Popped my first balloon .....

[Zoof]

... in style with a bit of C+++ code
Fell ill, got bored, got slightly better, had the day off, grabbed the laptop and projector and produced a little toy.
Of course it did not involve a hand-held but the good old RGB projector and some coding to generate target acquisition and an auto firing sequence. If it wasn't for the 1.2 W laser beam I would sell this and child-safe fire crackers :-). It took me roughly 22 years to go from owning a laser to popping a balloon and I have to admit that I had a lot of fun doing it, this way.

See vid for your entertainment! It is not edited so it is a bit long: feel free to skip to 1:35 when bored.

http://youtu.be/JhAw_ws8gAs

Disclaimer for the trigger-happy safety critics: The projector's safety was not in place, what I showed should not be possible with a proper projector. The software is deliberately unsafe to allow this functionality and it will not be made available to the community. And of course I, laser god Zoof, know what I'm doing and how to do it safely.

[chad]

Lol, that is great! Nicely done!

Chad

[masterpj]

epic! Nice one Zoof!

[Doc]

I love it !

[gottaluvlasers]

Totally freaking awesome!!!! LOL!!!

[no-esc]

Great job.....excellent

[dnar]

I need one of these mounted on the front of my car...

^^^ Just a thought bubble ^^^

[CDBEAM]

F'ing Classic !!! Terra sez..." If ONLY the cats would sit still.....finally a good use for that stupid box that the human looks at soooo much !! " BEAM

[platinum]

You've accomplished what, until now, was considered an impossible task -to make a balloon-popping video that's compatible with PL.

Kudos!

- Jonathan

[LaNeK779]

unbelievable!!!!! couple this to a laserscope and you have some serious home defence system

seems that you have created a killer app for targeting bounce mirrors too

[sbk]

Witthout any doubt the funniest balloon popping ever created Kudos!

Now can you do the same for flying flies popping? I will be interested

[dnar]

F'ing Classic !!! Terra sez..." If ONLY the cats would sit still.....finally a good use for that stupid box that the human looks at soooo much !! " BEAM

I find the best way to keep them pesky cats still is to bury them up to their necks.

I find a lawn mower then works better than lasers.

:evil grin:

[White-Light]

Totally freaking awesome!!!! LOL!!!

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Remind me never to go to war with you Zoof!

[Stoney3K]

Disclaimer for the trigger-happy safety critics: The projector's safety was not in place, what I showed should not be possible with a proper projector. The software is deliberately unsafe to allow this functionality and it will not be made available to the community. And of course I, laser god Zoof, know what I'm doing and how to do it safely.

I understand you're not throwing this piece of software out into the public... but if some idiot wants to put their eyesight out, I guess buying a handheld 445 would be a lot less fuss and a lot cheaper.

BTW, I really like the part where you set up a string of targets in a row and let her rip all at once!

I can think of some really cool gaming opportunities with a concept like this... what you could do for safety is use white balloons (or ping pong balls) which are fitted with light sensors, so the hit is being registered electronically instead of through the laws of physics. If you really want them to 'pop' on a hit, you could do that with a mechanical trinket, but I'd personally go for a set of LEDs on each balloon which go out when the balloon is hit.

Add some joystick support and cool sound effects and you have one cool laser shooting gallery which will wow a few gamers at the next LAN party.

I need one of these mounted on the front of my car... SHARK.

There, fixed it.

[araugh]

This is awesome, there has to be some fun game one could make with this using some photodiodes and a 5mW (or higher power, higher divergence) diode for laser tag or something

[db3306]

Best baloonvideo so far!! Try add real time tracking with a kinect

[mccarrot]

Respect!
I'm happy to see you are playing with lasers again after the LEM disaster a year ago

[Photonphart]

Absolutely Brilliant ....

well done

all the best .... B

[Zoof]

Hehe, thanks for the fun comments. The best part is to hand the gamepad to a friend and see him jump when he unleashes the full beam on a baloon the first time. It allways ends with this evil laughter.
Got to get me some sharks now...... Hehehe
To be continued....

[Photonphart]

I see a great commercial aspect here ... carnival side shows would love this sort of thing .... it takes the duck shoot into a new high tech world ....

i would love to play this in an arcade or carnival or even a fund raising event ..... perhaps its only me that sees dollars .... it would be easy to put a package or kit together to sell commercialy ... but the software that you have developed is the Key .....

Well done buddy .... look forward to seeing more

B

[drlava]

Great stuff! Glad you're feeling better.

[jayrob]

Amazing! Best balloon popping I've ever seen...

Great stuff! Glad you're feeling better.

drlava,

Please check your PM's...

I sent payment for an order on 12/28 and wanted to make sure you received it.

Thanks!

[platinum]

[personal business]

Hey jayrob,

Do me and everyone else here a favor and keep your business between you and the people you're doing it with and don't spam other people's threads with things that are completely off-topic.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[LaNeK779]

i second that!!
especially on such an interesting / fun topic

it really is a shame

[jayrob]

Hey jayrob,

Do me and everyone else here a favor and keep your business between you and the people you're doing it with and don't spam other people's threads with things that are completely off-topic.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Wow sorry...

I couldn't get a hold of him via email or PM is all, so I checked the latest post of his.

Didn't mean to cause such a disruption...