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StunRay Paralyzes With Light
The StunRay from Genesis Illumination stops bad guys with a flash of high-intensity light. The device consists of a 75 watt lamp along with special optics that focus the light in a targeted beam.
The XL-2000 projects a controlled beam of white light more
than 10 times more intense than an aircraft landing light
and instantly adjustable from 1° to 10° beam width.
The projected light is bright enough to read a
newspaper a mile away.
The XL-2000 features StunRay® patented technology whereby the intense beam of incoherent light, flashed in an opponent’s eyes, disorients and incapacitates to allow time for capture & restraint. The subject fully recovers within 5 minutes and suffers no pain or lasting injury. Unlike most other non-lethal defenses, the XL-2000 is effective at ranges to 200 feet and allows for a measured escalation of response to any threat.
(StunRay)
“It’s the inverse of blindness—the technical term is a loss of contrast sensitivity,” says Todd Eisenberg, the engineer who invented the device. “The typical response is for the person to freeze. Law enforcement can easily walk up and apprehend [the suspect].”
Science fiction fans have been given a glimpse of this particular future. In his 1938 story Satellite Five, Arthur K. Barnes writes about a paralysis ray:
"I have invented a weapon, Miss Carlyle, that will render the monster on Satellite Five helpless!" he proclaimed dramatically. "A paralysis ray!" Gerry was dubious. She had seen abortive attempts at paralysis rays before."What's it's principle?" she asked.
"The transmission of a nerve impulse along the nerve fiber is provided by local electrical currents within the fiber itself... Passage over the junction point between cells is effected by a chemical transmitter, acetylcholine...
Lunde now exposed the interior of the leaden colored box... The interior showed a bewildering array of tubes and coils, all in miniature... The lens was shutterlike, similar to a camera lens...
"This, in effect," went on Professor Lunde in lecture style, "produces a neutron stream... And the penetrating neutron blast destroys the acetylcholine by adding to its atomic structure, thus making it so extremely unstable that it breaks itself up at once."
Fans may also recall the L.O.O.K.E.R. (Light Ocular-Oriented Kinetic Emotive Responses) from the 1981 movie Looker, written and directed by Michael Crichton. In the film, the L.O.O.K.E.R. is a light pulse device that can instantly mesmerize a person, causing them to lose all sense of time.
(L.O.O.K.E.R. (Light Ocular-Oriented Kinetic Emotive Responses))
From Genesis Illumination via SciAm; thanks so much to Winchell Chung for the tip and a reference.
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