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Set Free Your Inner Jedi (Or Pyro)
sirgoran writes "We've all thought about being the hero fighting off evil-doers and saving the day ever since we first saw Star Wars. The folks at Wicked Lasers have now brought that a little closer to reality with their latest release: a 1-Watt blue diode laser that can set skin and other things on fire. From an article at Daily Tech, where they talk about the dangers of such a powerful laser: 'And here's the best (or worst) part — it can set people (or things) on fire. Apparently the laser is so high-powered that shining it on fleshy parts will cause them to burst into flames. Of course it's equally capable of blinding people.' The thing that caught my eye was the price: $200. I wonder if they'll be able to meet the demand, since (if it works as advertised) this will be on every geek's Christmas list."
Does the right to bear arms cover arms which are for more awesome than ever conceived of by the writers of the constitution?
My other sig is clever.
The label that read "do not look at laser with remaining eye"?
UTF-8: There and Back Again
You can get a lasers and related materials off of ebay, United Nuclear and Sparkfun at much better values.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Local pet stores sell sharks in record numbers.
With that said, I might be trying to get one of these because you can do some pretty cool stuff if you mount a laser this powerful in a plotter. It gets even better if you gut the plotter and add a Z axis so you can melt the top layer of material selectively, then lower the z stage, add a bit more material, and again melt it selectively: a relatively inexpensive, relatively high-precision 3d printer.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Cut me off and burst into flames!
one step closer to my dream of becoming a superhero.
I plan on cooking my steak with one of these from now on.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
but I'll wait to buy one until it can cut off someone's arm
Can someone comment on how feasible it would be to make one of these for less than the $200 they ask?
Source the parts better. It sounds like they have pulled this diode from a display projector, I'm sure that you might be able to buy a broken projector for a few dollars and pull the part yourself.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
The name of the technology should be blueray of death.
I'm not sure if people get how crazy dangerous even a low end class 4 laser is to people's eyesight. Even diffuse reflections can cause blindness. And blindness from a direct beam or specular reflection is virtually instant, literally before you can blink. This laser is not a toy. Not something you can casually show off safely to your friends. You can blind people, forever, accidentally, in an instant. Just keep it in mind.
You need black out curtains.
I doubt you can burn out a streetlight with one of these lasers, maybe if the bulb was exposed but its not.
Either that or a sling shot or above if you don't mind them knowing it was purposely destroyed. And that would only be temporary until it gets replaced and then you'll have to shoot it again, etc etc.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Even the most ardent advocates of gun ownership being available to any and everyone will probably agree that selling a gun to someone who has no idea how to use and store it safely is a bad idea.
So other then what I imagine to be the joy of setting things on fire with a laser, what purpose can this thing serve? This kind of product should be sold with the same level of precaution as explosives and firearms.
END COMMUNICATION
and then finds themselves with a nice attic fire.
I think the part about being swarmed by VERY angry hornets who are on fire would rate pretty high on the suck-o-meter as well.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
An interior designer, Realtor or a politician is the correct tool for the job.
After all the lawsuits. Remember lawn darts?
Free Martian Whores!
what kind of laser would I need to deal with this?
You would need the Remington 870 Pump-Action
I love to slaughter the english language.
Phhht, pass. Get back to me when you have something as good as Amazin Laser
why don't you request they add a shield on it? That's what they do around here. It blocks 180 degrees and still allows the light to go down where it is needed without lighting up your room. The laser isn't going to do you much good, as the sensors are often on top of the lights.
Get a web developer
And apparently pointed it at the wickedlasers.com server...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Yes.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
What is the target purpose for this? Research experiments that could be done? What kind of safety goggles are used with this (material/wavelength tint/etc) and what kind of clothing/protective gear will NOT set on fire if accidental exposure should occur? Also, what kind of battery life are we looking at? (or is this a plug in stationary laser?)
But only if it stays trained on one spot for enough time and is close to the laser as opposed to 50 feet where the energy per square centimeter is less. Of course, some jerk will try it on his arm.
I accidentally found out what a 25 watt CO2 laser will do to the palm of your hand when a coworker left one on with no warning signs up and it burnt a branding iron across my palm as my hand quickly went into the beam. When I heard the sizzling, instead of keeping my hand moving through the beam, I pulled back and in the tens of milliseconds stopped before pulling back it vaporized (not burned) a hole about 1/8" deep in my hand.
Don't screw with this stuff you are not trained and careful or you'll wind up paying doctors and lawyers.
Well done, you beat me to this answer.
Since this thing is technically a weapon, I don't don't mind assholes having these.... As long as I can return fire with bullets.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Dorsal or tail fin prints are acceptable.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The story's about LASERs , not La za rs One's a source of coherent photons and one's got a record for pandering to alienz.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
A swarm of flaming hornets would ran slightly under a wall of flaming alligators on the list of ridiculous-dangerous-yet-awesome-meter (So long as you are not in the path of either, then it would be the suck-o-meter instead)...
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
It is legal to board a plane with one of these things but not with a bottle of Evian. I feel sooo protected.
Have you considered a paint-ball gun?
I doubt you can burn out a streetlight with one of these lasers, maybe if the bulb was exposed but its not.
Have you ever noticed that glass blocks very little blue light? Your objection would only apply if we were talking about a UV laser.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I have that one on my cubicle wall.
"An Alligator-Filled Wall Of Flame" is now part of my normal daily vocabulary.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
I walked past this arcade machine a few weeks ago at a local movie theater. Object of the game was to cut a string with scissors on a robotic arm, the prize attatched to the string falls down, you win. The prizes were really nice, things like Nintendo DSI's and Ipods.
I thought to myself, "Gee, if I had a laser, I could win." For $200 I could clean out a few barbercut machines for ipod touches, sell them and make my money back fast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7kqi5VbPY
"The thing that caught my eye was the price: $200"
The other eye? Fried by a friggin laser
Source the parts better. It sounds like they have pulled this diode from a display projector,
Yes, they admit they did that. So they just have a prototype.
There's no big secret about the laser diode. It's a Nichia NDB7352. Any legit company can order those things in bulk from Nichia in Tokyo. No US distributor, including Nichia America, stocks them. WickedLasers probably doesn't buy enough of them to place an order with Nichia.
This thing should require a license to use, just like a gun. I can just see urban gangs using these to terrorize citizens, commit acts of vandalism, robberies, etc. What if somebody used 2 or 3 of these things at once?
What is this world coming to?
It seems to me that somebody could also use one of these in combination with a fresnel lens or some other photon amplifying device and REALLY crank up the power. Like just about anything else, it could be used for good or evil.
If they really do, the first thing I'll want to do is take it apart and change the current limiting, to get it down to 5mW, so that it can be used safely as a laser pointer.
I don't need a 1W blue laser, but I haven't found any 5mW blue lasers for under $200.
>what kind of laser would I need to deal with this?
A 12bore shotgun type laser will work just fine
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
Well, that's the nice thing about a laser. You can set the nest on fire from quite a distance as long as you have line-of-sight or some very good mirrors. So no stings.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Yes, glass may not block much blue, but the bulb is behind a diffuser to help spread the light.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Is it possible that this laser is so powerful that it could power additional pages of Wicked Powered?
Could it be used to lase at least one more story arc?
They DO have some lasers I'd like. I would like a violet laser pointer if it were cheaper. However I wouldn't want a 1 watt laser. While over all the FDA's classes of laser power may be a bit cautious, it is still something extremely worth noting. Strong lasers are very, very dangerous. The backscatter from one off a normal surface can easily be enough to cause harm. So even if you think you are safe since it isn't pointing at you or anything reflective, you could still screw yourself over.
Only way I'd want high power lasers were if I was using them for light show applications. In that case, they'd need to be something I could computer control, not a little device like this.
I'm looking forward to setting the disco ball hanging in the middle of my living room on fire in front of 20-50 of my friends. What could go wrong?
Yes, sell and regulate it as a fully automatic weapon.
Don't they ban fully automatic rifles for civilian use in the USA?
This laser product is fully automatic weapon in the sense that:
1) It can continuously cause permanent blindness to people
2) It can do it at a 200 metre effective range
3) It does not need a reload after 9 or even 30 shots.
If you empty a handgun wildly into a crowd, you'd probably hit less than 20 people (and current medical tech might restore a significant number of them near completely). In contrast this laser when used on a crowd can permanently blind far more than 20 people. There are many places where you can find a crowd of hundreds looking at one spot.
The product in its current form does not appear to have a good utility to danger ratio.
Yes the laser itself has use in projectors and other stuff, but what good purpose does this product in this form have?
It's not very good as a defensive weapon: it doesn't really have very good stopping power - even if blinded, a gunman could still kill you (and he might have even higher motivation to do so). It has a very high chance of collateral damage.
To me if you can justify the banning of fully automatic assault rifles for general civilian use, you should also ban this weapon.
...then no one is special.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Does it really matter at that distance? wouldn't the trajectory of the bullet be so significantly different due to gravity, wind, optical atmosphereics, etc that it would be no better than a high powered scope?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Protective eye glasses may become the new fashion, especially for celebrities and sports athletes, who, in my view, are more at risk from laser attacks than politicians.
Ron
Too bad it doesn't come with a rifle mount, I'd love to replace my regular (crosshairs) scope with something that would light up my target. And catch it on fire.
Goodbye, squirrel.
--Joe
Thats what I was thinking. Some asshat psychopath getting one and pointing it at a gas nozzle while somebody fills up their tank. I am all for sweet and responsible use of technology, but something like this makes it too easy to get these in the hands of the people with evil intentions. I understand that you could build something like this in your home, and even distribute them, but mass marketed high power lasers just makes it easier for Joe Blow Psycho to get his hands on something that could really do some harm.
I guarantee these will be heavily regulated and banned immediately in many states. Hell, in many states it is illegal to be caught with brass knuckles, spring loaded switch-blades, butter-fly knives, cross-bows. These will not be any different; the second legislators start hearing about this, the codification of the laws will begin.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
the day of the trifids is at hand.
I’d imagine that it would be pretty hard for hornets to fly very far after their wings have been vapourised by a 1W laser. More of a ballistic trajectory based on their motion at the instant you hit them, I suspect.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
As they are a point source, lasers adhere to the inverse-square law of decay [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law]
Previously released lasers from these guys that can light cigarettes etc are only effective within 300mm or so.
I will make the uneducated guess that [hopefully] these 1W versions will be unable to be used with malicious intent / outcome from a large distance.
The good thing about guns is that they do not constantly spew out a continuous stream of dangerous projectiles for minutes at a time. Even a full-auto machine gun will run out of bullets after a dozen seconds or so.
To play the devil's advocate, lasers don't make sucking chest wounds (yet?). I found it funny that you are trying to justify how dangerous a small laser is (that can cause small burns or blindness) by comparing it to something that can kill a group of people in within a few seconds. I think that is the point of a machine gun, but probably not the point of a small laser. Nice hysterical POV, though.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I wanna know what happens if they hit the ball with it... flaming soccer ball going straight for the goalie’s head?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I have used some of the high power(readily cuts electrical tape, pops balloons etc) hand held laser devices for tactical purposes. Some thoughts. They dont work in daylight as a weapon sight. I dont care what you think, you aint gonna acquire a tennis ball sized faded blue spot at 200m while shooting/getting shot at/flying/driving/running, its a lot easier and faster to walk rounds on target. At night you dont need high power. You really dont want to shine one thru your windshield, cause when it hits a scratch or a bug (at night) it tends to blind (temporarily) everyone in the cockpit and light up said cockpit really well (kinda defeats the purpose of blackout lights). Using them as a weapon will get you thrown in the brig when you are caught because of all the blind guys that come to the clinic on the FOB to get treated (law of war and all). Red or IR are ideal lasers, blue and green suck as most NVGs attenuate these wavelengths. The Chinese and North Koreans have weaponized Lasers, the North Koreans have blinded US pilots with them. I fly with filters for the some of the most common wavelengths used during daylight.
Even worse. It MELTS.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Except as a tool of mischief, this type of laser isn't that useful. Think it through:
. Laser display - not so good, as you'd have to mount it behind some scanners, etc. and the beam probably isn't that great in quality.
. Laser pointer - not so good either, unless you want to point out things pretty far away. Perhaps as an astronomy pointer, but green works just as fine here at much lower powers.
. Cat toy - no, unless you like blind cats
. Cutting tool - not nearly enough power to be useful here.
What's left? Nothing I can think of besides the "Hey George, see how bright this sucker is!" I certainly wouldn't want a 1W laser that I couldn't absolutely control where the beam was, and hand-held would be right out. I like my eyes.
(Yes, I own several lasers in the 500mW-1W range and operate them safely, with interlocks and keys, etc. They're not toys, but you can do fun things with them if you know how to do them safely.)
}#q NO CARRIER
Yeah, and wear safety goggles, blanket all windows in your workshop while you're working, disable the doorbell, bolt down doors etc.
Corollary: "Did anyone order pizzaAAaaargh!! My eyes!"
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
Its all fun and games until the geeks realize that the lasers don't stop each other in midswing and version 2 lops off limbs.
from their website:
If I'm reading this right, it's like a flashlight button (click on, click again off). If that's true, this thing goes from really dangerous to absurdly dangerous since it'll stay on if you drop it (or turn on accidentally if you drop it "just right"). I can't imagine putting a control on something like this that doesn't require constant, intentional pressure to keep it on, so that as soon as you let go it shuts off.
If I'm wrong, please correct me. I really hope I'm wrong.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
Yup; the governments should really get round to regulating political figures - the world might not end up going to hell in a handcart quite as fast ,)
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
hint: molten solder + high-powered laser = (probably) NOT good
(probably: depending on whether solder evaporates before getting really...shineyyyyy!)
About as good as coming up with the idea that it'd be cool to rig up a bowling ball made of a lump of clay with some C4 for a core, adding a pressure sensitive igniter, topping it up with some beer-bottle necks for good measure.
You'll probably score strikes on all lanes simultaneously, but your celebration party will be full of sirens and stretchers.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
As they are a point source, lasers adhere to the inverse-square law of decay [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law]
Previously released lasers from these guys that can light cigarettes etc are only effective within 300mm or so.
I will make the uneducated guess that [hopefully] these 1W versions will be unable to be used with malicious intent / outcome from a large distance.
Argh. The inverse-square law applies to omnidirectional point source radiators. A laser pointer is extremely directional by definition...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_soldering
Keywords: DIVERGENCE, SPOT SIZE
Better not use this puppy as a soldering pistol.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
With this tech I'll finally be able to stand on even ground with my evil nemesis Dr. Balloon. Those balloon animals don't stand a chance now!
It all depends. If you set the nest on fire instead of vaporizing specific hornets, the hornets might have a decent bit flight time left when they leave the nest in flames, and they'll have a WHOLE LOT of pissed-off.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Wrong approach. Get a big crescent wrench, remove the access plate at the bottom of the light pole, and cut the wires. Then superglue the bolts back in.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Yeah, I figured as well, but their wings are pretty fragile and gonna be one of the first things to go...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Be on the lookout for new, highly reflective hunting outfits instead of the current standard of blaze orange.
The donor hardware pictured in the "How We Made It" Section appears to be a Casio XJ-A240 DLP Projector - Retailing for a cool $999.99. Seems like an expensive piece of donor hardware to be breaking down to build these! Also - I wonder how many diodes they're getting out of each projector to get their final cost down to only $200 per pointer??
In the 40 watt range.
"Hey, just what you see here pal."
Uzi 9 millimeter.
"You really know your guns. This baby's perfect for home defense...."
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
If you are interested in a serious answer to your question, The Hasting Law Journal covered this in their post-Heller special issue:
http://www.uchastings.edu/hlj/archive/vol60/Lerner-Lund_60-HLJ-1387.pdf (pdf)
There they discuss Tasers, "super-Tasers" and "phasers" (which do not yet exist). The unfortunate answer is "it depends".
Does anyone know if it comes with a Shark accessory?
I once 'knew a guy' when I was younger who did this exact thing. Heres how it went down.
Said 'guy' had a newtonian telescope on a very professional mount. Now usually, the purpose of the telescope is to take in light at the large opening and focus it into a small diameter at the eyepiece. However, the reverse also seems to work.
By sighting up the telescope first to the light sensor at the top of the assembly, one would then take out the eyepiece and replace it with a light source, preferably halogen. You could easily leave this on all night, to keep the light off, and turn it off in the day. At 1/4 mile, the beam is about 10ft across, and will still work to turn off the sensor, depending on the wattage of the source light.
But, thats just what I heard, as interfering with municipal/business fixtures you do not own is usually frowned upon by the police. It also becomes rather obvious who is doing it when there is a bright light coming from the line of sight from your house.
Now who's laughing at me; sitting in my moms basement wearing my tinfoil hat. Better get more foil for the rest of my body.
you're saying this isn't a cat toy?
A spray can full of black matte paint on the plastic weather shield works pretty well. Put it on the outside and inside both, preferably a couple of layers. Don't bother to put it on the bulb, it will just burn off. If you can't reach it from a ladder you should be able to jerry-rig a long pole and trigger mechanism to do it. Just don't be looking up still when the overspray reaches ground, spray paint in the eyes burns.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
The kind of eyewear required to protect you from this is the kind that is very hard to see through even in direct sunlight on a bright sunny day. Think welding masks.
And LCD shutters aren't fast enough to protect you from an on-axis beam in the eye with a 1W laser. If the shutter closed in 1 millisecond it would still be like looking continuously into the beam of a 1mW laser pointer for a whole second. It might help you avoid total blindness, but definitely a situation you would want to avoid.
You'd really need something like a camera/monitor built into your 'goggles' to be sure. And if that kind of technology gets small enough to be fashionable and wearable, there are many other much more useful things you could do with it than just 'protect' your eyes.
Even looking at the dot this thing projects on a wall could damage your eyes. It might sound cool but I do NOT want one of these in my house. Ever.
No sig today...
It's a radical new technology for blocking light. Google for it.
No sig today...
there are a lot of talk about how this is a weapon, specifically compared to firearms.
while the concept may seem right at first, there are some very specific differences.
a firearm, unless its the fully automatic kind, will fire only one bullet for each trigger pull. And only if someone is in its direct line of fire at that moment, do they risk getting hurt or killed. A laser on the other hand shines for as long as the button is pressed, until the power source have run out.
this means that one can shine at some point down range, and have someone walk into the beam. A somewhat different risk scenario, imo.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
The /. post said $200 for a 1W laser... dunno where he got that idea, the wicked lasers site has the Spyder III for $200 for the 50 mW version, a 500 mW version, which seems to be the max they are selling, is $3000! I'd love to have one, but it will have to wait for Christmas, I guess.
The potential for getting stricken with blindness by some idiot kid waving something like this around terrifies me.
I do not know what backwards state or country(if outside of the United States) you live in, but there is no longer a "waiting period" to purchase a firearm. Also, many states(including the one I live in, Georgia) does not require, or even allow the registration of firearms.
You see, there are many states that respect its citizens and do not attempt to monitor how I exercise my Constitutional rights.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14310?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news5_head_dn14310
An article about a rave where somehow the lasers were turned on/reflected at the crowd, partially blinding a few people.
There are probably dozens of people that want revenge on someone else in some way, now for only $200.00 they can permanently blind whoever they want!
I for one am now paranoid about wearing my shades in public.
Shades will protect people's eyes, right? Some people need eyesight to earn a living!
what kind of laser would I need to deal with this?
You would need the Remington 870 Pump-Action
Or a frickin' rock.
You know the thing about UDP jokes? I don't care if you get it or not.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Hudda hudda mpph!
The real question is, will it be banned by the TSA?
~A~
kitty, kitty, kitty....
A 1W laser is not a blinding device at long range, it's only useful for that purpose at fairly close range. At longer ranges it may dazzle a target, which may be hazardous in of itself, but it will not cause blindness.
You can buy a 12 gauge shotgun at Walmart for around $250. It is a lot more effective than this. In most states there is neither a waiting period or a license required.
How is it exactly that they found subjects for the burning flesh tests?
I can actually see some use for this thing. Those wasp nests won't stand a chance; a whole watt should be enough to ignite the nest and do it from a safe distance. You'll have to hold the beam on one spot for a while, though - one watt isn't exactly industrial cutting laser stuff.
All through this thread I see people posting who vaguely understand that it's dangerous - but they don't seem to have a good idea of how dangerous. First thing to consider are eyes. Yours and also anyone else's eyes that the beam could reach. This power level will instantly destroy the retinal tissue - the damage is done much faster than you can blink. If you use one of these you MUST wear the protective goggles and you NEED to be aware of what the beam can reach. If there's any reflective surfaces (they don't have to be mirrors, just reflective) then the beam can go just about anywhere. You MUST wear the protective goggles if you light this thing up - even if you're smart enough to never look into the beam, the reflected beam from a glass window, shiny beer can, etc. will get you - sooner or later. The eye damage is permanent and it accumulates as more of the retina is destroyed.
Here's how it usually goes: step one - play with your new laser in the living room, spraying photons everywhere. Step two is when you have a "wow, that was really bright" moment. Step three is the trip to the doctor who gives you the bad news. Wear the goggles! And consider carefully where you are operating this thing. There's a reason laser labs don't have windows or shiny things of any kind and the lasers are bolted down - this allows them to guarantee that the beam is under control. There will also be a beam stop that is capable of blocking the full output of the laser. Do you have a place like this to light up your new laser?
OK, let's step away from the "you'll put your eye out with that thing" talk for a moment and consider the destructive power of this one watt laser. You're not going to be able to wave it in front of a piece of paper and expect the paper to fall into two pieces. It'll cut electrical tape and black garbage bags pretty well and popping balloons can be fun. But actually setting something on fire will require the beam to be on the same spot for many, many seconds before enough heat is built up to ignite what you're burning. If you want to use this thing as a weapon you'd be well advised to stick to burning out retinas. It'll do that real well.
This laser comes with a set of protective goggles - if you want to show it off to your friends, be sure to get some extra goggles for them to use and don't light the laser until everyone has their goggles on. And always know where the beam is going - even if you and your friends are wearing goggles there's none on the innocent bystanders outside and they're not expecting you to have the beam take a bad bounce and nail them through a window.
As tempting as it seems to get one of these devices, their destructive power seems too great. I have a 7-year-old daughter I'd rather keep far away from this thing. I don't think hiding it somewhere she isn't supposed to find it is good enough. There are usually accidents involving children and concealed firearms. Respect this laser. Handle it with utmost care if you get it, seriously. After you take this into account, have LOADS of FUN!.
If these things become common place, there is no way to check who shot a lazer at someone.
Hypothetically speaking, say, at a public event some minor politician is making a speech. And someone from the crowd blinds him.
Or a mentally disturbed stalker burns his victim by shining the lazer through her window at night. Or an arsonist who doesn't have to enter the building or leave any chemical traces to set his fire.
There are far too many ways this could be used to aid illegal activities, with no way for the perp to be tracked down afterwards.
I don't have sufficient faith in the goodness of my fellow man, to want to see these lazers in mass production.
for the mosquito laser defense system.
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
I haven't seen yet someone asking: does it make those cool laser firing sounds?
Wow... am I the only one that actually went to the site to read their ad? The ad states that the device comes with it's own set of eye ware for protection. Plus, battery life, via lithium Ion batteries, is 120 minutes. it's around 255mm long, and nearly 40mm wide, so it's NOT small. I DID think that it was amusing that they alluded to it's possible self defense use. Tell me, if someone were mugging you, if you waved this in their face, that it wouldn't almost be worth it to tell the cops "yeh, officer, the guy you're looking for is around 5' 10", white, brown hair, and a burnt "W" in his face. No, I'm not joking..."
Stone
I looked it up.... sorry.
What's the decay rate / algo of a laser then - genuinely curious.
Couple this with:
http://www.physorg.com/news156423566.html "Physicists build new anti-mosquito laser"
I think our house will soon be wasp-free. And maybe we'll all be blinded, but dammit we won't have to worry about wasps.
-Styopa
Are citizens allowed to buy nuclear weapons as a result of this?
This is all just my personal opinion.
beam shape of a laser is primarily related to the shape and size of the lasing cavity. Since diode lasers are so small, they tend to have fairly high divergence. Interestingly, if you expand the beam at the source, it reduces the spread proportionately. Actually, the wickedlasers folks have a chart on their web site: (doesn't include the laser we're discussing her, probably because it's new, but gives you an idea).
http://www.wickedlasers.com/laser-tech/laser_beam_comparison.html
Well, in the case that you know the specific wavelength you want to protect against, you can notch-filter just that frequency. Unfortunately, there's quite a range of wavelengths in high-power portable lasers these days - at least red, green, blue, violet, IR, and UV. Anything that protects against all of those at the same time is probably going to look like welding shades.
They ask you to upload a copy of your state-issued Id before they'll sell you one, and they make you click a bunch of checkboxes on a form. I suspect that's a CYA move on their part - if someone buys one of these and then blinds themselves or someone else, the wickedlasers guys can say "look, he agreed it was dangerous, and he even went to the effort of scanning his drivers license".
Purely speculation, but having read about high powered laser safety, I'm betting that:
As self-defense it'll be useless on skin. It'll hit clothing and super heat it, but not what's below until it burns through. If your target is moving at all, it'll just make a slightly warmed line.
For blinding? If you hit an eye, probably a matter of miliseconds, though you may just take out part of their field of view.
If you think blinding someone in self defense is viable, I recommend a high power tactical flashlight like you'd mount on a gun. The blindness may be temporary, but it should be well more than enough to get away (if they don't shoot/swing blindly and kill you...) and should blind them quite effectively AND draw a ton of attention to them as they light up.
Holy crap, that's way too cheap!
This is bad... I think many people won't wear goggles, and many more will use these for pranks on unprotected people. Blue light is more energetic and potentially harmful in secondary ways (though lasers are pretty tight color-wise so I wouldn't expect other frequencies unless it's a frequency doubled type like the common greens and their powerful IR leakage on cheap unfiltered models.) The big problem I see is that lasers that powerful can often give you blind spots if you catch a glint reflecting off of something without goggles... before you can even blink.