We have been growing up with the idea that one day humans will develop an actual device that activates some sort of an energy bubble that would protect us from any attacks. Science fiction movies such as Star Wars or Independence Day used the concept and named it force field. It appears we have reached the day when scientists actually made it possible and Boeing has just patented it.
Before we go all geeky coo-coo here, let us remember that a force field is in fact a fictional science concept that has not yet been proved to be possible, not in the Hollywood acceptance anyway. This presumed energy shield that protects a person, an area or an object from attacks or intrusions has been, however, the subject of research over the years.
Take the University of Washington in Seattle where a group has been experimenting with using a bubble of charged plasma, contained by a fine mesh of superconducting wire, to surround a spacecraft. There’s even an actual test satellite that is designed as a future spacecraft that would orbit Earth, thus creating a plasma field around it and protect it from things such as radiation.
These and other similar projects are still considered theories, subject of research, which means that even though we’d love them to become reality, humans are still quite far away from seeing them working.
Boeing's the first, yet we're not sure if it's actually working
Boeing’s patent claims to be something similar, although it’s not really using plasma to create the force field. And it won’t fully protect the target, rather attenuate the shockwave propagating through a first medium. According to USPTO, it does that by heating a selected region of the first fluid medium rapidly in order to create a second, transient medium that intercepts the shockwave and attenuates its energy density before it reaches a protected asset.
Instead of fully absorbing the shocwave, it also reflects, refracts, disperse and transfers it. “The method and system may include a sensor for detecting a shockwave-producing event, determining a direction and distance of the shockwave relative to a defended target and calculating a firing plan, and an arc generator for creating the second medium,” the method is detailed.
There’s a somewhat odd video tutorial trying to visually explain what the system does and it appears that it might actually be used by bigger machines such as airplanes and large vessels too. Maybe, someday...
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