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What kind of health issues would this type of technology cause? I can't see it being very good for your eyes to have them focused on lasers being projected dire

What kind of health issues would this type of technology cause? I can't see it being very good for your eyes to have them focused on lasers being projected directly into them into at extremely close range for long periods of time on a regular basis.

jjoonathan 7y ago
The dose makes the poison.
- grawprog 7y ago
  For acute poisoning. You're forgetting chronic poisoning, such as heavy metal poisoning. Which is more what I was talking about, low exposure levels over regular long term periods. Regular screens and displays cause eye strain and retina damage over long terms as it is.
  - jjoonathan 7y ago
    No, I'm not forgetting chronic poisoning. The dose makes the poison, acute or chronic. That's especially true for heavy metals.
banachtarski 7y ago
Your eyeballs are being bombarded with photons emitted by the sun and your monitor right now as we speak. Furthermore, you're perpetually bathed in cosmic background radiation. A "laser" just means that the emitted photons are phase synchronized, but says nothing about the intensity. The range is also irrelevant. For a radially emitting source, intensity scales as the inverse squared distance, but assuming you control the output, it's a moot point.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I'd also be concerned about, what happens if something goes wrong? What happens if there's some sort of power delivery issue, and the laser burns far too bright just for an instant before dying? Is that an unfounded concern?
- rectang 7y ago
  It's analogous to in-ear monitors. https://blog.64audio.com/protecting-your-hearing-while-wearing-in-ear-monitors/ https://blog.64audio.com/protecting-your-hearing-while-weari... > Most pro-level IEMs are capable of producing SPLs (sound pressure level) well above 120db. A phantom power spike or a microphone falling on the floor can easily produce a signal loud enough to damage your hearing. The article above recommends putting a brickwall limiter on the monitor mix. However, a brickwall will only do so much for a sudden screech centered at 3kHz, right in the zone where human hearing is the most sensitive. And what if the limiter gets disabled? Murphy's Law guarantees that at some point the safety system will fail. The only way to guarantee that devices like these won't emit signals which damage your sensory organs is to make them physically incapable of producing such signals.
  - benibela 7y ago
    Computer interfaces are dangerous I have been wearing headphones a lot recently and I think I got an ear infection from them. I barely slept the last 2 days because my ears are itching so much. Although only when I lay, not when I sit. And I purposely have been using over-ear headphones rather than in-ear devices, so I thought you do not get an infection from over-ear headphones
    - grawprog 7y ago
      I can't use in the ear head phones at all. Ever since I was young they've given me ear infections. They're also terrible for your ear. Your tragus is there to help protect your eardrum from loud noises, among other things. Sticking noise emitting things behind it is a bad idea. I've been alright with over the ear style ones for the most part. Though I can see why they, noise cancelling ones especially, could cause infections if worn for long periods. They create moist anaerobic environments liked by a lot of bacteria and because headphones tend to be left around or carried outside, they're not the cleanest things around. So as they sit nice and snug around your ears, bacteria have a nice happy place to live all cuddled up close like to the entrances to your ears.

jjoonathan 7y ago

The dose makes the poison.

grawprog 7y ago
For acute poisoning. You're forgetting chronic poisoning, such as heavy metal poisoning. Which is more what I was talking about, low exposure levels over regular long term periods. Regular screens and displays cause eye strain and retina damage over long terms as it is.
- jjoonathan 7y ago
  No, I'm not forgetting chronic poisoning. The dose makes the poison, acute or chronic. That's especially true for heavy metals.

banachtarski 7y ago

Your eyeballs are being bombarded with photons emitted by the sun and your monitor right now as we speak. Furthermore, you're perpetually bathed in cosmic background radiation. A "laser" just means that the emitted photons are phase synchronized, but says nothing about the intensity. The range is also irrelevant. For a radially emitting source, intensity scales as the inverse squared distance, but assuming you control the output, it's a moot point.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

I'd also be concerned about, what happens if something goes wrong? What happens if there's some sort of power delivery issue, and the laser burns far too bright just for an instant before dying? Is that an unfounded concern?

rectang 7y ago
It's analogous to in-ear monitors. https://blog.64audio.com/protecting-your-hearing-while-wearing-in-ear-monitors/ https://blog.64audio.com/protecting-your-hearing-while-weari... > Most pro-level IEMs are capable of producing SPLs (sound pressure level) well above 120db. A phantom power spike or a microphone falling on the floor can easily produce a signal loud enough to damage your hearing. The article above recommends putting a brickwall limiter on the monitor mix. However, a brickwall will only do so much for a sudden screech centered at 3kHz, right in the zone where human hearing is the most sensitive. And what if the limiter gets disabled? Murphy's Law guarantees that at some point the safety system will fail. The only way to guarantee that devices like these won't emit signals which damage your sensory organs is to make them physically incapable of producing such signals.
- benibela 7y ago
  Computer interfaces are dangerous I have been wearing headphones a lot recently and I think I got an ear infection from them. I barely slept the last 2 days because my ears are itching so much. Although only when I lay, not when I sit. And I purposely have been using over-ear headphones rather than in-ear devices, so I thought you do not get an infection from over-ear headphones
  - grawprog 7y ago
    I can't use in the ear head phones at all. Ever since I was young they've given me ear infections. They're also terrible for your ear. Your tragus is there to help protect your eardrum from loud noises, among other things. Sticking noise emitting things behind it is a bad idea. I've been alright with over the ear style ones for the most part. Though I can see why they, noise cancelling ones especially, could cause infections if worn for long periods. They create moist anaerobic environments liked by a lot of bacteria and because headphones tend to be left around or carried outside, they're not the cleanest things around. So as they sit nice and snug around your ears, bacteria have a nice happy place to live all cuddled up close like to the entrances to your ears.