Tinkerer Emulates Iron Man With Real-Life, Palm-Mounted Laser Weapon

"Priebe’s handheld laser is 1,000 milliwatts, enough to instantly blind anyone not wearing special safety glasses."

woah.. can anyone else discuss the practical application of this device? other than accidentally blinding anyone who wants to give you a high five?

hhhhmmm, if it was that easy for him to create something like that, all i can say is LASER GUN!!!

find a laser with a higher wattage, throw in a basic liquid cooling system, along with a rechargeable battery. and viola! you have a laser gun, would make using bullets in combat seem, well, barbaric. the implications of this could change common firearms, at least for the military. and You would have greater accuracy considering light isn't affected by wind

How about capacitor powered?
Let it charge (just like the movie) for a definite amount of time, then I'MA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH! BWAAAAAAAAH!!
You'd need a better power-rating from the diode, though...

@ treyloging Something about blinding humans with lasers and in your case, melting them or whatever seems slightly more barbaric to me.

This would be dangerous in the wrong hands Popular Science why advertise it? If terrorists get ahold of one or kids your going to see a lot of blinded pets, people, and possibly planes taken down with these. Stupid. They should be illegal period.

If you all really believe that this wasn't closely followed by quite a few countries governments are living with the wool pulled completely over your eyes.

Also if you think the military, any military, doesn't have laser weapon research labs, you are also sadly mistaken.

And I for one am sick of this whole "war on terror" bs.. first you can't wage war against an emotion. Secondly, it feels like the US is doing more to cause terror and fear than the supposed "terrorists". I'm a Veteran btw, and I'm all for protecting the citizens of this country, and I swore an oath, "that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;" that's right from the oath of enlistment. Read that last word. Read it again...

On the topic of the article, I'm curious to see where the rest of the device is. What's it's weight, usage time, etc.

Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978

"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC

CodeZero, minor correction, while terror is an emotion, terrorism is a set of tactics used in an attempt to incite certain emotions. But your other point remains, though modified, you can't fight a war on a tactic. They should have been more specific and called it a war on Al Queda, that way you have a real goal and a specific mission.

As you say, there are government research labs on lasers, most of them put the palm laser to shame. One of them required a jumbojet to carry.

This is a very innovative concept but what are the possibilities to increase the strength of the laser....

I wish that more people and researchers invent things that are shown in the fantasy and sci-fi films....

@JD929, no correct needed, the US isn't involved in a "war on terrorism", it's held the label "war on terror" for years, which in either conotation is completly absurd and leaves the whole process far too open ended, the reason for the lack of a proper goal, well I'll leave that for your own determination, but we really need to look at our own country and it's citizens, what the citizens want, and what the "appointed" officals for each state, etc are actually doing. When are we going to flush the overpaid slackers that do little more than partake in corrupt actions and fill their own pockets while our own veterans are becoming homeless. It's time for a change.

The way I've seen it, if it's public and it has military applications, it's either A) not a threat or B) 10 - 20 years out dated from the capabilities we really posses.

Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978

"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC

"If terrorists get ahold of one or kids your going to see a lot of blinded pets, people, and possibly planes taken down with these."

Nuh uh... you won't see anything, 'cause you'll get blinded (with Science!) :D

But seriously... "terrorists"... LOL

CodeZero: if you seriously believe this was "closely followed by quite a few countries governments" , I guess you must also think that De Beers closely follows developments in those candy machines at the mall that spit out a cheap plastic ring for 25 cents.

Sure, there's plenty of weapon developers that are working on military lasers. That's hardly a secret. But the laser described here is merely a costume gadget. 1000 mW lasers have been around for ages, and are pretty much an off-the-shelf component. Yes, this guy will be able to perform party tricks for three minutes straight (presumably until the laser gets too hot to wear). What are you gonna do - send in agents to ruin the enemy's parade by popping all their balloons? Or you could give a soldier a gun, and see what havoc he can wreak in those three minutes.

The main limitations for military lasers tends to be power and consequently battery size. That typically limits them to large mobile platforms, like ships or trucks, and the occasional experimental airplane to try shoot missiles out of the air.

Portable military lasers are nowhere near able to compete with more conventional weapons. They're useful for laser gunsights though, and I believe there's some non-lethal gadgets being developed to temporarily blind and confuse the enemy, similar to the "Dazzler" flashlight (see http://www.ladyada.net/make/bedazzler/).

Cool Article!

1000 millwatts....

So it's 1 watt then?

lol this is old news, like a year old. "Built with the blue-laser diode of a dismantled Casio projector, the $200 Spyder III Pro Arctic is the world's most powerful portable laser. It can permanently blind you and set your skin—or anything else, really—on fire almost instantly."

http://gizmodo.com/5560206/the-spyder-iii-pro-arctic-is-a-real-life-lightsaber

heres a laser pistol that could mess u up

http://hackaday.com/2011/03/10/youll-shoot-your-eye-out-with-a-1mw-laser-pulse-pistol/

and you think the govt doesnt have a few better more powerful laser guns? seriously?

@gizmowiz
I really would not be too worried about 1000mm lasers blinding people. they are hard to find. on the other hand.... there is a little known device called a GUN. they are about 100 bucks in the in middle east and can do more than blind you, they can blow the back of your fricking skull off.

You guys are so overly dramatic. This is a just a fun little gadget someone made in his garage. Get over all the "Government...Terrorism...Blind Children" nonsense.

@inaka_rob

Actually those lasers are not all that hard to find... most blueray DVD players lasers can put out close to 850mw

1mw laser diodes are easy to find they come in DLP projectors... in fact

if you go to eBay and search 1w diode you can pick one up for around 45 dollars.

and the problem with lasers like this is:

They are blue lasers, which causes permanent eye damage easier than red or green or purple.

A 1w blue laser can permanently blind you if you look at the diffused reflection of the beam closer than 3ft and cause perm damage further away from that. and by diffused I mean take a laser point at a white wall turn on if you are within 3 ft of that without eye protection you can be blinded permanently.

a 1w laser can cause skin cancer. it can burn the skin and set wood on fire.

and it is powerful enough to permanently blind say a pilot in a plane after only a second of exposure. hell you can be blinded in milliseconds from direct exposure.

Haha, Gizmowiz is worried about pets being blinded.

@beefymclovin
You know that the guy that built the gun you linked is the same guy in this article, right?

Ironman uses Ion-Thruster.

HOW DID HE MAKE THAT? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? WHAT WAS THE DIFFICULTY? WHAT WAS THE COST? Can you send me the blueprints?

great, a nice performance, I do not understand why do so.
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thats cool pleez send the blueprints at brentodell98@yahoo.com

neato burrito! Though, I'm not surprised that there are dramatic fearmongers here declaring "They should be illegal period."

Before making preposterous claims as to how "stupid" and "dangerous" something is, please try to educate yourself as to what it is and what it is actually capable of doing. Presumptions and misinformation aren't generally something that should be found on a science website.

The laser's neat idea, but it's literally just a 1W 445nm diode hooked up to a driver board and a lithium battery. The housing is obviously unique, but the technology to build a DPSS laser like this has been around for a few years now. If you can use a soldering iron, you could probably build one yourself for less than a hundred dollars. If you know where to look, you could buy one already made for less than two hundred.

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can release the schematics for a 5 milliwatt won?

How good this article is.
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