Similar to a light saber but more Nintendo-y, this DIY beam katana seems to be an actual working device, although I question its lethality. The creator won’t reveal his secrets, but I think it’s pretty clear there’s some kind of little smoke generator and one of those green high-powered lasers involved. Get a couple more high-powered ones or a mirror setup in there and you could actually start burning through some junk, though admittedly not at a true beam katana rate. → Read More
Well, we’re getting closer to having laser weaponry. Northrop Grumman announced recently that they were able to get a laser to fire at 105.5 kilowatts for a sustained amount of time, suggesting that a vehicle mounted or stationary weapon can’t be far behind. → Read More
There are lasers and then there are lasers. The Spyder II GX is a crazy 200-300mW green laser that can burn through paper, balloons, and skin and generally blind you if you’re not careful. How much does all this fun cost? $1,699 including a pair of absolutely essential shades that will keep you from blinding yourself. → Read More
Gosh, these lasers grow up so darn quick! It seems just yesterday that the Avenger’s predecessor, the Advanced Tactical Laser, was being tested on those cute little Hercules transports. And then all that fussing about the Free Electron Laser!
You just wanna hug ‘em! Am I right? → Read More
Researchers at St. Andrews University in Scotland have created a new technique for delivering drugs to individual cells which is essentially an incredibly precise laser fired from a fiber the width of a human hair. Despite this rather inflammatory article at the Daily Mail saying it will be used to cure cancer, the real applications are very specific and very practical — as is often the case with impressive-sounding medical technologies like MRI. The ability to puncture a cell wall with ease and precision with an extremely non-invasive tool like a fiber (paired with another for drug delivery) is a coup for scientists testing at the cellular level. The new technology requires no focusing and is actually very much like a microscopic light saber when I think about it. Paging Dr. Vader… [via Physorg] → Read More
A new blue laser diode, developed by Sanyo, could help increase the capacity of Blu-ray discs. Even if it does, however, we’re still a few years away from seeing any such discs. The new diode emits a beam of 450 milliwatts, which would be powerful enough to write onto two additional data layers on a Blu-ray disc. While current Blu-ray discs max out at two, 25GB layers, discs produced using this new Sanyo diode would see their capacity double—four, 25GB layers adding up to a total capacity of 100GB per disc. Write speeds would also increase, moving up to 12X. That means you’d be able to write an entire disc in just 10 minutes. But again, this fancy new diode was just developed, meaning it won’t used in the production of Blu-ray discs for at least one year, if not two. And they say physical media has no future, ha! → Read More
Giving a man of any age a powerful laser is like giving a bear an AK-47: it’s in his very nature to point it at things and look menacing. Thankfully, the bear is rarely able to do any damage – no trigger finger – but the man, be he 16 or 65 or 33, will definitely aim it at something that will inevitably reflect the laser back into his own eyes, rendering him temporarily blind and making him freak out thinking that he is now sightless. I speak, friends, from experience. WickedLasers makes, well, wicked lasers. Instead of the standard red-dot laser pointer you buy at Odd Lots, WickedLaser imports amazingly powerful and expensive lasers for the home hobbyist. So read on, laser troopers, for a bit more info and a contest. → Read More
It’s about time. The storied laser pointer has, let’s admit it, gotten pretty boring over the years. People have returned to a simpler time of retro pointing, using old yardsticks and their trusty, dusty fingers, and the last time anyone laughed at the laser-pointer-on-someone’s-face gag, the elder Bush was in office. So a big thank you is in order to Alpay Kasal for inventing a way to use laser pointers with projectors to play some old-school video games. The whole idea is for the laser pointer to work as a type of mouse emulator, so the sky would theoretically be the limit as it pertains to what you’d be able to do with this sort of setup. It’s patent-pending, so the actual behind-the-scenes stuff hasn’t been revealed but apparently an outdoor test on the public streets is on the docket, so that’ll be something to see. Check out the above video for the system in action. [via Gizmodo] → Read More
Straight out of the University of Texas at Austin comes the world’s most powerful laser. I just assumed that most lasers were very powerful, but apparently the great state of Texas has the best one until someone else can come along and build an even more powerful laser or mounts this same laser to a shark’s head. → Read More
Remember the Laser TV from Mitsubishi that was unveiled at CES? Well, Mitsu finally dated and named the new fangled TV this morning. The LaserVue will launch Q3, but still no word on pricing. Along with news of the LaserVue, Mitsu announced a slew of new 1080p DLP HDTVs ranging in size from 60- to 73-inches dubbed Diamond. The Diamond series features 120Hz, something called Dark Detailer for high contrast images and Blue Light Accent. These DLP sets will be available this month. → Read More
test You don’t need an imaginary cellphone to project text onto someone’s person. This device, which can be put together after a quick trip to the hardware store, places laser text onto any surface; it’s powered by magic, as a matter of fact. You’re given a maximum of 20 characters to play with at any one time, which is more than enough to project dumb slogans like “PINK” or “JUICY” or “JAZZ LOBSTER.” via Make Blog → Read More
[photopress:7579_large_mechrobot.jpg,full,center] Right now, plugged into my Mac I have an iPod Touch, an SD card reader, and a currently charging Palm Centro. Did you know that you can also control a laser-guided robot with your Mac? It’s true! Scienticians from Georgia Tech and Emory University have developed just such a robot, called the EL-E, which is capable of tracking objects targeted by a laser and picking them up, all powered by a Mac Mini. Later, they’re planning on upgrading to a Mac Pro, after which the computer/robot hybrid will scour the globe for Sarah Connor. Scientists Unveil Mac mini-powered Robot [Daily Tech] → Read More
[photopress:lasershealth.jpg,full,right] You know how much I like tech with a purpose that’s something other than more and more megawidgets or terabloops. Hence, a line or two on this laser than can detect diseases. Developed by a team at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a laser device that detects molecules in one’s breath that may hint at diseases. It can also detect diseases that aren’t specifically respiratory in nature, like cancer. For example, the device detected carbon monoxide at five times the normal level in a smoker. Use that info with other data and you could have a powerful tool that makes early detection the norm. Laser light may detect asthma [Times of India via Drudge Report] → Read More
I’m currently debating whether I should feel safe or frightened knowing that Boeing’s Advanced Tactical Laser has been successfully installed on a C-130H. The high energy chemical laser was completed on the 4th of this month in New Mexico at Kirtland Air Force Base. The entire system weighs an astonishing 12,000-pounds. Testing of the system along with a demonstration will occur sometime next year where the laser will be fired from a rotating turret on the belly of the C-130H at mission-representative ground targets. Previous tests were done in June on a ‘low-power’ setting where the laser found and tracked moving and stationary targets. I just soiled myself. Press Release → Read More
The Germans have invented what is supposedly the world’s first backpack-mounted laser cleaner. Clearly there was a need for such high-powered cleaners. There’s no real explanation of how the laser cleans, but we can assume that it burns away layers of dirt. Probably not for use by children under three years of age, or any of us here, really. The laser will make the rounds in the UK in November, demoed at universities and super villain hideouts. World First Backpack Laser [CIProcess via Sci Fi Tech] → Read More
Wicked Lasers has been making high-powered handheld lasers in China since 2003, and I finally got my pyromaniac responsible hands on one. While playing with the Wicked Fusion for several days, I tried to burn plenty of things (yes, including myself… real tattoos are expensive, y’know!), but I had the most fun pointing out stars and buildings. Okay, that’s not true: I spent most of the time just looking at the beam as it illuminated the dust floating around my apartment. It’s almost like having a tiny lightsaber. Here’s an account of my first handheld laser experience — thankfully, I’m not writing this from a jail cell. → Read More
An egghead at Raboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands’ third biggest party school) has published a paper describing a method of using dynamic, polarized light to write and retrieve hard drive data at blazingly fast speeds – up to 100x faster than conventional hard drive speeds. Conventional hard drives use magnets to read and write data. This new method would use lasers to write data to magnetic hard drives, eschewing the need to develop a radically different storage technology. One current roadblock is the fact that laser beam’s footprint is about 5 microns wide, much larger than other data tranferral methods. Daniel Stanciu (the aforementioned egghead) claims that they should be able to reduce the laser’s footprint to about 10 nanometers within a decade. All the jargon aside, what does this mean for you as a consumer? A different egghead, Julius Hohlfeld of Seagate Research, says… “This is one of the most exciting stories in magnetics. Lots of other researchers have tried to employ polarized laser light to write data but everyone failed because the magnetic alloys they used for the storage medium did not work. But the disk made of gadolinium, iron, and cobalt that Stanciu’s team used has succeeded. The next challenge will be to find a relatively cheap laser technology that can fire pulses lasting less than 100 femtoseconds.” Long story, short: in a decade, you might have a super fast hard drive. Exciting indeed! Lighting a Fire Under Hard Drives [ScienceMag.org] → Read More
I am 30 years old, and I am losing my hair. It’s an uncomfortable fact, but one that nearly half of American men, and Britney, face at some point. Science has yet been unable to stop the slow retreat of our follicles, but that doesn’t mean it can’t slow it down. Or at least try. The laser comb is a $545 battery-powered device that zaps your scalp with a Flash Gordon-style laser when you manage your mop. The theory is that this laser stimulates hair growth in dormant but viable pores. Does it work? We’re not sure, but HairMax, the manufacturer, says that 93% of affected men who used the product showed increased hair thickness and strand counts. If indeed the claims are true, then I am first in line for this FDA-approved hair gizmo, because like most other men across the country who are losing their hair, I’m planning on fighting this to the end, screaming in bloody rage, as I look back on my misspent youth and wonder where it all went. (I know, down the shower drain. I know.) HairMax Laser Comb [Product Page, via Ubergizmo] → Read More
