The video was taken at a music festival, at which some lasers were doing their light dancing thing on the stage. The laser hits the sensor just right and boom, it's fried. It's basically the same process by which a strong laser can ruin your eyeball.
So what happens if that laser hits the camera-operator's eyeball instead of the camera lens? Why are lasers capable of causing this kind of damage being pointed toward people in the first place?
The video was taken at a music festival, at which some lasers were doing their light dancing thing on the stage. The laser hits the sensor just right and boom, it's fried. It's basically the same process by which a strong laser can ruin your eyeball.
So what happens if that laser hits the camera-operator's eyeball instead of the camera lens? Why are lasers capable of causing this kind of damage being pointed toward people in the first place?
I've always wondered the same thing. I used to work for a company that made barcode scanners that used lasers. With the older hand-held scanners you could feel the heat on your hand if you held it in one place. New employees would always think it was funny to shoot each other in the face like laser tag. I have shot myself in the face more times than I would like to admit while trying to troubleshoot. The in-counter mounted scanners all still use lasers I think (they did when I left). I wonder how many cashiers have gone blind or suffered eye damage for "unknown reasons." Even after I warned my employees and made them read the warning from the manuals, they'd still do it. People don't take lasers seriously...
We should start a campaign GeneralE. We'll need a slogan...
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
Poor RED sensor. :D
I won't be happy until I can buy an actual working light saber.
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
Poor RED sensor. :D
I won't be happy until I can buy an actual working light saber.
The Spyder Arctic comes pretty darn close for $300. There are some custom jobs you can build to get higher power densities, but for most 'practical' purposes the Arctic is about as good as it gets.
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
Poor RED sensor. :D
I won't be happy until I can buy an actual working light saber.
The Spyder Arctic comes pretty darn close for $300. There are some custom jobs you can build to get higher power densities, but for most 'practical' purposes the Arctic is about as good as it gets.
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
Poor RED sensor. :D
I won't be happy until I can buy an actual working light saber.
The Spyder Arctic comes pretty darn close for $300. There are some custom jobs you can build to get higher power densities, but for most 'practical' purposes the Arctic is about as good as it gets.
Although very cool...it's just not the real thing, ya know? If the guy pulled out a light saber during that camera theft video...he would have own those thieves! ;-)
So what happens if that laser hits the camera-operator's eyeball instead of the camera lens? Why are lasers capable of causing this kind of damage being pointed toward people in the first place?
They rely on the blink reflex to protect their vision. Power over a certain limit with the laser within a certain distance can still cause damage. Especially when the lightshow is run by novices. I'm an old codger so I don't go to shows any more. LOL
That's how I keep safe. :)
So what happens if that laser hits the camera-operator's eyeball instead of the camera lens? Why are lasers capable of causing this kind of damage being pointed toward people in the first place?
They rely on the blink reflex to protect their vision. Power over a certain limit with the laser within a certain distance can still cause damage. Especially when the lightshow is run by novices. I'm an old codger so I don't go to shows any more. LOL
That's how I keep safe. :)
Well, and to be fair, you eye really can't protect itself, but a laser accident does tend to burn out tiny little bits, instead a full row/column of pixels.
The camera gets that cross-star horribleness, we simply get a tiny dead spot that we don't notice.
First, these lasers are never to be pointed at people as a beam, but that's the only time they're really dangerous.
A 100W lightbulb produces about 1000 times the energy of most of these lasers, 20000 times more than a handheld pointer, and at least 100 times more than any laser you'll find at a place outside of a lab or laser cutting device.
The reason lightbulbs don't burn your eyes out is that they are not collimated. Effectively lasers are only dangerous because all of the light is highly coherent, effectively instead of being like water coming out of a very diffuse sprinkler, lasers are like a high pressure spray tip on a hose.
So, if you take that beam and start to make it bigger somehow, through either distance or through diffusion/diffraction, then you lose power, and fast!
Remember the same rules apply to lasers as do to any light, and those rules we know from photography come in.
A spot 2x the size has 1/4 the power density, and it doesn't take long to get to 'safe' levels. The only thing is that the light doesn't diffuse with distance like we are used to with 'normal' uncollimated lights.
..
Now, another interesting fact is that blue lasers can cause photochemical induced retinal injury. Essentially they overload the cells not by power, but instead by interrupting the metabolic processes of the vision cycle.
Poor RED sensor. :D
Lasers DO spread out, due to diffusion in the medium through which the beam travels. The laser beam used to determine the distance to the moon starts out as a 3.5m wide beam. By the time it reaches the reflector on the moon's surface, it is about 1800m wide and the returning pulse has spread out to a "spot" 15,000m in dia.
Yes, I realize that over the distances at laser light shows where eyeballs and camera sensors will get fried, this effect is negligible.
