Taser Shockwave
(Credit: Taser International)Where many of the devices from Taser International are a little like dueling pistols from the 18th century--basically, you get one shot to hit a target standing in front of you--the new Shockwave from Taser is more like a Claymore mine.
Unveiled Monday at the annual Taser Tactical Conference in Chicago, the Shockwave is described as an "area denial system," spraying its six projectiles all at once over a 22-degree arc. In addition, users can stack the Shockwave units vertically or side by side ("like Legos," the company says) to cover a larger area or "to allow for multiple salvo engagements." The units--designed for military use--can also be daisy-chained or mounted on vehicles.
The Shockwave fires XP Taser cartridges attached to a 25-foot wire to deliver its 5-second pulse of electricity (in Taser's parlance, the Neuro Muscular Incapacitation discharges). Like the Claymore (which sprays ball bearings), it's set off by a clacker-style controller.
Taser XREP
(Credit: Taser International)The company also offered more details on Monday about its wireless XREP (or extended range electronic projectile), which can be fired from a 12-gauge shotgun. The half-ounce Taser XREPs have a range of 100 feet, and a battery in the projectile delivers the incapacitating charge for 20 seconds. Four barbed electrodes on the front end attach to the target, and on impact the chassis opens up to send six "cholla electrodes" out to penetrate clothing.
Twenty times per second, Taser says, microprocessor technology in the XREP Engine check for the best electrode connection. Grabbing at the projectile isn't likely to help the target; rather, it completes a new circuit that spreads the pulses over a larger area of the body.
For both products, Taser says it will have pilot deployments ready toward the end of this year and is aiming to have a full production release in 2008.
(Credit:
Taser International)
This could be almost as much fun as a blowgun and curare-laden darts. Except, of course, that the kinder, gentler weaponry from Taser International is intended to have nonlethal results.
Up to now, Taser stun guns have been short-range gadgets that deliver their jolt of electricity through wires linking the gun and the projectile. (Think Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman getting zapped in Meet the Fockers.) On Monday, the company plans to introduce its first-ever wireless device in Chicago at the Taser Tactical Conference for members of law enforcement and military organizations,
Taser's new XREP packs its neuromuscular punch in a self-contained half-ounce projectile, the company says. Another convenient feature is that the XREP can be fired from a standard 12-gauge shotgun.
Taser plans to start a field test of the XREP in the fall. After six to 12 months of testing, it's expected to get a full production release sometime in 2008. The company is being stingy about sharing details of the wireless zapper in the days before Monday's unveiling, but more than a year ago, the word was that a forthcoming Taser shotgun projectile might work at ranges approaching 100 feet.
By comparison, the consumer-oriented Taser C2 has a range of just 15 feet. Plus, those annoying wires.
While you're waiting for more information, you might pass the time by keeping track of how nonlethal Tasers weapons are. The company makes it easy, with conveniently labeled and enumerated press releases like this one from June 22: "51st Product Liability Lawsuit Dismissed Against TASER."
Taser International, the people who make the stun guns, and iRobot have kicked off a collaboration to develop machines for the military and police agencies that ideally will incapacitate, but not kill, suspects.
Thus, instead of sending a rookie cop into a strip club to break up a fight between a bouncer and a coked-up drummer from a heavy-metal band, the robot can do it for him.
A PackBot in the field--No taser
(Credit: U.S. Army )And think of the improvements in crowd control you could achieve at those messy Greenpeace rallies.
The two companies have already integrated a Taser X26 stun gun--also known as "an electronic control device," in Taser talk--on to an iRobot PackBot, the mobile military robot created by the company. PackBots have been used to perform reconnaissance in the caves of Afghanistan during combat situations and to investigate potential roadside bombs in Iraq, among other assignments.
Colin Angle, one of iRobot's founders, has in the past talked about rigging up PackBots, which can accept a wide variety of attachments, with nonlethal weapons as a way to cut down on military and civilian fatalities.
"We've evolved beyond Vietnam, where they would tie a rope around someone and lower them in a cave so if they got shot, they (could) pull them out," he said in a 2005 interview. "Every time you go in a door, you have to make a decision. Do you jump in? You could get shot. Do you throw a grenade in? It could blow up an innocent person in the room. The robot's true value is...decreasing the battlefield fog.
Other companies have created robots mounted with machine guns, but these have not been used extensively by the military.
iRobot also makes the popular Roomba vacuum cleaner and other household robots. Many of these can accept payloads too. Conceivably, you could one day see a Roomba that zaps intruders, rodents and household pets.
In the interests of editorial disclosure, I'm actually somewhat familiar with the products from both companies and have been impressed. We had a Scooba in the house for a few weeks for testing and found it remarkable.
Back in 2004, I also voluntarily got zapped with a Taser. It felt like being dipped into a vat of boiling oil while having nails driven through my hands. But if I ever had a subconscious desire to rob a convenience store, that one second blast got rid of it.
And the numb sensation in my hands faded after a while.
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