Set phasers to stun!!

[ayoub_ibrahim]

quoted from Himself:"I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how it would work with a mirror.."
???.
care to elucidate? sounds like you're into S&M!

[Himself]

It says it's works around corners using a mirror.

I'm not into S&M, more like M&Ms.

[agallag]

Why wouldn't it work through mirrors? The laser beams bounce off the mirror, right? Therefore the plasma conduit would continue. I think you'd have to worry about the positive and negative conduit touching each other though, so you'd need vertically stacked beams, and only go around horizontal corners. I'm just guessing of course.

------------------
Andrew
Carpe Cerevisi

[This message has been edited by agallag (edited 09 December 2000).]

[Greebe]

Himself, ionized gas will conduct electricty, if the beams were reflected, so the ionized gas would continue the path. Thus charging the stream with high voltage producing plasma would follow the beams course.

Problem is with their comment is the "Painless" factor. Obviously these idiots are full of shit and have never been hit with a stungun/Taser. And their intended market is squarely aim at military applications... all they would have to do to kill with this thing is crank up the current a bit. Guess what the worst part is?... No evidence!

I'm curious as to how well this would work if a first surface (and untreated) mirror were used, or how well it would work in rain/fog.

Time to flex my countermeasures knowledge... and zap the idiot that intends to use it on me or my vehicle!

Heya Matt, how about that built into your fav radar detector! hehe

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Set phasers to stun!!

HSV Technologies of San Diego, California says it has developed a weapon that shoots two ultraviolet laser beams that create channels of ionised air up to 2 kilometers long. These glowing, green beams of electrically conductive plasma carry high-voltage, 10 milliamps current, one positively charged and one negatively charged. Muscles in the body of someone hit by the beams then contract and the target is painlessly immobilized. The company says the weapon is far more effective than the taser and can also be used to shut down motors.
more about this at http://www.beyond2000.com/news/Dec_00/story_910.html

[Himself]

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how it would work with a mirror..

[Himself]

The beams are reflected, but the current flows inside ionized gas inside of tubes within them, I'm thinking of a bent straw, seems to me the deeper the angle the more likely for pinchoff to occur where the tunnel blocks the current (gas) from flowing. If it wouldn't happen at just about any angle since this is light were are talking about and not plastic. If what is containing the gas is the lasers then if the laser light intersects itself it should wall off the gas too. Basically, I am look at a straw that gets turned inside out after reflection..

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[This message has been edited by Himself (edited 10 December 2000).]

[agallag]

The plasma conduit would not get "pinched off" as it not really a tube. The laser just affects the air out to a certain distance from itself, and therefore is in the shape of a cylinder. I drew a little picture so you can see how there's plenty of room for the current to travel within the conduit past the corner.



The red line is the laser, the blue lines are the limit of the affected air. You can also see that a narrower angle would not really be a problem. Of course they'd need two of these beams relatively close together, and perfectly parallel to complete the circuit. The beams would have to be stacked vertically in order to not cross each other in this reflection, because if they touch each other, you have a short circuit. Hope this helps.

------------------
Andrew
Carpe Cerevisi

[This message has been edited by agallag (edited 10 December 2000).]

[Himself]

Ah, that makes more sense.

[Rags]

Mike,

I would just cover my vehicle with chrome =P

As far as the poor sap who tries to zap me while I am covered with mirror as well =P

[impact]

Yeah, covered in mirrors making a nice big shiny target for their M-16's even in complete darkness. And believe me, those rubber bullets hurt.

[Wombat]

agallag,
You're missing something. The setup this company has requires two lasers to create the potential needed to ionize the air. The conduit would be pinched off if the mirror was correctly aligned. Himself had the right idea.

[agallag]

I beg to differ Wombat. They don't need two lasers to create the conduit, they need two conduits to complete the circuit. One laser per conduit.

Here's a piccy showing a really tight angle. See how there's still plenty of room in the plasma conduit? No problems until the beam reflects back at the guy holding the gun.



Edit: might help if I actually put in the picture...

------------------
Andrew
Carpe Cerevisi

[This message has been edited by agallag (edited 11 December 2000).]

[Wombat]

>They don't need two lasers to create the conduit, they need two conduits to complete the circuit. One laser per conduit

Not to be picky, but that's what I said. They need two lasers to create two conductive regions with high voltage potential between them.

I still don't see anything more than 1 conduit in either of your pictures though. How does that blue light on the right get reflected? If it is a laser beam, then it wouldn't stop until it hit the mirror as well.

[Wombat]

Also, I've been thinking about this some more. Mirrors would deflect in the short term, but they aren't going to last very long are they? The plasma should be packing a lot of heat, and will start to melt the mirror. Chaos ensues exponentially after that.