First off: I apologise if this is in the wrong section. I haven't been around in these parts in years and my knowledge of what-goes-where is a little rusty at best. Feel free to move this thread if necessary.
A few of you here might remember me from two or so years ago and how I was arse-terrible at making all of the photons.
But putting that aside for a second, something rather interesting's popped up recently involving a laser device that's not a projector, but nonetheless a device that's available to consumers. I figure the people on this board would be the most knowledgeable when it comes to matters like this.
Let's say we have a hypothetical laser-based nightlight.
Let's say this hypothetical device uses a single 445nm diode hitting a diffraction grating as the main source of light output, with the beams exiting an aperture and diffuse scattering off surfaces such as walls providing illumination. Each beam leaving the aperture is below 5mW, but you've plenty of beams (diffraction grating), and the total of the emitted beams would be on the order of a watt or so.
Let's also say the lead designer of this hypothetical device makes ridiculous claims along the lines of
or claims the product to be entirely eye-safe, while completely ignoring known dangers such as the blue light hazard or the the effects of blue light on your circadian rhythm:Our product has a mechanism to prevent reaching such heights and therefore not capable of interfering with aircraft. It is a lamp and you are pointing a LED flashlight to an aircraft. If you were at a local airfield beyond the fence you be viewed as a flashlight.
orThe laser is no more dangerous than an LED light if a normal distance is maintained. I would not advise anyone to hold even the smallest light directly to their eye.
Maintaining a 2 foot distance between your eyes and the laser is advised. My children sleep with this lamp in their room and have no problems.
while clearly having an abject lack of knowledge as demonstrated by quotes as:The diffuser mechanism is a diffraction using Young's experiment. This is not as simple as it is pictured the DG (diffraction grating) has to be within 1/4 the wavelength of the laser to eveningly distribute the beams without having a center area of concentration hence a safety issue.
or obvious technobabble along the lines ofThe Firefly laser lamp does not burn and is not possible to burn. Lasers that burn in the market are 405nm have IR. A 90mw laser you can burst a black balloon, at about 450mw you can start to burn a cigarette but hold it there and wait. The blue laser we use is exponentially far from that and more like the light of a florescent lamp with no heat. You need to multiple our laser about 1000 times to have any heat
Now that all of that's out of the way, let's assume for a second that this hypothetical product does exist. How would one go about making sure such a product never makes it to market, or preferably, never leaves the drawing board?Yes. *REDACTED* is my company and we have been researching the feasibility of a blue laser for two+ years. *REDACTED* has taught us a lot but is not the final end game. It has always been intended as a proof of concept for what we saw as the potential for blue lasers to fundamentally change the lighting industry. The blue laser is far more significant than just merely the color. We have a patent on our blue laser diode component design itself, aside from the *REDACTED* shell. It is completely different than the green component. The *REDACTED* shell is a convenient way for us to produce a giveaway for contributors. But its the BLUE LASER that's the most compelling component for several reasons. First, technologically it is constructed using stable state technology unlike the green which uses a crystal diode. Crystal diode is fine for normal environments, but the stable state is shatter proof and with our patent-pending heat spreader the blue stable state laser can withstand up to 150 farenheit. Couple that with the special calibration we use for the blue that allows it to reveal objects in a smoky room and we have what we believe can be a very compelling unit for a broader array of future uses - emergency lighting being one. You could say what we are giving away is a blue *REDACTED* of sorts, but the intent is be able to further the blue laser technology that has some really powerful potential to change the lighting industry. The photographs for the blue laser are not retouched. They are original blue laser photos. They just happened to be in the same settings as the ones we took awhile ago for the green. All that said, we hope this will increase the confidence that the giveaway you'll receive is a real lamp that has all its legal, safety, UL, CE, Rohs, FDA/CDRH, and independent laser compliance officially approved. And, with blue lasers pointers today fetching around $200 in the marketplace, even at the higher levels on our campaign we hope you'll see this isn't such a bad deal!
I cannot place links but if you look a Frontgate and search for lighting use sort $400 to $599 you will see a green and blue laser light for 550 in change something like that. the picture they have is green for the product so click on it. You are getting a great price for a proprietary laser that we make ourselves. We will have updates of more information and some unique aspects of this product that people will find exciting.
Because, unfortunately, this product is a thing, the guy behind it seems to have his head up his arse and apparently they've got a whole company behind it.
I would like to think that being a crowd-funded project, people will begin to see just how much piss and wind is holding the thing together and pull out before this becomes a thing. On the other hand, the company claims to already have a green version of this laser nightlight on the market.
They're US-based, in which case I have no idea how they got the thing past the FDA in the first place.
I would also like to think that this person is just a brilliant troll but that'd just be wishful thinking.
EDIT: someone else has just pointed out that despite their claim of the nightlight having no 'central area of concentration' from the diffraction grating, their photos of both the green and blue versions show otherwise.