Microwave brain scrambler?

Could you use amplitude modulated microwaves to disable a bad guy?

Picture this: A robber enters a restaurant, swings a pistol around and demands money.

Secreted in the ceiling of the dining room is a microwave transmitter equipped with a parabolic dish that can be aimed to cover any portion of the eating area.

The manager, monitoring the situation from his office, aims the transmitter at the robber, dials in an appropriate power level and pushes the 'go' button. The pulses of microwave power mimic and disrupt normal brain activity through calcium efflux, paralyzing the bad guy until police arrive.

The science appears solid. Have a look at:

Adey, W. Ross, Neurophysiologic Effects of Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation, Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, V.55, #11, December,

1979

Bioelectromagnetics Volume 5 Issue 1, Pages 71 - 78 Published Online: 19 Oct 2005

As the article states, one wouldn't need a lot of power. In the cited experiment, 1 mW/g was sufficient to induce calcium ion efflux in human neuroblastoma cells.

The transmitter could pay for itself in no time even if no robber appears:

  • Defusing altercations between customers and wait staff
  • Tailoring the customer demographic
  • Providing entertainment for bored management
  • Exploiting induced suggestibility to enhance performance feedback

There are some downsides such as eye cataracts, an increase in susceptibility to leukemia and bacterial brain damage due to violations of the blood/brain barrier. Those are hardly important when you consider how funny it would be to watch random customers stand there, gobsmacked as you rearrange their brain from the comfort of your office.

What do you think about this?

Thanks

--Winston

Reply to
Winston
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1979

Have a good^H^H^H^Hexcellent lawyer on retainer.

--
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

[snip]

Why not just use a mass projector? They are available *now* and aren't very expensive *or* subject to power outages, remote disabling, etc.

Reply to
D Yuniskis

1) Evidence. Some of the targeted customers will be influential. Even a medical tech will be able to discern 'mass impingement' but no one will be able to prove that the manager targeted the customer with microwaves. Better to leave the customer feeling as if he had a stroke, rather than have the manager suffer ... criticism. 2) Delay. Mass projectors tend to cause immediate harm that can be associated with a particular restaurant and thus a particular manager. We don't want that association. The beauty of the microwave transmitter is that brain infection, leukemia, cataracts take time to develop and cannot be tracked backwards through months or years to a specific event or person. If we cannot trust a restaurant manager or his assistant to make these medical decisions for us, who can we trust?

Thanks for your thoughts.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

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Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

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Reply to
Vladimir Vassilevsky

What is the customer going to say?

"You did *something* to cause me to lose voluntary muscle control!"?

Manager can just smile and say "Now what could I have done to cause that?"

The customer's lawyer and any prospective judge are both the property of the megacorporation that owns the restaurant anyway, so what is the concern?

Thanks for your thoughts.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Perhaps not, because nobody here would want to stand around a 2200 Mhz source producing 400+ watts per square CM pulses at a high rate, two meters away. The thresholds reported in the paper are in a anechonic chamber and do not reflect a uncontrolled environment. Plus there are signal processing issues, as your "toy" does not induce anything near audio into the brain... And there is considerable reflection toward the operator..

Steve

Reply to
osr

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Thanks, Vladimir.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Or just drop a bowling ball on his head. ;-)

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

1) Our customer surely would not *want* to stand in front of the antenna if he knew it existed and understood the danger. She has no choice, because she cannot even see the transmitter. There is no evidence it even exists. 2) The restaurant manager won't care. He knows there aren't any 'rear lobes' to be concerned about. His employees aren't aware it exists either. They are 'collateral damage'. When they come down with cataracts or leukemia, too bad, yes? 3) 400 W isn't necessary. About a milliwatt at the target is all that is required. Input power to the antenna can be minuscule because the radiation between the antenna and customer is going to be 'near field' for most of the distance. The real frequency would be some harmonic of ~900 MHz anyway because of the skull's cavity resonance.

If the shape of restaurant furniture causes phase reinforcement at the target, so much the better, right?

Audio is not necessary, or desirable. We aren't attempting to discuss anything with the customer. Just controlling his body and hopefully causing long term serious illness.

Sheet metal is cheap and easy to install in the ceiling. We're only talking about a few mW of ERP, anyway.

Thanks, Steve.

Reply to
Winston

(...)

This is subtle and deniable. Bowling balls, not so much.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

What happens if he's wearing his aluminum foil beanie?

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

How is he going to complain?

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Janitor: -1

------------------- Total: 0

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

The bowling ball will *crush* it!! ;-)

Bowling Ball: 1 Bad Guy: 0

Reply to
D Yuniskis

*Snip*

The paper absrtract says-

Abstract Monolayer cultures of human neuroblastoma cells were exposed to

915-MHz radiation, with or without sinusoidal amplitude modulation (80%) at 16 Hz, at specific absorption rates (SAR) for the culture medium and cells of 0.00, 0.01, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2, or 5 mW/g. A significant increase in the efflux of calcium ions (45Ca2+) as compared to unexposed control cultures occurred at two SAR values: 0.05 and 1 mW/g. Increased efflux at 0.05 mW/g was dependent on the presence of amplitude modulation at 16 Hz but at the higher value it was not. These results indicate that human neuroblastoma cells are sensitive to extremely low levels of microwave radiation at certain narrow ranges of SAR. Received: 16 September 1982; Revised: 14 July 1983

There's a real big difference between illuminating a single layer of cells in a cultute & lighting up a brain's worth of cells in some numbskull's er, um... skull.

Ampitude modulation? What's the mechanisum operating to de-modulate the signal so it can affect the calcium channels? If there ain't no demodulation happenig all you're getting is heating effect.

I note a distinct lack of corroborating followup studies over the last

28 years.

i.e.- Not Much.

H.

Reply to
Howard Eisenhauer

(...)

How so? All the necessary parts have been on the shelf for decades.

  • Amplitude - modulatable Microwave oscillator up to ~10 GHz at the signal so it can affect the calcium channels? If there ain't no

If it were heat alone, then the effect should be more pronounced at higher power levels. Efflux diminishes, instead. I don't know *why* swamping the brain with a disingenuous EEG waveform causes it to disregard the lower power signals coming from the cells it should be listening to. It seems reasonable that it would behave in that fashion, given the science.

Thanks, Howard.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

"That big microwave dish that swung round and focused on me". Lawyer for perp subpoenas all documentation on installation.

None. It's cheaper to hand over a few hundred, or thousand, dollars than get involved in the cheapest lawsuit.

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
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Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

In other words, if you pulse-modulate a microwave oven, and pull the magnetron out and lay it on your bench, will it knock you unconscious when turned on? (Or distort your thinking, mimic psychoactive drug effects, etc.?) If it doesn't work, just place your brain closer.

Do like this guy below. I love how the RF is overloading the audio in his camcorder.

cornea-frying fun w/bare magnetron

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((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty Research Engineer beaty, chem washington edu UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74 billb, eskimo com Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700 ph206-762-3818

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Reply to
Bill Beaty

At the proper modulation frequency and carrier amplitude, one would probably lose all senses. One might move an object, say a wallet from one pocket to another without being aware of it. If the carrier were turned off soon enough, one would remain standing but would be quite disoriented and confused, as if waking from sleep.

It would take a couple minutes before one would be completely conscious. Not a painful experience, but quite unpleasant.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

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