Wicked Lasers' new lasers

**mixedgas** · 08-31-2009, 04:28

just do what two of my professional friends do. Venue owners are informed up front that lasers other then varianced and contracted lasers are not permitted per the contract, least they be inspected and held liable for the lasers in the audiance.

Works in Arizona and florida.

Steve

**lasersbee** · 08-31-2009, 05:09

Originally Posted by mccarrot

I disagree, most people are stupid and we (and government) must protect stupid people to misbehave.

The government already did there Job by making high power pointers illegal.

now it's our job to stop promoting high power lasers with stupid reviews about how good it can burn tape and retinas, the less pointers they will (hopefully) sell, the less accidents can happen.

Yeah... and if you get rid of all the cars on the road... there will be no more car related deaths..........

Yeah... the Government did their job... and the masses go along without question because "they know what they're doing"...

Check this out for trusting the Government.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs12...layer_embedded

Jerry

**ElektroFreak** · 08-31-2009, 05:56

Originally Posted by mccarrot

I disagree, most people are stupid and we (and government) must protect stupid people to misbehave.

Let me be the first to nominate you for the position of supreme dictator..

**mccarrot** · 08-31-2009, 07:24

Originally Posted by ElektroFreak

Let me be the first to nominate you for the position of supreme dictator..

Maybe I had to say "less educated" instead of "stupid"

I just want to try to protect people against stupid people with high power laserpointers, thats all.

If banning wicket laser on this forums helps selling one high power pointer less I would be happy.

Please have a look at http://www.rli.com/resources/accident.aspx

This company got a database of eye injurys caused by laser (pointers), and I can tell you only a few percent of all accidents are reported into this database.

Here is a example:

Highschool cheerleader was exposed on three occassions. Third time in gym rally. Saw "green" - had vision loss

Also during the Olympic games in Beijing several sporters where blinded by laserpointers from the audience.

a few weeks ago 2 people blinded in belgium.

Every week there are reports of pilots being blinded by pointers. etc. etc. etc.

Pointers are getting cheaper and the power is going up so I think this is only the beginning.... But I hope I'm wrong

**buffo** · 08-31-2009, 09:03

Originally Posted by mccarrot

Please have a look at http://www.rli.com/resources/accident.aspx
This company got a database of eye injurys caused by laser (pointers),

You are misrepresenting the information in that database. Most of the injuries listed on that site are NOT from pointers, but rather from large, high-power lab lasers. More to the point, many of the injuries were not permanent. (In fact, the very first one, an exposure to a 20 joule pulse from a ruby laser, had healed after 6 weeks to the point that no injury was visible.) If you read through the injuries listed, most of them actually prove the point that laser exposure is *less* hazardous than you would expect.

Highschool cheerleader was exposed on three occassions. Third time in gym rally. Saw "green" - had vision loss

If you're quoting from the same database, she had a TEMPORARY vision loss. This is commonly referred to as flash-blindness. It is not permanent, and is not really an "injury". (A camera flash-bulb will have the same effect.)

Also during the Olympic games in Beijing several sporters where blinded by laserpointers from the audience.

I think we have a language barrier here. "Blinded" means permanent loss of vision. There are no cases of athletes being "blinded". There have been news stories of athletes being "distracted" by laser pointers, but that doesn't mean permanent injury resulted. (The difference is between "blinded", and suffered from "flash-blindness".)

a few weeks ago 2 people blinded in belgium.

Again, you are using the word "blinded" incorrectly. It makes it sound much more serious than it really is. I understand that English is not your first language, but to someone from the outside that doesn't know this, your choice of words makes it sound like you are intentionally exaggerating the incidents.

I agree that laser pointers *can* be a menace when used irresponsibly. However, it is *extremely* unlikely that someone will suffer permanent, total vision loss because someone shined a laser pointer at them from 500 ft away in a sports stadium.

Likewise, shining a laser pointer at an aircraft is dangerous and illegal, because it could distract the pilot, potentially causing a crash. But it is also next to impossible to permanently blind someone in an airplane cockpit with a hand-held laser pointer fired from the ground. (At a distance of over 1000 ft away.) That doesn't mean it shouldn't be illegal, but we need to separate the facts from the hype that the media have whipped up surrounding lasers.

Let's put things in perspective here. If you *REALLY* wanted to blind someone, why mess around with a green laser pointer that puts out maybe 200 mw? Heck, just use the bare pump diode and hit your target with 3 to 5 watts (or more) of power! Or better yet, if you want to bring down an airliner, why not use a 60 watt 808 nm diode bar mounted on a tripod? They'd never even see the beam coming, and you might actually be able to steer the beam into the cockpit! (Note: I'm not advocating that anyone do this - just pointing out the absurdity of thinking that pointers are more dangerous than other lasers.)

So you see, a green laser pointer is not nearly as dangerous as some other lasers which can be purchased legally for around the same cost. Thus the problem is not with the lasers... The problem is with the people. Beating up on Wicked Lasers isn't going to stop stupid people from doing stupid things. But working with Wicked (and other manufacturers) to make products safer, coupled with extra effort aimed at the education of the general public, has a chance to improve the situation for everyone.

Adam

**dream beamz** · 08-31-2009, 10:17

Originally Posted by lasersbee

Check this out for trusting the Government.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs12...layer_embedded

Just a poorly written legal document, me along with many other network security specialist accepted the agreement and proceeded to "let the government own our computer" well nothing happened. No backdoor service was installed nor were we able to detect any data being transferred without our knowledge. Just a case of Fox news trying to instill fear into the heart of Americans.

**mccarrot** · 08-31-2009, 10:28

Yes you are right, with blinded I meant eye damage.

But even a 30mW pointer can give you eye damage, and if you have the bad luck it hits your fovea you will not be happy.

(The part of the eye that provides the most acute vision is the fovea centralis (also called the macula lutea). This is a relatively small area of the retina (3 to 4%) that provides the most detailed and acute vision as well as color perception.)

**Things** · 08-31-2009, 22:10

This is also when divergence comes into play. People that point pointers at planes arent going to go out and spend $1000 on a pointer with awesome divergence and beam specs, more likely a cheap $30 thing from those websites like dealextreme. The divergence on those things are horrible to say the least.

**wolfblue** · 09-01-2009, 07:17

Bottom line for me is that the pointer jockeys are likely to make things difficult for "us".

--John

**ElektroFreak** · 09-01-2009, 07:29

I'm sorry, you lost me. Who is "us"?

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