DR. LEV S. SADOVNIK

The NewScientist article Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise said

A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people's heads.

The device — dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) — exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognizable sounds.

The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses.

Lev Sadovnik of the Sierra Nevada Corporation in the US is working on the system, having started work on a US navy research contract. The navy's report states that the effect was shown to be effective.

Lev S. Sadovnik, Ph.D. is the General Manager of WaveBand, A Business Unit of Sierra Nevada Corporation. He has authored over 60 publications and holds 15 US Patents.

Lev was the founder, president, and CEO of WaveBand until its acquisition by SNC. WaveBand is known for innovation in the field of millimeter wave imaging technologies, having developed a family of antennas whose beams can be reconfigured in real time without the use of expensive phase shifters. These antennas are now an integral component in many commercial and government systems, such as aircraft landing aids, missile seekers, and surveillance sensors.

He coauthored Submicrometer lithography using lensless high-efficiency holographic systems, Millimeter-wave optically scanning antenna based on photoinduced plasma grating, Scale-, rotation-, and shift-invariant wavelet transforms, Integral small communication platforms fusing optical and military radar imaging for UGV, 3D target recognition using quasi-optimal visual filters, GaN: based terahertz sources, New architectures of light-controlled MMW steering antennas, Invariant wavelet transform-based automatic target recognition, and Holographic lithography for microcircuits, and coedited Optical Devices and Methods for Microwave/Millimeter-Wave and Frontier Applications: 22-23 July 1998 San Diego, California.

His patents include Method and apparatus for image recognition using invariant feature signals, 3-D volume visualization display, Beam-forming antenna with amplitude-controlled antenna elements, Universal remote lighting system with nonimaging total internal reflection beam transformer, Reconfigurable dielectric waveguide antenna, Dielectric waveguide antenna with improved input wave coupler, Monolithic millimeter-wave beam-steering antenna, Scanning antenna including a dielectric waveguide and a rotatable cylinder coupled thereto, Antenna with plasma-grating, Remote fire detection method and implementation thereof, 2-D scanning antenna and method for the utilization thereof, Antenna and method for utilization thereof, and Evanescent coupling antenna and method for use therewith.

Lev earned his M.S. degree in Physical Optics from the University of Chernovtsy (Ukraine) and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) and specialized in Optical Image Processing and Holography. He was a member of the Ukrainian National Field Hockey Team from 1976 to 1979.

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