen will be joining us. Let us take the stairs to the left.”
The main difference between the DELCA approach and the traditional HCI “agent” (e.g. Smartakus, Mob-I, Rea [3, 6, 9]) is an intensive use of auditory communication supplied with timely minimal visual cues. The character is humanlike by virtue of their vocal expressions. Visual cues signaling presence are kept to a minimum (hence ‘Ghosts’).
The Ghost metaphor acts as an immediate explanation for the characters lack of bodily presence in the visual domain. The ability of a seemingly omnipresent Ghost service to follow the user around in a building hopefully becomes easier to conceive.
RELATED WORK
Interface agents which apply anthropomorphic features in order to gain a more personalized service have been suggested as an alternative to the Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) interface [10]. SmartKom [9] is a uniform multimodal dialogue interface that makes use of a ‘personalized interaction agent’ called ‘Smartakus’.
Smartakus is designed as an anthropomorphic threedimensional character whose visual appearance changes with the various screen sizes he may inhabit. For instance, only his head is visible when shown on a PDA.
The Mob-i [6] is a virtual creature visually designed as a mobile phone itself. Mob-i is capable of displaying a number of system states by facial expressions. The ‘reminder’ message, for instance, is comprised of a happy 2 face while the ‘low battery’ indication is comprised of a tired or sad looking face. Suppose you need to get a ‘reminder’ message while the Mob-i is low on batteries: What should the face look like then? The range of expressions a system would need in order to cover all of the possible state combinations seems too vast for a cartoonlike approach. In addition ambient intelligence systems have to relate to external contextual states as well.
Ben Shneiderman has warned against the use of anthropomorphized representations for digital assistance
because he fears that it may mislead the user into believing that the agent possesses real intelligence [10]. The application of social traits to that of computers can be achieved with less than fully articulate visual agents. Nass et al. [8] show that users are willing to interact with computers as if they were distinct selves without any other assignment of human qualities than that of voice. Users were willing to treat computers as humans, even though they were aware this was not the case. Nass et al. also discovered that the sole usage of human voice is sufficient to induce this behavioral pattern and that different voices are treated by the users as distinct agents [11].
Brennan puts forward that human communicational skills are highly adapted to adjust to the abilities of the interaction partner. For instance, older children adapt their syntax when speaking to younger children. This is, in part, what makes interaction with ‘dumb’ technology like the computer possible in the first place[2].
Like Brennan and Nass et al. we believe that users will be capable of distinguishing between artificial and human intelligence. The facial representation of agents applied to a mobile display has serious limitations because they require constant attention and do not allow the user to focus on other activities. Moreover, an anthropomorphic visual agent struggles with the limitations of small-size displays, which makes it difficult to express subtle affective facial features. As an alternative the DELCA approach uses the audiolanguage modality in timely combinations with discrete visual signs on the mobile device and in the physical surroundings.
CHALLENGES
How should a visual support of invisible agents be designed and what is the purpose of visualizing? So far we have identified: landmarks, presence, service identity and cover range as important foundational components in the DELCA interface.
The challenge is how to convey the fundamental components by visual means to support the audio-language interface of a Ghost. The interface should have no face – it should work regardless of image resolution. Finally it should be omnipresent, yet calm.
VISUAL DESIGN OF A GHOST
The visual design of the DELCA interface is divided into three main areas: dialogue, exteriors and announcement.
Dialogue is the primary interaction mode illustrated in the scenario and further discussed in Folmann’s research [4].
Exteriors expand the interface of the physical device and takes advantage of physical environments. In guidance task, for instance, the system may employ local speakers,monitors, idle computers or low cost, low-resolution LED signs connected to the network (Fig.1).
Announcements notify the user of the coming and goings of Ghosts while moving around in the surroundings.
Fig. 1 A prototype of a low-res ghost indicated on a 8x8 LED displays mounted in the building.
Exteriors
By timing the visual occurrences with user interactions causal relations to the dynamic environment are established.
For instance, when a user asks the system to show him the direction to Mr. Hansen wall-mounted electronic displays light up guiding him along.
User scenario continued
Mrs. Jones starts walking, but heads in the wrong direction. "Excuse me Mrs. Jones. You are not going in the right direction", the Butler comments.
"If you need directions, press help". Mrs. Jones press 'help' on her PDA and the animated ghost pattern appears on the display. "Follow me please, I am now on the wall display.” Mrs. Jones looks up and notices the same pattern on a wall mounted mini display some meters ahead of her. She walks toward the animated figure. “That’s the way to go” the Butler comments....

Announcement
We suggest two ways to show the presence of a ghost service on a small PDA-like display.
Ghost Wake
The Ghost Wake technique looks like moving an object behind a thin cloth, revealing the object solely through the displacement of the cloth. In this way the Ghost lives in an invisible world behind our own which we may just get a glimpse of. In our case we make small displacements of pixels. Ghost Wake visualizes dynamic relations to the environment without intrusiveness or causing occlusion of the primary task. The Ghost Wake employs the temporal dimension to avoid cluttering the mobile display. Apart from having the quality of not adding or removing pixels from the interface, the temporal changes are immediately recognized by the user. The Wake do not necessarily require previous knowledge or mental decoding to produce a meaning in that the link from visual stimuli to the related service lies in the timing of the moving object to produce a causal experience [7].
While the Ghost leaves a temporary imprint in the primary task interface, it is not possible to see the actual identity of it. There is no other change in either color or composition of the primary task interface (Fig.2).
Fig. 2. A Ghost announces its presence as the user is browsing a webpage on his PDA by sailing across the page creating a highly visible trail.
Animated Ghost Icons
We use Animated Ghost Icons to deal with the spatially very limited possibilities of portable displays. They are like the cellular automata ‘Game Of life’ created by Conway [5]. The structures possess an object identity recognizable with a very limited resolution, despite their constant transformations.
…“Physical Joe” helps people with exercises during a working day.
…“Printer Jan” manages print queues etc.
…“The Butler” guides people around.
Fig.3. Images of various low-res animations of Ghosts. The full animation cycles consists of between 4 to 20 frames in an 8x8 pixel resolution.
Fig. 4. Combination of Ghost Wake and AGI. Three Ghosts shown in the rim are currently available, one more Ghost announces itself and will be shown in the rim as well.
These non human-like faceless visual indications are the product of animated cycles. Animation has shown
importance in relation to user perception of dynamic relations [7] and understanding of functionality [1]. The cycles are functions of ghost identities and current capacities. ‘Physical Joe’ looks like he’s doing physical exercise. ‘Printer Jan’ acts like printing. ‘The Butler’ turns in all directions. The visual effect can be experienced on http://www.itu.dk/people/hartmann/delca/nordichi.
The frequency of the animation cycles in itself may indicate the different states of the Ghost (‘busy’ or ‘waiting’) or it may move in response to ongoing user dialogue. Hereby the user will be able to see whom her or she is talking to. The immediate responsiveness of Ghost movements to the users commands is crucial to establish a causal relationship [7].
DISCUSSION
The Announcement and Exterior visualizations have to compete for user attention with an unknown number of distracters within the physical space. Motion is a potent way of grasping the user attention [12]. It may even prove to be too powerful, like seen on the jumping icon in OS X or in animated banner adds on web pages. However, we believe in the dynamic environment of mobile computing getting the users attention justifies such potent means. The visualizations have to be detectable not only in the users periphery but also across distances, and narrow temporal slots.
CONCLUSION
The visual design for DELCA contains outlines for a new kind of calm visualization. The general idea of how to visualize personalized services without falling victim to the communicational caveats of facial representations seems promising. Striving for a balance between calmness and visual significance seems to be the major design goal.
Animations can be used as powerful means to attract attention in exterior surroundings even on low-res displays.
They may also be used on mobile displays without occupying too much screen real estate. When the primary interaction mode is verbal, abstract animations may be a feasible alternative to face-like figures.
Ambient systems are omnipresent. The interface of such systems should be designed accordingly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
1. Baecker, R., Ian Small and Mander, R., Bringing icons to life. in Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '91), (1991), 1-6.
2. Brennan, S., Laurel, B. and Shneiderman, B., Antropomorphism: From Eliza to Terminator 2. in CHI'92,(1992).
3. Cassell, J., Bickmore, T., Billinghurst, M., Campbell, L., Chang, K., Vilhjalmsson, H. and Yan, H., Embodiment in Conversational Interfaces: Rea. in CHI 99,(1999).
4. Folmann, T.B. DELCA : Disembodied Location-Specific Conversational Agents. Available at http://www.itu.dk/research/delca/papers/troels/DELCA%20THESIS.pdf.
5. Gardner, M. The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life". Scientific American, 223. 120-123.
6. Marcus, A. and Chen, E. Designing the PDA of the future. Interactions. 34-44.
7. Michotte, A. The perception of causality. Methuen, 1963.
8. Nass, C., Steuer, J., Tauber, E. and Reeder, H., Antropomorphism, Agency, & Ethopoiea: Computer as Social Actors. in Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ( Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1993), 111-112.
9. Reithinger, N., Streit, M., Tschernomas, V., Alexandersson, J., Becker, T., Blocher, A., Engel, R., Löckelt, M., Müller, J., Pfleger, N. and Poller, P., SmartKom - Adaptive and Flexible Multimodal Access to Multiple Applications. in ICMI'03 International Conference On Multimodal Interface, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2003), ACM Press, 101-108.
10. Shneiderman, B. and Maes, P. Direct Manipulation vs Interface Agents. interactions.
11. Sørensen, M.H. Enter the World of Ghosts. New Assisting and Entertaining Virtual Agents. Available at
http://www.itu.dk/people/megel/delcaghosts.doc.
12. Ware, C., Bonner, J., Knight, W. and Cater, R. Moving icons as a human interrupt. International Journal
of Human-Computer Interaction, 4 (4). 341-348.
13. Weiser, M. The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, 265 (3). 94-104.
14. WORDNET. Princeton University., 1997.

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.raven1.net/v2s-kohn.htm
Communicating Via the Microwave Auditory Effect
See U.S. Air Force letter: usafletr.jpg
which states that to reveal details of this project "could reasonably be expected to cause damage to national
security".
Question: If voice to skull didn't work or wasnot considered weapons-capable technology, then why would it's release damage national security?

(Letter image courtesy of electronic weapons activist Margo Cherney, http://www.angelfire.com/or/mctrl/index.html
who made the FOIA request for details on this project.)

Web address: http://es.epa.gov/ncerqa_abstracts/sbir/other/monana/kohn.html
Awarding Agency: Department of Defense
SBIR Contract Number: F41624-95-C-9007
Title: Communicating Via the Microwave Auditory Effect
Principal Investigator: Mr. Brian Kohn
Company Name: Science & Engineering Assoc, Inc.
6100 Uptown Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
Telephone Number: 505-884-2300
Business Representative:
Project Period:
Project Amount: $739,995
Research Category: Monitoring/Analytical

Description:
An innovative and revolutionary technology is described that offers a means of low-probability-of-intercept Radio frequency (RF) communications. The feasibility of the concept has been established using both a low intensity laboratory system and a high power RF transmitter. Numerous military applications exist in areas of search and rescue, security and special operations.

Supplemental Keywords: small business, SBIR,
See also: http://www.seabase.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Updated: November 17, 1997
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE TO BRIAN KOHN'S STUDIES:
Program:SBIR
Agency:AF Field
Office:AL
TOPIC Number:AF93-026
Control Number:93AL -185
Contract Number:F41624-93-C-9013 Phase:1
Awarded In:93
Award Amount:$37,806
Award Start Date:17MAY93
Award Completion Date:17DEC93
Proposal Title:Communicating Via the Microwave Auditory Effect
Principal Investigator Name:Brian Kohn
Principal Investigator Phone:[phone]
Firm SCIENCE & ENGINEERING ASSOC., INC.SEA
Plaza, 6100 Uptown Blvd, NE, SUITE 700 Albuquerque, NM 87110
Woman Owned: N
Minority Owned: N
Number of Employees: 95
Keywords: MICROWAVE HEARING RF HEARING BONE CONDUCTION THERMOELASTIC
COCHLEAR MICROPHONICS
Abstract: In this research program, we plan to investigate arevolutionary new form of communication based on the microwaveauditory effect. This proposed communication idea satisfies therequirements for an innovative, natural interface requiring nolearning or training for efficient operation and effectivecommunications. The purpose of the program proposed here is toextend the results of a recent feasibility study, performed for theArmstrong Laboratory/OEDR. The study found that voicecommunications, via the microwave auditory effect, are highlyfeasible. In Phase I of this SBIR, we propose to investigate therange of potential applications for this radically different formof voice communication and recommend hardware and systems conceptssuitable for laboratory and brassboard demonstrations to be builtunder Phase II.

[Soleilmavis]

Transducer
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Transducer
("A transducer is a device, usually electrical, electronic, electro-mechanical, electromagnetic, photonic, or photovoltaic that converts one type of energy or physical attribute to another for various purposes including measurement or information transfer (for example, pressure sensors).

The term transducer is commonly used in two sense; the sensor, used to detect a parameter in one form and report
it in another (usually an electrical or digital signal), and the audio loudspeaker, which converts electrical voltage variations representing music or speech, to mechanical cone vibration and hence vibrates air molecules creating sound.

Electricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction....

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....

Electromagnetic may refer to:* Electromagnetic radiation* Electromagnetism...

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....

A pressure sensor measures pressure, typically of gases or liquids. Pressure is an expression of the force required to stop a fluid from expanding, and is usually stated in terms of force per unit area....

A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated glass tube....

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....

Types of transducers

Electromagnetic:
Antenna (radio) - converts electromagnetic waves into electric current and vice versa.
An 'antenna' is a transducer designed to transmitter or receive Electromagnetic radiations. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa....
Cathode ray tube (CRT) - converts electrical signals into visual form
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
Fluorescent lamp , light bulb - converts electrical power into visible light
A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to Excited state mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluorescence, producing Light....
Magnetic cartridge - converts motion into electrical form
A magnetic cartridge is a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a phonograph. It converts mechanical vibrational energy from a stylus riding in a spiral record groove into an electrical signal that is subsequently amplified and then converted back to sound by a loudspeaker system....
Pick up (music technology) - converts motion into electrical form
Photodetector or Photoresistor (LDR) - converts changes in light levels into resistance changes
Photosensors or photodetectors are sensors of light or other electromagnetic energy. There are several varieties:*optics detectors, which are mostly quantum devices in which an individual photon produces a discrete effect....
A photoresistor or light dependent resistor or cadmium sulfide cell is a resistor whose electrical resistance decreases with increasing incident light intensity....
Tape head - converts changing magnetic fields into electrical form
A tape head is a type of transducer used in tape recorders to convert electrical signals to magnetism fluctuations and vice versa....
Hall effect sensor - converts a magnetic field level into electrical form only.
A Hall effect sensor is a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to changes in magnetic field. Hall sensors are used for proximity switching, positioning, speed detection, and current sensing applications....

Electrochemical:
pH probes PH meter
A pH meter is an electronic instrument used to measure the pH of a liquid . A typical pH meter consists of a special measuring probe connected to an electronic meter that measures and displays the pH reading....
Electro-galvanic fuel cell
An electro-galvanic fuel cell is an electrical device used to measure the concentration of oxygen gas in scuba diving and medical equipment.A chemical reaction occurs in the fuel cell when the potassium hydroxide in the cell comes into contact with oxygen....

Electromechanical (electromechanical output devices are generically called actuators)
An actuator is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system....
Electroactive polymers
Electroactive Polymers or EAPs are polymers whose shape is modified when a voltage is applied to them.They can be used as actuators or sensors....
Galvanometer
A galvanometer is a type of ammeter: an instrument for detecting and measuring electric current. It is an Analogue electronics electromechanical transducer that produces a rotary deflection, through a limited arc, in response to electric current flowing through its coil....
MEMS
Rotary motor Electric motor
An electric motor uses electrical energy to produce mechanical energy, nearly always by the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors....
linear motor
A linear motor or linear induction motor is essentially a multi-phase alternating current electric motor that has had its stator "unrolled" so that instead of producing a torque it produces a linear force along its length....
Vibration powered generator
Vibration powered generators are mechanisms for converting kinetic energy derived from ambient vibration to electrical energy. Magnets wobbling on a cantilever are sensitive to even small vibrations and generate microcurrents by moving relative to conductors - see Faraday's law of induction....
Potentiometer when used for measuring position
A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used , it acts as a variable resistor or Rheostat....
Load cell converts force to mV/V electrical signal using strain gaugeStrain gauge
A load cell is an electronic device that is used to convert a force into an electrical signal. This conversion is indirect and happens in two stages....
A strain gauge is a device used to measure the Strain of an object. Invented by Edward E. Simmons and Arthur C. Ruge in 1938, the most common type of strain gauge consists of an Electrical insulation flexible backing which supports a metallic foil pattern....
Accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device for measuring acceleration and gravity.Single- and multi-axis models are available to detect magnitude and direction of the acceleration as a Euclidean vector quantity, and can be used to sense orientation, vibration and shock....
Strain gauge
A strain gauge is a device used to measure the Strain of an object. Invented by Edward E. Simmons and Arthur C. Ruge in 1938, the most common type of strain gauge consists of an Electrical insulation flexible backing which supports a metallic foil pattern....
String Potentiometer
A string potentiometer is a transducer used to detect and measure linear position and velocity using a flexible cable and spring-loaded spool. Other common names include "string pot", "cable-extension transducer", "draw wire sensor", and "yo-yo sensor"....
Air flow sensor

Electroacoustic:
Geophone - convert a ground movement (displacement) into voltage
The term geophone derives from the Greek word "geo" meaning "classical element" and "phone" meaning "sound".A geophone is a device which converts ground movement into voltage, which may be recorded at a recording station....
Gramophone pick-up Phonograph
The record player, phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing Sound recording and reproduction sound from the 1870s through the 1980s....
Hydrophone - converts changes in water pressure into an electrical form
A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change....
Loudspeaker , earphone - converts changes in electrical signals into acoustic form
A loudspeaker, speaker, or speaker system is an electroacoustical transducer that converts an electricity signal processing to sound....
Microphone - converts changes in air pressure into an electrical signal
A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or?more recently?mic, is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal....
Piezoelectric crystal Piezoelectricity - converts pressure changes into electrical form
Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials to generate an electric potential in response to applied mechanical Stress . This may Piezoelectricity#Crystal classes of a separation of electric charge across the crystal lattice....
Tactile transducer
A tactile transducer or "bass shaker" is a device which is made on the principle that low bassline frequencies can be felt as well as heard....
Photoelectric Photoelectric effect
The photoelectric effect is a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from matter after the absorption of energy from electromagnetic wave such as x-rays or visible light....
Laser diode, light-emitting diode - convert electrical power into forms of light
A laser diode is a laser where the active medium is a semiconductor similar to that found in a light-emitting diode. The most common and practical type of laser diode is formed from a p-n junction and powered by injected electric current....
A light-emitting diode , is an electronic light source. The LED was discovered in the early 20th century, and introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962....
Photodiode, photoresistor, phototransistor, photomultiplier tube - converts changing light levels into electrical form
A photodiode is a type of photodetector capable of converting light into either electric current or voltage, depending upon the mode of operation....
A photoresistor or light dependent resistor or cadmium sulfide cell is a resistor whose electrical resistance decreases with increasing incident light intensity....
Photomultiplier tubes , members of the class of vacuum tubes, and more specifically phototubes, are extremely sensitive detectors of light in the ultraviolet, visible light, and near-infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum....

Electrostatic:
Electrometer
An electrometer is an electricity instrument for measuring electric charge or electrical potential difference. There are many different types, ranging from historical hand-made mechanical instruments to high-precision electronic devices....

Thermoelectric:
RTD Resistance Temperature Detector
Thermocouple
A thermocouple is a junction between two different metals that produces a voltage related to a temperature difference. Thermocouples are a widely used type of list of temperature sensors and can also be used to convert heat into electric power....
Peltier cooler
Thermistor (includes PTC resistor and NTC resistor)
A thermistor is a type of resistor with electrical resistance proportional to its temperature. The word is a portmanteau of Thermal and resistor....

Radioacoustic:
Geiger-Müller tube used for measuring radioactivity.
A Geiger-M?ller tube is the sensing element of a Geiger counter instrument that can detect a single particle of ionizing radiation, and typically produce an audible click for each....
Receiver (radio)
This article is about a radio receiver, for other uses see Radio .A radio receiver is an electronics circuit that receives its input from an antenna , uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio signal from all other signals picked up by this antenna, electronic amplifier it to a level suitable for further processing, and finally...

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-preps-soldier-tele...
Pentagon Preps Soldier Telepathy Push
By Katie Drummond May 14, 2009 | 10:46 am | Categories: Army and Marines, DarpaWatch, Science!

Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each other’s minds.

At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.

Before being vocalized, speech exists as word-specific neural signals in the mind. Darpa wants to develop technology that would detect these signals of “pre-speech,” analyze them, and then transmit the statement to an intended interlocutor. Darpa plans to use EEG to read the brain waves. It’s a technique they’re also testing in a project to devise mind-reading binoculars that alert soldiers to threats faster the conscious mind can process them.


The project has three major goals, according to Darpa. First, try to map a person’s EEG patterns to his or her individual words. Then, see if those patterns are generalizable — if everyone has similar patterns. Last, “construct a fieldable pre-prototype that would decode the signal and transmit over a limited range.”

The military has been funding a handful of mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to “make the enemy obey our commands.” The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer’s remotely-transmitted thoughts.

– Katie Drummond and Noah Shachtman

[Soleilmavis]

British TV Boffins Battle Sonic Blaster
By David Hambling August 26, 2009 | 1:59 pm | Less-lethal
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/british-tv-boffins-battle-s...

Bang Goes The Theory is a new BBC show which is already gaining a cult following for its off-the-wall approach to science. A few weeks ago, the team built their own vortex ring cannon capable of knocking down a brick wall; this week they aimed to “defeat the U.S. Navy’s latest weapon” using home-made technology.

The “weapon” in Bang Goes The Theory was a sonic blaster similar to the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) used by the US Navy and others. This generates a narrow beam of intense sound. It can be used as a loudhailer, or it can produce a jarring warning signal. At high intensity, it can be physically painful; in the first test, the presenter is stopped two hundred yards away. (The program never drops the name LRAD, so I suspect there were either legal issues or this is an LRAD-lookalike.)

Presenter Dallas Campbell set out to defeat the acoustic device using some advanced soundproofing, constructing a double-glazed helmet and a foam rubber shield. How well did it work? Watch the video here or here to find out.

This is just the latest in a long line of techniques aimed at foiling non-lethal crowd control weapons. Ever since police and security forces started using non-lethal weapons for crowd control, people have been looking for ways to counter them, trying everything from onions, tinfoil and Viagra.

Take tear gas, which has been around in various forms since the First World War and has been a regular feature of demonstrations from Seattle to Tehran to Khartoum. Experienced protesters expecting a blast of tear gas bring eye protection in the form of goggles and use a bandanna soaked in water or vinegar as an improvised gas mask. Real pros bring actual gas masks. An alternative approach is to use onion juice, which allegedly reduces the effect, a technique which is used everywhere from Israel to Iran.

As crowd-control weapons proliferate, so do the ideas for how to stop them. Danger Room looked at Thor’s range of Taser-proof clothing (jackets, gloves, even hats) and the idea that you could block the Active Denial System “pain beam” with tin foil . Although the ADS is simply a beam of microwaves, you need 100% full body coverage to be effective, as even a small area uncovered will produce enough pain for what the enthusiasts like to call “the repel effect.”

Laser dazzlers are likely to be countered with dark goggles or visors. And then there are new strobe weapons, such as the LED Incapacitator (misleadingly called the “puke saber”: It might nauseate you, but it has not actually caused vomiting in tests). A few years ago, Andrew Stockman of the Institute of Ophthalmology in London showed that 100 mg doses of Viagra reduced the sensitivity to flickering lights, opening the possibility that a few blue tablets might give protection against strobe weapons. (David checked with Dr. Stockman, who was doubtful there would be enough of an effect for Viagra to serve as a defense, but we’re willing to let him be our guinea pig. — Ed.)

However, all of these approaches suffer from the same fundamental drawback. Non-lethal devices are not used in isolation, and much of the time their main purpose it to separate the harmless protesters or civilians from the hardcore troublemakers. Anyone who turns up wearing a tinfoil suit, gas mask and visor is — in the eyes of the police or security forces — looking for trouble and is likely to get it.

As Capt. Jay Delarosa, spokesman for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told me: “If an individual makes extensive efforts to counter the effect of a non-lethal system, then they are likely showing hostile intent and an escalation of force may be warranted based on existing rules of engagement.”

In other words, if a Taser doesn’t bring you down, they will try shooting you with something else. Better bring a bullet-proof vest as well.

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.raven1.net/v2succes.htm
Microwaves and Behavior
Dr. Don R. Justesen
Laboratories of Experimental Neuropsychology
Veterans Administration Hospital
Kansas City, Missouri
as published in

The American Psychologist
Journal of the American Psychological Association
Volume 30, March 1975, Number 3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original article scans relating to voice to skull:
Journal Heading and start of contents
Second contents page, ref to article
Starting page of article, note at bottom
Article page describing technology details


ANTI-V2S (voice to skull) MP3 audio tracks. RIGHT click one or the other links below to download. Then load from your PC to your MP3 player to take anti-V2S multi-radio show masking with you in the community or at work:

6 radios, 24 kbps, mono
6 radios, 64 kbps, stereo
** Please save a COPY to your hard drive for repeated playing.

These audio files are a jumble of 6 radio shows playing simultaneously. They act as a countermeasure against endless voice to skull transmissions by making the voice to skull speaker just one of many audio threads. This allows the target to avoid having their attention forced on to the content of what the perpetrator is saying. The perpetrators have been known to cease voice to skull attacks as their content has only limited effect on a target who uses this countermeasure.
Electronic hobbyists can simulate voice to skull on their workbench:

555 timer chip simulates Sharp's voice to skull speech

Eleanor White's comments on this posting:

This lays to rest any doubts that voice to skull technology does not exist or is "in the future".

This article describes in precise terms how Dr. Joseph C. Sharp and staff transmitted the WORDS for the digits 1 to 10 using a modulated version of an Allan Frey type pulsed microwave transmitter. A detailed description of Frey transmitters can be viewed at:

http://www.raven1.net/frey.htm

This article is excerpted from the original.

Related references:

U.S. patent 6,587,729, issued based on Dr. Joseph Sharp's voice to skull success.
Diagram illustrating Sharp's voice conversion method
MEDUSA, a proposal for a military/police voice to skull weapon, ABC News
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Donald Friedman, verified current government interest in voice to skull
NASA abstract stating voice to skull works
Government contract to SEA, says same
Notes, patent 6,470,214, a 1994 improvement on voice to skull technology
Article about use of "silent sound" hypnsosis
Concept diagram illustrating "silent sound" coupled to the Joseph Sharp voice to skull technology

[Soleilmavis]

Microwave auditory effect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect
The microwave auditory effect, also known as the microwave hearing effect or the Frey effect, consists of audible clicks induced by pulsed/modulated microwave frequencies. The clicks are generated directly inside the human head without the need of any receiving electronic device. The effect was first reported by persons working in the vicinity of radar transponders during World War II. These induced sounds are not audible to other people nearby. The microwave auditory effect was later discovered to be inducible with shorter-wavelength portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. During the Cold War era, the American neuroscientist Allan H. Frey studied this phenomenon and was the first to publish (Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 17, pages 689-692, 1962) information on the nature of the microwave auditory effect; this effect is therefore also known as the Frey effect.

Dr. Don R. Justesen published "Microwaves and Behavior" in The American Psychologist (Volume 30, March 1975, Number 3).

Research by NASA in the 1970s[citation needed] showed that this effect occurs as a result of thermal expansion of parts of the human ear around the cochlea, even at low power density. Later, signal modulation was found to produce sounds or words that appeared to originate intracranially. It was studied for its possible use in communications. Similar research conducted in the USSR studied its use in non-lethal weaponry.[citation needed]

The existence of non-lethal weaponry that exploits the microwave auditory effect appears to have been classified "Secret NOFORN" in the USA from (at the latest) 1998, until the declassification on 6 December 2006 of "Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weaponry" in response to a FOIA request.

The technology gained further public attention when a company announced in early 2008 that they were close to fielding a device called MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) based on the principle.[1]

[Soleilmavis]

SONIC WEAPONS USED IN IRAQ POSITIONED AT CONGRESSIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=node/1874
A Joint Investigative Report by East County Magazine and Liberty One Radio

By Miriam Raftery

September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.

The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups. (photo credit: Mike Russell)


A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force.

“It’s very concerning,” Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “ It is fine for the Sheriff’s Department to have new less-than-lethal weapons, but for their interactions with individuals these still-dangerous weapons need to be used only as substitutes for firearms. They can’t be used as just another tool on the tool belt. As we’ve seen with tasers and pepper spray, these types of weapons are being used to subdue people even though they pose the risk of serious physical harm.”

He added, “Even more concerning is having these weapons for public order policing. I can imagine no situation, or am not aware of any situation that’s ever happened in San Diego County or is likely to happen that would justify using these weapons for public order policing to control a crowd. The main effect of having those weapons at public events is to chill people and chill free speech and free association.”

LRADs were developed by ATC at the request of the U.S. Navy after the attack on the U.S.S. Cole as a means of dissuading hostile invaders. ATC founder Elwood "Woody" Norris is a pioneer in sound technology who has also been instrumental in development of ultra-sound and ground penetrating radar.

Cruise ship Captain Michael Groves successfully repelled pirates off the Somali coast using non-lethal weapons including an LRAD. Groves has since filed suit against Carnival Cruise Line, claiming he suffered permanent hearing loss as a result, the BBC has reported. Navy News describes the LRAD as "louder than a jet engine" and helpfully explains that it overwhelms its targets with "sound so loud they hear it inside their heads."

ATC initially sold LRADs primarily to the U.S. military, but has since sold products internationally and domestically. The company and its representatives have not limited sales to military, maritime and law enforcement personnel, however. Local lifeguards and even Liberty One Radio are among potential customers to whom ATC’s sales force has attempted to peddle LRADs.

Liberty One Radio host Mike Copass, a former Democratic Congressional candidate who ran against Davis, tried to interview the Sheriff’s officer who appeared to be in charge of the device, which was mounted on a Rhino all-terrain vehicle. But Magallanez said the official “acted as if he didn’t know what it was.”

East County Magazine contacted Lieutenant Anthony Ray at the Lemon Grove sheriff substation. “I was the incident commander,” said Ray, who confirmed that the device was an LRAD but was not sure of the model. “It’s a really loud speaker,” he said, adding that the device is used to assure that announcements can be heard over the din of a crowd. “We’ll often use a helicopter, but this is something portable,” he explained. The device has also been present at a sand-castle building competition in Imperial Beach and could be deployed at any large event locally, since the Sheriff’s office is sometimes subcontracted by other cities within San Diego County to provide security.

Asked if he was aware that the device had a deterrent capability that includes a directed sound loud enough to cause hearing loss, he replied, “You mean like they use in Iraq? I can’t imagine we’d do that, because it would hurt our own people at the same time…I can’t believe that we would use the kind of thing on a crowd that the military does,” he said, adding that the deputy on the Rhino was not wearing protective earphones. “There were deputies right in front, too,” he observed, but added that he would have to “go home and look this up on Google” to learn more.

In an interview last week with newly appointed Sheriff Bill Gore, formerly the Undersheriff, East County Magazine posed the following questions about LRADs.

ECM: Crowd control has been in the news with the Francine Busby pepper spray incident. Now some have expressed concern after spotting long-range acoustical devices (LRADs) at Congressional members Susan Davis and Darrell Issa town hall forums on healthcare. We understand these devices can be used as loudspeakers, to avoid need for a helicopter to address large crowds—

GORE: That’s not the primary purpose.

ECM: They’re also called sonic cannons, capable of directing a deterrent sound. They’ve been used in IRAQ on insurgents and to repel pirates.

GORE: That’s a precaution in case you need it.

ECM: LRADs can cause permanent hearing loss and other health problems. What make and model LRAD do you have, what are the guidelines for when these may be used, what training is provided, and how can you assure that your deputies and innocent bystanders won’t be hurt?

GORE: Our deputies have the required training.

He indicated that he did not consider LRAD technology to be a non-lethal weapon, such as tasers and pepper spray, then deferred other questions on this topic pending results of a public records request submitted by ECM.

However, Defense Update, a British defense contracting publication, lists LRADs as “non-lethal directed energy weapons. The publication states: “LRAD works like a highly directional, high power megaphone, able to blast sounds (such as crowd-dispersal instructions in Arabic) in a narrow beam and with great clarity at a deafening 150 decibels (50 times the human threshold of pain). LRAD can also create deafening noises which can incapacitate people within 300 meters by “firing” short bursts of intense acoustic energy.”

An article from Atomic Scientists at describes the device’s “ear-piercing siren” and confirms it has been used by U.S. Marines in Fallujah. The device has also been used by New York City Police for crowd control during the Republican National Convention. A technology article at GovPro.com states that the LRAD system “transmits powerful deterrent tones, by which piercing sound can cause pain, nausea, disorientation and possibly even hearing damage.”

Our records search confirmed that the Sheriff’s Deparment purchased an LRAD 500-X and on-site training instruction for $37,500 on July 21, 2008 supplied by the Lorimar Group, which signed an LRAD reseller agreement with ATC in 2006. In responses to questions asking whether the deterrent sound feature has been deployed locally or whether any complaints of harm have been received, the Sheriff’s office responded that no such records are available.

The manufacturer’s specifications indicate that “The superior voice intelligibility and clarity of LRAD 500X provides a directional audio beam that can communicate with 100% intelligibility over 88 dB of background noise beyond 300 meters and capable of communicating over 2000 meters away in a benign environment. LRAD 500X operators have the ability to issue clear, authoritative verbal commands, followed with powerful deterrent tones to enhance response capabilities.” Moreover, the spec sheet indicates the device has a frequenty range of +/- 5dB over a 500 to 5kHz range, with a maximum volume of 148dB at 1 meter continuous and over 95 dB at 300 meters.

Ironically, the devices positioned at healthcare reform rallies hosted by Congressional members Susan Davis and Darrell Issa have the potential to cause serious health harm if its sonic crowd control feature is deployed, one medical professional informed East county Magazine. Dr. Mike Copass Sr. (father of radio personality Mike Copass) confirmed that "148 db, the max sound of the 500x ATC LRAD, will damage/destroy human hearing and damage, potentially, the brain."

That detail hasn't deterred sales. ATC media and industrial relations representative Robert Putnam informed Liberty One Media that “Business is looking really good.” He said thousands of LRAD models have been sold worldwide, hundreds have been sold in California, and that two or three units have been sold within San Diego County, but declined to release agency names.

At least one use of an LRAD deterrent sound system used against a civilian crowd of demonstrators by riot police in the former Soviet-block nation of Georgia has been recorded on video.

In an interview with East County Magazine, Putman initially denied that the Sheriff’s office had been sold an LRAD made by ATC. But when informed that Sheriff’s documents confirm the purchase, he said the company uses distributors—raising the question of how many more devices have been sold—and to whom. “ATC has 95% of the LRAD market which we helped create. Before, there was really no acoustic hailing and warning device,” he added.

Putnam objected to the term “sonic cannon”, responding, “It’s not a sound cannon. It gets their attention and hopefully gets them to comply.”

He also denied that the company’s LRADs can cause hearing problems or other health concerns. “No, not true,” he said. “You’d have to be in close proximity for several minutes in order to have any damage at all. If you willingly stand in that beam for an extended situation, then that’s your choice. There’s no way a large crowd would stay.” He said the company provides hands-on training to customers and has not had any lawsuits filed over damaged related to LRADs. The company is now offering a hand-held model, he added, which costs about $5,000 and can emit noise levels up to 135 dB. The device can also be adapted to have a high-powered light, infrared night vision, or the ability to translate commands into a foreign language.

Bullhorns are ineffective in large crowds, carrying only 20-25 yards and suffering distortion, he said. “With our LRAD, you are good to up to three kilometers. The 500-x is good for about a kilometer or a kilometer and a half.” Activation of the deterrent tone is a function of the volume control, not a separate switch, he confirmed. “But they are also highly directional, so people operating them don’t get anywhere near.”

He defended use of the technology as a non-lethal way to provide warnings and to prevent innocent people from being harmed, such as fishermen who venture too close to a military vessel, international border, or nuclear station. “The whole point is to save lives,” he said. “If you’re a bad guy and keep coming, or wear protective headgear and keep coming, then you know they are not there innocently and you ratchet up the response.”

He also revealed potential new domestic uses for the LRAD technology. “We are also excited to save wildlife,” Putnam said. “We are working on trial tests to clear birds out of runways because when a jet is taking off or landing, that’s when it is most vulnerable to a bird strike.” Such technology could potentially save passenger and crew lives as well. He also predicts the technology could be useful to prevent bird deaths from drinking tainted water at mining tailing ponds or flying into wind turbine blades at wind farms, as well as preventing damage to solar panels from bird defecations. Birds would not suffer damage unless exposed to the deterrent signal tone for several minutes, added.

Seattle Weekly has warned that an LRAD device could be “an extremely attractive implement of torture in the wrong hands—or an equally alluring engine of light terrorism in others. Imagine how easily a miscreant could trash any sort of outdoor gathering.”

That concern raises troubling questions about just how closely ATC screens potential buyers of its long-range acoustical devices.

San Diego Life Guard Mike Russell told Liberty One Radio that life guards were approached by ATC about purchasing an LRAD unit similar to the LRAD-500x seen at the Susan Davis rally. An ATC sales represented “tried to sell it to the Lifeguard service for focused warnings in the middle of crowds or in the water,” he recalled, adding that the equipment was not purchased due to the high cost.

Asked by East County Magazine whether the sales rep disclosed the unit’s weapons capacity, Russell replied, “I was just told that it could be used “like an audio laser-beam” to speak to an individual or small group up to 300 yards away, without disturbing the people all along the beach. This seemed like great potential, people entering ripc urrents, or even in rip currents, could be communicated with, without disturbing the rest of the beach with the traditional loud speakers.” He added, “I wasn’t informed about any dangers to hearing, but I was just listening to the sales pitch guy indirectly…Perhaps the senior staff were informed.” A call to a senior lifeguard official was not returned by press deadline.

Liberty One Media (a politically progressive media outlet currently posting podcasts online while raising funds to purchase a broadcast station) sent an e-mail to ATC inquiring about purchasing an LRAD for use at concerts. The manufacturer sent sales literature, including a technical specification sheet, without warning about potential weapons usage—or inquiring about backgrounds of those seeking to purchase the product.

The ACLU's local director voiced serious concerns over ATC's efforts to market acoustic weapons to lifeguards and radio stations. “I think it’s inappropriate for commercial or private use, “ Keenan concluded. “There should be laws restricting it to law enforcement or military purposes.”

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2...
Xtreme Defense
Lightning guns, heat rays, weapons that can make you hear the voice of God. This is what happens when the war on terror meets the entrepreneurial spirit

By Sharon Weinberger
Sunday, August 28, 2005



"This is very clandestine," Pete Bitar whispered, as his red Dodge Caravan idled in the parking lot of a Burger King near Fort Belvoir. "They called last week, and they wanted delivery this week."

It did feel a little clandestine, if a bit unlikely. Yet there, in the Burger King parking lot, a small transaction in America's war on terror was about to take place. In the minivan were Bitar, the president and founder of Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), Edward Fry, the company's research coordinator, and George Gibbs, of Marine Corps Systems Command, who two years ago plucked Bitar's obscure company out of its paper existence and provided it with more than half a million dollars in Pentagon funding.

They were waiting for Superman.

Bitar had battled start-up disappointments and even ridicule -- not to mention January cold and Beltway rush-hour traffic -- to seal his first Pentagon deal. The procurement order had gone through so quickly that the Indiana-based Bitar, who was in town for a conference, agreed to make his final delivery at the Burger King to avoid the hassle of getting onto the Virginia Army base.

Bitar flipped open a case containing his first sale: the "dazzler," one in a line of about a half-dozen "nonlethal" weapons that XADS is marketing to the military. It looked like an executive pen: slick, green and flecked with gold. But the pen was really a green laser designed to disorient and temporarily blind an enemy. Sale price: $1,100 apiece.

It looked, to use one of Bitar's favorite phrases, really cool.

Bitar glanced up. "There's Superman."

Sure enough, a broad-shouldered man materialized in front of the Caravan. He was wearing a leather jacket embroidered with the familiar "S" emblem and a matching tie.

Superman stuck out his hand and introduced himself: Shane Gilmore. Pentagon folks seem especially fond of quirky nicknames and are not above cultivating that mystique. Asked about the Kryptonian symbols, he'd say only, "I'm Superman." But today he wasn't saving the world, just trying to protect it as part of an Army task force buying equipment for troops in Iraq. They had placed an order for 13 of Bitar's dazzlers. Supercharged versions of commercial laser pointers, dazzlers are the lowest-tech of Bitar's weapons, and they're not what initially caught the Pentagon's eye. Rather, it was his concept for a gun that could shoot bolts of artificial lightning to paralyze, but not kill, an enemy, like a "Star Trek" phaser set on stun.

After handing over the goods, Bitar explained his unusual entry into the high-tech weapons market as he headed into Arlington for dinner. The lightning gun began, literally, as a daydream when Bitar was running a Styrofoam recycling business in the early 1990s. Watching the machinery that cut up the used material, he noticed sparks shooting into the air. He began to wonder, at first idly and then more intensely, if there was a way to extend the sparks' range.

But he had no engineering or technical expertise, and his speculation went nowhere.

A decade later, Bitar was no closer to becoming an experimental weapons entrepreneur. But he did have a new business, founded largely to fund an "extreme" hobby of his, powered paragliding. The idea was to turn enthusiasts of the sport -- who strap motors to their backs, take off running, then yank open a parachute -- into flying billboards. He called it XADS -- for "Xtreme Ads," as in advertising.

Undeterred by his lack of engineering qualifications, he began to apply for Department of Defense research and development contracts set aside for small businesses. Bitar started out pitching an idea related to his paragliding business involving a parachute design. But no one at the Pentagon was biting. Then one day, Bitar learned that the Pentagon was seeking ideas for a taser gun. It was like being struck by lightning. He dusted off his decade-old idea and, in 2002, was granted a contract to develop his lightning gun. Suddenly, he needed a new name for his company. "Xtreme Advertising" would sound pretty silly at defense trade shows. Fortuitously, XADS had a handy "D" for Defense.

Now his company consists of two full-time employees, himself and Fry, but he hires physicists and engineers as consultants to design and build the parts for his weapons that aren't commercially available. His job is to be the visionary. "I call myself the glue -- I kind of had the idea and vision of what it could be," Bitar said.

Back in his lab in Anderson, Ind., Bitar has a large apparatus -- 11 feet high -- that shoots sparks about 16 feet. It's too large and cumbersome to be a portable weapon; he thinks it could be used for securing U.S. embassies. He also produces smaller units -- dubbed "StunStrike" -- that he says shoot four-foot bolts of lightning.

His prototype for a rifle weighs about 25 pounds and can shoot electricity about 12 feet, he says.

Gibbs, the Marine Corps official who first funded Bitar, has a fondness for edgy ideas. A chemical engineer and longtime proponent of nonlethal weaponry, Gibbs funds other offbeat projects, such as Medusa, an attempt to develop a weapon that uses low-power microwaves -- believed to cause an audible buzzing in subjects' heads -- to make people think God is speaking to them. Another such weapon would use beams of energy to make people dizzy and lose their balance.

Gibbs acknowledges that electrical engineers in his office said that Bitar's lightning gun would never fly because of a variety of technical hurdles. But, he says, he figured "it was minimal risk to the Marine Corps to try it." He gave XADS the initial $100,000 (that's "minimal risk" in Pentagonese). Bitar was able to prove, by the end of the nine-month contract, that he could generate a one-foot spark with some degree of control, which led to more funding.

Striding into a Lebanese restaurant at Pentagon Row, Bitar greeted the servers in fluent Arabic. "Pete, you never cease to amaze me," Gibbs said to Bitar, as the group was guided to a quiet booth in the back.

Bitar traces his interest in nonlethal weapons to his heritage as a Christian Arab. His father was born in Syria, his mother in Lebanon and he in Michigan. "We're sitting in an Arabic restaurant, speaking Arabic. Honestly, it gives me a little bit of an ad-vantage," he said. "I can think the way a Middle Eastern mind thinks. I understand where they're coming from. So, we can design tactical solutions that deal with that."

Lightning, for example, is a very big fear for Arabs, Bitar contends. Peter Bechtold, the head of Near East studies at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute, was dubious that Arabs would be more frightened than anyone else by lightning guns. "It sounds strange," Bechtold said, when presented with Bitar's idea. But ideas are what Bitar overflows with. His latest is to use ultrasonic waves in the dazzler not to just blind enemies, but also to convey messages into their heads, similar to Gibbs's Medusa project. Hearing voices from God is a "big thing" in Arab culture, according to Bitar. "We flash-blind them. And, while their eyes are shut, you could send a recorded message or deep guttural voice that echoes in the inside of their head. They're looking around, 'Hey, did you hear that?'''

Bitar laughed. "That's the psych warfare side of this thing."

Suddenly serious, he leaned back. "You know, I'm a Christian, and I just believe in preserving life," he said. "Yet, preserving it in the context of order, law and force, if needed."

Gibbs interrupted Bitar's soliloquy as dinner arrived. "What if I say grace before we eat?" he asked.

With soft Arabic music playing in the background, Bitar and Fry lowered their heads as Gibbs began: "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this marvelous meal. We thank you for this opportunity we have to share with each other and do great stuff for our country."

After grace, Bitar resumed with his vision of bloodless warfare. Hostage situations would be as easy as hosing down a whole group of people with the lightning gun, and "then you could separate them out: hostages and non-hostages," he said.

"Um, just the capability to employ force, achieve American objectives and protect ourselves and yet not kill," he said.

"I mean, this whole war on terror, that's exactly what we have to do. We have to be able to minimize our collateral damage because, frankly, we can't afford for the whole world to hate us for very long."

"They always will," Gibbs interrupted again.

Over the past year, Bitar has received almost $1 million to develop his weapons. That includes money from the Marine Corps, a contract from the Navy and a smaller amount of matching funds from the state of Indiana. Of all the products Bitar is developing, he describes a handheld lightning gun as the "Holy Grail." But there is at least one barrier he hasn't even approached.

"We haven't done human testing," Bitar said.

"We haven't done animal testing," Gibbs added.

"Yeah, not officially," Bitar said with a sly smile. He would not elaborate on any unofficial testing.

Anyone happening upon the Quantico Marine Base in April might have thought someone was staging a county fair. Brightly striped canopies crowded the grounds, and concessionary booths advertised snow cones, nachos and ice-cold sodas, as visitors milled about and long lines formed for barbecue and hot dogs.

This was the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration, or FPED, the world's largest trade show for counterterrorism technology. Instead of local crafts and game booths, vendors offered the opportunity to check out the latest in bomb containment devices, among other things. Booth after booth of space-age decontamination suits, newfangled barriers, advanced sensors, X-ray machines, weapons and data destruction devices clamored for people's attention, even as a discordant mix of Bond music and reveille drowned out conversation.

One booth allowed visitors the chance to shoot high-powered pepper balls at dummies. Taser International, the country's largest manufacturer of stun guns, was demonstrating its weapon on any willing takers, provided they'd sign a liability release form. Taser's stun gun (which delivers an electric charge through wires attached to two darts) works by disrupting the body's nervous system, immobilizing its victim. By mid-morning, Taser had more than a dozen volunteers, including Sergio, a dark-haired young man whose friends cheered and laughed as he sat in a chair to be zapped, one leg flying up straight in front of him as the jolt hit his body.

The expo is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of America, but it's also a vision of its future: a nation mired in barriers and locks, fitted out with all-seeing sensors and closed-circuit television, where terrorism, as one company's slogan goes, "is reduced to a minor inconvenience."

Even among military trade shows, FPED is unique. With only five major companies left in the U.S. weapons market, most of today's military expos feature an orderly array of brightly colored PowerPoint briefings displayed next to plastic mockups of weapons. With so few companies, the jockeying of a typical trade show is absent.

FPED, in contrast, harks back to a different era: the 1980s and the Cold War, when an imminent threat of annihilation fueled a market full of companies competing for a slice of the Pentagon's budget. What started off after the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia as a show for a few dozen specialized companies has today grown to more than 500 vendors crowding two massive aircraft hangars and an entire airfield.

The counterterrorism business is booming. And for those who want to break into the market, FPED is the place. The expo was closed to the public, but representatives of law enforcement and military agencies crowded the grounds, shopping for the latest technology. Traffic into the huge base was backed up for more than two miles on the first day of the three-day show.

XADS's 10-by-10 booth was set up at the back of the first hangar; a table in front displayed an assortment of the company's latest products, including its full line of laser dazzlers. XADS had also added a new acoustic weapon called Screech, which true to its name emits an ear-piercing shriek designed to disperse crowds and cause headaches, Bitar said.

The most striking feature of the XADS booth, at first glance, was a framed poster, mounted on a pedestal, that Bitar called concept art. On it, dark, vaguely Middle Eastern-looking men attack a U.S. Embassy, only to writhe in pain as giant bolts of XADS lightning hit them. A graphic artist who draws for GI Joe and Spider-Man comics designed the poster.

But the star attraction was a simple black briefcase that Bitar promised would shoot lightning bolts. He and Fry placed the briefcase (innocuous-looking, if you ignored the pointed needle a few inches long sticking out the side) on top of a carpeted podium, plugged it into a wall socket and flipped a switch. Then they stood back.

Iridescent streaks of purple lightning snaked out of the briefcase, accompanied by the deafening rattle of what sounded like an M-16, and even in the noisy hangar, conversations momentarily ceased.

"It looks like something out of a 1950s movie," one onlooker commented.

Bitar's technology is based on a technique pioneered more than 100 years ago by the eccentric Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. The StunStrike uses an electrical charge to break down the air in front of the weapon to create a path for sparks generated by a "resonant transformer," better known as a Tesla coil. Unlike a typical Tesla coil, however, Bitar's invention uses electronics to tune and direct the spark stream. It goes about four feet.

"We can tune it all the way down so it feels like broom bristles, and all the way up to knock you down," Bitar informed a group of gawkers.

Electricity that shoots out even a few feet is enough to grab people's attention. A small, wiry man wearing a CIA badge and a lanyard emblazoned with "In-Q-Tel," the agency's venture capital arm, stopped at the booth. He paused to look at the lightning, nodded approvingly and picked up a business card before moving on.

Many of the vendors at the expo were strikingly similar to Bitar: men with ambitious ideas who entered the counterterrorism market as a second career. George Cairnes, a former pilot, is now selling full-body restraining cuffs. The elaborate bondage gear was developed for police as an alternative to "hog-tying," and is being used by the military, according to Cairnes. He said he had an order for 200 going to Guantanamo Bay. Joe Villa, a mechanical engineer, founded US Bunkers, a Florida-based company specializing in flying saucer-shaped mini-fortresses that can fit in your back yard. Villa conceived the idea after 1992's Hurricane Andrew as a way to protect people and property from violent storms, but he, too, is expanding into the counterterrorism market: Imagine a safe room to be used after a biochemical attack; the company points out it could also double as a sauna. A promotional poster depicts a family grilling next to a bunker.

With so many vendors, drawing visitors to individual displays -- particularly visitors with money -- is cutthroat competition. Charles Smith, a former Nokia salesman, persuaded a childhood friend from Texas, an attractive blonde, to stand with him at his booth. His strategy appeared to work, as a crowd assembled to look at the blonde, and Smith's product, a desktop machine designed to drill holes through computer drives, destroying sensitive data.

Hesco Bastion, the world's largest manufacturer of sand-filled barricades (ubiquitous in Iraq and Afghanistan to shield against attacks), took a similar route: It hired midriff-baring models to serve soft drinks from a bar made of its sandbags. The show's organizers wouldn't let them serve beer.

Some vendors go negative. Grant Haber, a former police officer and now a distributor of bomb-proof trash cans designed for subways and other public places, hung out by the press trailer, trying to entice a reporter to examine his file of allegations against a rival manufacturer "They've been fraudulent," he said, clutching the folder. "I have proof of falsified test reports."

Back at Bitar's booth, the draw was StunStrike. When the crowd would thin, all Bitar had to do was flip the switch, and people would flock to the booth.

At noon on the second day, XADS captured the attention of a VIP. Marine Corps Col. David Karcher, who heads the Pentagon's Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate, stopped to watch the demonstration, and promised to return.

The vendors' eyes followed Karcher, a man who controls $55 million in annual funding, as he walked slowly past the exhibits, explaining his role: He pays firms to develop nonlethal technology and to test it against strict Pentagon and international standards. For example, his office helped develop the Active Denial System, a weapon that uses millimeter waves -- a supercharged version of microwaves -- to heat up the skin's nerve endings, creating a burning sensation similar to touching a 100-watt light bulb. Except the beam, while painful, does not actually burn the skin.

The weapon was only recently declassified, and the Pentagon still won't divulge how far the beam goes, but Karcher says it could be used to control crowds at feeding stations in countries like Somalia and Iraq. "Often you see the people pushing their way to the front of the crowd are young men," he said. "They'll push women and children out of the way."

Karcher pointed to a demo of the system set up at Raytheon's booth. No required release forms here; Raytheon took a more direct approach: self-infliction. "We can't do it to you, but if you want to do it to yourself," the vendor said, handing over a control switch.

When a reporter hesitated, Karcher quickly offered up his own hand. "Press the button," he instructed. The invisible beam clicked on.

"I put my hand there, it starts to hurt, I take my hand way," Karcher explained calmly as he slowly slid his arm away from the beam. The point, he continued, is not to hurt someone, but simply to force a particular action, or to condition a response.

"Sort of like Pavlov's dogs," interrupted the enthusiastic Raytheon vendor.

Comparing humans to dogs who salivate on command didn't seem to sit well with Karcher, who winced. The Pentagon's nonlethal work, particularly that which relies on pain, is under intense public scrutiny and subject to international legal conventions. But the main problem with the Active Denial System, and similar directed energy weapons, is size, according to Karcher. Now the weapon goes on a Humvee, but the military is finding that troops in Iraq want smaller, handheld devices -- phasers.

But it's precisely those goals -- small and long-range weapons -- that place phaser technology, at least for now, in the realm of science fiction. The largest lightning guns in the XADS lab are too big to be mobile weapons, and while the rifle has generated sparks of up to 12 feet, Bitar says, the system has blown out repeatedly and isn't stable beyond four feet.

The military would like something that can go 30 to 100 feet. "We can fire a taser and be very effective at 15 feet," Karcher said. But 15 feet is almost "knife fight" range, he added, and in that case, troops may want a more lethal option, like a rifle.

But for every naysaying expert, there always seems to be a Pentagon official who believes the risk is worthwhile. Franz Gayl, one of the officials who contacted Bitar after hearing about XADS from news accounts, agrees there are barriers to a lighting gun, but he argues for helping nascent companies. The concept of a lightning gun, though risky, offers a potential payoff, according to Gayl. He noted a military officer who built a Tesla coil weapon, claiming to have tested it by shooting it "into the grille of an annoying rude driver in a traffic jam."

Back at the show, Bitar looked bitterly across the way at Raytheon, which was handing out customized jars of spicy hot fajita powder to promote its "burning" nonlethal weapon. Other experienced venders dished out logo-inscribed chocolate and pens. XADS had only postcard- size brochures and business cards.

It was the end of the third day, and still no sales. A man who introduced himself as a buyer for the Turkish military asked if he could get a free sample of Bitar's lasers, or barring that, could he borrow one and return it if the Turkish military wasn't interested. Bitar said that wasn't likely.

"We're not going to do that," Bitar chuckled. "We're not Wal-Mart."

But Bitar noticed that foreign militaries were the most interested in his weapons, and officials from Asia, the Middle East and Europe had all visited his booth. "It's kind of weird, especially because when it comes to weapons, you'd rather arm your own country than someone else," he said.

But he shrugged and added, "A customer is a customer."

Toward the end of the expo, Bitar was demonstrating the lightning gun when he suddenly recoiled in pain. "It bit him," Fry said with a note of concern. One of the electric tentacles had reached around and grabbed Bitar. He rubbed his shoulder. Since electricity seeks the quickest route to complete its circuit, it will reach out and touch the first thing that's grounded, such as a person holding the gun.

Bitar appeared unusually downbeat. He'd been standing for three days straight at the booth, and he was worried about how to keep his business going. Even with $1 million total in start-up funds, he'd have to close shop in about six months if he didn't get orders. "I didn't sleep well last night," he acknowledged. "Busy thinking about things, like how to get through to the Joint Nonlethal Directorate, so they take us a little more seriously."

At dinner the night before, Bitar's confidence -- shaken by the competition at the show-- seemed to ebb. He would be turning 40 soon. The initial success of XADS allowed his wife to stay home with their young son. His bravado momentarily gone, he talked about his previous businesses, which, while not failures, had not really been successes either. The Styrofoam recycling company sold at break even, and his parachute logo business barely made a profit.

Back at the show, Bitar sighed. "You get all this stuff going against us."

But a few minutes later, he was uptempo again.

"I just think we're only limited by our funding," Bitar said, pausing to pack up the cartoon poster of their weapons. "We could do so much more than the big companies." He pointed to the Raytheon booth. "These guys are burning your hand at 10 feet away with $50 million worth of research."

He gestured to the StunStrike. "We've got $10,000 worth of research in that thing, and we can do the exact same thing."

Pausing, he added, "Okay, we haven't been through all the studies and testing because we haven't had all the money to put into it."

Bitar's concerns are not just about big companies like Raytheon, but also about his nemesis Ionatron, a start-up backed partly by investment from the CIA venture capital fund. Ionatron, whose weapons are based on a similar concept for channeling lightning, was founded in 2002, and its stock is now worth more than half a billion dollars on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Unlike Bitar, who won his early contracts through a competitive process, Ionatron's most significant contract, for $12.6 million, came through a congressional line item, which typically requires high-level lobbying. Another difference from XADS: Ionatron would like the nonlethal lightning guns to be, if necessary, lethal.

But both companies face an age-old problem with harnessing lightning: It is notoriously difficult to control. Making it go straight and far requires breaking down the air, like drilling a path through wood for a nail. Creating this path for any more than a few feet presents a formidable challenge.

Bitar's idea for doing this, like Ionatron's, is to use pulsed lasers to create a conductive path ahead of the lightning. A pioneer in this method is a New Mexico-based physicist named Jean-Claude Diels. The Belgian-born scientist says he started his research not to build "zap guns," as he calls them, but to prevent deaths from lightning, which kills on average 67 people a year in the United States, according to the National Weather Service. But the military was never terribly interested in his work, he said, and nonmilitary funding for research is hard to come by these days.

Now caught in a bind, Diels takes money from Ionatron. He doubts it would be possible to shrink the weapon down to the size of a pistol, although he believes a portable system, such as one mounted on a car, is possible.

"It's taking a disturbing turn," Diels said with a sigh. "I feel a little bit like the German scientists of the Third Reich, who have no option but to do this research because that's what the government funds."

What's wrong with the idea of a stun gun? "This nonlethal technology, I mean, aimed at electrocuting a crowd of protesters?" he said. "That's not really appetizing, I must say."

As the spectators at FPED thinned out, Bitar started to pack up, and Fry went to get the car. They'd be back in town the next week for another show, but Fry needed to return home for an exam: He's getting a master's degree in theology and peace studies. On the way out, Fry looked back at the weapons bazaar and shook his head.

Toward the front, a banner for Hawaiian Shaved Ice had fallen askew.

Perhaps what makes U.S. military trade shows seem so incongruous is that they treat their market -- war and terrorism -- as if it were plastics, medical supplies or textiles. And Bitar is just another entrepreneur. Despite his lack of big orders, back in Indiana a couple months later, he enthused over his company's progress. Field reports from Iraq on his dazzlers were "stellar," he said, and several Pentagon offices had placed small trial orders. A European television crew wanted to follow him around for six months.

The Pentagon also is preparing for the first time to buy large numbers of commercial dazzlers from several manufacturers and give them to troops in Iraq. Gayl, the Pentagon official who has supported Bitar's work, cautions now that he is concerned that some companies, including XADS, are making lasers so intense that they would permanently blind the people they target. The XADS lasers "are way out of line," Gayl said recently.

Bitar adamantly disagrees that his lasers will cause permanent blindness, saying they are eye-safe, if used properly. It's a key point for his company, since the StunStrike weapon has slipped to the back burner, and the dazzlers' time appears to have arrived. Bitar said he was negotiating with what he called a major supplier for the military and law enforcement on a new version of XADS's dazzler. The PD/G-105 is a souped-up laser that would be twice as powerful as the ones Bitar sold at the Burger King back in January.

The supplier, Bitar said, was looking at orders in the tens of thousands.

"It'll totally kick butt," he said.

Sharon Weinberger is writing a book about the Pentagon and fringe science, to be published by Nation Books next year.

[Soleilmavis]

Sonic weapon
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonic_weapon&diff=364...
==Demonstrated infrasonic weapon==
The U.S. [[United States Department of Defense|DOD]] has demonstrated phased arrays of [[infrasonic]] emitters. The weapon usually consists of a device that generates sound at about 7 Hz. The output from the device is routed (by pipes) to an array of open emitters. At this frequency, armor and concrete walls and other common building materials allow sound waves to pass through, providing little defense.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf...
Low Frequency Noise Report 2003

[Soleilmavis]

http://www.gadgettastic.com/2008/03/13/sonic-weapon/
Sonic Handgun weapon of the future
Now this is one gun I’d like to bring to the bank when I inquire about loans and mortgages. Being advertised as the weapon of the future this handheld sonic gun is capable of emitting intense ultrasonic blasts capable of inducing intense pain and discomfort in humans and animals. It takes about an hour for effects of the devestator to subside and it’s good to know it does not cause any permanent harm or damage. A larger unit called the Sonic Devestator Riot Control, is also available which Im in no rush to meet.

[Soleilmavis]

APPARATUS FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEUROPSYCHIC AND SOMATIC DISEASES WITH HEAT, LIGHT, SOUND AND VHF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3773049.html