Raytheon's Groundbreaking Acoustic Riot Shield

US defence/aerospace contractor Raytheon has filed a patent for a new type of riot control technology.

Its groundbreaking riot shield design adapts an approach already used by other security devices but never before in this way. Named the Man-Portable Non-Lethal Pressure Shield, it's intended to suppress rioters through emitting sound waves capable of ultimately causing temporary subject paralysis.

While traditionally riot shield-like in appearance, the product would have integrated what the patent application terms a ‘sonic pulse generator' and a linked control mechanism, which the operator could deploy at the appropriate time. Fired at a low frequency, the sound waves could either be released as a single burst or as a stream.

Raytheon Acoustic Shield

As a result, rioters on the receiving end of Raytheon's acoustic shield would have their upper respiratory tract activated to the extent that breathing becomes difficult. The effect would be more powerful in instances where these shields are deployed en masse, producing a more focused and further-reaching wave form as a result of, essentially, being networked up together.

US law enforcement officials already have one type of acoustic crowd control technology in use - the LRAD sound cannon. This works in a slightly different way, using sound itself as a means of bringing on headaches and/or nausea in rioters.

Acoustic Riot Shield

Whether this acoustic riot shield technology is capable of causing anything other than temporarily interrupted breathing hasn't yet been reported. "We do not have sufficient technical detail yet to determine if there are any hidden medical implications", Steve Wright, from the UK's Leeds Metropolitan University, told the New Scientist publication "These are always a concern because of the risk to sensitive bodily functions such as hearing, or even inducing panic attacks in asthmatics."

Chief among the concerns so far expressed is the idea of the acoustic riot shields being used to gain control in a political sense."If authorities in Egypt or Syria had this, would they use it for dispersal or to shove crowds into potentially lethal harm's way?", Wright concluded.

Security Technology will revisit Raytheon's acoustic riot shield design in future News coverage.

Riot shield image copyright David.Monniaux - courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Used for representational purposes only