Today I was reading about a device the military has access to called ADS that is used as a crowd control measure. It fires a concentrated beam of electromagnetic waves at targets, stimulating the sensation of being on fire.
Is it possible to defeat this new tool of worker oppression and if so how? Can protesters affordably defeat this measure on a mass scale?
It’s worth mentioning that talk of “simulating” the sensation of being burned is inaccurate and marketing/PR. It works by remotely heating the skin. It causes the sensation of burning by raising your skin temperature to the range where your skin will begin to burn. There is no simulation. It warms the skin enough to cause first degree burns and some second degree burns have been observed in testing.
The principle is identical to a microwave except it uses 95 gigahertz. Any effective mechanism to dampen electromagnetic radiation would potentially be effective. It has been speculated that the ADS has not been deployed in part because if weather conditions are bad (snow/rain) the signal strength will fall through the floor. IE it’s apparently not a very robust weapon and was very much designed only to work in ideal conditions on people who’ve not taken any countermeasures against it.