nvm..
i wasnt trying to start another rant on disco modes.
just wondering if anyone had seen evidence against strobes in true tactical situation, actual police testing.
I have not, but Ken Goode, who was responsible for the design of a certain light that included a strobe, had a lot of posts, on a forum that is now gone, about the design. He was focused on both frequency, trying to "screw with" eye/brain response, and overall brightness (the emitter was run quite hard relative to constant-on high).
My very informal comparative experiments indicate that there is an incremental benefit from a
well-designed strobe mode, but you raise an interesting point about whether there are drawbacks in a situation where there are multiple team members and/or a lot of reflection back at the user.
Edit to add: did a little digging, nothing conclusive. Results (I've pasted in the relevant text from the pages for which links are given):
1.
http://www.intopsys.com/nonlethal.html
In close collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), IOS is developing a family of light-based, non-lethal devices for law enforcement and, potentially, military applications. As alternatives to potentially eye-damaging, laser-based devices, IOS' diversionary devices utilize high powered, multicolored light emitting diode (LED) clusters and complex optical concentrators to produce a temporary high level of visual impairment and potential disorientation of the targeted subject(s), while optical intensities remain at eye-safe levels.
IOS' devices produce extremely bright, strobe sequences of light in different colors. The different colors of light are programmed to flash in a predefined pattern, to which the brain cannot adjust. The effect is a "wall of light," which blinds the adversary and conceals the user's location, giving the user at least a momentary advantage during which the adversary can be subdued.
Potential applications include:
Crowd control in stand-off situations;
Coast Guard operations in confined environments;
Border Patrol duty, for personnel and vehicular protection;
Correctional facility operations and riot control;
Perimeter protection or area denial applications; and
Personal hand-held devices for patrol officer "force-option."
Light-based, non-lethal devices currently under development at IOS include an electronic reusable flash grenade, an electronic reusable flash-bang grenade, and a light emitting diode incapacitator (LEDI).
2.
http://web.archive.org/web/20071214041223/www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2004/articles/1025frank.html
Turning the function selector collar one more click to the right / clockwise, you put the illumination tool into "strobe" mode. The strobe/flash feature, called "Wave Length Technology" (and you guessed it, patent pending soon to be trade marked) pulses the light at the optimal rate to interrupt linear thought processes and create an imbalance in your opponent. "Mind numbing" is NOT a turn of phrase here: the human mind actually has a hard time processing images that come in at a certain rate and Night-Ops has designed this light specifically to be the most efficient NON-lethal NON-contact tool an officer can carry to impact his/her opponent's thought process and ability to perform directed behavior. Preliminary research shows that confronting an aggressor with this pattern of light directly into his eyes can cause reactions that are greatly to the advantage of us, the good guys. Those reactions can include: imbalance, involuntary closing of the eyes, turning the head, a loss of depth perception, a feeling of pending physical impact, and sometimes even an increase in heart and respiration rate due to the psychological stress caused by the mental overload. It is important to note that in the strobe position the light only flashes while the tailcap button is depressed. Release the button and the light turns off. Perhaps in the future Night-Ops will find a way to leave the strobe activated under certain circumstances so that it could be used as a personnel marker with or without an infrared filter. It is important to note here that this tool is not meant to replace other force sector options: it is meant to give the officer / soldier a window of opportunity that he then has to leverage to his benefit by selecting the appropriate force option.
3.
http://actionsbyt.blogspot.com/2006/12/blackhawk-gladius-flash-light-strobe.html
3) It also incorporates a strobe feature called "Wave Length Technology", which, according to Frank Borelli, who's written an article about the Night-Ops Gladius for the
10/25/04 issue of the Blackwater Tactical Weekly (BTW) Newsletter, "pulses the light at the optimal rate to interrupt linear thought processes and create an imbalance in your opponent". Mr. Borelli goes on to write the following about the Gladius' strobe feature "the human mind actually has a hard time processing images that come in at a certain rate and Night-Ops has designed this light specifically to be the most efficient NON-lethal NON-contact tool an officer can carry to impact his/her opponent's thought process and ability to perform directed behavior. Preliminary research shows that confronting an aggressor with this pattern of light directly into his eyes can cause reactions that are greatly to the advantage of us, the good guys. Those reactions can include: imbalance, involuntary closing of the eyes, turning the head, a loss of depth perception, a feeling of pending physical impact, and sometimes even an increase in heart and respiration rate due to the psychological stress caused by the mental overload. It is important to note that in the strobe position the light only flashes while the tailcap button is depressed."
Mr. Good has stated that the "practical testing of the strobe mode on non-compliant subjects has been simply amazing", on one of the internet forum sites.
