[orbital-decay]

>a camera in a restaurant in Istanbul captured two FBI agents on vacation sitting at a table with their families. A man with a backpack walks in and suddenly everyone at the table grabs their head as if in pain

So, the man was inconspicuously targeting a specific area in a public space without affecting himself and everyone else, using a device in a backpack? This just sounds... technically implausible.

[sippeangelo]

Microwaves are very directional. What about it sounds implausible?

[orbital-decay]

Microwaves are not directional, antennas are. They all have side and backlobes that would affect the carrier. To get something like this done, you have to:

- get enough backlobe attenuation to not affect yourself, but enough power and directionality to be useful against the target, also the beam should not be reflected by walls

- aim and activate it without anyone noticing (presumably by turning your back to the target), ensuring there's nobody else in the way

- the beam has to be wide enough to affect every target but narrow enough to not affect other people. This is a restaurant.

- presumably stay still long enough, because if this microwave magic works by mimicking brainwaves (if it does at all! biggest question), it should have relatively low modulation frequency.

All of this without raising suspicion. This needs James Bond levels of coordination and alignment of unknowns. Knowing how incompetent FSB/GRU and co are, I have a really hard time believing all this.

[tim333]

Here's a guy on youtube with a diy microwave gun. I presume the Russian researchers can do better than some youtube demo. https://youtu.be/80kDn4vit_w?t=445

[iberator]

microwaves can be very very directional and operate from vast distances.