DHS Invents Light Sabre “Pukinator”

Its a flashlight that strobes just right to make you toss your cookies. They plan on using it on illegal border crossers, and maybe even hijackers. I have a feeling the boys from Jackass will be using this on each other soon.

From Homelandsecurity.org here:

Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D, as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled and reeled from its nauseating strobe call it other names—none printable.

A later version of the LED Incapacitator, featuring a trimmer head.

A flashlight designed to make you nauseatingly ill? What fiendish minds would invent such a tool? Two physicists are refining an ultra-bright, multicolored, pulsing “lightsaber” that’s more disorienting, dazzling, and dizzying—though a tad less dangerous—than disco. It’s enough to make you sick.

How does the LED Incapacitator incapacitate? By simultaneously overwhelming the subject both physiologically (temporarily blinding him) and psychophysically (disorienting him). A built-in rangefinder measures the distance to the nearest pair of eyeballs. Then, a “governor” sets the output and pulse train (a series of pulses and rests) to a level, frequency, and duration that are effective, but safe. The colors and pulses continuously change, leaving no time for the brain or eyes to adapt. After a few minutes, the effects wear off.

The light could be used to make a bad guy turn away or shut his eyes, giving authorities enough time to tackle the suspect and apply the cuffs … all while sparing the lives of passersby, hostages, or airline passengers.

Personally, I’d like to see border agents start using Ninja stars.