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Germany: Latest film-inspired laser shoots beams out of glasses

Laser hobbyist Patrick Priebe has fabricated a unique pair of glasses that emulates the X-Men comic book hero “Cyclops”. It emits two powerful Class 4 blue laser beams, as if they are coming from a person’s eyes. In addition, there are two low-powered red aiming beams.

The technique is to look in the desired direction with the red aiming beams on, then to switch on the blue beams while looking at the desired target. The glasses have a lens that attenuates blue laser light, so that the user is protected in case of any reflected blue beams.

Patrick Priebe X-Men Cyclops laser glasses
The two blue beams emitted from Priebe’s glasses, each roughly 1 watt, can burn cloth and pop balloons.

X-Men Cyclops

His inspiration: Cyclops’s 2-gigawatt “optic blast,” which is red in the Marvel comic books.


An online YouTube video shows Priebe’s laser glasses in action:



Due to the inherent danger of head-worn lasers, Priebe is not making additional glasses and he is not offering plans for others to build their own.

Priebe has previously built custom laser gadgets such as a replica of Iron Man’s palm-mounted repulsor ray projector, a laser “Gatling gun” with six rotating 1.4 watt blue beams, and a laser gun that emits a non-visible 1 megawatt pulse.

From Gizmodo. Original video posted by AnselmoFanZero.

Germany: Hobbyist creates laser "Gatling gun" with six rotating 1.4 W blue beams

Well-known master builder Patrick Priebe has created a laser with six 1.4 watt blue lasers that rotate, similar to a Gatling gun. In addition, there is a 100 milliwatt green laser used for aiming:

Patrick Priebe laser Gatling gun

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Germany: "Iron Man" laser fires Class 4 beam from a hobbyist's palm

A German laser enthusiast can fire a 1 watt, Class 4 laser beam from his palm. He fabricated the device in a weekend, using a laser diode similar to those harvested from Casio video projectors. (The same type of diode is used in the infamous Wicked Laser Spyder III Arctic handheld laser.)

Hobbyist Patrick Priebe’s inspiration was the comic book character “Iron Man”, who has “repulsor rays” in the palms of his armor’s gloves. Priebe’s device is self-contained, with the battery in a case that wraps around the back of the hand. Simply flexing his hand triggers the beam to fire.


Priebe’s 1 watt, 445 nm blue laser beam ignites a match


His inspiration: Iron Man’s repulsor ray glove, as seen here in the motion picture with Robert Downey, Jr.


Priebe made a number of versions. He is selling limited numbers (not mass-produced) of kits and assembled gloves on laser pointer forums for $200-500 depending on the version.

From
Popular Science and many other sources. Details on the construction are at Hacked Gadgets. Videos of the device in action are here and here.

Germany: Homemade laser pulse gun packs 1-megawatt punch

Homemade lasers, using diodes from DVD burners and video projectors such as the Casio Green Slim, are common among hobbyists. However, a new homemade laser is the first we have seen with a 1-megawatt pulse.

This differs from most pointers and handheld lasers, which use lasers that emit continuous light. This one emits a single, strong pulse each time the trigger is pulled. It is “enough to punch holes in plastic sheets, scorch wood, and pop balloons from several feet away” according to Dvice.com.



The maker, Patrick Priebe, posted a YouTube video showing the gun in action. He also was offering it for sale. According to Priebe, the gun uses a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. It takes four seconds to charge the capacitor; the gun then fires a 100 nanosecond, 1 megawatt burst of infrared 1064 nanometer light. The gun took Priebe about 70 hours to build. His YouTube page offers to help others wanting to build their own laser gun.

SAFETY NOTE: Because the laser emits an invisible pulse, it would not be a visual interference hazard to aircraft (e.g., it could not cause glare or flashblindness). At close range the Q-switched pulse would definitely be an eye hazard, causing an explosive steam “pop” on the retina rather than the relatively slow burn of a continuous-wave laser. LaserPointerSafety.com has not done an analysis to determine the “safe” distance, beyond which it would not pose an eye hazard to pilots or others.

From
Dvice.com and Hacked Gadgets forum