The invention is a system for controlling a crowd, that could become hostile, using non-invasive, non-lethal means.
Wherever a large crowd of people gather, there is always a possibility of violent mob behavior. Law enforcement personnel have a limited variety of crowd-control means absent the use of lethal force. Personnel may be armed with shields and batons; they may be equipped with irritant gas or spray dispersal systems; and in extreme cases, they may be armed with rubber-bullet loaded weapons. However, all of these means, intended to avoid serious injury, involve striking, or causing irritant reaction, or shooting with ammunition designed to avoid penetration. In some cases, someone struck with a baton may suffer a concussion. Someone inhaling tear gas or pepper spray may have an asthmatic reaction. And, rubber bullets are notorious for causing eye injuries.
Systems, such as tasers, may be effective in resolving a violent outbreak by a single individual, but they are inappropriate for crowd control. When law enforcement officers are far outnumbered by a crowd, crowd control can become ineffective.
Striking someone, gassing or spraying someone, or shooting someone with rubber bullets all involve some degree of violence, and all have the propensity for lethal consequences.
If there was a crowd-control system that caused mob members to literally stop in their tracks and respond to some kind of disarming sensation, it could cause a surging mob to quickly lose its momentum and allow for controlling the crowd with minimal risk of injury.
Sensations that are known to cause people to pause in any endeavor and respond to them are extremely loud sounds, electrical shock, a burning sensation, a freezing sensation, being tickled and feeling a tingling sensation. Loud sounds and electric shocks can cause serious injuries. Extreme hot or cold sensations may be caused by applying hot or cold to the skin, and could also cause serious injuries. However, a tickling or tingling sensation may be induced without causing injury. A system that could reliably induce those sensations could be effective for crowd control.
The invention herein disclosed and claimed is a system that produces ultrasonic sound, forms directional sound beams which then wash over peoples' clothing and bare skin causing tickling/tingling sensations that are shown to disrupt violent behavior. Since nothing penetrates the skin, or stimulates the auditory system organs and nerves, it represents a non-invasive, non-lethal crowd-control capability.
The ultrasonic sound is produced by a generator operative to create electrical signals with frequencies well above audible frequencies. These electrical signals are then amplified, and multiplexed to produce multiple identical signal outputs. These output signals are processed by microcontroller-based adjustable phase subsystems and the phased output signals are conveyed to individual transducers in an array of transducers.
The ultrasonic sound waves, appropriately phased, produce a series of destructive and constructive interference patterns such that a beam of high-energy waves is produced. This directional ultrasonic beam can then be directed toward people acting in hostile/violent fashion, or it can be used to render a zone in which people who enter will be exposed to tickling/tingling sensations. The system creates a tickling and tingling sensation on the skin, particularly at an area near the base of the skull which may cause some excretion of oxytocin. The combination of sensation and oxytocin is shown to disrupt behavior, effectively quelling hostile, violent intent and action.
Societies, in general, are at some degree of risk of large gatherings of people who may become hostile or violent. Where a crowd of hundreds or even thousands of people gather and become incited, a much smaller number of law enforcement personnel are hard pressed to control such a crowd using non-injurious or non-lethal means. The events at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 show exactly what can happen when a crowd topples physical barriers and attacks the much smaller number of law enforcement personnel.
Commonly deployed crowd-control means may involve helmets/shields/batons, gases (such as tear gas) or sprays (such as pepper sprays), and in some cases rubber-bullet loaded weaponry. All of these control means have a significant degree of potential injury associated with them. All of these means are intended to disrupt hostile/violent action allowing a small number of law enforcement personnel to effectively stop and ultimately disperse a hostile crowd. As was shown on Jan. 6, 2021, these methods can fail to control a hostile crowd.
Experience has shown that when individuals in a mob-like crowd are faced with some disarming sensation, they essentially stop the hostile action and attempt to quell the disarming sensation. Extremely loud sounds will cause people to cover their ears, for example. A sensation of tickling/tingling will cause people to try to make it stop. In the process, they may drop any weapons and stop forward motion.
If a system can establish, say, an area in which people will all be subject to disarming sensations, humans tend to move back away from that area. This creates a zone in which hostile/violent action is thwarted by such sensations.
Using gas as a means of crowd control is ineffective in creating such a zone because it rapidly disperses and wind will quickly reduce its concentration. Batons or rubber-bullet loaded weaponry cannot create such a zone because it is one-to-one rather than affecting a significant portion of a crowd.
The non-lethal crowd-control system disclosed and claimed herein is intended to create a zone of non-hostile/non-violent behavior by exposing anyone in that zone to sensations that are disarming. In this case, it is impingement by high-energy ultrasonic sound waves which cause a tickling/tingling sensation that cannot be ignored.
Using a generator to create ultrasonic-frequency electrical signals, then amplifying those signals, and multiplexing the amplified output so as have multiple, identical signals, each capable of exciting an ultrasonic transducer, will produce a field of ultrasonic sound energy in a broad direction. If the individual multiplexed signals are first modified to have specific phase differences relative to the original output signal, one can create a beam-formed output wherein sound of high energy is narrowed and focused in one direction whereas sound in other directions is significantly reduced by destructive interference.
The energy level of the beam will be at some peak level near the transducers and dissipate as the distance in the favored direction increases. In essence, by choosing an initial ultrasonic sound power level, and detecting the attenuation with distance, one can adjust the phasing in such a way as to create the aforementioned zone in which people who are impinged by the sound will experience disarming sensations whereas those further away will not.
That zone could be a circular field, or an arc of a circle, depending upon the number of systems deployed and the initial ultrasonic sound energy selected. Arguably, had such a system been deployed in a circle surrounding the US Capitol building, it may have prevented the breach of the building by keeping the crowd at bay some distance from the building.
The following provides further details about the invention system. In
When the high-energy beam is directed at a segment of crowd within a zone of desired control (301), the ultrasonic waves produce a sensation of tickling/tingling to people in that segment. People in a segment outside the beam's path (302) would not experience those sensations. Multiple systems aimed at other segments within that desired zone of control will also create disarming sensations. The number of systems, and whether to sweep the beam back and forth, can be determined by the anticipated crowd size and zone area to be controlled.
To create the narrow, focused beam of ultrasonic waves, the output of the amplifier subsystem (401) is input to a multiplexor and microcontroller subsystem (402) wherein the single input signal is multiplexed into a plurality of individual signals have the same energy and phase relationships. These individual signals are conveyed to individual microcontroller-controlled phasing subsystems (403). Each such microcontroller-controlled phasing subsystem will apply a phase delay commanded by the microcontroller and convey the signal, with any phase delay, to an individual ultrasonic wave transducer. The phase delays cause predictable and selectable destructive and constructive interference such that a narrow, focused beam of high-energy ultrasonic waves (404) is created.
Although the output of the transducers is inherently directional, a system user is in close proximity to the array of transducers (501). In
Please note, that the subsystems are shown as separate entities but one or more may be combined into a modular entity. For example, wave generator and wave amplifier may be part of one modular subsystem. In fact, wave generator, amplifier, multiplexor and adjustable phasing subsystems may be combined in a single modular entity. Similarly, the transducers are shown as organized in rectangular and circular planar arrangements and enclosed in rectangular and cylindrical enclosures. The transducer arrangement need not be planar nor rectangular or circular. A different organization of transducers may create a more compact system without compromising performance.
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