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Ratheon Swimmer Denial
Raytheon Corporation's new "swimmer denial" system can be used to protect ships from spies or terrorists. Their underwater sensors detect an unwelcome presence and then emits pulses of low frequency audio. The pulse rate and audio frequency are chosen to make human organs resonate like organ pipes, causing swimmers to vomit into their masks or suffer internal ruptures.
Raytheon's new system is considered more friendly to marine life because the main sound projector, in the middle of the secure zone, emits sounds with power and frequency that are relatively safe. A dozen or so secondary projectors in a ring round the zone also emit safe pulses. But in the region near each secondary projector the main and secondaries combine to produce a sound which is dangerous.
In 1976, Roger Zelazny wrote about a sonic curtain used as an underwater fence in his story 'Kjwalll'kje'k'koothailll'kje'k:
Read more about Raytheon's product here. You might also be interested in Active Denial Technology or the minority report glove interface, both from Raytheon.
Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall, a sound barrier that keeps everything outside out and everything inside in... At a number of points the wall possesses sound locks - a pair of sonic curtains several meters apart, which are operated by means of a simple control located on the bottom. Dolphins are capable of teaching one another how to use it ...
(Read more about sonic curtain)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/12/2006)
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