Beaming sounds into your head

MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) is a device that uses microwave pulses to beam sound directly into someone's head. In development by the Sierra Nevada Corporation originally under a US Navy contract, MEDUSA can apparently fill your head with incapacitating "shockwaves" or possibly even whispered messages. From New Scientist:

(Researcher Lev) Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications. Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.

Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.

Microwave sound beam (New Scientist, more at Danger Room)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Doc Tourneau

# 35 –

So would I, Lobster, except I can’t think of any circumstances in which I’d find myself on the receiving end of a permanent bullet.

As is being found with Tasers, the use of nonlethal weaponry isn’t replacing traditional guns & bullets, it’s become just a whole ‘nother part of the arsenal — and being used with far greater impunity. No harm, no foul, right?
Foofer

Did any of the above posters actually read the article??

From TFA :

The device â€“ dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) â€“ exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds.

The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses.

Wake up, people. These devices are being created to SUBDUE you. Remember the “Active Denial System”? If you don’t, you should look it up. Enjoy the First Amendment while you can.

Ted Kaczinsky was right.
Thinkerer

The reason your microwave oven has two safety locks is because the heating effect of microwaves (as noted in the article) will cause damage of the lens structure of the eye resulting in “microwave cataracts”, which are noted in the medical literature among those who work on high powered microwave radar systems (eg. avionics and the like).

Good reference from PubMed here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/871464?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
spazzm

Ted Kaczinsky was right.

About what? Blowing up people being a good idea?
Village Idiot

My MEDUSA goes to eleven. Does yours?

I wonder what volume setting is sufficient to make those shockwave pulses large enough to physically scramble your brain? And could there be a very “active denial” frequency setting that makes these shockwaves resonate in your skull so it cracks open like a wine glass being assaulted by an opera singer?

The thing about “non” lethal weapons is that entering the realm of “lethal” is a simple matter of turning up the intensity sufficiently. If your so-called non-lethal energy weapon doesn’t go to eleven yet, it probably will some day soon.
mdhatter

Ted Kaczinsky was right.

So was John Adams. I have hope yet.
Nora

Possible alternative to headphones for sneaky workplace use?
Tarmle

It has to be imagined that at some point in the future such a device could be made compact enough to mount on a British CCTV camera.
Anonymous

I found one of the only commercially available non lethal soundweapon on ebay, looks cool. Here is a link :

http://myworld.ebay.com/eu-gadgetshop/
MarlboroTestMonkey7

I firmly trust my Mentat training to resist the Voice.
To the rest of you, don’t worry: Reverend Mother Odrade has said that planetary populations exposed to long term Voice control learn ways to adapt to it, and can no longer be manipulated. This is why the Honored Matres have been driven back into the Old Empire; over-controlling, they’ve built up both resistance and rebellion, and are now on the run from their former subjects.
So, in the end, you’ll adapt.
steauengeglase

On the bright side, imagine a schizophrenic who is unable to block out certain auditory input. Fine, just drown them out with something more pleasing.
takeshi

@ Arkizzle:

Ah, yes… HSS. Getting it confused with infrasonic sound used in nonlethal weapons. Well, from what I remember, there were two competing technologies using HSS, and some lawsuits. I’ll have to look it up.

The Audio Spotlight is still being tested at places like Alinea, an upscale restaurant in Chicago. I’ve heard good and bad things from people with limited exposure, but no doubt they’ve improved on the idea since the ’90s.
ill lich

Schizophrenics will cite this as proof of what they’ve been talking about for years.

AND I wonder how well this device will work on me IF I am indeed wearing a tinfoil hat.
Sean Grimm

I’m sure there are no long term risks or possibly medical complications from having your head bombarded with microwaves, creating heat and expanding tissues. No, that sounds perfectly safe…if you are INSANE! All I’m imagining right now is this technology being weaponized into a big ray-gun that explodes heads like that scene in Scanners.
rhowan

Wait… you mean the crazy lady talking to herself on the bus was RIGHT?
pa

Thanks for explaining the jungle whispers on LOST!
pa

Thanks for explaining the jungle whispers on LOST!
Not a Doktor

this would be great for isolating sound in a night club
vytautasmalesh

I guess the tinfoil hat crowd is onto something after all.
takeshi

@ Not a Doktor:

Similar technologies exist, such as the Audio Spotlight. Unlike this process, however, infrasonic systems use a kind of “columnized” audio.

They are similar in the sense that, from a football field’s distance, you can aim it at someone’s head, and they can hear it, but the person standing next to them cannot. Also, when aimed at a flat surface, it produces a speaker-like effect. But from what I gather, the fidelity isn’t so great just yet.

Aside from all the expected applications, I anticipate that the future will be full of “audio snipers,” people who are employed to sit on top of buildings and feed Jenny Craig ads into fat people’s noggins. Another possibility might be renting the use of the side of a building and projecting commercial feeds down at bus stops, as they are generally public property. Also, if you’re only bothering two or three people at any given time, I’m not sure if you could be charged with disturbing the peace.

They’re already using infrasonic devices in vending machines and ATMs in Japan. I could see this kind of thing going to the Supreme Court eventually.
arkizzle

Takeshi, I believe the technology you are talking about is based on HSS – Hyper Sonic Sound, where they use an ultra high frequency as a carrier wave, modulated by the signal.

I had high hopes for this technology when I first heard about it, but that was mid-to-late nineties and I haven’t heard much since. I got pretty worried though, when I realized it would mostly be advertisers aiming ads at you in tight-beam, walking down the street.. bad news.

Not yet anyway.
Tenn

Make it Magneto style, Toastman. Then you’ll match mine.

Creepy, creepy, and EFFING SCARY.

That is all.
Takuan

I’m sure I read of a lab demo of this some time ago voices,not as a weapon).

Is there any possibility of treating tinnitus with this?
Jake0748

Dusting off the old tinfoil hat right now….
Oskar

Hold me mommy, I’m scared.
afo

“In development by the Sierra Nevada Corporation…”

damn you and your sweet, delicious ales!!
mrfitz

So, if the state can have it, why can’t I?
mdhatter

Voice: “And from now on, stop playing with yourself.”

Mitch: “It is God!”

(/real genius)
chikurt

Lets hope there’s extensive testing on law enforcement officers before they deploy it to cook the brain of civilians.
subtle_turtle

Beaming microwaves directly into people’s heads? Huh…sounds foolproof! Nothing could POSSIBLY go wrong with that, could it?
*silently anticipates overnight quadrupling of brain cancer cases*
Haesae

“The device â€“ dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio). . .”

Medusa turning soldiers to stone, stopping a crowd; Medusa defeated by a mirror-shield: use a mirror, now.

The acronym sends chills. And is telling, if you reflect.
Ignatz

Two words: Harrison Bergeron.
Jamie Sue

Advertisors everywhere just got a stiffy.
arkizzle

Takeshi, here’s some links to HSS technology.

HSS Inventor’s Site

HSS Brochure

How HSS Works

Also, it looks like this is currently in use By CocaCola and Disney..
Oren Beck

The application as salvation or damnation has not been even worked out. In one case I can see- alerting persons otherwise not able to hear an audible sounder’s warning it could save countless lives.

Or the evil of use to herd masses into death.

I worry more about establishing wisdom to not misuse technology than I worry about any new device itself.
steauengeglase

As a side note this is called the Frey Effect and we have know about it since WWII. When we find out a way to use it as a common carrier into someone’s head, then we have something.

Prepare to never sleep again.
danegeld

the American military could use it to project the word “HALT” into the oncoming Iraqi taxi driver’s cab, so that they wouldn’t have to shoot quite so many innocent people through their windshields.

well, no, but I bet the government will fork out a few billion $ chasing that dream and fund some interesting microwave research while it’s at it.
airship

“I love Big Brother.”

Uh… did I just think that?
spazzm

Combine this with some sort of remote sub-vocalisation, and you’d have a kick-ass telephone headset. It would be like telepathy, only real.

Or maybe we can put this in our 12th-generation iPods so we can dispense with those annoying earbuds, earphone leads that gets snagged everywhere and battery-powered headsets that need recharging every 9 minutes.

I could listen to music all day at my desk at work without getting sore ears.

Or how about P.A. systems? Transmitters track individual members of the audience, no-one else hears a single beep. You could have dance parties at 4 in the morning in a densely populated urban area without a single complaint!

Or how about a train/subway station PA that you can actually hear what is saying?

The possibilities are endless.
Ugly Canuck

Is this similar to “voice-to-skull” tech? I seem to remember something about that somewhere…and the audio guys have been making advances lately on keeping sound in focused areas at a distance, too IIRC. Good? Bad? That’s more about its use than the sci/tech component, which is about knowledge….but using what I assume are scarce tax dollars to develop such techs for use is politically suspect, I think. No surprise that this from the USA – Land of the Divinely-Ordained Perpetually Increasing Military Budget…
RocketshipX41

I am reminded on Kate Bush’s song “Experiment IV”:

We were working secretly
For the military.
Our experiment in sound,
Was nearly ready to begin.
We only know in theory
What we are doing:
Music made for pleasure,
Music made to thrill.
It was music we were making here until

They told us
All they wanted
Was a sound that could kill someone
From a distance.
So we go ahead,
And the meters are over in the red.
It’s a mistake in the making.
mdhatter

“I’m not so sure using the brown note on those protesters was a good idea. They’re still rioting and now they smell like they need a diaper change.”

from : Urban Dictionary
scbr

“Is this similar to “voice-to-skull” tech? I seem to remember something about that” (Ugly Canuck)

The similar thing is this one:

http://www.uglydoggy.com/2008/06/voices-in-my-head.html

That also has limitless and very scary applications…
chikurt

>now they smell like they need a diaper change.”<

Instead of just a shower and a shave down.
Lobster

People are eager to call this evil, subversive and cruel, but there may be situations where this is a viable alternative to live ammunition. Personally, I’d rather have a temporarily incapacitating screaming in my brain than a permanent bullet.
anthropomorphictoast

…Excuse me, I must now fashion a helmet lined with lead. >_>