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| Real Men Don't Set for Stun |
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| Real life catches up with Star Trek |
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| HSV Technologies Inc., of San Diego, California is developing a non-lethal |
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| weapon that uses ultraviolet laser beams to harmlessly immobilize people and |
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| animals at a distance. The Phaser-like device uses two beams of UV radiation |
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| to ionize paths in the air along which electrical current is conducted to and |
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| from the target. In effect, the beams create wires through the atmosphere |
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| wherever they are pointed. |
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| The current within these beams is a close replication of the neuro-electric |
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| impulses that control skeletal muscles. It is imperceptible to the target |
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| person because it differs from his own neural impulses only in that its |
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| repetition rate is sufficiently rapid to tetanize muscle tissue. (Tetanization |
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| is the stimulation of muscle fibers at a frequency which merges their |
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| individual contractions into a single sustained contraction.) |
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| No retinal damage can occur because the cornea absorbs all ultraviolet |
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| radiation at the wavelengths used. Moreover, the beams are too weak to produce |
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| photokeratitis (corneal inflammation) unless they are directed at the eyes for |
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| several minutes. In addition, the current they transmit is insufficient to |
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| affect the muscles of the heart and diaphragm. |
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| See Ocular Safety of the Tetanizing Beam Weapon |
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| Our electrical beam weapon has a far longer potential range than its nearest |
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| competitor, the wire-based Taser® . |
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| Successful proof-of-principle tests have been performed at the University of |
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| California at San Diego, and further refinements using novel laser designs are |
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| Although the smallest laser now available for this application is the size of |
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| a carry-on suitcase, a hand-held version should become feasible with only |
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| modest advances in laser technology. |
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| Also under development is an engine-disabling variation for use against the |
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| electronic ignitions of automobiles. The engine-disabling version should be |
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| able to operate with off-the-shelf lasers because it would be carried aboard |
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| police patrol cars and helicopters. |
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| The interested reader is directed to the following articles: |
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| Max Glaskin, The Ministry of Defence |
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| is looking at a new weapon that could immobilise gunmen, |
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| The Sunday Times, Inovations, Sunday May 9, 1999. |
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| Christopher May, Experimental Weapons |
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| WHDH - TV News, Boston, Thursday, December 14, 2000 |
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| Hand, A. J., UV lasers stop people in their tracks, |
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| Photonics Spectra, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 32-33, January 1999. |
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| David Mulholland, Laser Device May Provide U.S. Military Nonlethal Option, |
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| Staff writer, Defense News, June 14, 1999, p 6. Copyright, The Army Times |
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| Owen, G. P., Directed energy weapons, a historical perspective, |
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| Journal of Defence Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 89-93, 1997. |
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| Lamabares, A., et al., Absorption spectra of corneas in the far ultraviolet |
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| Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Vol. 38, No. 6, pp. 1283-1287, |
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| Pasternak, D., Wonder weapons, |
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| U.S. News & World Report, July 7, 1997, pp. 38-46. |
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| HSV Technologies Inc., may be contacted at |
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| (619) 390-4848, or by mail at: |
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| President of HSV Technologies, Inc. Peter Anthony Schlesinger, at |
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