Strobe light used as weapon

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33189, 31 March 1973, Page 15

Strobe light used as weapon

(N.Z P A.-Reuter —Copy rigtit) LONDON, March 30. A device using dis-cotheque-type strobe lights and sound waves is under development in England as a means of crowd control. People would not know what was happening—tht strobe uses near-mvisiblf infra-red light and the sount is nearly ultra-sonic—but th< ‘effects would be highh I dramatic. They would fee a severe throbbing in thei. ears and a flashing in thei | eyes, as many as one n four might become nause lated, a few collapse, perhap with epileptic fits, and th' rest panic and run away. The compact, portabl* ■machine, called a photi driver, is being developed b; j Allen International, a Lon ! don company which make i electronic equipment includ

,mg bugging devices, for the security industry. ! Mr Charles Bovill, the. .company’s chief engineer Jand the machine’s inventor, 'lsays that although the de-] Hvice is still in the developLmental stage, the company: ’ has already sold a few to] authorities abroad. “I can t say more than that.” „ Medical experts are worB ried that the device could e cause epileptic fits among 4: perhaps five per cent of any e crowd. It is known that ~ rapidly flashing lights can ,1 trigger fits, not only in recogr msed epileptics but in a r small percentage of apparn ently normal people as well >. Aware of the disturbance s factor, London authorities e'last year limited the intensity of strobes used in e discotheques. c; But the company describes yjits photic driver as a non-i-j violent weapon, with far is'fewer side-effects than a I-‘baton charge or riot gas.