Boeing granted patent for force field

by
in hardware on (#5K30)
story imageThis month, Boeing was granted a patent for generating force fields that keep shockwaves from harming military vehicles. The Boeing Company's patent, "Method and system for shockwave attenuation via electromagnetic arc," was filed in May 2012.

"The idea is to harness electrical energy to stop or slow down the shockwaves created by explosions, which can do just as much damage as shrapnel." Boeing's plan would be to "marry a rapid explosion sensor with an arc generator to protect targets like military vehicles." Laser sources send out high-intensity laser pulses in the direction of the explosion. The laser pulses ionize the air to form a laser-induced plasma channel." The channel differs from the ambient air in density, temperature and composition. The result would be a buffer zone- different temperature, air density and other characteristics would reflect, refract, absorb and deflect at least a portion of the shockwave.
Reply 16 comments

pipedot is gooder, no click bait yet (Score: 2, Insightful)

by imaponyimapony@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 07:30 (#5KJG)

Over at slashdot it's "Boeing patents star wars style force field technology". Sheesh.

Re: pipedot is gooder, no click bait yet (Score: 2, Funny)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 13:37 (#5MEA)

Man, that was a tough moderation decision. On one hand, you did recognize the problem with what /. has become. On the other hand, you went there. So thats maybe a + 2 for the compliment, -1 for the betrayal.

Re: pipedot is gooder, no click bait yet (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-24 21:16 (#5NFM)

Perhaps, like a good number of us, he still has slashdot in his RSS. I do. I open an article once a month or so.

Re: pipedot is gooder, no click bait yet (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-03-25 10:25 (#5PNY)

I still post there once in a while, but that's because my sig gives some publicity to |., Soylent, and Usenet's comp.misc. You don't have to avoid /. like the plague you know, it's a good thing to help the rest of the world learn about the alternatives and eventually win them over.

Re: pipedot is gooder, no click bait yet (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 21:09 (#5NF9)

Hmm, they may have copied the headline from ABC (US), CNet, or Sky News...

Complete BS (Score: 2, Insightful)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 10:13 (#5KX8)

1. This is not anything like a force field
2. Force fields are Star Trek, not Star Wars
3. This obviously won't work anyway

First Lockheed pretends they can do fusion "any day now"; now Boeing thinks they can magically block explosions.

Re: Complete BS (Score: 1)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 13:47 (#5MF6)

While I do remain skeptical, I don't see why this "obviously won't work". I'd like to see proof of it working, or a more in depth discussion of the physics and engineering involved. It kind of sounds like it would need a lot of electrical energy, which may render it unfeasible in the field.

google define:attenuation (Score: 1)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-03-25 21:39 (#5MRW)

  1. In physics, attenuation (in some contexts also called extinction) is the gradual loss in intensity of any kind of flux through a medium. For instance, sunlight is attenuated by dark glasses, X-rays are attenuated by lead, and light and sound are attenuated by water.
Was there some problem with saying "Boeing gets patent for a shockwave attenuation system?"

So it's not force nor field. It is a system for damping a shockwave.

I hope that pipedot readers can handle the big words. And for those that can't, I hope they don't submit articles.

Re: google define:attenuation (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-24 16:51 (#5MXX)

"shock wave attenuation system" just sounds like attaching a bit of padding... Nothing to indicate this is new and unusual. Headlines are necessarily going to be oversimplifications.

Re: google define:attenuation (Score: 1)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-03-25 21:40 (#5RAE)

Sure, but 'force field'? There was really no point in making the headline less accurate.

Re: google define:attenuation (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-25 13:44 (#5Q4J)

So it's not force nor field. It is a system for dampening a shockwave.
Really? Where is the water for dampening? I think you meant "damping".
I don't make AC comments like this very often, but dampen/damp is a pet peeve...

Re: google define:attenuation (Score: 2, Informative)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-03-25 21:38 (#5RAD)

Quite right - sorry about that.

Similarities to Reactive Armor and Shockwave Disruption (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-24 23:02 (#5NMZ)

If I'm interpreting the image correctly, it looks like maybe this is closer to reactive armor, than it is to force fields?

If an explosive shockwave is simply a front of pressure differential traveling through air as it's medium, and thus effectively a very strong/coarse a sound wave, then it's subject to disruptive interference, right?

They don't claim to eliminate the shockwave, but only attenuate it. Based on that, it seems like an opposing shockwave of comparable force might dampen or lessen the front of the shockwave, by way of disruptive interference.

Otherwise, would maybe just introducing turbulence or loud randomized noise into the path of a shockwave manage to "attenuate" it?

It is possible that just the loud crack of an electrical arc would be enough to reduce the intensity of a blast wave?

Re: Similarities to Reactive Armor and Shockwave Disruption (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-03-25 13:55 (#5Q5M)

If an explosive shockwave is simply a front of pressure differential traveling through air as it's medium, and thus effectively a very strong/coarse a sound wave, then it's subject to disruptive interference, right?
An alternate/reworded explanation -- if the invention can produce a relatively large volume of very low density (gas or plasma), then there is no medium for explosive shockwave propagation through the atmosphere (because there isn't any atmosphere in that volume). Shrapnel from the explosion will keep on coming...

Can I have such a force field for my private car? (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org on 2015-03-26 11:28 (#5SK9)

Everything that has a sufficiently strong influence on a blast shock wave should be strong enough to make minced meat out of human flesh itself. So instead of a normal car alarm.... What you touched my car? *SPLATTER*

Cars for crowd control will be another, and a much more probable use case for this technique.