Stupid Or Awesome? A Laser To Zap Thieves

I once had a customer ask how much a brown note generator cost, for a ensuring standoff distance from a building. Thankfully such a device is not real, because it was awkward.

The best active solution to prevent indoor intrusion is to use the one with the less false positives and which will avoid troubles with your closest neigthbors.. so advise would be to double detect by two technologies with an "AND" condition. Best according to me is analytic (to reduce shadows, reflections, rain/snow, small animals false positive detected by traditionnal Motion detect) coupled with some outdoor IR.

The camera with DI dry contact can generates by itself a double trigger (external Pet PIR+camera motion) but more rarely Anylitic with a great deep of view where you need 3D calibration. (detects a man or a car at a 40 / 30 meters distance without too many errors) Some brands specialized in analytic cameras can. Others with crossline or fence detection can't do that. Too many alarms

Then from what I know ,most VMS or VMS+Analytic systems can generates AND or OR list of counter measures, activating automatically DO (cameras or TCP Dry or relay devices) for siren/Flash or Playing a vocal alarm "eh, You've been detected in a private property" and moving some PTZ dome to the pre position while you receive pre alarm images on you smartphone.

This doesn't cost so much and bring a real Added value compared to traditionnal static cameras + operators. (especially at night when all cats are grey!)

Yes Analytics depends on the height and camera angle you can have. If you can't have a decent angle (25° or more) , detection will be more hazardous.

Depends also from the budget. The Opex you're talking about costs a leg ... :-) At this price level we could also use thermal cameras !

I really like this idea :)

Fog Machine

Very active solution

I also get this type of request from time to time, mostly from angry small business people who have just been burglarized.

Back in the 70's, there was a device being sold that could dispense tear gas when an alarm was triggered. You simply took two police-sized tear gas cannisters, removed the nozzles, and placed them in the machine. There was a giant solenoid that pushed the cannisters forward to dispense the gas.

As I recall, there were many concerns about liability and clean-up with these devices. Also, the question was raised about what would happen to firefighters if they needed to respond to the building and activated the device.

Obviously something that I did not recommend.....

Perhaps a hybrid system would be be most active:

1. Fog. immediately after intrusion

2. Lasers. 2 secs post, low power 5mw red, i/o port driven, mounted underside of ptz camera with auto track or guard tour capabilities

3. Pink Floyd. thru 2 way audio, 5.1 setup thru 6 cameras ideal. Used to generate psycotic episodes in baby boomers.

Cameras could be dual visible/thermal sensors.

normally low power lasers are useless but since the place is fogged up it'll look like the departure time on the millenium falcon.

cameras of course could be manually operated for maximum user enjoyment.

call your clients bluff with this one...

C

This guy designed an 'active defense system' so he can shoot people over the Internet.

USB not Firewire... hmmm...

I'm sure he will get some cats that way and may be some kids if lucky :-)

It's not Pink Floyd, but can anyone vouch for the effectiveness of 'selective acoustic' tone devices like this?

Supposedly, teenagers can hear the frequency, but older folks cannot.

The Mosquito (called SonicScreen in the US) won the 2006 Ig Nobel prize for Peace (see Awards).

According to that wikipedia link, there has been some opposition to the device over the years, as some claim it violates human rights and could legally constitute an 'assault'. The 'Council of Europe' (whoever that is) voted to ban the device, but no country has ever actually done so. In the UK (where they have lots of these things), the Police Minister specifically said they would not ban the Mosquito.

IMO, if it was any other group (who actually had representation in the law making process - kids do not) it would already have been banned.

Imagine if McDonalds became annoyed with all the old folks hanging out in their restaurants, each nursing a small coffee for 4 hours. If they installed a sonic device that emitted annoying sound waves that only people over 65 could hear, the AARP would be picketing McD's headquarters within 24 hours.

Tear gas is not optimal because of the extensive clean-up of residue that has settled on all the surfaces in the space.

An issue with any automated "punishment" system is the certainty that someday it's going to attack a friendly. These events must be survivable without long term adverse effects.

I'm not advocating any approach, but I can imagine PTZ pepper spray as being viable in some areas.

In some US localities, pepper spray in a purse constitutes carrying a concealed weapon. If your locality is more tolerant, I see a new use for PTZ gimbals with solenoid activation.... Even though exposure can ruin you day, this could work if coupled with reliable moving object tracking. Your most effective use would likely be the controlled lighting and environment of an indoor space, although it might annoy you to come home to clean up pepper spray that tracked the afternoon sun across the floor.

In maritime environment we used to use the LRAD which is a very loud acoustic source, as well as light "dazzlers" that would make it uncomfortable to continue intrusion.

I'm disappointed to hear the brown note was a myth, as I heard it discussed.

In another country I once saw what was essentially an M-16 on a PTZ that the operator could point and fire remotely. My guess is that it would be frowned upon in the USA.