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I second this; this is super bad advice. CO2 systems are comparatively safe from an eye damage perspective - unless you take a direct hit, (...don't, seriously, that's what interlocks are for...), 10.6um is strongly absorbed by your eye and you'll get superficial thermal damage, maybe cataracts or a corneal burn, but it won't get focused on to your retina so serious vision loss is unlikely. Polycarbonate safety glasses have a crazy high optical density at 10.6 and are suitable protective eyewear.

The situation for visible diode lasers is much worse. Sure, the power tends to be lower, but they're still powerful enough that looking at a diffuse reflection will result in dangerous power densities on your retina. Unfortunately, the brain is really good at hiding this sort of damage, so it's possible to not notice until it's too late.

1.064um fiber lasers are the worst of both worlds. Very high powers, invisible so you have no idea how much stray light is getting out or if you're staring at a reflection, and expensive + hard to verify safety glasses.

I like doing things with high power lasers (next up for the collection is probably a 355nm ns system?), but am glad that I had to take a lot of laser safety training before I bough my first big laser source.



Fun fact: in Uni people doing stuff with not so strong white laser are using VR headsets with see through mode


Sounds like quite a good solution actually, low latency and all. Do you know if they fitted any filter over the headset cams to protect those just in case?


Why would they need a filter? The laser light isn't making it directly to the eyeballs of the wearer.

The worst you'll get is 100% illumination on all pixels on the LCD inside the headset.

You can't stare at the Sun, but you can stare at a video of the Sun.


The question is clearly about protecting the camera from the laser.


Well white laser cannot be blocked with normal Kameras.


camera sensors are pretty easy to damage. a lot of people destroy their cameras by filming solar eclipses without taking any precaution


Yes, definitely. You will want to protect your camera sensor from a direct hit by a laser (or even an indirect one). Diffused is probably ok.


White laser? Rgb or something else


No, normal Laser which goes through a non linear optimal element. See supercontinuum


Ah yes, these are very good points. I will update the article accordingly, thank you.




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