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Interesting that he compares them to firearms, and all that entails. With power levels increasing, we may see a viable laser rifle soon, and with it, a need for
by damnfine 9y ago
Interesting that he compares them to firearms, and all that entails. With power levels increasing, we may see a viable laser rifle soon, and with it, a need for a new regulatory structure (or adoption and expansion of an existing one, atf, etc.) They seem to have many of the same public safety aspects, but will someone popularize a legitimate 'Sporting Use' for these devices before they are sold as 'Death Rays to Blind Everyone and Set the World on Fire', And deemed unsutable for mere mortals to own? I hope so. I guess based on this article, you could sell a kit without much liability.
- bfu 9y agoWhat about 3D printed lasers?
- anfractuosity 9y agoI wonder how practical a portable laser gun would be, as I'm imagining a laser diode array would need to be amazingly powerful (I'm assuming much greater than the 40W version in the video?) and they'd require a very beefy power source. It seems diode lasers are up to 60% efficient? It looks like you can get extremely high power pulsed laser arrays though.
- dhimes 9y agoIt's not so much the power as the total energy delivered that matters. So, in that sense, it will depend on the batteries (or whatever storage mechanism they use) as much as the lasers themselves.
- anfractuosity 9y agoYeah definitely, I can't help but think the power source needed would be very heavy too.
- rini17 9y agoWho makes you unable to help yourself? Say, one watt delivered onto the retina can do damage very quickly. One AA battery can easily supply that.
- anfractuosity 9y agoSorry I wasn't thinking about a system capable of blinding people, those do definitely exist though. Also there are devices such as 'dazzlers' which are intended to cause non-permanent damage.
- dhimes 9y agoYeah, we were talking about something really fun, like being able to melt a boulder or something. %^)
- wnkrshm 9y agoIt's been researched in the 80s/90s. The best solution was a gas-dynamic laser with a Po-220 (the activity of U238 within its entire 10k years halflife packed into a time of two weeks) reservoir as a heat source.
- anfractuosity 9y agoVery interesting, I'd never heard of a gas dynamic laser before. Edit: Is it the Stavatti device you're referring to? Apparently there are some claims that it was a hoax.
- wnkrshm 9y agoOh thanks, I've looked into it again and it seems it's highly controversial. I mean, even if it wasn't a hoax, the design is pretty much infeasible if you need a heat source that you can only store for less than a week and that'll kill everyone within line of sight if its container is breached.
- agumonkey 9y agoI also wonder how quickly damage occurs when using all 8 beams through to focusing lens.
- atemerev 9y agoI don't think so. Lasers are ineffective as lethal weapons (they are very effective as blinding weapons, which is probably worse and inhumane).
- Filligree 9y agoI don't know about you, but I'd rather be blinded than die.
- joncrocks 9y agoI don't think you get a choice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventional_Weapons#Protocol_IV:_Blinding_Laser_Weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventi...
- gambiting 9y agoIf I absolutely had to pick, and the choice was between 1) get shot and maybe survive; or 2) 100% chance of getting blinded - I'd pick the first one.
- StavrosK 9y agoWhy are you comparing a weapon that has to hit a whole person and misses to a weapon that has to hit a 5mm retina and somehow never misses?
- atemerev 9y agoBecause lasers are usually continuous and even reflections are very dangerous.
- matthewmacleod 9y agoI think the thing is though that it doesn't. It just has to scatter off of something else in the wrong way, and boom.
- wnkrshm 9y ago
- throwanem 9y ago> we may see a viable laser rifle soon We won't. It's been a while since I compared the muzzle energy of a rifle bullet and that of a relatively powerful laser, and I don't have the time to dig up the comparison again right now, but the tl;dr: is that we won't see an even theoretically man-portable laser that can put a hole through someone for a very long time, if ever. Setting things on fire and damaging light sensors, sure - but those tasks are absurdly easy by comparison with rearranging bulk matter.
- adrianN 9y agoA rifle has a muzzle energy of a couple kilojoules. So you're looking at lasers in the kW power range. I doubt that you could do comparable damage even if you could deliver comparable energy. Flesh doesn't conduct heat terribly well and vaporizing a centimeter of skin is not very lethal.
- StavrosK 9y agoSure, but who hasn't thought of turning their enemies into zebras?
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoJust throw an Arduino, some servo motors, a camera and some ML on it and you can keep the squirrels off your bird feeder. edit: if it's not obvious this is a joke