Journalist tries out Raytheon's pain-ray weapon: "No sir, I don't like it."
Michael Hanlon of the Daily Mail tries out a table-top demonstration model of Raytheon's pain-ray weapon, dubbed "Silent Guardian." He say it hurts.
This tabletop model looks pretty nifty. I can imagine teenaged boys making them and then having contests with their friends to see how long they can endure the pain-ray. LinkBuilt by the U.S. firm Raytheon, it is part of its "Directed Energy Solutions" programme.
What it amounts to is a way of making people run away, very fast, without killing or even permanently harming them.
I tested a table-top demonstration model, but here's how it works in the field.
A square transmitter as big as a plasma TV screen is mounted on the back of a Jeep.
When turned on, it emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation - similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker - that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings.
It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile.
Previously on Boing Boing:
• Pain transmitter to be used for riot control (Thanks, Steve in Paris!)
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The tabletop model will also be useful for gom jabbar tests of humanity.
Naw, I don't find this cute. Nothing much cute about being herded like animals by high tech fascists.
Why can't they build a machine that stops pain? Surely there's a market for that? But I suppose it's always easier from a technical standpoint to "break" something than it is to "fix" it.
And, yes, another example of just how damn smart Frank Herbert was.
This would work except that the person operating it would be equally effected...unless they developed some sort of microwave shield for the person.
Either way, very not cute.
Don't ray me bro!
The description reminds me of an experience I had messing with some govt surplus I bought years ago. It had a Branson Sonifier Cell Disruptor. That the name sounded like something Marvin the Martian would be pointing at the earth should have warned me away from testing it. But test it I did, and the results were interesting to say the least. My friend Jim and I turned it on and noticed nothing for a little bit. Then pain, odd and indescribable, began in the backs of our heads. We flailed at the box for a bit before managing to turn it off. We walked away and, after dubbing it "the pain box," decided not to discuss it for some time.
I simoultaniously applaud them for coming up with ways to handle these types of things without hurting people, and shudder thinking about how it will be misused.
This will be a great way for them to deny responsibility in breaking up peace marches. People will say that there was nothing violent or illegal about a march and the authorities can hide behind "whoops.. oh well, at least no one was hurt"
>...unless they developed some sort of microwave shield for the person.
Or they stood BEHIND the transmitter -
I'm envisioning mylar and aluminum foil as the new fashion for protesters.
This is really scary, not cute.
The people (commenters) who are against this kind of technology need to be aware of what they're really asking for.
Riots will occur and riot control devices will be needed. Whether it's a "pain ray" that makes you want to go away or high powered water hose that sweeps you off your feet and cracks your head on the sidewalk is the real issue. You're not going to be allowed to run around and smash the city to bits.
TASERs can be used to zap people much as guns can be used to kill people. Tools like these are unfortunately necessary and the big issue isn't whether we should have them or not, it's how closely regulated their usage should be.
The biggest mistake with the TASER was in not implementing a nationwide policy for their use. Different police forces have different rules, some stricter than others. TASERs and pain-rays need specific rules of engagement just like batons and pistols do.
here's the (currently) missing link to the story:
http://tinyurl.com/3bmlod
JHudson. I totally agree. its a far cry from beating people with nightsticks. its just the thought of the political climate we're currently in, and who this technology will be used against first. Probably it won't be rioters per se.
Of course peaceful protesters will try to effect countermeasures to this kind of technology and then its back with the nightsticks and tear gas.
Tin foil hats for everyone!
Wait.... baked potato.... no, that won't do at all.
@#10
There is a huge difference between current tools of crowd control / tasers and this thing.
All of these leave physical marks behind, this means people can see the direct result of their actions. This, in part, is a control mechanism. A Weapon (and yes this is a weapon) like this does not leave any physical mark. It can easily be denied.
And think about it, according to this article it feels like you are burning up alive, over your whole body, this is not "crowd control" much less is it "non violent", this is a tool that is being used in stead of a white hot piece of metal.
I'm human. What do I have to fear?
Why is it that 'riots will occur', JHudson?
Perhaps addressing the causes of the riots rather than addressing their means of control would be efficacious.
Or perhaps that's just not profitable enough.
"Don't ray me bro!"
Hahahaha!
Finally, I can build a homemade Pain Box from Dune!
"Perhaps addressing the causes of the riots rather than addressing their means of control would be efficacious."
actually when riots happen going back to assess the cause doesn't help the situation at all. Merely trying to stop causes is an abstinence only policy for riots. and we know how well abstinence only policies work. We need to have something more humane to handle riots than nightsticks.
riots are ugly things. A lot of times theres some rightous anger behind them, but you just get people who take advantage of the situation. I think the important thing to have with technology like this, is strict rules about when it can be deployed. Have it hooked up to a forward facing camera, with a live net hook up. Have it so it can't be used without authorization of someone who will take the fall if it is misused, in each and every case, and have its every operational moment recorded and uploaded for possible litigation.
You seem to suggest that all issues can be resolved if people just sit down and talk it through. There's no need for riots and tasers if we just have a sit down meeting and reach a compromise that everyone can live with.
It's a nice thought. I wish it were true.
The reality is that now and then you encounter groups of people who want something that has no compromise, and they want it really badly and while the majority don't want it, this group won't take no for an answer. Eventually they're going to engage in physical protests that quite possibly includes the smashing of anything near to hand.
How you can best handle this is the question.
There is a case to say that you should be as barbaric as possible. Certainly the Iranian and Chinese governments support that route. They would have no interest in a pain-generator. They would much rather wade into the protesters with tanks, guns, batons and tear gas. They want to make sure that nobody ever wants to protest again. The more barbaric you are, the more teeth you leave on the street when it's over, the better, from their perspective.
You believe the choice is "violence or non-violence". I believe that there will always be some groups that force violence and your method of answering them is either going to be "lethal force" or "non-lethal force". I favor non-lethal when possible and I support devices that make that a better option.
Making sure they aren't misused is a given. That's true for everything from plastic toys to nuclear missiles.
Foamcore and aluminum foil and 3M spray adhesive.
There's your shield against the pain ray.
Lining your clothes, shoes, gloves and hood with several layers of aluminized mylar would do a fair job of shielding. Hey, did you know that the wrappers for PopTarts are aluminized mylar AND are see through? Just the thing to protect your eyes and let you see at the same time.
Gee, I wonder what the exact wavelength is. You might be able to get away with metal window screen for a liner and whole head helmet.
I suspect that a few balloons filled with kerosine and powdered aluminum, broken against the transmitting antenna, might cause significant hilarity to ensue.
Asymmetric warfare. It's what's happening, baby!
"I suspect that a few balloons filled with kerosine and powdered aluminum, broken against the transmitting antenna, might cause significant hilarity to ensue."
almost as hilarious as a rubber bullet to the groin after riot control realizes their toy is broken.
good luck aluminum.
I suspect the full-blown truck version will be used in the same manner that fire hoses, rubber bullets, tear gas, police dogs, and batons have been used in the past. And it will no doubt be most popular with regimes who find themselves suppressing riots and protests of various kinds.
But that set-top "demo" version is a torture device pure and simple.
texguy, so are nipple clamps.
I wonder how long before this tech makes it into the S&M world.
TOO BULKY! The public won't be snapping these up until they are iPod sized.
Even in its current incarnation, this is a weapon designed for use against civilians. Any military worth the name will develop faraday-cage-based technologies to block or diffuse the energies this device emits. This is a weapon for the people with the guns to use after they've pushed the people without guns so far that even those guns don't stop the unarmed from rioting. It's a tool that helps armies after they've failed to "win hearts and minds" in the occupied territory. It permits total diplomatic failure. It nearly encourages it.
Further, the fact that this device can be built into a tabletop-sized demonstrator virtually guarantees that it will be co-opted for use in "interrogation" as a "more humane" alternative to techniques like waterboarding or hypothermia. (Put a belt on it and strap it to the detainee's chest, crotch or face - ask question, cycle power, rinse, repeat.)
It will be very difficult for foreign observers to ascertain whether a "pain box" interrogation device is being used on prisoners. Unlike knives, fists or hot irons, it's invisible torture. Since there's "no damage", it can go on and on - for hours, days, weeks -- however long it takes for the nerves being stimulated to die of exhaustion. It's unendurable, so it can be used to deny sleep to prisoners, or drive them to "suicide" (put prisoner in concrete cell, suffuse with agony, wait for prisoner to batter own brains out on floor to escape pain, express heartfelt regret to press corps.)
The scary thing is that once someone gets near the device with a frequency meter, the "secret waveform" will escape into the public domain (or some large fraction of that domain) and nearly anyone with some RF electronics knowledge will be able to modify/pervert a directional microwave circuit to produce a similar result. This isn't going to stay a single-supplier, controlled technology for long.
If the idea of "bad guys" duplicating this technology doesn't scare you, consider what happens the first time a protestor (or just some jerk with an axe to grind) aims an amateur-built unit at the police in a crowded location?
Yeah, this won't end well.
I won't be a bit surprised when those trade protesters types get this thing used on them and then in turn start shooting homemade RPG's at the security people zapping them.
Our Compassionless Christian Overlords should look in a mirror and wonder why they want to turn America into a place that only has pain and killing technology to export to the world.
I'm just curious, what happens when the protesters build their own and fire it back at the cops?
Just like the protesters in Ireland who hooked a fire hose up and shut down the police van with the water cannon - what goes around eventually comes around.
Like any weapon, it will eventually fall into the hands of criminals. And no doubt get miniaturised too.
How easy is this going to make robbing a bank for instance? No-one will get killed..
And i have to ask, what happens when terrorists (or other bogeymen) get hold of these?
It's an interesting extension of the "humane warfare" that some countries, U.S. included, have been trying to engage in.
60 years ago, if someone shot rockets at your military base, you bombed the bejesus out of their entire country. You hit them so hard, they didn't want to hear the word "war" again for another century. You killed a million people and firebombed their cities.
These days, Israel gets bombarded daily with random rockets, and when they get tired of it, they go invade the area where the rockets are coming from, only to be sitting there with tanks versus stone throwing teenagers. 60 years ago, maybe they would have just shot everyone and no one would be the wiser. These days, it's considered rather rude to shoot someone just for throwing rocks at you, so you basically sit there for a while, then go home and wait for the rockets to start firing again. Non-lethal methods of dispersing people are what's left for them to look for because we've moved past simple brutality.
It is quite a large step in the right direction we've made. We use tasers where Iran uses bullets and we use pain beams where China uses tanks. Is that not worth a little something?
The significance of a pain device as a torture technique is rather interesting, too. During the battles around Iraq, American and allied troops discovered a number of torture chambers where they don't worry about leaving marks and indeed, the Saddam era Iraqis weren't that worried about simply killing the victim, much less leaving marks. Here we are worried about leaving a scratch on a terrorist we're interrogating while political prisoners under Saddam were lucky to come out with all of their parts.
I understand the wish that we could be all ponies and unicorns, but we really have come quite a long way from what a lot of other places in the world are still doing.
The real problem is that when it comes to violence, only one side has to want it. If the police want ponies and unicorns and the crowd wants to smash stuff, well, stuff is getting smashed. Ponies and unicorns only work if everyone wants them.
For some reason I thought of my first fight with Saruman:
"I gave you the chance to disperse peacefully, but you have elected the way of PAIN!"
It had to happen eventually. Me, I'm waiting for the video where the homemade pain ray gets used on a high value target like ohh...a politician. Could be anyone in the crowd aiming that thing at him. Who you gonna call?
Just reading about this makes me feel like my lunch might come up and that perhaps I should start looking into private islands.
"It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile."
Here's what's playing in my head right now:
A group of teenage boys gets a hold of one of these or figures out how to build one. Gee, wouldn't it be funny to turn this on someplace crowded for a laugh? Like a mall, or a parking lot or a county fair? Wouldn't it just be hilarious to watch as people trample their own children to get away from the invisible pain maker? Better yet, lets aim it at busy traffic and watch all the folks crash. Lets aim it at a peaceful protest and watch as people panic, run screaming into traffic, trample each other, claw their own eyes out to stop the pain. I'm LMAO.
Lets assume for a sec that this will be used properly, on out of control rioters. What about the people in that half mile radius caught in the beam who have nothing to do with the riot and have no idea why they're suddenly in agony? Is the government going to pay for all the hospital bills? How about the therapy bills? How about the funerals?
This weapon isn't any less violent and dangerous than a gun, a taser or a baton, but it is easier to hide and easier to deny. Someone shoots, stabs, tasers or beats someone and there's evidence left behind. You turn on your fancy little pain machine and how exactly can that be traced? Yay for accountability free crimes! Bravo human race.
"his weapon isn't any less violent and dangerous than a gun, a taser or a baton"
i thought that was the whole point of this thing. before making such claims we need to know more. No one is an expert on this weapon yet.
I also bet the transmitter and power supply are big enough that you aren't going to be able to do home grown versions of it anytime soon. Same reason you don't see teenagers running around with home grown microwave blasters -- a technology that's just as invisible, far more dangerous and has been around for decades. Your view of humanity seems to be considerably worse than mine, and that's saying a lot.
Fuck ponies and unicorns. I want the right to peacably assemble and exercize my free speech. I really don't see how someanonymous black-clad, ski-masked, homeland sucuritor a half-mile away with a pian box helps me do that.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
So, if all those teen boys start playing with radiation, is there any chance it will make them sterile? Home-made versions could work in our favor if it makes stupid kids sterile.
To JHudson,
The full scale riot is a relatively rare occurrence that never fails to capture all the media attention that can be thrown at it. The same is not true for political protests, which make up the majority of large scale confrontations between the public and law enforcement. This would give the misleading impression that the opposite is actually the case.
Furthermore, "riots" are often forms of political protest that get labeled as such to deemphasize the legitimacy of protester's concerns, and are often completely caused or severely escalated by the police. Such was true with the Teamsters in 1934, the "White Night Riots" of 1979 (where police assaulted innocent bar patrons in a sneak attack), and the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot of 1988. History has examples of hundreds more, and a simple gleaning of a riots throughout the past will show how relatively few were driven by bloodthirsty zealots totally hellbent on destruction. The fact is, if the police had left people alone and let their voices be heard, plenty of so called "riots" would not have ended in the violence they did.
How would you defend the "riot control" of the American civil rights movement? Was this an example of a group "that won't take no for an answer" fighting for something that a "majority of the people don't want"? If this technology had existed back then, the success of the civil rights movement would have been severely jeopardized, to say the least. This is exactly the reason I'm opposed to it. The brutality of the fire hoses, dogs, and assassinations left the people sympathetic to the black cause. The same would not be true with invisible death rays. Thus, this type of technology will impede progress in our civilization.
Working to listen to people's concerns and change our world is not as Utopian as you make it sound. It is often the driving causes behind riots that eventually change history for the better. Civil rights, labor, emancipation, and the Boston Tea Party all serve as great examples of this. Violence will inevitably be a part of uprooting unjust political power, because it is the state that ultimately "won't take no for an answer", and they have all the guns. Any addition to their arsenal is a weapon to be used against the real driving force behind the good things we have in life, the common person.
Whoa, this is too bizarre. Just LAST night I'm finishing Requiem for An Assassin by Barry Eisler (yea yea, Tolstoy is next on my list).
This VERY device was used to help rescue a hostage.
From the book: "ADS is the Pentagon's name for a nonlethal millimeter wave energy weapon. It shoots electromagnetic radiation at ninety-five gigahertz. Boils the moisture in the skin, but only to a depth of one sixty-fourth of an inch. So it hurts like hell, but doesn't cause damage."
The only difference is that they had packaged it into a fake camera so it was more portable.
Re #20: Name one riot in the United States of America that caused significant damage that did not have a legitimate grievance behind it other then the Zoot Suit Riots.
Can you imagine what an unfriendly government could use this for on their own population. Very scary
The fact that it was far more brutal during movements is exactly my point.
As a simple thought experiment, let's create a scale of extremes of weaponry for crowd control. At one extreme would be lethal weapons, such as guns, and at the other would be the most nonlethal, humane weapon imaginable, say a magic button that causes people to "turn off" and slowly collapse. In this situation, which one could cause more damage? My argument is that it's the latter, by far.
To use lethal weapons, or even those that will severely injure a person, requires substantial justification for your actions; this was the case in both the Rodney King beatings and the Kent State shootings. In this day and age of cameras, you can no longer expect to be able to beat or kill people without being held accountable for it. Accountability has turned the tides for several people's movements, especially civil rights, and continues to bring outrage over events like Tienanmen Square.
Kent State is a great example, as it's commonly referred to as the impetus for nonlethal forms of crowd control. However, has state oppression of political protests gone down or up since this historic event? Again, my argument would lean towards the latter, even if the clashes are less violent. There used to be no such things as "free speech zones", for example.
Having devices that can essentially shut people down would mean that any crowd you want to be invisible will be. Resistance would be a thing of the past, unless the technology is circumvented. Extreme measures must be taken before police would think about firing live ammunition, but this device could be used at the drop of a hat. The justification would be marginalized due its' heroic status as leaving no permanent damage. This could potentially be the most oppressive device for crowd control created yet, especially due to its' "sellable" qualities to people such as yourself. So keep apologizing for weapons that bring us ever closer to a police state, and I'll save you a seat in the gulag.
What a wonderful device. If the police were to use this for interrogation, suspects could be made to confess, thereby driving up the crime-solving rate up to nearly 100%.
Article: " ... What would happen if they fell into the hands of unscrupulous nations where torture is not unknown? ... "
You mean, like the United States under the Bush administration?
"This tabletop model looks pretty nifty. I can imagine teenaged boys making them and then having contests with their friends to see how long they can endure the pain-ray."
"Nifty"? "Nifty"? What, like your iPhone or something?
It is, as a number of people (includng Hanlon in his article so you've no excuse for not knowing) a torture device that does not leave marks.
What a total fecktard you are.
JHudson: We use tasers where Iran uses bullets and we use pain beams where China uses tanks. Is that not worth a little something?
Yeah, we'd never ever do something like abuse the tasers at a peaceful political rally where the presenter says he would answer the questions, right?
This thing reminds me of the pain box Reverend Mother Mohiam carried with her to test Paul.
#40, Yes Daniel, I'm sure the police never use torture and coercion to pin murders on innocent people who take the guilty plea because they're told pleading innocence will get them a longer sentence.
If it's similar to a microwave, then wouldn't "body armor" made up of a steel screen block it's rays completely? Like a fencing helmet, but for your whole body. I think that regular aluminum window screen would be an effective disruptor of the ray.
You know what would just suck?
Foamcore board, foil, spray adhesive and a simple set of measurments to convert the board, foil and spray adhesive into a set of corner reflectors.
"What's a 'corner reflector'?" I hear you ask.
It reflects an incoming beam of energy directly back at the same angle the beam hits the reflector.
On otherwords, beam goes in, beam goes out, directly back AT the emitter.
And anyone standing behind it.
I wonder what the effect would be of the beam intereacting with the antenna, tuned to the excat frequency of the beam, so there's gonna be some serious resonation effects, and maybe even some unanticipated interaction with the rest of the system.
Does this machine effect you more the closer you are to it & taper out over the 1/2 mile or is it full-strength till you're out of range (excuse me - I don't know jack about microwave). But if it's stronger towards the source, then wouldn't placing these at the only entrances/escapes cause everyone immense problems for he persons confined within?
What are the long term effects of being exposed to a device like this; say if a group of protestors had a disabled individual (or injured individual who was trampled, etc) who couldn't get away from the device once it was turned on?
Crosius: Even in its current incarnation, this is a weapon designed for use against civilians. Any military worth the name will develop faraday-cage-based technologies to block or diffuse the energies this device emits.
Military combatants not only include "Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict" but "Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements"... the latter of which tend to be less formally equipped. And it's that sort that our military is at present under-equipped to handle appropriately.
Which is not to say your concern of the potential misuses is misplaced; merely that there may be potential legitimate uses as well.
Wonder how long it'll take for someone to devise a version that will stick to the underside of a car?
And how long it'll take for that version to be stolen by the people the large version will be used against?
Or would a mine be more effective? Imagine, since it's evidentially not a lethal weapon, what recourse is there for the gov't against someone who puts its agents through the same agony it has no problem doling out?