EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL
Noises in the head
As technology advances, the past is reborn for another attempt at realisation of an earlier non-
starter. The Sierra Nevada Corporation is now looking for US Government funds to develop a
microwave ray gun, producing disabling noises in the head through the microwave auditory
effect. They are designing a narrow beam acoustic non lethal weapon, although the sound is not
received by the ear, but from pulsed microwaves, which cause localised heating and expansion in
the brain. Very small transient temperature rises, a few millions of a degree, are sufficient to
generate pressure waves which excite the cochlea and are heard as sounds such as buzz, click,
knock, chirp etc. A few years ago the US Secretary of the Air Force took out a patent on use of
the microwave auditory effect as a means of communication. Development of the process
included preconditioning of the microwave signals to improve information carried in the pulses,
whilst a patent from years earlier had proposed using a controlled configuration of pulses to
transmit information direct to the brain and cochlea. Of course, bone conduction hearing aids do
the same job rather more simply.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation plans a step change by increasing the directional microwave
excitations to a level which, they hope, will produce disabling sounds as a means of riot control.
In this, they will come hard up against health and safety criteria for limiting human exposure to
electromagnetic radiation, which would have to be waived. The use of non lethal weapons is a
difficult area. In reasonably civilised interactions, you usually only kill those who are likely to kill
you, but there are others who may be behaving in a menacing manner, although not yet life
threatening. Many rioters are in this category and are targets for non lethal disablement.
Acoustic non lethal weapons, many based on infrasound, have been on and off the horizon for
many years. The Sound Curdler, an audio frequency high intensity device, is said to have been
used by police for riot control. The “acoustic bullet” is based on good science as a means of
propagating short range high intensity pulses, which maintain their shape and amplitude as they
propagate in space.
The only system which has gone commercial is the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) ,
intended as a loud hailer, but which can also be used as an acoustic disorientating weapon. The
LRAD succeeded because it became available at a time when there was a demand for it. Perhaps
we don’t need any others.

1The cochlea is very sensitive – normal conversation displaces the eardrum by about 10-10 m, which, after transformation
by the ossicles, is sufficient to stimulate the cochlea
2Patent no. US 6587729; 2003 Apparatus for audibly communicating speech using the radio frequency hearing effect

3Patent no. US 4877027:1989 Hearing system

4Stephanishen P R (1999) Acoustic Bessel Bullets. Jnl Snd Vibr 222(1), 115-143
5Leventhall G (2004) Big Noise in Baghdad, Noise and Vibration Worldwide, June 2004, 27 -30

Environment friendly conflicts

Councils should keep collecting glass commingled with other materials despite calls by British Glass to stop, a health and safety expert has
advised. Chris Jones, chairman of the Environmental Services Association’s health and safety working group, said that commingled
collections were better than separate collections of glass, because the noise of glass hitting glass damaged the hearing of operatives. In
particular, he claimed that it was not uncommon for operatives to be exposed to 90-100 decibels - way above the 85 decibel limit imposed
by law and much higher than noise levels experienced with commingled collections. The comments came at an Environmental Services
Association event in London entitled Designing Health and Safety into Procurement, and followed concerns by British Glass that increasingly
less glass is being recycled into bottles, because it is collected commingled. Mr Jones, who is also director of risk management and
compliance for Cory Environmental, said: “We should be looking at collections with reduced or eliminated glass to glass contact. I want to
launch a campaign of my own because not commingling glass makes people go deaf,” he stressed. Mr Jones explained that the industry had
been looking for at least two years at engineering solutions to reduce the noise of glass, but that as yet, there was nothing which could
reduce volumes of glass smashing on glass to below a level where hearing protection was necessary.

2 NOISE & VIBRATION WORLDWIDE