Keep the Cheap Sunglasses Handy

This all may seem benign on the surface, just another way to control criminals with non lethal means. The research is being sponsored by the DHS. However, with this administration in charge I can see some serious capacity for abuse...just as the TASER is being abused by some police departments around the nation. Imagine how effective this might be in control anti-war crowds or protesters in general. This is from the Homeland Security Newsletter.

Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D, as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled and reeled from its nauseating strobe call it other names—none printable.

[snip]

How does the LED Incapacitator incapacitate? By simultaneously overwhelming the subject both physiologically (temporarily blinding him) and psychophysically (disorienting him). A built-in rangefinder measures the distance to the nearest pair of eyeballs. Then, a “governor” sets the output and pulse train (a series of pulses and rests) to a level, frequency, and duration that are effective, but safe. The colors and pulses continuously change, leaving no time for the brain or eyes to adapt. After a few minutes, the effects wear off.

Pretty cool Huh? There are, however, several sentences in the article that might give one cause for some concern.

Output and size can easily be scaled up to fit the need; immobilizing a mob, for instance, might call for a wide-angle “bazooka” version.

Or how about:

“There’s one wavelength that gets everybody,” says Lieberman. “Vlad calls it the evil color.”

Just very interesting, that's all.