A laser will go through the lense of the eye without having any effect, and the lense is what determines vision loss, so laser pointers are not likely to affect your vision. It takes a powerful laser, much more powerful than a pointer, to affect tissue so I don’t think your immature friends have done you any harm.
It looks like current green and probably blue, laser diodes are made primarily by frequency doubling. Frequency doubling means that an infrared beam is pointed through a crystal which causes the frequency to double. If the IR beam is 1064 nm, the output beam will be 532 nm green or blue. The extra crystal is the cause of the extra price.
I don’t know why normal green led technology isn’t used for green pointers. Perhaps no one has perfected it in a small package yet. Anyway, laser diodes are made of materials that have an intrinsic “energy bandgap,” which determines the wavelength of light emitted from the laser. Some materials may have a broader bandgap, but not enough to tune the laser over multiple colors.
Those laser pointers used in business presentations and school lectures–is there any danger to the eyes if they are pointed directly? And does the answer change depending upon whether one is talking about humans or dogs or cats, for example? No, those lasers are not dangerous to people or any large animals. Their power is firly low, and the beam is not very precise. The beam shape is a primary factor which makes similar-powered scientific lasers more dangerous. Well-shaped beams can focus to a much smaller spot than irregular beams.
All the same, you will see stars if you look at the beam directly. The brightness level is not too different from looking directly at the sun ,which is dangerous for other reasons, mainly unseen UV and IR light. There is a device called an optical parametric oscillator that can increase the wavelength, i.e. reduce the frequency of a laser. If you want to increase the frequency, i.e. reduce the wavelength of a laser, this can be achieved by using the laser to pump another laser, a dye laser for instance.
Would this device work with a laser pointer? I would like to add something to the end of it rather than mess around with the internal parts. You would use the laser pointer as a pump for the laser you would have to construct outside the laser pointer. No need to take the laser pointer apart, but you would need to build some sophisticated optics for this. Actually the green laser pointers that are commercially available use a red laser to pump another laser, this time green. So they are actually two lasers in one device.
I’ve been wanting to buy a blue laser pointer but found that the only ones with the technology to create them and who hold the patent are a select few so any such laser pointer would cost someone about $1,000. Green laser pointers cost about $100, and the common red ones cost maybe $20 at most. Why the extreme difference in price? What are these diodes and why are they so difficult to make?
You will have to wait a little while to buy a cheap blue laser pointer. The reason is quite simple. Red laser diodes were invented 15 years ago. Green laser diodes were invented 5 years ago, and blue laser diodes were invented last year. Similar to DVD writers, flat-screen TVs, and other new products, the price drops dramatically as time passes. Mainly, this is because one company owns a patent at first and can chjaarge whatever they want. When the patent expires, or alternate technology is invented, the price comes down.
There is nothing particularly difficult about making the diodes. Figuring out how to make them, which semiconductor materials, deposition, heat-sinking, is the hard part. But like I said some of the laser pointers can cause a little harm to your eyes, so if you want to get one or make one, make sure that you don’t point it at anyones eyes. Even though you have friends that point there lasers in your eyes thinking that it is funny, which it isn’t, to wrongs don’t make a right. Just show them how more muture you are.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.PCSupplies.info/. PCSupplies.info carries the best selection of computer accessories and PC supplies on the market. Start shopping by category here: http://www.PCSupplies.info/menu/category.html.
2009-04-06
Is Blu Ray Worth The Money?
Do you desire for the ultimate high definition experience? Do you want to bring your favorite movies to life with extremely crisp pictures and greater surround sound? Well, now you can, thanks to Blu-ray technology. Blu-ray technology was developed to record, rewrite and playback high definition video (HD).
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name given to the next generation in optical disc formats. It was jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). While current optical disc technologies such as the DVD and standard CD rely on a red laser to read and write data, Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser instead.
Blu-ray is currently being supported by 200 of the world’s leading electronics, personal computer, gaming, music and recording media companies. All Hollywood studios are supporting this format as the new HD format, and countless other smaller studios as well.
Many studios have already announced that they will be releasing feature films on the Blu-ray disc day-and-date with DVD, including a continuous array of catalog titles every month, as Blu-ray discs can fit a lot more data compared to CDs and DVDS, even though they are the same size. A single layer Blu-ray disc can store 25GB, while a dual layer stores up to 50GB.
An internet connection is not required to play Blu-ray movies, but it is required for value-added services, such as downloading new extras, watching recent movie trailers, web browsing and etc. It will also be required when authorizing managed copies of Blu-ray movies that can be transferred on the home network.
So why should you get a Blu-ray? The answer is simple, High Definition Television (HDTV). If you’ve seen high definition video on a HDTV before, then you will know how crisp and sharp the pictures are and how vivid the colors are. In fact, HD offers 5 times more detail compared to the standard definition (SD).
Blu-ray devices can vary in price from $120 to $500, but you can always buy them wholesale and save a large amount of cash. This would be the safest option if you want to purchase Blu-ray, since you will not be taking a big gamble with your hard earned cash.
http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/artsentertainment/2009-04-05/is-blu-ray-worth-the-money
http://www.beamq.com/10mw-blue-violet-laser-pointers-p-18.html
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name given to the next generation in optical disc formats. It was jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). While current optical disc technologies such as the DVD and standard CD rely on a red laser to read and write data, Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser instead.
Blu-ray is currently being supported by 200 of the world’s leading electronics, personal computer, gaming, music and recording media companies. All Hollywood studios are supporting this format as the new HD format, and countless other smaller studios as well.
Many studios have already announced that they will be releasing feature films on the Blu-ray disc day-and-date with DVD, including a continuous array of catalog titles every month, as Blu-ray discs can fit a lot more data compared to CDs and DVDS, even though they are the same size. A single layer Blu-ray disc can store 25GB, while a dual layer stores up to 50GB.
An internet connection is not required to play Blu-ray movies, but it is required for value-added services, such as downloading new extras, watching recent movie trailers, web browsing and etc. It will also be required when authorizing managed copies of Blu-ray movies that can be transferred on the home network.
So why should you get a Blu-ray? The answer is simple, High Definition Television (HDTV). If you’ve seen high definition video on a HDTV before, then you will know how crisp and sharp the pictures are and how vivid the colors are. In fact, HD offers 5 times more detail compared to the standard definition (SD).
Blu-ray devices can vary in price from $120 to $500, but you can always buy them wholesale and save a large amount of cash. This would be the safest option if you want to purchase Blu-ray, since you will not be taking a big gamble with your hard earned cash.
http://www.kelseypub.com/blog/artsentertainment/2009-04-05/is-blu-ray-worth-the-money
http://www.beamq.com/10mw-blue-violet-laser-pointers-p-18.html
2009-04-03
Blu-Ray, The Technology Of The Future
BeamQ Blu-ray Laser Pointers , Cheap Laser Pointer
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), as well the special recorders and players that read and/or write to the new format, are for simplicity's sake all referred to as Blu-ray. The technology was jointly developed and standardized by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the industry umbrella organization comprising leading computer, consumer electronics and media makers Apple, Sharp, JVC, LG, TDK, Pioneer, Philips, Mitsubishi, Panasonic Samsung, Dell, Hitachi, HP, Sony, and Thomson.
Those of you who have not been following this "tech saga" may think the road to a "next-generation optical disc format" was smooth and straight. Not so. In fact, when the first movie titles were released on Blu-ray, in June of 2006, the press reported it as an attempt to catch up to HD-DVD, its rival and the market leader at the time. Home Media Retailing reported it this way:
As rival HD-DVD continues to make headway in the market, Blu-ray Disc, the next-generation optical-disc format supported by the lion's share of studios and consumer electronics manufacturers, makes its long-awaited - and oft-delayed - debut this week.
The first batch of seven Blu-ray titles, all from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, [is] scheduled to arrive in stores June 20. The first set-top Blu-ray player, from Samsung, is slated to go on sale June 25.
Of course, HD-DVD is nowhere to be found anymore, and Blu-ray stands alone as the new "next-generation" technology that empowers consumers to record, rewrite and play HD (high-definition) video. Even more, it offers huge amounts of storage space, more than five times as much as a standard DVD at 25GB on a single-layer disc, 50GB on a dual. This phenomenal capacity is matched by the high-quality, advanced video and audio "codecs" (compression/decompression processes) that deliver an unprecedented viewing and listening experience.
The color counts
At the time of Blu-ray's introduction, optical disc recorders writing such formats as DVD, DVD卤R, DVD卤RW and DVD-RAM all used red lasers for reading and writing data. The new Blu-ray technology uses a blue-violet laser, however, which is how it got its name. Because a blue-violet laser has a shorter wavelength (405nm, nanometers, or billionths of a meter) than a red one (650nm), the device can focus the laser much more precisely.
Manufacturing methods and material preparation continue to improve, as well, but it is the blue-violet laser's precision that enables it to "pack" more data in less space. The original optical disc, the CD, maxed out at 800MB, whereas the later DVD was able to get 4.6GB on one layer and 9GB on two. With the different colored laser and the other new processes, a BD can now hold 25GB/50GB. Engineers at Pioneer and other BDA member firms have reportedly push the storage capacity of a BD to 500GB and beyond, on one disc, by using as many as 20 layers.
The future is bright
Over 200 leading computer, consumer electronics, music, recording media and video game companies support the Blu-ray format. It also has solid support from the major Hollywood studios and the vast majority of the smaller ones. Blu-ray is the heir apparent to today's reigning DVD format, and many studios have taken to releasing feature films on BD "day-and-date" with DVD (Hollywood code for "at the same time"). Every month sees new titles released in this stunning new format, and the catalog of classic films is also growing steadily. The Internet is awash with sites and information about Blu-ray movies, from dedicated Blu-ray "movie review" pages that preview new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, to simple but comprehensive lists of what movies are presently available in the BD format.
As with any new technology, the first BD players were pricey. The very first unit debuted on June 25th, 2006, from Samsung. Its retail price tag was a staggering $999.99. The world was ready for the technology, however, as several generations of buyers have now grown up with digital technology. The comfort factor is high, the "technoliteracy" level is, too, and everyone seems to like a gorgeous, lifelike, color picture on the screen and surround sound over the speakers. This initial acceptance led to a rapid reduction in retail cost, of course. In February 2009, less that three years after the first unit rolled out at a thousand-dollar price point, tech news website DigiTimes reported the following:
Following an intensive price war to promote sales of Blu-ray Disc (BD) players amid international brands in the US and European markets prior to Christmas 2008, white-box vendors are likely to offer BD player models for sale at US$150 in 2009, according to the Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN).
In addition to white-box vendors, Lite-On IT, the largest Taiwan-based maker of half-height optical disc drives, plans to offer BD players also for sale at about US$150, EDN indicated.
Five million BD players were sold around the world in 2008 and the sales volume for this year will increase to 11 million units, EDN quoted [a] forecast by Taiwan-based Topology Research Institute as indicating.
The fact is, there are much greater advances in store for the future, with optical technology, flash memory, processors and all manner of other marvels. Blu-ray is no longer on the horizon, it is up close and personal, and can be in your living room for half the cost of the entry-level iPhone.
Blu-ray is only "the technology of the future" in a comparative sense, inasmuch as it is the closest thing to the future we now have, and incorporates advances that will certainly be integral parts of future devices that are now on the drawing board. Think of it this way: Considering how incredible the Blu-ray technology is, and how quickly such state-of-the-art capability got to the $150 price point, the devices coming off those drawing boards in the next year or two will be absolutely incredible!
Read it here
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), as well the special recorders and players that read and/or write to the new format, are for simplicity's sake all referred to as Blu-ray. The technology was jointly developed and standardized by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the industry umbrella organization comprising leading computer, consumer electronics and media makers Apple, Sharp, JVC, LG, TDK, Pioneer, Philips, Mitsubishi, Panasonic Samsung, Dell, Hitachi, HP, Sony, and Thomson.
Those of you who have not been following this "tech saga" may think the road to a "next-generation optical disc format" was smooth and straight. Not so. In fact, when the first movie titles were released on Blu-ray, in June of 2006, the press reported it as an attempt to catch up to HD-DVD, its rival and the market leader at the time. Home Media Retailing reported it this way:
As rival HD-DVD continues to make headway in the market, Blu-ray Disc, the next-generation optical-disc format supported by the lion's share of studios and consumer electronics manufacturers, makes its long-awaited - and oft-delayed - debut this week.
The first batch of seven Blu-ray titles, all from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, [is] scheduled to arrive in stores June 20. The first set-top Blu-ray player, from Samsung, is slated to go on sale June 25.
Of course, HD-DVD is nowhere to be found anymore, and Blu-ray stands alone as the new "next-generation" technology that empowers consumers to record, rewrite and play HD (high-definition) video. Even more, it offers huge amounts of storage space, more than five times as much as a standard DVD at 25GB on a single-layer disc, 50GB on a dual. This phenomenal capacity is matched by the high-quality, advanced video and audio "codecs" (compression/decompression processes) that deliver an unprecedented viewing and listening experience.
The color counts
At the time of Blu-ray's introduction, optical disc recorders writing such formats as DVD, DVD卤R, DVD卤RW and DVD-RAM all used red lasers for reading and writing data. The new Blu-ray technology uses a blue-violet laser, however, which is how it got its name. Because a blue-violet laser has a shorter wavelength (405nm, nanometers, or billionths of a meter) than a red one (650nm), the device can focus the laser much more precisely.
Manufacturing methods and material preparation continue to improve, as well, but it is the blue-violet laser's precision that enables it to "pack" more data in less space. The original optical disc, the CD, maxed out at 800MB, whereas the later DVD was able to get 4.6GB on one layer and 9GB on two. With the different colored laser and the other new processes, a BD can now hold 25GB/50GB. Engineers at Pioneer and other BDA member firms have reportedly push the storage capacity of a BD to 500GB and beyond, on one disc, by using as many as 20 layers.
The future is bright
Over 200 leading computer, consumer electronics, music, recording media and video game companies support the Blu-ray format. It also has solid support from the major Hollywood studios and the vast majority of the smaller ones. Blu-ray is the heir apparent to today's reigning DVD format, and many studios have taken to releasing feature films on BD "day-and-date" with DVD (Hollywood code for "at the same time"). Every month sees new titles released in this stunning new format, and the catalog of classic films is also growing steadily. The Internet is awash with sites and information about Blu-ray movies, from dedicated Blu-ray "movie review" pages that preview new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, to simple but comprehensive lists of what movies are presently available in the BD format.
As with any new technology, the first BD players were pricey. The very first unit debuted on June 25th, 2006, from Samsung. Its retail price tag was a staggering $999.99. The world was ready for the technology, however, as several generations of buyers have now grown up with digital technology. The comfort factor is high, the "technoliteracy" level is, too, and everyone seems to like a gorgeous, lifelike, color picture on the screen and surround sound over the speakers. This initial acceptance led to a rapid reduction in retail cost, of course. In February 2009, less that three years after the first unit rolled out at a thousand-dollar price point, tech news website DigiTimes reported the following:
Following an intensive price war to promote sales of Blu-ray Disc (BD) players amid international brands in the US and European markets prior to Christmas 2008, white-box vendors are likely to offer BD player models for sale at US$150 in 2009, according to the Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN).
In addition to white-box vendors, Lite-On IT, the largest Taiwan-based maker of half-height optical disc drives, plans to offer BD players also for sale at about US$150, EDN indicated.
Five million BD players were sold around the world in 2008 and the sales volume for this year will increase to 11 million units, EDN quoted [a] forecast by Taiwan-based Topology Research Institute as indicating.
The fact is, there are much greater advances in store for the future, with optical technology, flash memory, processors and all manner of other marvels. Blu-ray is no longer on the horizon, it is up close and personal, and can be in your living room for half the cost of the entry-level iPhone.
Blu-ray is only "the technology of the future" in a comparative sense, inasmuch as it is the closest thing to the future we now have, and incorporates advances that will certainly be integral parts of future devices that are now on the drawing board. Think of it this way: Considering how incredible the Blu-ray technology is, and how quickly such state-of-the-art capability got to the $150 price point, the devices coming off those drawing boards in the next year or two will be absolutely incredible!
Read it here
2009-04-02
2009-04-01
Manpackable Laser Weapons on the Way for U.S. Military's Future Soldiers?
There's a scene towards the end of the movie Congo (1995) where Laura Linney's character, Dr. Karen Ross, slices through an attack force of homicidal and generally-disagreeable grey gorillas with a diamond-based portable laser weapon like a Ginsu knife through a ripe tomato. It's scenes like this that excite the minds of U.S. military/DoD (Department of Defense) weapons developers, and encourage them to make them a reality. But lightweight, manpackable solid-state weapons-grade lasers a.k.a. weaponized lasers a.k.a. laser weapons have so far been relegated to the realms of science fiction and entertainment, but thanks to companies like Northrop Grumman and Boeing, they very well may become a reality in our lifetimes.
It's being reported that Northrop Grumman has successfully developed a seven-laser-chain 105.5 kW solid-state laser called "Firestrike" that's scalable up to 120 kW by adding an eigth chain. Firestrike's scalable "building-block" approach was apparently the...
The Firestrike high-power laser, a product of the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program, was tested at five minutes of of continuous operation, and has been operated for a total duration of 85+ minutes to date. During the 5-minute test, the laser achieved electro-optical efficiency of 19.3 percent (19.3%), and reached full power in less than 0.6 seconds. Beam quality was better than 3.0.
So, how does it work? Here's how Noah Shachtman of Wired Blog Network "Danger Room" fame explains it in his article Military Laser Hits Battlefield Strength (grammar-corrected):
In its lab, south of Los Angeles, Northrop combines 32 garnet crystal "modules" into "laser amplifier chains." Shine light-emitting diodes into 'em, and they start the laser chain-reaction, shooting out as much as 15 kilowatts of focused light. Combine all those beams into one, and you've got yourself a battlefield-strength ray.
While a 100-kilowatt (100kW) laser may have been the "proof of principle" sought for weapons-grade laser systems by DoD officials, a Northrop representative asserts that a 25-50kW laser has military utility, or as he/she puts it, is capable of "militarily useful effects, provided the laser has good beam quality, as Northrop's system does.
But, don't start counting your sliced, diced, and fricasseed enemy combatants just yet. Mr. Shachtman offers up this little nugget of celebration-mitigating buzzkill, er, caveat:
Does that mean energy weapons are a done deal? Hardly. There are still all sorts of technical issues--thermal management and miniaturization, to name two--that have to be handled first. Then, the ray gunners have to find the money. The National Academies figure it'll take another $100 million to get battlefield lasers right.
And, in the current economic climate, and with an anti-defense-spending White House, that $100 million might not be all that easy to come up with in a timely fashion. Then again, next to the gargantuan dollar numbers of Obama's mega-billion-dollar "stimulus" packages, $100 million does seem like a rather piddling sum for next-generation, paradigm-shift-level weapons tech. And, it's green (we think), which Obama should like.
DefenseReview is curious as to what the battery power solution will be. Adequate battery power has been a constant thorn in the side of all future soldier/warfighter-type R&D programs to date.
By the way, as we briefly alluded-to above, Boeing is reported to have used a ground-based "kilowatt-class" solid-state laser called "Laser Avenger" to shoot down a UAS/UAV (Unmanned Aircraft System/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) earlier this year. Previously, Laser Avenger's primary claim to fame was as an IED (Improvised Explosive Device)/unexploded munitions neutralizer.
But, getting back to manpackable weaponized lasers, it will be interesting to see if they pass Hague, who's perameters/restrictions the U.S. seems intent on following, even though we never signed on and we're currently fighting a subnational conflict against an enemy with no flag or uniforms. It's DefenseReview's opinion that if we ever achieve truly manpackable 100kw+ lasers, the deterrent value alone is worth fielding them, let alone the warfighter-survability aspects.
It's being reported that Northrop Grumman has successfully developed a seven-laser-chain 105.5 kW solid-state laser called "Firestrike" that's scalable up to 120 kW by adding an eigth chain. Firestrike's scalable "building-block" approach was apparently the...
The Firestrike high-power laser, a product of the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program, was tested at five minutes of of continuous operation, and has been operated for a total duration of 85+ minutes to date. During the 5-minute test, the laser achieved electro-optical efficiency of 19.3 percent (19.3%), and reached full power in less than 0.6 seconds. Beam quality was better than 3.0.
So, how does it work? Here's how Noah Shachtman of Wired Blog Network "Danger Room" fame explains it in his article Military Laser Hits Battlefield Strength (grammar-corrected):
In its lab, south of Los Angeles, Northrop combines 32 garnet crystal "modules" into "laser amplifier chains." Shine light-emitting diodes into 'em, and they start the laser chain-reaction, shooting out as much as 15 kilowatts of focused light. Combine all those beams into one, and you've got yourself a battlefield-strength ray.
While a 100-kilowatt (100kW) laser may have been the "proof of principle" sought for weapons-grade laser systems by DoD officials, a Northrop representative asserts that a 25-50kW laser has military utility, or as he/she puts it, is capable of "militarily useful effects, provided the laser has good beam quality, as Northrop's system does.
But, don't start counting your sliced, diced, and fricasseed enemy combatants just yet. Mr. Shachtman offers up this little nugget of celebration-mitigating buzzkill, er, caveat:
Does that mean energy weapons are a done deal? Hardly. There are still all sorts of technical issues--thermal management and miniaturization, to name two--that have to be handled first. Then, the ray gunners have to find the money. The National Academies figure it'll take another $100 million to get battlefield lasers right.
And, in the current economic climate, and with an anti-defense-spending White House, that $100 million might not be all that easy to come up with in a timely fashion. Then again, next to the gargantuan dollar numbers of Obama's mega-billion-dollar "stimulus" packages, $100 million does seem like a rather piddling sum for next-generation, paradigm-shift-level weapons tech. And, it's green (we think), which Obama should like.
DefenseReview is curious as to what the battery power solution will be. Adequate battery power has been a constant thorn in the side of all future soldier/warfighter-type R&D programs to date.
By the way, as we briefly alluded-to above, Boeing is reported to have used a ground-based "kilowatt-class" solid-state laser called "Laser Avenger" to shoot down a UAS/UAV (Unmanned Aircraft System/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) earlier this year. Previously, Laser Avenger's primary claim to fame was as an IED (Improvised Explosive Device)/unexploded munitions neutralizer.
But, getting back to manpackable weaponized lasers, it will be interesting to see if they pass Hague, who's perameters/restrictions the U.S. seems intent on following, even though we never signed on and we're currently fighting a subnational conflict against an enemy with no flag or uniforms. It's DefenseReview's opinion that if we ever achieve truly manpackable 100kw+ lasers, the deterrent value alone is worth fielding them, let alone the warfighter-survability aspects.
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