Huge Military Blimp Getting Ready To Fly And Spy

Chris Velazco
From: http://techcrunch.com/

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... → Learn More

Call me unimaginative, but I always thought blimps were best suited for sporting events and alternate history fiction. The US military would beg to differ, if this pearly-white behemoth is any indication. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Blue Devil Block 2, a floating surveillance platform that could soon appear at war-torn combat zones the world over.

These photos come courtesy of Wired’s Danger Room, and at first glance, the airship doesn’t live up to its namesake. It’s neither blue, nor particularly menacing, but the Blue Devil is downright massive: it’s 370 feet long from end to end, making it nearly double the size of the Goodyear blimp.

This whale is slated to carry an array of wide-area cameras and eavesdropping equipment into scenic Afghanistan by the middle of next year. Once it reaches its destination, the Blue Devil will hang 20,000 feet in the air and starting spying. An onboard supercomputer will process all the information, which will then by relayed to our friendly forces below.

The Blue Devil has been in the works for a long time, as most military projects tend to be. Interestingly, Danger Room notes that it’s one of two airship-related military projects in the works, which is probably two more than any civilian would’ve expected.

Dad Helps Kids Go Ewok-Spotting

By Ken Denmead
From http://www.wired.com/

Spot the Ewok! (Photo by Anthony Herrera)

Anthony Herrera is a geeky dad, and handy with his camera. So, when he took his kids out in a somewhat-famous forest in Northern California, it was the chance to instill some Star Wars wonder in his children:

A year ago we took a trip to Sequoia National Park. I wanted to excite my daughter while being in such amazing surroundings. Being the Star Wars geek that I am (so is she), I told her that this is where the Ewoks live. She spent a good chunk of our time hiking keeping a lookout for any Ewoks. Coming home I can’t say that she wasn’t disappointed that we didn’t find any. I had to explain that they are extremely shy and hardly ever let anyone see them. After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn’t see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother. Maybe I’m a little wrong for lying to her and falsifying the pictures, but I don’t care. She’ll never forget the time she spent in the big woods with Ewoks.

Check out the rest of the “sightings” after the break, and check out his website.

Spot the Ewok! (Photo by Anthony Herrera)

Spot the Ewok! (Photo by Anthony Herrera)

Spot the Ewok! (Photo by Anthony Herrera)

Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."
Follow @fitzwillie and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.

Field of dreams: Ballparks unveil tech upgrades

By Kyle Stack, WIRED

MLB clubs made tech-centric improvements to their ballparks, like Fenway Park, in advance of the 2011 season.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Fenway Park has rhree new scoreboards beyond right-center field for the 2011 season
• Great American Ball Park has a new cell-tower system to access apps like MLB's At Bat

(WIRED) -- Professional sports teams are attempting at a furious rate to lure fans away from the comfort of their couches to live games. And sweet technological upgrades to their home venues become a bigger selling point every year.

Roughly a dozen Major League Baseball clubs followed that strategy by making tech-centric improvements to their ballparks in advance of the 2011 season, which kicks off Thursday. Notable upgrades include ballpark-wide Wi-Fi access (Chicago White Sox) and LED high-definition ribbon boards (Arizona Diamondbacks). Here's a deeper look at nine other teams that have made similar significant upgrades.

Houston Astros -- Minute Maid Park

The Astros join the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins as the only MLB teams to feature a scoreboard with a 1080i display format. "Fans are watching games on high-definition [television], so when they come out to the ballpark we want things to be in high-definition, as well," Kirby Kander, the Astros' senior director of creative services, told Wired.com. Where once stood a 26-by-45-foot scoreboard in right field, there's now a 54-by-124-foot Daktronics behemoth that ranks as the fourth-largest scoreboard in the majors.

The 2.66-million pixel scoreboard was part of a $13 million project which included a 24-by-40-foot video board stationed in left field and 1,185 linear feet of ribbon boards spanning from one foul pole to the other. A state-of-the-art, two-level control room comprising 1,500 square feet was built at the suite level in left field to manage the new 'boards.

Apps, Gear and Beer: The Wired.com Guide to the Baseball Season

Boston Red Sox -- Fenway Park

A 10-year, $285 million plan to modify 99-year-old Fenway Park concluded this off-season with $40 million in construction upgrades, the most prominent of which are three new scoreboards beyond right-center field. ANC Sports Enterprises teamed with Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision Systems to install three video screens: a 38-by-100-foot scoreboard in right-center field that replaces a 23-by-30-foot structure installed in 1976 (but the famous John Hancock sign will still tower over the new 'board), a 17-by-100-foot video screen in center field, and a 16-by-30-foot video board in right field.

The primary scoreboard has the ability to display side graphics, as the old scoreboard did, or move to full-screen video to capture live action. The side 'boards will incorporate game info such as player stats, pitch speed and type, box scores, promotions, announcements and other types of messages

Philadelphia Phillies -- Citizens Bank Park

Phillies fans will get to watch live game action on a new 76-by-97-foot LED high-def scoreboard in left field. The old scoreboard, which was installed for Citizen Bank Park's 2004 debut, has been relocated to the Phils' spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida. The team partnered with Daktronics and Sony Electronics' System Solutions Group on the new 84,000-square-foot 'board, whose 2.9 million pixels dwarfs the former scoreboard's 459,000-pixel display.

Fans get to view one of the clearest scoreboards in the world. Its HD-15 display and 1,512 lines of resolution surpass that of the standard for 1080p HD video boards, and its LED technology allows it to show up to 144 quadrillion shades of color.

Citizens Bank Park's in-house video departments were also improved from standard to HD, including the video-coaching facility. Mark DiNardo, the Phillies' director of broadcasting and video services, told Wired.com the upgrade will most benefit the scouting and self-analysis performed by the team's coaches and players. "They voiced a concern to upgrade," DiNardo said, "and our management heard that concern."

Titanium Baseball Neckwear Big on Hype, Short on Science

Cincinnati Reds -- Great American Ball Park

The ability for fans to view information at high speed on their mobile devices headlines the pair of tech changes at the Reds' Great American Ball Park. The incorporation of a multi-tent cell-tower system with approximately 120 antennas will permit fans to access apps like MLB's latest At Bat rev on 3G or 4G networks through their iPhones, BlackBerries, iPads and Android devices. The app allows fans to view pitch-by-pitch tracking, real-time box scores and stats and searchable video highlights through a multitude of mobile service carriers, including ballpark sponsor AT&T. Reds IT director Brian Keys told Wired.com that roughly 1,500 to 3,000 fans demand high-speed mobile access at any given moment in the stadium, which seats more than 42,000 fans. "We're trying to get the fans more stats, videos, replays and information to their smart devices," Keys said.

Sixty luxury suites have also been outfitted with 46-inch Sony TVs and 25-inch Sony Vaio flat-panel PCs with Blu-ray functionality. Suite attendees can use the PCs to choose their preference of five camera angles on MLB.TV and view any league game, including typically blacked-out contests in Cincinnati, and reroute them to the high-def TVs.

Milwaukee Brewers -- Miller Park

The primary aspect of the Brewers' three-pronged tech upgrade for Miller Park is a 5,940-square foot scoreboard in center field. At 54 by 110 feet, the Daktronics 'board boasts true 1080i display containing more than 2.35 million pixels, compared to the 134,000 pixels produced by the dual 10-year-old scoreboards it replaces.

"The technology to support the [old scoreboards] was changing, and we were running out of spare parts for them," Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger told Wired.com. For example, the new scoreboard, unlike the ones it replaced, doesn't require air conditioning to cool it down. According to the Brewers, that will translate into a 50 percent to 65 percent reduction in energy consumption.

The Miller Park upgrades, which cost almost $11 million, also include a refashioned audio system that'll make it easier for the control room to manage the volume, bass and treble in different areas of the stadium.

Kinect Could Hold Key to Next-Gen Baseball Biomechanics

Seattle Mariners -- Safeco Field

A new LED scoreboard in right field and LED ribbon boards stretching from the the press box to the foul poles along the first- and third-base lines will enable the Mariners to present customized game and sponsor information to their patrons. All three Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision boards will have their video powered by ANC Sports' VisionSoft display. The system allows for a presentation of statistical and game information tailored strictly to Safeco Field. Sponsors can also customize their messages to appear on the boards on a game, series, homestand or season-long basis.

The 6-by-160-foot scoreboard above right field's Outfield Reserve seats will complement the ANC-installed out-of-town scoreboard in left field, implemented before last season. The 734 linear feet of ribbon boards permit the Mariners to show in-game information such as pitch count, type and speed; play-by-play from the prior three batters; animation and graphics; and messages from sponsors and the team's community relations department.

Minnesota Twins -- Target Field

Though Target Field only debuted last season, the team spent more than $5 million on improvements for the stadium's sophomore campaign. Leading the way is a Daktronics HD-15 LED scoreboard in right field, clocking in at 28 feet by 50 feet and providing 552 x 984 resolution. The new scoreboard mostly accommodates fans sitting in left field, who often complained of having to crank their heads to view live game video and statistical info on the scoreboard towering over them. This off-season, Twins owner Carl Pohlad made the move to address all the grumbling. "The Pohlad family said we'll just put up another [scoreboard], which is pretty cool," Twins VP of technology John Avenson told Wired.com.

A new 100-foot tall, LED-illuminated tower adjacent to the right field scoreboard will display situational graphic material and supplementary head-shot content, such as autographs, head-to-toe player pictures and player names and numbers. Also manufactured by Daktronics, each of the tower's four sides will incorporate more than 4,300 LED strips. An improved ballpark-wide Wi-Fi system with more than 200 access points will be operated by MLB Advanced Media, providing fans with information about the game, and ballpark, and even a concession-stand finder.

Tampa Bay Rays -- Tropicana Field

The Rays will play on a more durable and aesthetically pleasing surface at Tropicana Field, thanks to AstroTurf, the official synthetic turf of MLB. The company's GameDay Grass 3D60H model, installed during a three-week period this spring, contains a Horseshoe fiber which (literally) stands up to repeated use. The fiber's omega, or "C", dual-column design imparts mechanical memory to the fiber, so that it pops up even after repeated trampling by cleats and baseballs. Using 60 ounces of fiber per square yard ensures the surface's long-term durability.

The fiber's design also reflects light, which has a two-fold effect: It reduces surface temperatures by up to 18 percent and cuts down on the sheen produced by ballpark lights. The Rays' Andrew Heydt said the old artificial surface would produce a "glazing effect" when the dome's interior lights were turned on. That's no longer the case, as the improved look and performance of the Trop's turf almost mirrors the promise the future holds for Evan Longoria, David Price and the perennially upstart Rays.

Texas Rangers -- Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

New video boards in right and center field at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington use Daktronics' newest 15-millimeter LED technology. The 42-by-120-foot scoreboard above the Home Run Porch in right field and the 25-by-29-foot scoreboard in center field have the versatility to run as single displays or be separated into multiple windows to display various game info.

A newly installed IPTV system from Daktronics also allows all existing ribbon and field-level video boards and more than 800 Sony LCD monitors throughout the stadium to receive game information on up to 10 high-def channels. Real-time scores, statistics and even in-game menu pricing changes can be sent to any board or monitor on any IPTV channel. An upgraded control room and a revamped audio system round out the improvements made for last season's American League champs.

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Copyright 2010 Wired.com.

A Chip Is Born: Inside a State-of-the-Art Clean Room

From: http://www.wired.com/

By Dylan F. Tweney and Jonathan Snyder

If you wish to compose an e-mail, index a database of web pages, stream a kitten video in 720p or render an explosion at 60 frames per second, you must first build a computer.

And to build a computer, you must first design and fabricate the tiny processors that rapidly churn through the millions of discrete computational steps behind every one of those digital actions, taking a new step approximately 3 billion times per second.

To do all this, you are probably going to need chip-manufacturing machines from Applied Materials, one of the main suppliers of such equipment to the semiconductor industry.

Applied's machines subject silicon wafers (such as the Intel wafer shown below) to incredibly intense vacuums, caustic chemical baths, high-energy plasmas, intense ultraviolet light, and more, taking the wafers through the hundreds of discrete manufacturing steps required to turn them into CPUs, memory chips and graphics processors.

Because those processes aren't exactly friendly to humans, much of this work happens inside sealed chambers where robot arms move the wafers from one processing station to another. The machines themselves are housed within clean rooms whose scrubbed air (and bunny-suited employees) keep the risk of aerial contamination low: A single dust particle from your hair is all it takes to ruin a CPU that might sell for $500, so companies are eager to minimize how often that happens.

Wired/com recently toured Applied Materials' Maydan Technology Center, a state-of-the-art clean room in Santa Clara, California, where Applied develops and tests its machines.

Its 39,000 square feet of ultraclean workspace equals about 81 yards of a football field, and is divided into three huge "ballrooms," each of which is crammed full of Applied's multimillion-dollar machines, alongside pipes, tubes, spare parts, tanks of caustic chemicals, Craftsman tool chests and huge racks of silicon wafers. To get inside, you must suit up in a bunny suit, with a face mask and goggles, two pairs of gloves, and shoe-covering footies. We couldn't even take a reporter's notebook inside: Instead, Applied's staff gave us a shrink-wrapped, specially sanitized clean-room notebook and clean-room pen to use.

It's not a manufacturing facility. Instead, this clean room simulates the fabs where Applied's machines will be used, enabling the company (and its customers) to test out new techniques and processes before putting them on the production line. As such, it provides a rare glimpse inside the world of cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing.

Top photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Bottom photo: Intel

U.S. Declares iPhone Jailbreaking Legal, Over Apple’s Objections

• By David Kravets
• From: http://www.wired.com/
  

Federal regulators lifted a cloud of uncertainty when they announced it was lawful to hack or “jailbreak” an iPhone, declaring Monday there was “no basis for copyright law to assist Apple in protecting its restrictive business model.”

Jailbreaking is hacking the phone’s OS to allow consumers to run any app on the phone they choose, including applications not authorized by Apple.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked regulators 19 months ago to add jailbreaking to a list of explicit exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions.

At stake for Apple is the very closed business model the company has enjoyed since 2007, when the iPhone debuted. Apple says it’s unlawful to jailbreak, (.pdf) but has not taken legal action against the millions who have jailbroken their phones and used the underground app store Cydia.

Apple maintains that its closed marketplace is what made the success of the iPhone possible, and sold more than three billion apps. Apple also told regulators that the nation’s cellphone networks could suffer “potentially catastrophic” cyberattacks by iPhone-wielding hackers at home and abroad (.pdf) if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their shiny wireless devices.

Every three years, the Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office entertain proposed exemptions to the DMCA, passed in 1998. The act forbids circumventing encryption technology to copy or modify copyrighted works. In this instance, Apple claimed the DMCA protects the encryption built into the bootloader that starts up the iPhone OS operating system.

But the Copyright Office concluded that, “while a copyright owner might try to restrict the programs that can be run on a particular operating system, copyright law is not the vehicle for imposition of such restrictions.”

Monday’s decision, (.pdf) which applies to all mobile phones, does not require Apple or other handset makers to allow jailbreaking. Instead it makes it lawful to circumvent controls designed to block jailbreaking.

In an April security bulletin, Apple said “Unauthorized modification of iPhone OS has been a major source of instability, disruption of services, and other issues.”

The EFF contended that the iPhone’s embedded protection system was implemented by Apple as a business decision to prevent competition and is unrelated to copyright interests.

Jailbreaking, the EFF maintained, constitutes fair use of the firmware tied to the operating system.

Regulators agreed, declaring Monday that “the activity of an iPhone owner who modifies his or her iPhone’s firmware/operating system in order to make it interoperable with an application that Apple has not approved, but that the iPhone owner wishes to run on the iPhone, fits comfortably within the four corners of fair use.”

Apple told regulators that modifying the iPhone operating system leads to the creation of an infringing derivative work that is protected by copyright law. The Cupertino-based computer maker also claimed that the license on the operating system forbids software modification.

Apple was not immediately prepared to comment.

Here is a how-to and legal primer on the issue.

Photo: Patrick H. Lauke

Dinosaur Fossil Reveals True Feather Colors

• By Sid Perkins, Science News

Another week, another colorful feathered dinosaur. Hot on the heels of a recent report identifying pigments in fossilized dino feathers and filaments (SN Online: 1/27/10), a different team of scientists says that it has mapped the full pattern of plumage sported by the oldest known feathered dinosaur.


Paleontologists first described Anchiornis huxleyi, which lived in what is now northeastern China between 151 million and 161 million years ago, in September (SN: 10/24/09, p. 8). Reports of the lithe, peacock-sized dinosaur caused quite a stir, not least because the feathered creature was older than Archaeopteryx, which is considered by many scientists to be the oldest known bird.
Now, analyses of fossil feathers from all parts of A. huxleyi’s body — reported online Feb. 4 and in an upcoming Science — provide a detailed look at the dino’s color scheme. The new findings also bolster the notion that feathers first evolved for a purpose other than flying, scientists say.
A. huxleyi had black and gray body plumage, the team’s investigations suggest. And while the long feathers on the front and side of the creature’s crest were gray, those sprouting from the top and back of its head were reddish-brown. Along with reddish-brown spots on its head and neck, A. huxleyi sported white racing stripes on its legs and its winglike forelimbs.


Paleobiologist Jakob Vinther of Yale University and his colleagues took a microscopic look at fossilized feathers at 29 sites on a specimen of A. huxleyi unearthed early last year. Some analyses focused on the small, simple feathers that covered the creature’s body and skull, and others targeted the longer, more complex feathers that adorned its forelimbs, legs and feet. “There was hardly any part of the creature that wasn’t feathered,” Vinther notes.
Almost all of the feathers the team scrutinized contained well-preserved remnants of pigment-bearing structures called melanosomes. Feathers lacking melanosomes were probably white, the researchers note. By comparing the size, shape, density and arrangement of melanosomes in each fossil feather with those in variously colored feathers of modern birds, the team then sketched out what A. huxleyi looked like. “Using those comparisons, we can reliably predict [the creature’s] color and map the whole animal,” Vinther says.
The team’s analyses “reveal an enormous array of information,” says Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England. The black-and-white bars on A. huxleyi’s forelimbs, as well as its colorful crest, are reminiscent of similar features in modern birds, he adds.
Knowing when color appeared in feathers or filaments may help solve the conundrum of why those structures evolved in the first place, Benton says. After all, he notes, A. huxleyi’s feathered forelimbs weren’t sufficiently large enough to carry the creature’s weight in flight. “What’s the function of half a wing?” he asks. The fact that feathers appear in the fossil record long before flight-capable birds suggests that feathers initially served a behavioral function, possibly one related to sending visual signals, and only later began to serve an aerodynamic function.
Philip J. Currie, a paleontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, agrees: “Ancient creatures didn’t just sprout feathers and start flying. The feathers were there for another reason first.” Fossils reveal that dinosaurs often had very large eyes and sizable optic lobes in their brains. “Dinosaurs were very visual animals, just like birds are,” he adds.
Bold patterns of plumage, such as those seen in A. huxleyi, could have served any of a number of functions, Vinther and his colleagues speculate. Besides communicating to members of its own species — a “come here, cutie” to members of the opposite sex, say, or a “back off” message to rival suitors — a quick flash of boldly colored plumage could startle an attacking predator or flush prey out of hiding, the researchers say.

Images: 1) © 2010 National Geographic. 2) Jakob Vinther/National Geographic. 3) Jakob Vinther/National Geographic.

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/dinosaur-fossil-reveals-true-feather-colors/#ixzz0egATJva0

Hands-On With the Boxee Set-Top Box and Remote

• By Brian X. Chen
• From: http://www.wired.com
  
  

LAS VEGAS — A host of video services on the web enable you to watch your favorite TV programs and movies anytime you wish, and Boxee is an open platform striving to weave them all into one neat interface. To get the Boxee experience onto a TV, D-Link has launched a set-top box dedicated to the open video platform, along with a special remote.

The Boxee box is pretty simple. Video outputs through an HDMI connector. For audio, you can plug in through an optical digital audio-out jack or regular composite audio. An SD card slot and two USB ports allow you to expand storage. For internet connectivity, the box supports 802.11n Wi-Fi and ethernet.
Boxee was previously a piece of open source software that you’d download to view media on your computer. Most users would download Boxee onto their notebook, which they’d then hook up to a TV. The box eliminates that need, and it’s also compatible with a new remote that just launched at the Consumer Electronics Show.
The remote sports a full QWERTY keyboard for typing in search queries. On the back of it there are three buttons for hitting Enter, accessing the main Boxee menu and playing or pausing video.

We’ve been fans of Boxee for some time: The menu is beautiful and intuitive, and it’s really zippy with loading multimedia files with thumbnails. The remote does indeed make the experience more enjoyable. It’s sturdy, smooth and comfortable, and the keys feel high quality.


Boxee’s primary purpose was to streamline video entertainment, but since it’s an open platform, it can do a lot more. There’s a Boxee app store for downloading third-party apps provided by developers. The main menu has buttons to access music and photos, too. Think of the Boxee as a restriction-free Apple TV.
The Boxee box and remote are shipping the second quarter of 2010. Pricing has not been announced, but Boxee estimates $200.
For a detailed look at the Boxee platform, see Epicenter’s coverage of the Boxee box launch.
Product page [Boxee]

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/hands-on-with-the-boxee-set-top-box/#ixzz0cKJAWQ2j

10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

• By Aaron Rowe
• From: http://www.wired.com/

Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Avatar or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.
Read on for a look at some of these futuristic weapons being tested today.
Above:
The XM-25 grenade launcher is equipped with a laser rangefinder and on-board computer. It packs a magazine of four 25mm projectiles, and programs them to detonate as they pass by their targets. That feature will allow soldiers to strike enemies who are taking cover. By 2012, the Army hopes to arm every infantry squad and Special Forces unit with at least one of the big guns.
In August, a lucky soldier got to pull the trigger, and fire off a HEAB, or High Explosive Air Burst, round at the Aberdeen Testing Ground in Maryland. Those projectiles pack quite a punch. They are purportedly 300 percent more effective than normal ammo, and will be able to strike targets as far as 700 meters (2,300 feet) away.
Photo courtesy U.S. Army

Remotely operated weapons are showing up everywhere. Israel is building an automated kill zone. An American firm, More Industries, offers a turret that can aim and fire two automatic shotguns.
Some bots have been defusing bombs for years, but none have seen combat. That’s a shame, according to Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, who believes that 122 men could have been spared if combat bots had been working in their stead.
There was a set of armed robots sent to Iraq. They never fired a shot, however. They weren’t allowed to. No one could guarantee that the bots wouldn’t go berserk and mow down friendly troops or otherwise malfunction, even though they have lots of safeguards.
Considering how much firepower they pack, safeguards are really important. The Maars system (above) can be equipped with four grenade launchers and a machine gun that packs 400 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition.
But its manufacturers like to point out its less-lethal capabilities. Instead of mowing people down, it can stick to the fine print of the first law of robotics and fire tear gas canisters, smoke grenades, smoke bombs and perhaps even Taser’s upcoming 40mm people-zapper projectile. Three were deployed to Iraq last year.
Photo courtesy QinetiQ North America

The Active Denial System fires a beam of millimeter-wave radiation. It make people feel like their skin is burning without causing any permanent damage. Though promising as a nonlethal weapon, the pain ray has some serious limits.
On a rainy day, water droplets will disperse the beam, and it may feel warm and refreshing instead of frightening. On a hot day, the cooling system might give out. The problems don’t stop there. Raytheon’s baby is bulky, and despite repeated requests to send it into battle, shipments of the energy weapon have been delayed. The military is looking for a stronger, lighter weapon.
Photo courtesy U.S. Army

If troops spot someone suspicious approaching them, they can use the Long Range Acoustic Device to send a warning message. It fires narrow beams of sound waves that can be heard clearly from 300 meters (about a thousand feet) away. Crank up the power, and it can emit a warning tone so loud that anyone in its path would have no choice but to cover their ears and run.
The manufacturer doesn’t like to call these devices weapons, even though they’ve been used to repel pirates. Cops used them to harass protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this year.
Photo courtesy U.S. Marine Corps

Drones are arguably the most controversial weapon in the war on terror. By some accounts, they are deeply feared by the Taliban.
They’ve taken out many Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, and their sound when flying low is a constant annoyance and a reminder of their menace . But they also kill a lot of civilians.
They are, however, far more cost effective than supersonic fighter jets. Predators can pack two Hellfire missiles. Their big brothers, Reapers, can hold four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.
Photo courtesy Bryan William Jones

Photo courtesy of Bryan William Jones

Flash bang grenades were designed to stun people. But they have a pretty bad safety record. The little bombs have dismembered at least one soldier and caused hearing loss in others.
To remedy that problem, Mark Grubelich and his colleagues at Sandia National Laboratory built the Improved Flash Bang Grenade. It hurls flaming aluminum particles into the air, causing a bright flash without an accompanying shockwave.
Photo courtesy Sandia National Laboratory

Even the angriest mobs would probably think twice about trying to pass a Taser Shockwave barrier. It is the less-lethal equivalent of a claymore mine. Push the big red button, and it will fire 24 electrified probes at the same time in a single direction.
Photo: Pat Shannahan/Wired.com

After learning about an experimental weapon that can make people feel seasick, Limor Fried and Phil Torrone decided to build their own. They did it for less than $250, and wrote step-by-step instructions so that anyone can make one at home.
It can create a nauseating lightshow with 36 pulsating LEDs.
Their design has a bonus feature. You can set it to disco mode. Instead of making you sick, the weapon will add life to your next party.
Photo courtesy Bedazzler

If you’re worried that someone’s about to attack you, but not completely sure of their intent, it’s a good idea to give them a warning before pulling the trigger. Green laser pointers are a great way to extend that courtesy. The Marines like to call them “ocular interruption devices.”
Shine one in someone’s face, and your target should immediately get the message that it’s time to back off. The LA-9/P, made by B.E. Meyers, can warn people from up to 4 kilometers (2½ miles) away. It fires a 250-milliwatt beam. That’s roughly 1/4,000 the strength of the smallest anti-aircraft lasers.
Even so, you’ve got to be careful when handling the thing. Over a few months in Iraq, a dozen soldiers were wounded in dazzler “friendly fire.” Several troops may have been injured while monkeying around with laser target designators, which are substantially more powerful than the less-lethal devices.
Photo courtesy B.E. Meyers

Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it’s not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam.
More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.
Northrop Grumman is hard at work on a 100-kilowatt laser weapon, which could do far more damage, but it’s not quite ready for prime time. It’s fully operational, but looks like a refrigerator.
Boeing announced in late December that the Avenger has been used to destroy 50 different improvised explosive devices, during tests at Redstone Aresenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
Photo courtesy Boeing