The Taser Area Denial Device is based on the Taser electric shock weapon, widely used by police forces around the world. A pair of darts is fired at intruders from a distance of about 7 metres, and a high-voltage electrical pulse is delivered through lightweight metal cables to the darts. The electric shock incapacitates the intruder by overriding their neuromuscular control (New Scientist, 15 February 2003, p 34).
Each battery-powered TADD has up to 12 pairs of darts that can be fired independently at different targets, and is capable of delivering a total of 200 three-second shocks. "The goal is to immobilise the assailant or bad guy and then dispatch guards or police to take them away," says Marshall Toplansky of Tasertron in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company that developed TADD.
For example, a guard monitoring a perimeter fence through a surveillance camera can remotely trigger TADD if he spots an intruder. It could also be set up so that if infrared motion sensors spot an intruder, the guard is alerted and triggers the device. In both cases, human input ensures safety. This is called a "man-in-the-loop" system.
So far the technology has yet to be deployed. But TADD could soon be used to upgrade the security systems at US nuclear facilities or replace conventional landmines for military use. According to Toplansky, security experts at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico who are responsible for handling the security at all US nuclear facilities, met with Tasertron last month at Kirkland Air Force Base, in California, to discuss using the technology in perimeter defences as part of an overall strategy to improve security.
Managers from Nevada State Prison Service have also expressed interest in the system, says Toplansky. Prison guards would find TADDs useful not just for perimeter security but also for controlling the prisoners inside. Wall or ceiling mounted units could be triggered during riots, for example, to stun prisoners.
Used under these conditions the technology doesn't seem much like a landmine. But Richard Lloyd of London-based Landmine Action is worried that the technology could easily be developed into something more ominous. "Inevitably this stuff leaks out to a much wider use. I think it would be foolish to rely upon marketing claims of limited use," he says. Indeed, the US military are particularly interested in developing autonomous versions that can be dispersed across the ground to create no-go areas. Tasertron has so far only done the feasibility studies for such a system.
More importantly, Lloyd does not believe enough research has been done to prove that this device won't kill. "If you're pregnant, a child or old, the effects of 50,000 volts are potentially lethal," he says. These devices might even violate the Geneva Convention, Lloyd says, especially if they are unable to discriminate between combatants and civilians. He says it is not a question of comparing the kind of damage different landmines cause. "It would be difficult to envisage their legal use if there wasn't a man-in-the-loop."
Toplansky admits there are issues around the unsupervised use of TADD. "That's one of the reasons why we have been looking at the man-in-the-loop system for perimeter security," he says. "Nobody wants to take out the wrong target."
Others remain unconvinced the technology will even work. Steve Tuttle of Arizona-based Taser International told New Scientist that his company had not pursued this way of using Taser technology because they don't believe it will work. "The effects only last as long as the electrical current is on and once it stops, the person recovers instantly," he says. "There's not much chance that a person could be incapacitated long enough to cause area denial with today's technology."
New Scientist issue: 26 April 2003
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Author: Duncan Graham-Rowe
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