Laser rifle provides blinding force
By Marc Perton 
posted Oct 31st 2005 6:30PM
posted Oct 31st 2005 6:30PM
Looks like it's a little too late to get one of these to pair with our "Universal Soldier" Halloween costume, but we have to admit to being just a little impressed with the Air Force's new laser rifle, known as the PHaSR (looks like they just couldn't resist; they claim it stands for "Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response"). The prototype non-lethal weapon works by firing a high-intensity beam of laser light, temporarily blinding anyone in its path. A contractor has just been given $250,000 to develop an eye-safe rangefinder for the weapon. A good idea, though we think our Jean Claude-inspired costume has that covered.
why did they make it look like it came out of a bad movie?
What's this non-lethal shit? I thought the point of a laser rifle was to explode the head of robots or communists! (and possibly monkeys)
an eye-safe rangefinder? so you can blast the crap out of them with an even bigger laser?!
I'll take two!
OH MAN this will work wonders aganist those green peace ass nuts....
The FRENCH will order 2000
OH MAN this will work wonders aganist those green peace ass nuts....
The FRENCH will order 2000
Uhhh, ok. The eye safe rangefinder is needed because the PHASR will zap yo peeps if used at too close a range. So I guess if you are being charged by a mob and you don't zap them before they get too close to avoid permanent retinal damage you, uhhh, switch to hot lead?
Dude,
I am SOO asking for this for Christmas!!
The Americans sure do love their rifles... kinda sad, really. And that's more or less aimed at some replies. About the thing itself: I wonder what sunglasses can do against such a laserbeam. Or...what if you'd fire at a mirror (being held up a guerrilla warrior, obviously).
Ah, the return of the mirrored sunglasses...
Eyeball = really really really ridiculously small target.
Unless this is more of a shotgun . . . laser. What?
TERMINATOR: Plasma laser rifle with 40 watt range.
GUN STORE OWNER: Hey, just what you see on the shelf buddy.
@7
Sunglasses are great against environmental light, but don't do well against a focused beam. In addition, sunglasses might not attenuate the wavelength that this rifle puts out.
Regarding holding up a mirror - No mirror is 100% reflective and a high-powered laser will easily go through. Also any idiot holding a mirror will look mighty enticing to soldiers with real rifles.
So the guerilla "warrior" will probably be shot by our rifle loving Americans. Maybe we should call them "guerilla idiots" or "guerilla targets".
Best of all: it's inflatable!
This is pretty trippy and someone might think, "Well couldn't a person just look away or shield thier eyes to the light?" but it turns out that such a thing wouldn't be possible due to the fact that the beam would likely be in the infrared spectrum (ie: not visible to the unaided eye). By the time a person would realize that their eyes weren't right, it'd be too late, they'd already have experienced the blinding effect. This gun would operate somewhat like a shotgun in terms of the spread of the laser light. A range finder is rather necessary because without it a person (or group of people) could receive a *PERMANENTLY* blinding dose of laser light if the laser power/spread vs. distance was too high.
It's mentioned in the article that this gun operates in two wavelengths of light. I suspect the first wavelength would be a relatively weak visible wavelength that wold allow one to aim the gun and the second would be the infrared wavelength which once a proper bead was drawn on the target(s) would be triggered to do the blinding.
-Scott
Hmm, now a mirror may not be 100% reflective, but give me a crash helmet (full face), a webcam, a small screen, some wires and a soldering iron, and I can create the perfect defence against this,
Bring it on,
Mwuhahaha...
a blinding laser? that was in an episode of CHiPs... episode 515, to be exact.. way cool, but it couldn't phase ponch and jon..
http://www.chips-tv.com/Guide/Episode/515.shtml
One side: Real Guns.
The other side: Powerful Flashlights.
Yeah, I'm thinking that battle isn't going to be too pretty.
a $250k laser pointer... i bet my dog wouldnt chase this one either...
If any of you would bother to read the article, or look at the page, the whole thing is screaming "fake". The picture has shadows that don't match up and according to the linked site, this press release couldn't be found anywhere else on the internet.
On their website it says:
AND MORE: Confirmed.
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"Confirmed"...what? That the PHaSR program is real? That is is a hoax? Brevity is good, but let's be clear, please.
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Confirmed... that the project (and the press release) are real.
Sorry 'bout that.
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So yer... Stephen you are wrong.
They're not going to be able to use it. The Geneva convention prohibits the permanent blinding of soldiers on the battlefield.
Uh, what part of "tempoary" do you not understand? Anyways, this probably won't be an offensive battlefield weapon, but a riot and crowd control tool, seeing that it is non lethal.
Non lethal my ass, anybody read the Tom Clancy novel where John Clark uses one of these to blind pilots on manual approach - making them crash...
I'll be looking for this on eBay.
21... since when has america given a crap about the Geneva convention!!!???!!!....
All well and good, except for the fact that the Air Force/U.S. Government forgot one tiny, little thing...SUCH A WEAPON IS PROBABLY PROHIBITED!!! The 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapont, Protocol IV reads (in part): "it is prohibited to employ laser weapons specificaly designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices." While the U.S. is has not signed the specific protocol, along with other 'standout' governments such as Belarus, Cuba, and the 'dreaded' French ( I kid-I'd trade Paris for Miami any day), Protocol IV has (probably) acheived the status of customary international law, and this is binding on parties that have not ratified the specific protocol itself. The U.S. & the manufactuer would have to demonstrate that the PHaSR-even if it is only designed to have temporary effects and capabilities-does not have long-term effects to a combatant's vision, is not indiscriminant in targeting capabilities, and does not violate international principles regarding unnecessary suffering.
'Still pretty cool, tho.
Geneva Convention says not to permanently blind enemy. Article says "temporarily" blinds.
Maybe an illiteracy gun would do as much good!
And, as to real bullets against high-powered flashlights ... howsabout blind marksmen versus men with sticks or flexi-cuffs? (Like saying rioters will laugh in the face of a Big Garden Hose....)
The Government will find some way to attach these to portable military robots. Mark my words. We are witnessing the beginning of the war of men vs. machines as has been foretold many times.
Only Arnold Schwarzenegger can save us now, but he's busy working for --you guessed it-- The Government.
We are therefore doomed. Can't say it's been nice knowing ya. So I won't.
Patriot-X: Yes, but just how many times can you saftly "temporarily blind" someone?
No permenant damage my ass... If they're so safe, then why are they offering $250,000 to any contractor who can develop an eye-safe rangefinder?
oh man , forget the non lethal stuff, I hate blood so just make it burn nice clean bloodless holes thru humans including eyeballs.
Be nice for deer hunting also, no more bloody backside hauling the carcass out of the woods.
It's really easy to make a laser that will blind people. I used to work in a lab where warnings about eye-blinding lasers were posted all over the place. The hard part, and what the contractor is being paid for, is creating the rangefinder that will NOT blind someone. Interesting :)
I'd like to give my opinion on this rifle... my -American- opinion.
*applause*
Thank you.
I think the picture is the only reason this garbage got press. I mean this "researcher" looks like Universal Soldier, holding a "PHaSR". What a joke...
You have -ANY- idea how much crap the American Military fabricates and invents in their R&D labs? Do you, cuz I don't. Though one could only imagine the plethora of inventive genius that goes on in our American Military labs daily... and some not so genius.
Now, If some particle weapon was created that disrupted DNA strands in a targeted human being, assuming the particle beam could be controlled much like the trajectory of lead munitions, then a name like "PHaSR" and a model looking like a weapon from the game Halo, would be impressive.
This... this...
THIS IS A FREAKING LASER POINTER, WTF!?!??!
Damn the high powered tasers police are using now is more exciting than this. That at leasts stuns people, I know, I been hit with two tasers at the same time.
They might as well made the article, "Looking for technology to stop light at an arbitrary point in space"
Yeah when you get that let me know so I can make a freaking light sabre.
The real joke is the $250,000 you get payed. Umm.. how about I invent this device, then sell it to a company for millions... or better yet, royaltys.
Like I said, this is all hype due to a picture and name.
If it was some nerd in a lab coat, holding a laser pointer asking for a device that would adjust the laser pointer so that it would not inflict damage to the retinas of the target it was being aimed at...
Yeh that article and picture wold have never made this much hype.
this is the us military, they're not as stupid as you think, mr. witty.
the point developing non-lethal weaponry is so we're not developing technology to kill people, because i'm sure you wouldn't like to have your life taken from you, or the life of someone you love who joined the military. wouldn't you feel much better if warfare involved stunning lasers instead of nukes and .50 cal sniper rifles? if we develop lethal weaponry, we're really just trying to find more efficient ways to kill OURSELVES. i don't know if anyone mentioned this, but goggles that are made specifically to block laser light. wrong, there are goggles that block certain wavelengths of laser light, not all laser light, then you wouldn't be able to see light through them at all, and therefore be blind. this rifle has a dual wavelength system to counter those goggles. nobody cares about the geneva convention, permanently blinding laser rifles (prototypes of this model) were banned from warfare by united nations. why don't people read articles before they comment? you're really commenting on a picture and a snide subtitle and making a fool of yourself.