"Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting. The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year... the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The invisible beam penetrates the skin to a depth of less than a millimetre. As soon as the target moves out of the beam's path, the pain disappears... The armoured vehicles will be named Sheriffs once they have been modified to carry the microwave weapons... In another development, the Sheriffs will be fitted with Gunslinger, a rapid-fire gun currently under development that will detect enemy snipers and automatically fire back at them." Autonomous machine guns? Joy, should be a real hoot. Clickith Hereith for full coverage and more!
No clue, doesn't say. At best guess I would have to say audio triangulation. Just get a set of 5-6 microphones, mount them all around the car, as soon as it hears the correct frequency it takes the mean sound and predicts the most acurate position for where the noise came from. Would be intersting to find out how it actualy works though...
I saw a show on the gunslinger, pretty amazing technology actually. The version I saw used an array of sensors from IR, sound, and I think even atmospheric pressure. An array of sound sensors can triangulate the position of the source (the sniper) and automatically aim a gun in the system to fire on that position. They seemed to have semi-successful results in lab-test environments but can't imagine it being reliable for the field but then, usually, when you see something on TV, you are watching the technology from a year or so back so they may have it perfected now. They had a monitor where you could actually see the path of the bullet.
So you're telling me Falcon Down *wasn't* as shitty as I thought it was? Oh well, I still think it was shitty. What happens when a kid sets off fireworks next to gunslinger?
Which brings me to an interesting point. An issue with these non-lethal weapons is their by and large experimental status: their "non-lethal" characteristics are still kind of unproven. Tasers turn out to be able to kill, under the right (wrong) circumstances, and so are mace, rubber bullets, an a variety of other crowd control equipment. Part of the problem is that the conditions under which they will be deployed in the field are by their nature much less contained and less predictable, andinvolve a lot more unknown variables than the controlled conditions of a research trial. As for autonomous machineguns: it is one thing to pick off a huge, white hot trail blazing air-to-ship missile that on radar and IR stands out against a cool empty sky and sea LIKE THIS from a slow moving ship, but localising a sniper's single gunshot against the warm and noisy background of a sunbaked townscape in Iraq, other people running around, vehicles moving, noise, shouting... well, that I got to see. From a safe distance.
Lol, yea - I agree with you there. Ironic really. Introducing "pain guns" as a result of growing concern over civilian casualties, right that makes sense. But.... they also propse deploying new-fangled automated detection/response systems (firing real rounds) in the Iraqi cities. Hmm, unfortunately recent "new" stuff seems to work better in testing and demonstrations then in real-life, I rekon they'll have the potential to more than make up for any civilian lives lives "saved" by the microwave guns.
So no risk of cancer from these microwaves, or, at any rate, no risk that a 3rd-world peasant can prove in court. I'd like to see our leaders show us a demonstration of this friendly-fire. With them as targets. Remember that name. I predict his family will be sueing Uncle Sam.
seeing how microwave technology is currently being used to treat prostate and breast cancer, it may have the opposite effect. We could be curing hundreds of ailments at the same time, in which, we hand out medical bills to the crowd. us sucks
True. Too many shades of those soldiers exposed to "harmless" nuclear test explosions in the forties and fifties...
is there any way we can try to steer clear of the cowboy imagery? sheriff? gunslinger? texan in office? coincidence? anyway, instead of trying the pain gun out on a third world country, perhaps we could use it on riots here first. it is an election year, it could get ugly...
I Saw a program on the Discovery channel where they used a camera to locate both the shooter and the target and put up a barrier between the target and the bullet. Of course they knew witch way to face the camera, otherwise they would be dead in the water... There is already triangulation-systems installed in the US, Discovery again. And they are very accurate and have no problem distinguishing a firecracker from a gun. Putting any kind of computer system as ruler of life and death is a scary thought to me. I recall the fireant. Landmines are bad enough.
