In the new "Tatort" from Göttingen, Charlotte Lindholm (Maria Furtwängler, 53) and Anaïs Schmitz (Florence Kasumba, 43) are dealing with new high-tech military weapons. This can influence people, drive them crazy or even kill them. But can you really project voices into people's heads and is there a helmet that can influence our feelings? Or are they the ideas of a science fiction author who was allowed to live out his fantasies in the "crime scene"?
Audio messages are sent to the ear
You can project voices into people's heads. "Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have actually been able to do this recently," explains Christopher Coenen, research group leader at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the NDR. This would have enabled the researchers to send audio messages into a person's ear from a certain distance – without using a receiver, says Coenen.
"They succeeded with just one laser beam and using the little water vapor around the body." As shown in the "crime scene", outsiders could not hear the messages. But there are also deviations: "So far, this has not worked outdoors and only from a distance of 2.5 meters." But the development is progressing quickly. MIT researchers are certain that the technology will soon work over a greater distance. "The 'crime scene' is pretty close to reality. Everything that is said there is already possible, at least in part," says the scientist.
How a helmet affects our feelings
At the center of the investigation is a novel helmet that can affect the soldiers' feelings. And that also corresponds to reality: Since the 2000s, US military research projects have been supported "that involve helmets with advanced neurotechnology," says Coenen. In this context, "TMS" is called "war in the head". The abbreviation is understood to mean transcranial magnetic stimulation. "Electromagnetic waves activate certain areas in the brain from the outside," the research group leader describes.
This can influence a person's brain activity. The wearer feels more awake or can get angry. The visionary Elon Musk (48) and his company Neuralink are pursuing such plans, as reported, among others, "The Guardian". He wants to create a brain-computer interface technology that can stimulate the brain. For this, tiny electrodes are to be implanted in the brain. This is supposed to make people smarter and improve their memory.
Overview of mind control techniques
In the course of the "crime scene", various mind control techniques that manipulate consciousness are mentioned. One of them is the so-called "Voice to sckull". "It is a research project by the US Navy in which information is played wirelessly into the brain via electromagnetic frequencies," writer Christian Jeltsch explains to the broadcaster. "Hypersonic", on the other hand, is a system that can be used to send sounds into someone else's head.
Microwave weapons were developed by the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s. An electromagnetic radiation is aimed at a target, for example a human being. The rays heat the water molecules in the skin to 55 degrees within seconds. This causes pain, which should encourage people to flee. According to the developers, there is no permanent damage.