It is not so difficult to have your home laser show.
The idea of having your own laser show can seem a bit far-fetched, but just think about how cool it could be! It may sound hard to build, but an inventor named Geoff Milburn has come up with some easy instructions.
By using materials like a lab style laser, a diffraction grating, an old pair of headphones and a few electrical parts, the device can be fairly simple to put together. All you need to do is to be able to wire a few things here and there and also do a bit of soldering. But before you start, you should make sure to read up on laser safety.
General Motors Corp. researchers are working on a windshield that combines lasers, infrared sensors and a camera to take what’s happening on the road and enhance it, so aging drivers with vision problems are able to see a little more clearly. More at CNN.com
The first passenger plane equipped with a system to repel shoulder-fired missiles successfully completed its flight, a British defense and aerospace company announced Wednesday.
The system aims to protect against fire from missile launchers like these, which were used to fire at an Israeli plane.
Defense system was tested on an American Airlines flight that took off July 11, according to a statement from BAE Systems.
The plane flew from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport in California, the company said.
The JetEye system works by detecting the heat-seeking missiles and then firing a laser, which diverts the missile.
American Airlines refused to make the system mandatory on all trips but agreed to cooperate with the tests.
The flight represents the final phase of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Counter-Man-Portable Air Defense System program, designed to test the suitability of missile-protection equipment for commercial aircraft.
HOW do you study several thousand dinosaur footprints spread across 2 kilometres of a soft-rock outcrop at a slant of 60 degrees? Zap them with a laser.
The footprints, at the Fumanya site in the southern Pyrenees in Spain, record the passage of huge long-necked dinosaurs called titanosaurs across a muddy area about 70 million years ago. The problem is that the footprint layer is soft and crumbling, and climbing the steep surface could damage the tracks.
So Phil Manning of the University of Manchester, UK, and his team scanned the surface with LIDAR - a laser technique that maps features in a similar way to radar. The scanner and allied software generated a detailed 3D contour map of the surface and prints (Palaeontology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00789.x).
Radiohead just released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”.
No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.
Watch the making-of video to learn about how the video was made and the various technologies that were used to capture and render 3D data.
Canada. Armed with legal advice that the systems can be classified as warning devices, the Canadian military wants to proceed with the purchase of laser weapons designed to temporarily blind people.
But a group opposed to the purchase of the equipment says any use of the so-called “laser dazzlers” in Afghanistan violates international law and sets a dangerous precedent. Read more…
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents a new gallery installation by regional artist Nick Zammuto. Laser Show: Six Perspectives on a Chaotic Resonator focuses on the relationship between visual, aural, and physical vibration and its ability to carry information. The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 12. The artist will be at WCMA on Tuesday, July 22 at 2:00 pm to give a talk about his work. This is a free, public event and all are invited to attend. link
Twelve fixed PoliScanspeed systems designed by VITRONIC are to begin operation on state trunk and regional roads in summer 2008. The LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology and digital imaging technology provides speed enforcement on up to 3 lanes of traffic. The target of the Lithuanian authorities is to reduce the number of deaths caused as a result of unsafe speeds by 25% before 2010. Read more…
PILOTS have called for super-strong laser pens to be properly licensed after serious concerns were raised about incidents where pilots were briefly blinded by the gadgets.
Aviation bosses say they want the lasers, which breach UK safety limits on the strength of laser pens by as much as 200 times yet can cost as little as £10, to be treated in the same way as firearms following a close-call incident where passengers safety was threatened.
Last month the pilot of an easyJet flight into Edinburgh Airport was dazzled for more than ten seconds when someone flashed a green laser pen.
Security officers have arrested a man for directing the beam of a laser pointer at a Saudia aircraft while it was landing at Prince Muhammad Airport in Madinah. link
