stunning

Begin forwarded message:

> New Scientist
> US shoots ahead in stun gun design
> 13 August 2005
> David Hambling
>
>
> Weapons designed to fire "electric bullets" into crowds are being
> developed
> for
> police and border protection agencies in the US.
>
> The Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, the domestic
> equivalent of the defence agency DARPA, has launched an "innovative
> less-lethal devices for law enforcement" programme to radically expand
> the
> capabilities of electric shock weapons.
>
> Existing stun weapons, such as the Taser, typically fire a pair of
> darts
> trailing current-carrying wires to shock the target, with a maximum
> range of
> about 7 metres. The HSARPA programme aims to develop wireless weapons
> that
> can be used over greater distances in spaces such as "an auditorium, a
> city
> street or a sports stadium".
>
> Lynntech of College Station, Texas, is developing a projectile that
> can be
> fired from a shotgun or 40-millimetre grenade launcher. Grenade
> launchers
> are already used by riot police to fire tear gas and baton rounds. On
> impact, the device sticks to the target and delivers an 80,000-volt
> shock
> for 7 seconds, using a pulsed delivery similar to that used by Tasers.
> Further shocks can be triggered via remote control.
>
> Brian Hennings, system integration group leader at Lynntech, would not
> reveal how the projectile sticks to the person, although other weapons
> designed to adhere often use hooks or barbs. "The biggest problem was
> making
> the device non-lethal at minimum range, yet effective at maximum
> range," he
> says.
>
> Hennings claims Lynntech has solved this by ensuring that its round's
> kinetic energy is low enough to meet the safety requirement at close
> range.
> As the projectile does not rely on impact with the body to
> incapacitate the
> person, it does not need to be fired at very high velocity. The
> weapon's
> maximum range is measured in tens of metres, the company says.
>
> Meanwhile, Mide Technology Corporation of Medford, Massachusetts, is
> proposing the Piezer. Rather than conventional stun-gun circuitry, with
> batteries linked to transformers and a capacitor, the Piezer contains
> piezoelectric crystals, which produce a voltage when they are
> compressed.
> The Piezer would be fired from a 12-gauge shotgun, stunning the target
> with
> an electric shock on impact. Shotguns are already used to fire
> less-lethal
> "beanbag" rounds to subdue suspects, but these have short range. Mide
> claims
> the Piezer could be effective at 40 to 50 metres.
>
> Using a different principle again is the Inertial Capacitive
> Incapacitator
> (ICI) being developed by the Physical Optics Corporation of Torrance,
> California. It uses a thin-film charge storage device that is charged
> during
> manufacture and only discharges when it strikes the target. It can be
> incorporated into a ring-shaped aerofoil that can be fired from a
> standard
> grenade launcher at low velocity, while still maintaining a flat
> trajectory
> for maximum accuracy. The company claims this should reduce the impact
> force.
>
> The first prototypes are expected to be delivered to HSARPA by the end
> of
> the year. But Tobias Feakin of the Non-lethal Weapons Research Project
> at
> the University of Bradford in the UK warns that manufacturers' claims
> should
> not be taken at face value. "Without thorough independent testing we
> cannot
> ascertain their usefulness, effectiveness or safety," he says.
>
>> From issue 2512 of New Scientist magazine, 13 August 2005, page 30