quote:The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) believes the weapon could be used, for example, to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock. However, the DoD has yet to reveal details of how the laser works and has yet to respond to New Scientist�s requests for further information.
Laser weapons capable of blinding enemies have been developed in the past but were banned under a 1995 UN convention called the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. The wording of this protocol, however, does not prohibit lasers that temporarily dazzle a foe.
(I guess if this trends towards the ethical implications we can wander over to the Flameboard, if we feel we need to.)
((I probably wouldn't have mentioned this if it was just the name, but check out that photo.))
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
I want a few of those.
Can't blind them with brillance, dazzle them with your PHASR.....
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Whoa! That..., uh..., gun? rifle? weapon! looks more "sci-fi" than most weapons we see in actual sci-fi movies and series.
B.J.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
Just check out the Stunstrike online . . . it and the PHASR are going to have to compete for the title of "Weapon Most Resembling a Trek Stunt Double's Carved Rubber Weapon".
But I do like how the people who make the Stunstrike added random heat sinks to their green laser pointer dazzler thing, thereby giving it a Forbidden Planet look.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
That is one mighty big and expensive fleshlite.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Er...did we not sign a ban on laser weapons of just this sort under Clinton's administration?
The fear was that just these same sort of lasers would be used to permanatly blind a military force/civillians- leading to troop attrition wile the maimed are tended to.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
The weapon could be used to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock? That's not the greatest idea ever. Blinding a driver at the wheel of a 2000 pound automobile is like giving an M-16 to a five year old and telling him to play cops and robbers with old lady johnson down yonder...
Other than that it looks frickin sweet.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Well, they could mount speakers and play "Blinded by the light" as they crash through...well...everything.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I'm sure the irony wouldn't be lost on the poor blinded bastard
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I reckon it works by having some guy aim it and then 'the enemy' goes WOAH! COOL! and puts down THEIR weapon to come over and have a look. Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Er...did we not sign a ban on laser weapons of just this sort under Clinton's administration?
If only someone would give us a hint.
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Laser weapons capable of blinding enemies have been developed in the past but were banned under a 1995 UN convention called the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
ooh! I thought of another good (bad) example of how this weapon may be used to stop terrorists while casuing untold havoc and destruction.
A terrorist hijacks a plane and intends to fly it into the Empire state building. Sounds familiar huh? tho it's been done but not on purpose (1945 a b-25 crashed into the ESB in heavy fog) The "Good Guys" fire this "Phasr" at the terrorists in the cockpit, blinding them and causing them to veer off course...Into 3 Mile Island. President Bush is then praised for his handling of the situation and saving thousands of lives. But he conveniently fails to mention the deadly radioactive isotopes flooding the american northeast causing untold millions of deaths 20 years from now. But he doesn't care since he won't be president then...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Or what if next we are invaded by aliens, only to find out they have no eyes?? Come on DARPA, let's be more realistic here.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
At the very least they should get rid of the 733t spelling.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"Or what if next we are invaded by aliens, only to find out they have no eyes??"
Perhaps they would be allergic to water??
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Aliens would only invade if we had something of value to them. Let's look at some of the basics shall we?
Land: There's a billion other planets out there. Why waste resources conquering some backwater planet full of monkeys?
Resources: What we got can be found on a billion other planets.
Technology: If aliens can travel between the stars, then all the tech we got is already inferior to them.
Slave Labour: Most humans can barely lift thier own body weight. Not very useful.
Food: We probly taste bad.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: "Or what if next we are invaded by aliens, only to find out they have no eyes??"
Perhaps they would be allergic to water??
Hey - don't knock that movie - it's a good movie! (Soundtrack is awesome)!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
What if we put all this money into laser troopers only to discover that the Morganites have purchased plasma elites on the open market!?
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Maybe we should start creating genetically modified super soldiers with kickass MJOLNIR battle armor and stick a computer AI into his head so that anyone around him thinks he's crazy cuz he talks to some invisible woman named Cortana..
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Yeah, but how do we stop the "Killer Clowns from Outer Space"? Cream Pie Rifles?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: ooh! I thought of another good (bad) example of how this weapon may be used to stop terrorists while casuing untold havoc and destruction.
A terrorist hijacks a plane and intends to fly it into the Empire state building. Sounds familiar huh? tho it's been done but not on purpose (1945 a b-25 crashed into the ESB in heavy fog) The "Good Guys" fire this "Phasr" at the terrorists in the cockpit, blinding them and causing them to veer off course...
FUnny thing is, some jackass just pled guilty to that exact thing this week- he fired a laser into a commercial airplane cockpit, momentarily blinding the pilots.
NO terrorist motive though- he's just a bigger version of the jackasses at the movie theatre with laser pointers.
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: Aliens would only invade if we had something of value to them. Let's look at some of the basics shall we?
Land: There's a billion other planets out there. Why waste resources conquering some backwater planet full of monkeys?
Resources: What we got can be found on a billion other planets.
Technology: If aliens can travel between the stars, then all the tech we got is already inferior to them.
Slave Labour: Most humans can barely lift thier own body weight. Not very useful.
Food: We probly taste bad.
They'll invade to stop MTV's reality shows from corrupting their youth in a trillion years....when the signal finally gets there, but they'll stay for the barbeque and the myriad vices of internet porn.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Intergalactic Pornography...The possibilities are endless! Rock-hard Romulans! Wookies and Cream! Klingons...well, that sounds nasty already.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"FUnny thing is, some jackass just pled guilty to that exact thing this week- he fired a laser into a commercial airplane cockpit, momentarily blinding the pilots."
Why would someone plead guilty to something he couldn't possibly have done?
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
I wonder if it works on terrorists wearing sunglasses.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I assume so. I wasn't sure at first so I put on a pair of shades and pointer a laser pointer at my eye. Ya, it was dumb, but I was curious. There was no difference whatsoever. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get rid of this big green blob in front of my eye...
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Smart.
quote:Originally posted by TSN:
"FUnny thing is, some jackass just pled guilty to that exact thing this week- he fired a laser into a commercial airplane cockpit, momentarily blinding the pilots."
Why would someone plead guilty to something he couldn't possibly have done?
Not aterrorist thing- just some guy being dumb. It was actually a passenger plane though- not a commmercial one. Here's something on it.
quote:Christie fended off suggestions that possibly allowing Banach to avoid jail time for a foolish act was inconsistent with the serious intent of the anti-terror law.
"If that plane had crashed, you would have been calling him a lot more than stupid," Christie said.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
quote:Aliens would only invade if we had something of value to them.
*cough*Mandalorians*pilt*...*fart*Hirogen*sars* Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: What if we put all this money into laser troopers only to discover that the Morganites have purchased plasma elites on the open market!?
If nothing else it would spur development of 3res armor.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
My point was that it just isn't possible to shine a hand-held laser into the eyes of the pilots of a moving plane from the ground. For one thing, over that distance, the slightest movement would cause the other end of the laser beam to move about wildly. Plus, even if you could manage to accurately aim at the windows of the cockpit, the chances that the beam would just happen to interset the eyes of the pilots are negligible. Plus, the airplane would be moving at hundreds of miles per hour. Even if he could have gotten the beam into their eyes, and held the laser steady enough, they would be past it in a fraction of a second. He'd have to actually track the plane with the laser to keep it on their eyes long enough to affect them.
The whole situation is ludicrous.
And, didn't we already have this discussion here a while back?
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
I think perhaps you are assuming perfect collimation. Which most lasers (and certainly laser pointers) lack. So there would be some spread giving a coherent hooligan, say, a 1 meter diameter beam at, say, 4 km. Since the windows of most jetliners are around a meter or so tall, with reasonable aim, one ought to be able to maintain at least jerky contact with the target region. This is all neglecting reflection, of course. But if one was lined up, say, along the landing way, esp. in an elevated position, I think it could be done. But I doubt it would cause serious eye damage. It would likely just be really irritating and distracting.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
And you could probably just buy a user-friendly shoulder-mounted SAM for the same price, if not cheaper.
(And now to reinstall Alpha Centauri.)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I think perhaps you are assuming perfect collimation. Which most lasers (and certainly laser pointers) lack. So there would be some spread giving a coherent hooligan, say, a 1 meter diameter beam at, say, 4 km."
Well, sure. But, at that point, it's hardly a "laser beam" in any meaningful sense, is it? More like a flashlight, I would think.
Or not. I don't really know the intimate details of radiation-emission-based stimulation of light amplification, personally.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Is it feasible/possible to have any sort of visible 'beam' weapon like a phaser or a laser-blaster... I mean we have lasers now but you have to have dust or smoke etc to see it.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
If there's no dust reflecting the light, then no, you're not going to see anything along the beam. In order to see it, you have to have something emitting light, and that implies something other than a pure light beam. If you could somehow spray a beam of charged plasma, I'm sure that could fit the bill.
B.J.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
"But I doubt it would cause serious eye damage. It would likely just be really irritating and distracting."
Still if whoever was being irritated and distracted...say oh a pilot on final aproach (sp) who needed to concentrate a lot... While I do admit that using a handheld laser pointer probably wouldn't do much, what about a more powerful laser like a surveyers laser tripod thingamajig. or maybe even just use a pair of old WW2 Searchlights at the end of the runway and face them at the cockpit. I'm sure if those terrorists had any form of ingenuity and imagination other than bombs and guns. They could do alot of damage. I'd go into detail but the CIA's probly has tabs on this site. And I've already hinted at killing the president so they're probably just waiting for me to step outside my apartment to take me off and reprogram me to love the president or something.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Surely keeping a laser pointed at a man's eyes while he flies a plane would be nearly impossible. It'd be hard enough keeping a laser pointed on someone's eyes if he was running fast, but on a vehicle travelling as fast as an aircraft? Impossible I would have thought.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
For fun and learning, Army Field Manual 8-50, "Prevention and Medical Management of Laser Injuries."
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
And FWIW, a surveyor's laser tripod thingamajig as you put it only works in pulses when you're measuring distance.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Would it still blind someone if they were looking straight at it? I'd think a pulsing laser light would be even more annoying and distracting than a regular beam.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
It only sends a pulse when you tell it to measure the distance. And it doesn't send a visible laser, I don't think. I've used the total station and held the reflector, and I don't remember seeing a red light or anything.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: I'd go into detail but the CIA's probly has tabs on this site. And I've already hinted at killing the president so they're probably just waiting for me to step outside my apartment to take me off and reprogram me to love the president or something.
Heheheh, Re-Neducation? Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Surely keeping a laser pointed at a man's eyes while he flies a plane would be nearly impossible. It'd be hard enough keeping a laser pointed on someone's eyes if he was running fast, but on a vehicle travelling as fast as an aircraft? Impossible I would have thought.
Distance and angle would play a major part.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Could also be a slit beam thing- like for lightshows.
I think thay're just making an example of this bozo. Still, imagine all the prep work he had to do to get the beam into the cockpit- then to keep adjusting to keep it there...
I wont cry if he gets a legal smack for his stupidity.
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