HSV Technologies Announces Patent on Engine Disabling Weapon

Technology Has Potential To Save Lives and Change Police Pursuits Forever

San Diego, CA, - February 22, 2000

HSV Technologies, Inc., today announced the granting of its patent on a non-lethal engine disabling weapon that uses laser beams to disrupt the electrical circuits in modern engines. The beam-weapon is expected to have a positive effect on police pursuits, which today lack the technology to minimize civilian risk and reduce the probability of injury.



"Our goal is to create weapons that minimize the danger to civilians, law enforcement officers and criminal suspects during pursuits," said Eric Herr, vice president of research and development at HSV Technologies, Inc. "The engine disabling weapon builds on the breakthroughs HSV Technologies has made with its non-lethal anti-personnel beam weapon. We expect substantial funding to follow our patents because of the great potential benefit this technology offers to society."



"In Los Angeles County alone there are approximately 1,000 high-speed police pursuits each month," said Peter Schlesinger, president of HSV Technologies, Inc. "We see a very large market for these devices, with the potential for them to severely limit the number of police pursuits and shootings."



At the University of California at San Diego, The feasibility of the beam weapon concept was confirmed during a series of experiments under the guidance of Dr. Wayne Vernon and Dr. Richard Scheps.

How the engine-disabling weapon works: United States patent number 5,952,600 is for a non-lethal weapon to disable an engine, such as that of a fleeing car, by means of a high voltage discharge which destroys its electronic circuits. The transmission of the disabling voltage to the distant target is via two channels of electrically conductive air. The conductive channels are created by multi-photon and collisional ionization within the paths of two beams of coherent (laser) ultraviolet radiation directed to the target. The high-voltage current flows from electrodes at the orgins of the beams, then along the channels of free electrons within them. Alternately, a single beam may be used when the high voltage source and the target are grounded.



In October 1997, HSV Technologies, Inc. received approval for patent 5,675,103. This patent is for a non-lethal weapon that uses ultraviolet laser beams to harmlessly immobilize people and animals at a distance. The phaser-like device uses two beams of UV radiation to ionize paths in the air along which electrical current is conducted to and from the target. In effect, the beams create wires through the air wherever they are pointed. The current within these beams is a close replication of the electric impulses that control skeletal muscles. It is imperceptible to the target person because it differs from his or her own neural impulses only in that its repetition rate is sufficiently rapid to tetanize muscle tissue. (Tetanization is the stimulation of muscle fibers at a frequency which merges their their individual contractions into a single sustained contraction.). The company's mission is to harness the power of laser technology to make the world a safer place by providing non-lethal alternatives to some of today's lethal weapons. HSV Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit the company web site at: hsvt.org.