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Sonic Weapons / Acoustic Weapons

Gruenler concedes that permanent hearing damage is possible if someone were exposed to the sound for lengthy periods.

But he said the high-pitched tone is intended to only be used for a few seconds at a time.
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'Rubber bullets' weren't designed to be used at close range, 'daisy' cutters weren't designed to be used on soft targets and electric cattle prods weren't designed to be shoved up people's butts by third world regimes - so do I trust Gruenler :hmph:

They also fail to mention that high frequency sound is not only highly directional but will reflect off of any hard surface, try using this in a built up area and I'm inclined to think you've got a hell of a racket on your hands with all the reflections and cross reflections creating reberations and echos for a fair distance around.
 
Interesting - still amazingly low-tech compared to some of the stuff that they're working on. Acoustic weapons really don't seem to be doing very well.
 
Marines' weapon loaded with 'scream'
by WILLIAM LOWTHER, Daily Mail
11th March 2004

US troops are to be armed with a stun gun that uses a baby's high-pitched scream to bring the enemy to its knees.

The gun, which will be issued to marines in Iraq this month, fires "sonic bullets" that can be targeted like a torch beam.

Anyone hit with a full blast would suffer excruciating pain, permanent deafness and some form of cellular damage. A prolonged blast could kill.

The "Secret Scream" gun as it is called, could revolutionise the way US troops deal with snipers, suicide bombers and riots in the turmoil of post-war Iraq.

The actual sound used is a recording of a baby's scream played backwards.

"For most people, even if they plug their ears, it will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," said Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corporation, the Californian company that has produced the weapon.

"It will knock some people to their knees."

Near human pain threshold

While the sound gun will normally be fired at just 110 decibels - a level that causes the human skull to vibrate - it can travel as far as 300 yards at 145 decibels.

The human threshold of pain is usually between 120 and 130 decibels.

Pentagon sources said it would be used in Iraq as an alternative to bullets to break up riots or protests, to stop suspects approaching check points and force snipers from buildings or caves.

The manufacturer tested the gun on volunteers last month.

No one could stand a 110 decibel blast for more than a few seconds.

Previous attempts to use acoustic weapons have failed because the sound travelled in every direction, affecting the operator as well as the enemy.

Individuals can be targeted

But the Secret Scream's ultrasound wave allows the operator to target one or two key individuals in a crowd.

"Tear gas lingers long after you've fired the canisters. This, you switch it off and it's gone," Mr Norris said.

The weapon consists of two parts, a megaphone the size of a commercial satellite dish mounted on an armoured vehicle, and a computerised operating system that aims and controls the sound waves.

There is a smaller version that can be held in the hand, similar to the soundwave gun used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report.

The Secret Scream sends out two ultrasonic waves at different frequencies.

Each set of waves is too high to hear, but they generate audible sound when they overlap. The effect is called "acoustical heterodyning".

Secret Pentagon research

A secret division in the Pentagon has been financing research on futuristic weapons for more than 15 years.

This is the first to go into operation. Retired US marine Colonel Peter Dotto, a weapons consultant, said the gun would be "terrific for repelling suicide bombers and for rousting terrorists from their hideouts".

"Because the sound ricochets in tight, enclosed areas, it would make it very uncomfortable for Al Qaeda terrorists to stay in caves," he said.

"They would have to come out, and they probably would come out with their hands over their ears."
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http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/standard/article.html?in_article_id=209594&in_page_id=2
 
Listen to Kate Bush's song "Experiment IV" and watch the video. It's all about ... using cries and screams as a weapon.

Nice in sci-fi but still unbelievable. What next? A tasp?
A Jester weapon in the book "Ringworld" which incapacitates the enemy by stimulating pleasure-centres and enforcing violent orgasms!
 
If it's relying on an interference pattern between two sets of soundwaves to create the audible sound, there's nothing to stop an enemy sending their own soundwaves that would interact with those coming from the weapon to make it audible at a different point (including directly in front of the weapon) or at a different pitch.

Probably just fine to use on the dirt poor peasants that are throwing rocks at your armoured vehicle though...
 
"followed closely by "sonic bullets""

Technically known as mach discks, these are at least real enough, as is research in this area.
I'd still like to see something that actually woks before I hand in my plasma taser though...
 
Airport noise isn't directed, as in this weapon. The article says that it causes the person's skull the vibrate and standard operating levels. Ear plugs are going to be of little value against this.

I do hope that this weapon (or any truly reliable non-lethal weapon) does get into active service as soon as possible. You're a murderer if you shoot the peasants with bullets, you're wasting money if you shoot them with sound. Take your pick, please.
 
""Mach disks" are shock waves."

My understanding is that it is the acoustic version of a soliton, a 'self-focusing wave' which has an amplitude which decays much more slowly than other waves. The light equivalent is of interest in high-energy laser pulses, nicknames 'photon torpedoes'
 
I've just seen this demonstrated on the news and it seems a little.... odd. That said a lot of people will be queing up for the personal version:

Noise machine deters shop gangs

A shop manager's annoyance over problem teenagers hanging around his store is being tackled head on with a noise nuisance device.

The Mosquito, which sends out high-pitched soundwaves, is persuading gangs to move on.

Robert Gough, who runs the Spar shop in Barry, says the new nine-inch box is a success.

As treasurer of PACT (Preventing Anti-Social Crime Together), Mr Gough hopes more businesses will be helped.

It's like a buzzing noise. I didn't know where it was coming from, it's not terrible.
Shopper Gerda Hunt
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The box, placed on the outside wall of the store, emits an 80-decibel pulsing frequency between certain hours.

Many older customers cannot hear it - but teenagers, who previously congregated in the evenings - have complained to Mr Gough about the noise.

"Not everybody can hear it but definitely most teenagers can," he said.

"We just put it up and said nothing to the teenagers, then they came in to complain. They were literally begging me to turn it off.

"I told the kids it was to keep the birds away because of the bird flu epidemic. They waited for their friends and left covering their ears," added Mr Gough.

Mr Gough says gangs of around half a dozen up to 30 people have been hanging around the shop.

"They usually move on if I ask them but the problem has always existed," said Mr Gough, who has run the shop for 15 years.

The shopkeeper, aged 34, said: "I can hear it as well. My son's 14 and my daughter's 12 and it really irritates them. If we are standing here they say 'Come on dad, let's get in the car'."

Shoplifting

Mr Gough said he was "very pleased" with the results and claims shoplifting has also dropped.

Shopper Gerda Hunt, aged 62, said: "I could hear it last night but I can't hear it now.

"It's like a buzzing noise, I didn't know where it was coming from, it's not terrible."

One seventeen-year-old, who did not want to be named, said she thought it was the device was a good idea.

"It's like a high-pitch buzz. My dad comes here a lot and he hates it," she added.

Inventor Howard Stapleton, of Compound Security Systems in Merthyr, said the idea was born after he was irritated by a factory noise when he was a child.

Years later, he thought about deterring youths from a Merthyr shop and tested a device at a Penydarren shop.

He said the Mosquito emits several tones all in and around 16Khz.

Mr Stapleton said he has spoken to Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and his local environmental health department about the invention.

Audiologist Roger Lewin, from the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, said the noise could be heard by any age and would depend on the level of hearing.

He said concern could arise if anybody had to listen to it through no choice of their own - such as a shopworker or a baby parked in a pram outside the shop.

------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 415318.stm

Published: 2005/11/08 10:34:22 GMT

© BBC MMV
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<shakes head sadly.>

This guy really, really, wants customers, doesnt he?
 
What a tw*t. I hope someone complains and the environmental health nail him up for it.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
What a tw*t. I hope someone complains and the environmental health nail him up for it.
Click to expand...

Yeah - there is no way this can just target teenagers. It relies on people's hearing getting worse with age and the inventor (the kind of person who, if they got talking to you in the pub, would make you seriosuly considerin climbing out of the toilet window and going home) admitted one woman had complained. If you can't blast Bucks Fizz out of loudspeakers into the road (thanks local council!!) then there is no reason you should be able to do it with annoying sound even if not everyone can hear it.

This sounded like the kind of thing that might hav appeared on Tomorrows World and then disappeared. Now we know what an important job the sow was doing -it was holding these ideas up for ridicule before they actually made it to the streets.
 
heads up what the govenment is doin right now
(polling boths atuned to what ever) lol

answeres all the strange election results lmao
 
I'm sure there is a similar case where a bus station (was it Chester?) that played Mozart and other classical music in an attempt to stop gangs of kids hanging around there at night.
 
It's brilliant. :) The local railway station plays classical music to the same purpose. The teenagers? They don't like it up them Mr Mannering! Apparently.

And most people's hearing (especially in the higher frequencies), does detriorate with age.

Perhaps, some gangs will develop a liking for Beethoven and take to wearing nappies, mascara and bowler hats? :(
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
Perhaps, some gangs will develop a liking for Beethoven and take to wearing nappies, mascara and bowler hats? :(
Click to expand...

Thats how it all begins ;)
 
There was a convenience store in Ottawa (or, perhaps, Nepean) which did this. I think it was along Viewmount Drive.
 
Apparently they tried playing classical to deter goths from hanging around outside (IIRC) Glasgow art gallery, and ended up with even more of them.
 
Jazz and 'easy listening' music have proved to be effective in these situations. Much better than a noise that drives away all potential customers...
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
would make you seriosuly considerin climbing out of the toilet window and going home)
Click to expand...

I actually did this, many years ago, to ditch a young lady who'd attached herself limpet-like to me in a pub. :oops:

I think this is a really poorly thought out idea but I can appreciate the concerns of the shopkeeper. It's interesting to hear audio ambience used in such a way. Normally it's to regulate speed of eating and shopping etc., etc.. I wonder what the long term implications of being exposed to this would be?

I'm surprised he actually needs this though. I'd have thought his haircut was enough to deter people from going near the shop!
 
Sonic Teenager Deterrent

Ha ha.

Really not sure whether to laugh or cry about this one.

Britain has new weapon against loitering youths -- Sonic Teenager Deterrent
Feb 15 8:38 AM US/Eastern

Shopkeepers in central England have been trying out a new device that emits an uncomfortable high-pitched noise designed to disperse young loiterers outside their stores without bothering adults.

Police carrying out the pilot project in Staffordshire say some of those who have tested the "Sonic Teenager Deterrent," nicknamed the mosquito, have talked of buying one of their own.

The device which costs 622 pounds (908 euros, 1,081 dollars) "doesn't cause any pain to the hearer," according to Inspector Amanda Davies, quoted by Britain's domestic Press Association news agency.

"The noise can normally only be heard by those between 12 and 22 and it makes the listener feel uncomfortable," she added.

Once in their early 20s, people lose their capacity to hear sounds at such a high pitch.

"It is controlled by the shopkeepers. If they can see through their window that there is a problem, they turn the device on for a few minutes until the group has dispersed," Davies said.

"Shop owners have reported fabulous results and we've been approached by some who are considering buying their own equipment," she said.

From: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/15/060215133756.3rq2yx5p.html

Did someone say "Elipton"?
 
Anti-gang noise box switched off

A noise nuisance device being used by shopkeepers to deter gangs of youths has been banned at a Newport shop - in case it breaches human rights.

The Spar shop in Caerleon Road has been told by Newport Community Safety Partnership (NCSP) not to use it.

The device, called a Mosquito, works by emitting a high pitched irritating noise audible only to young people.

The NCSP says it is "indiscriminate" and can be heard by all youngsters, not just anti-social gangs of youths.

A spokesman for the NCSP said: "We have a responsibility to the human rights and health and safety of the whole community to consider before approving the device or investing in more of them.

"Our issue with the device is that it is indiscriminate. It may well target yobs and move them on but other children use the shop as well.

"If the noise upset a baby in a pram or caused a dog in a neighbouring house to bark incessantly then these are issues we would have to address.

"If a child rode past on a bicycle and had an accident because of the noise the responsibility would be partly ours for authorising the Mosquito."

It said it had to be silenced until human rights and health and safety issues were "fully resolved".

But the managers of the Spar shop criticised the decision saying the £495 device made by a Merthyr Tydfil company has helped stop gangs of anti-social youths hanging outside the shop.

They say in the first three months of its installation, there was an 84% reduction in the number of police call outs to the shop.

"It's absolutely disgusting. These louts can infringe on our rights to run a profitable shop for the community yet we can't dare infringe on their right to loiter and make life a misery for our shoppers," said a spokesman from the Spar shop.

"It makes me so very sad. The device was working very well and now it's been turned off - and we won't be surprised if the troublemakers return."

The Merthyr based manufacturer Compound Security Ltd insisted the device does not breach the human rights of young people who can hear it.

Marketing Director Simon Morris said: "The noise has been tested extensively on dogs and cats who are totally unaffected by it.

"The device has a small range and it takes at least 10 minutes for the annoying nature of the noise to take effect.

"People have a right to assemble with others in a peaceful way - without violence or threat of violence.

"We do not consider that this right includes the right of teenagers to congregate for no specific purpose."

He said police forces and councils across the UK were investing in such devices.


Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2006/03/24 06:57:16 GMT

© BBC MMVI
Click to expand...
 
Hormones?

Might not this have something to do with adolescent hormones?

When I was a high school sophomore I had a world history and sociology teacher who liked to screeeech chalk across the blackboard to see the ellect it would have.

That effect was a chorus of 40 15-years-olds pleading "DOON DEW DAT! PLEEEZE DOON DEW DAT!"

Within an another two or three years the sound didn't bother me in the least.
 
Looks like the young 'uns have found a way to get their own back!

I'm wondering too how long it'll be before someone puts this to nefarious use (if they haven't already), sounds handy for warning your trespassing/shoplifting mates that the security guard's coming their way...

Cunning pupils turn yob alarm into silent ringtone
08:56am 24th May 2006


A yob-busting alarm using ultra high sound to drive teenage thugs from shopping centres has been hijacked to create inaudible classroom ringtones, it emerged today.

Techno-savvy school kids are getting away with using mobile phones in class through the creation of ringtones adults cannot hear.

British firm Compound Security has been praised by the police for its Mosquito device which was developed to stop teenage gangs hanging around outside shops.

Once installed on a building, it emits a high-pitched sound, like a constant insect buzzing, to drive the problem away.

It is highly effective because it cannot be heard by most people over the age of 20 but is deeply irritating to teenagers.

Now the youngsters have turned the tables by making high-pitched recordings which allow them to exchange text messages in class unheard.

Known as "Teen Buzz", it is spread from phone to phone via text message and blue tooth technology. Howard Stapleton, managing director of Merthyr Tydfil-based Compound Security, said he was "amazed" by the children's creativity.

He said he was aware that the Teen Buzz craze had been sweeping through the area's schools for up to eight weeks.

'Bit of a giggle'

"I think it is a bit of a giggle. The idea of doing this myself crossed my mind when I came up with the Mosquito," he said.

"In the end, after discussing it at length, I decided it was something that could be too disruptive."

He said he had checked to confirm that it was not possible simply to record the sound of the Mosquito from outside a shop.

He said the Mosquito emits a modulated 17khz sound whereas the mobile phone ringtone is a constant 14.4khz high frequency tone.

"This is the result of an astute teenager with a laptop," said Mr Stapleton.

"A teacher would only be able to hear the sound from a metre away. Teenagers could hear it from much further away."

He added that it was a possibility that the idea infringed his intellectual property rights.

As a result, he was monitoring the ringtone market but did not believe that Teen Buzz was currently commercially available.

A Cardiff secondary school teacher, who discovered the scam being used by his pupils, told the Western Mail in Cardiff: "All the kids were laughing about something, but I didn't know what.

"They know phones must be turned off during school time, although many are allowed to bring them into school for security reasons for the journey home.

"They could all hear somebody's phone ringing but I couldn't hear a thing.

"One of the other children told me all about it later. I couldn't be too cross, because it shows how resourceful kids can be and it is very scientific."
Click to expand...

Daily Mail
 
new Mosquito UL?

I think I may have stumbled on to the genesis of a new UL. In yesterday's Daily Mail there was a small shock/horror piece aout how teens are downloading the Mosquito sound as a ringtone so it would be inaudible to the teacher but they could hear it ring, being teenagers. This would of course lead to massive cheating on GCSEs. Now I saw several holes inthe story to start with--not east can an ordinary mobile even broadcast the required high frequency? And wouldn't the teachers notice the kids answering the phones? Which of course is just how the foul plot was uncovered in the Mail's story But still, it didn't exactly ring true (ouch)

I mentioned the story to my teenage daughter and she told me that a few weeks ago lots of the kids in her school had downloaded a high-pitched whining sound that is what the Mosquito is meant to sound like and were using it to wind up the teachers. But the craze quickly fizzled out as it irritated everybody and wasn't really that funny to start with.

So is this the grain of truth on which the Mail story is based?

OK. it's not much of a UL but I've never caught one this quickly before
 
Ah! Not about WWII aircraft, then....


(What a pity!)
 
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