What does a sonic blaster ("less-lethal" audio weapon) feel like?
Wired Danger Room contributor Sharon Weinberger met a guy in Israel who sells sonic weapons, so she did what any respectable blogger would do -- asked him to point it at her and turn on the switch.
Last week, I was sitting in a hotel bar in Jerusalem when a fellow passenger on my tour told me there was a guy with us selling a supposedly less-lethal weapon.Link (thanks, Noah Shachtman!)
"It works with sound frequencies," he said. "It'll make you a sick."
A puke ray? An honest-to-God puke ray? Right here in Jerusalem?
Well, more like a sonic blaster. Dr. Maurice Goldman, a retired dentist, is the U.S. managing director for Inferno, a line of products that markets itself as a "sound barrier." The primary effect of the device, which sounds like a loud siren, is to force people to leave the protected area, he says. However, if the intruder doesn't leave immediately, Inferno's effects include "vertigo, nausea, and pain in the chest."
Related:
* NPR "Xeni Tech": Focused Sound 'Laser' for Crowd Control
* Sonic Weapons in Iraq -- and now, US cities
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