Overview
Tasers are electroshock devices used to immobilize those individuals that pose a threat (supposedly) to a law enforcement or military personnel. A taser uses electrical current (pulsating) to interfere between signals sent from the brain to the muscles, thus immobilizing the culprit. If you haven’t seen the movie ‘Hangover’, I recommend watching the scene below to see a taser in action:
Anyway, tasers are used all throughout the world, not only in the US, and prove to be one of the most efficient non-lethal guns. While some say they can be used abusively, I still think that tasers can be a strong argument to convince possible offenders not to engage in a fight with law enforcement and instead obey the law. I’ll just throw in some trivia about tasers before we go and see how you can simulate a taser right on your Android smartphone:
- Name. Jack Cover, back then a NASA researcher, created in 1974 the first taser device. He named it after one of his favorite childhood novels released in 1911 called “Tom A. Swift and his Electric Rifle”.
- How it works. What a taser does is it will send the same electrical signals that your brain sends to the muscles, so that it will interfere with the communication already existing. In other words, even if the brain sends signals to the muscles (i.e. stuff like ‘run’, ‘hit’), the taser will annihilate that communication. So subjects don’t stop because of the pain, but because they can’t control their bodies while they’re being tasered.
- Usage. According to statistics released by the parent company, tasers have been used on humans more than 2 million times. Most of the times successful.
- Power. Tasers aren’t as life-threatening as they sound. Sure, they have 5000+ Volts but it is a pulsed current not a continuous one. This means the amperage is more important and for a taser that has the tenth of a peak current in a strong static shock.
- Purpose. Tasers are meant to immobilize, not to cause pain. 710,000 tasers were sold in 107 countries to law enforcement/military and to date they helped saved up to 113.000 lives (parent company statistics).
The app
If only it would be as simple as using your smartphone as a taser… unfortunately there isn’t a real solution for that but you can use an app that simulates a taser to prank some of your buddies. ‘Taser stun gun’ is a taser simulator app for Android devices developed by Richard Stranberg (one of his other apps was covered previously here). It does exactly what it sounds like, basically you get to tap on a taser gun when the app is started and you’ll hear the specific high-pitch noise real tasers make, your phone will vibrate and the led on your smartphone will pulsate as well.
This combined really creates a feeling that you’re holding a taser in your hands. I tested the app and you can watch the video presentation below to get a better feeling on how it works (though you cannot see in the video the vibration/led pulsating part):
‘Taser stun gun’ can be used to prank some of your friends when at a party or some other gathering, as long as it’s a dim light. You could arrange with another friend to move spasmodically when you touch him with your phone, and you’d start the app, tap on the button and let the visual/sound effects be observed by others in the room. For sure there will be some to fall for this prank and you’d get a kick out of it.
Here are some of the features you get when you install ‘Taser stun gun’:
- Sound effect. When you tap on the stun gun icon in the middle of your smartphone screen you’ll hear the sound effect that simulates a real taser. It’s a high-pitch noise that cannot go unnoticed. The stun gun icon on your phone’s screen will also display the electric arc.
Taser stun gun in action
- Vibration. By default your smartphone will vibrate when you use the app to simulate the taser. This is something that you can change from the options section of the app.
- Pulsating led. If your smartphone has a led flashlight, which most modern ones have, it will pulsate like a strobe when the taser simulator is used. If you’re worried about consuming battery, you can disable it from the settings though you won’t have the same experience from the app as when it’s on.
The options section where you can disable vibration and led display.
- Free. The app is free to download and install, it will show some ads at the bottom of the screen and some app recommendations, which you can remove if you pay a very small fee.
Conclusion
‘Taser stun gun’ is a fun app that imitates the electric shock noise made by a real taser. Add in the vibration and LED pulsating and you’ve got a taser simulator you can use to prank your friends (at least the ones intoxicated by the potions of Bacchus).
You can get the app directly from Google Play: Download Taser Stun Gun.
Name: Taser Stun Gun
Developer: Richard Stranberg
Size: 1.1Mb
Package: net.taserstungun.apk
Version: 1.5
Last update: September 5, 2013
Price: Free
