Entertainment with Lasers
A question in another thread about what to do with a 43mW he-ne (and one answer offered: holography), got me thinking again about the entertainment applications for lasers. This forum is obviously focused on the theatrical, either as the main event or as part of general stagecraft. Laser beams + graphics = entertainment. I wonder what the subdivisions are however. You all know more about this than I.
Then there's holography. Put into this category I suppose in the late '60s when pictorial holography made a splash, and holograms were illuminated by lasers for viewing. Laser light + hologram = entertainment. But in the mid-'70s, recording material technology allowed the production of holograms that could be viewed with incoherent white light sources and the lasers were relegated to invisible technology being used in their production. I think at that point, holography ceased being an "entertainment" application of lasers and became just another industrial one (where the industry just happened to involve pictures). Same with lasers used in graphics scanners, laser printers, CD manufacturing, and now laser TVs and video projectors. But I'll come back to this.
Since the mid-'80s, we've had laser pointers. This is a product category that was envisioned in the mid-'60s, and was improvised with small lab lasers for about a decade until they were made with shutter buttons on the side. Things changed though, with the introduction of diode lasers that made them cheap enough for the masses in the early '90s. Laser spot + cat = entertainment. Those were dim red lasers, real "laser pointers" at around 5mW. But as DPSS lasers got cheaper in the late '90s and the output powers increased to hundreds of milliWatts, I think a new category was formed.
Handheld lasers. Those "green laser pointer guys" that have been getting all the press in for the past decade or so. Laser beam + target = entertainment. These lasers provide cheap access to really visible beams to play with. Targets include balloons, dry leaves and electrical tape, aquarium pests, and flying things (unfortunately, sometimes aircraft).
Are there others? I propose that holography can make a come-back. Laser illuminated holograms are the best! Amazing depth is possible. It's a "window with a memory". Laser light is cheap enough now to be used for general illumination. It's a light bulb. Processing silver-halide materials is as easy as developing a B&W negative. But the real joy (for me at least) is the playing with laser beams and laser light on an optical table. Layout design, alignment, controlling stray light, playing with crystals and other optics to modify the beams, devices to reshape beams, mirrors, prisms, lenses, tilters, translators, ..... Laser beams + "optical lego" = entertainment. For me, the hologram that results is just icing on the cake. Evidence that everything was done right, or what needs to be fixed. I'd imagine it's very much the same as the joy of building light show projectors.
Anyway, I look forward to a future where children (of appropriate age) are encouraged to play with lasers and light in general. In many cases, it leads to a career. Certainly did for me. One full of entertainment!
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buffo
Originally Posted by Eidetic
Never did actually stick it on the car...
