I'd think Simon would prefer the personal touch of the direct application of a cattle prod.

The shockwave might be useful though, set up over the inside of the computer room door.

...you need *living* people toiling away for the leading caste in your police stat... democra.. democracry, so you better not blow 12" holes in their rioting workers' chests. Sure, you'll lose the odd weak-hearted person, but such weaklings are no use in the mines anyway. Only the strong survive, ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE!

Any chance of iRobot including the technology in a new range of autonomous filth warriors to 'encourage' kids to tidy their rooms?

thats a bit bloody long to be running.

if that happened to me id find who did it and hook them up to the mains for 20 seconds.

Since such weapons are very easy to defend against one can imagine a new industry (starting with American survivalists of course). Circuit shorting clothing.

If these things become widely used the armour to them will follow. Governments will make such clothes illegal of course.

Taser will make the armour too no doubt. It's excellent business to sell arms to both sides.

I think Simon would much prefer the MX version of the TASER as well it can take down a Bull with no problems as demostrated in this little vid which was originally on the TASER website but I haven't been able to find it lately.

http://www.sshep.com/stun_gun.htm

I love the way it makes clear how very effective this thing is when used against your typical overtrained tatooed dark-skinned criminal type.

...to tinfoil body armour as well.

I see your $99 non lethal weapon and raise you a 99c roll of kitchen foil - Now both of us are foiled!

Never been a fan of these but they do have their uses. As demonstrated above they do have several drawbacks, but I know they're considering adding these to the standard PC equipment which is nice since I always felt there was a middle ground missing with the friction lock baton and the CS spray. Now when confronted you can choose between giving the perp bruising, burning eyes or an electric shock.

someone built a gatling gun that fired those 12 Gauge projectiles?

Also, tin-foil will NOT protect you fully from the effect of these little beasties.

(Remember, the needles are designed to penetrate clothing, so they will be stuck into you, and some current WILL leak through)

Cork armor, though...

Slice up a couple of cork-boards(or whatever those noticeboard thingies are called), and fasten the bits on the inside of sweaters and baggy pants.

If cork makes you look too thick, fibreglass or PET plastic sheets may be used instead.

We're soon going to be back to the days of suits of armour and chainmail. I can just imagine steel-clad warriors on horseback charging the battlements of UK.gov...

As an armorer for a US Govt agency I assure you that tinfoil won't stop a projectile stun device of any type. These things have a lot more force behind them than people think and will easily pierce foil and even thin metal plates. (cork might work but I wouldn't want to spend much time in a cork suit) In addition we have done some testing with the XREP and there's not much that will stop it. The device packs a real punch and can even penetrate car windows and still effectively stop a person. In fact the person will probably be stunned even if the electrical component fails to function, at impact speed the thing is pretty nasty all by itself.

The best defense against projectile stun devices is a good old insulated winter coat. The probes of stun devices become ensnared in the insulation of the jacket and usually don't penetrate. During the winter season agents are instructed to aim at the suspects legs/crotch as they usually aren't padded too well down there. (i.e. wear a cup if you think you might get tasered in the winter ;)

We bought a Roomba two years ago and love it. I recently bought a second one, along with iRobot's hacker's SDK. I wonder if I could mount my 1100 on one. I've already built an ultrasonic detector and ranger (from a 1981 Popular Electronics). Shouldn't take much to install a voice synthesizer. "Halt" boom "or I'll shoot". Sorry Mom, forgot that you were visiting.

"a battery of six wired taser darts sprayed simultaneously in a 20 degree arc"

If you arm a Roomba with one of these does that make it a Roomba sweeper?

Taser will quite clearly correct you that they are a Less-Than-Lethal device.

Meaning that usually you do not die when tasered, but to prevent themselves from being sued, because people will/do die from the use of the devices, they do not claim the devices are non-lethal.

Having sampled 165 volts DC off a dodgy motor before going home today I can only hope that conductive mesh armour is available soon !!!

I think I might have infringed the no smoking policy too :(

Q. What happens when you short out a Li-ion battery?

A. Ask someone who had a Sony battery in his laptop.

not because of the electricity, but because of the kinetic energy of the projectile. In hungary, riot police usually aims at the head of protesters (in 1956 with live ammo, nowdays with rubber bullets) and they usually cause pretty serious injuries. Adding electric shock is really not needed, but in the case of a prepared group wearing motorcyclist protection gear, even rubber bullets and electric shock won't stop them. (this is why it was made illegal to wear protection helmets, padded jackets or kevlar wests during political demonstrations, in case the police wants to dissolve the crowd)

I'd think this thing doesn't need to give a shock. The sheer impact of the damn thing is enough to knock off a person,and if it hits the chest in a specific area, it maybe even cause convulsions, as a secondary school bully can attest.

Though this does definitely look like LART material... though I'd even bet the BOFH would use this in "short-circuit" mode so the battery will "do a Dell".