THE ISSUE WITH GREEN LASER POINTERS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Some green laser pointers not only emit a bright green beam but also invisible radiation at a hazardous level!
How do we make invisible radiation visible and how do you test your laser for this? Let's find out!
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Hi! Thanks for all the questions on this video. Here's the follow-up video th-cam.com/video/r3V5PzTDP7E/w-d-xo.html where I answer some of your questions:
- Is it really invisible, when the 808 nm is so visible to the camera?
- Is the infrared a problem, if I just avoid the green beam hiding the infrared?
- Will safety glasses protect against the infrared beam?
you're music is awesome!
so can you give us links to some cheaper but with IR light filter lasers or can we just tape one on laser itself
I was thinking that might be a way to deal with some lighting effect projectors that have green lasers in them that may or may not be safe..
XM360 sent me here ... and now you have a new sub :-)
Er du fra Danmark. Det lyder sådan på din accent
Another important note regarding cheap unfiltered green lasers: Sometimes you may drop one and suddenly it no longer outputs green light. However, you notice that it produces a faint red glow when you push the button. As tempted as you may be, DO NOT look into the laser to see the red light more closely, as this could mean the crystals that produce the green light have been knocked out of alignment and it is now outputting pure IR.
Oh, i did exactly that
My cheap green laser did this to me when i dropped it. speck of white powder came out the lens and noticed it still melted electrical tape without the visible beam. As much as I love stealthy, invisible things, this was clearly way too dangerous to keep. Disassembled and recycled. Please people do not try to save a buck, go with a different color or go with a higher grade!
I ended up doing this as a kid. Now several years later I've known why.. and I kick myself every time I see talk of it.
wow! do you have any noticeable eye damage? that horrible
Chris Perry Just hit it with a sledgehammer
I have a spot on my retina of my right eye (not central to my vision thank god, it’s off in my peripheral vision) from one of these cheap green lasers.
It was rated at 10mW, but it was actually 330mW (measured at a laser lab a friend had access to) and it emitted most of that in the IR spectrum. It burned my retina through green laser safety goggles faster than I could blink, and was only partially reflected off a glass cup.
Heed this man’s warnings, buy only quality lasers and eye protection, and don’t play around with them, I learned my lesson the hard way.
Good to know it wasn't in the center of your retina, but still a clear example of the seriousness of this issue. Thanks for sharing your story.
My "
soupisgdfood:
I recall popular TH-camr "PHOTONICINDUCTION" was playing with lasers and accidentally burned his camera's image sensor. So lucky it wasn't his mate's eye. A classic reminder of this accident is his MANY subsequent videos in which WE SEE DEAD SPOTS IN THE IMAGE! The guy is a pro, but one moment in time is all it takes, as you discovered. Thanks for sharing. Maybe I'll buy the expensive eye protection if my neighbors kids show up with lasers.
Also the crystals used in 532nm lasers lose their properties at low temperatures.
0°C is enough to make the laser appear as if it's not working any more, but it actually still works and emits only IR.
This is very dangerous because people will sometimes try to confirm that the laser is not working by looking directly into it.
More people should know about this, would be nice if you made a video about this effect.
+Francois Deshue how are you typing?
8:46 When your laser pointer is so powerful it needs a fan.
This is dangerous not funny
@@shadybandit7 Lighten up maybe?
@@astrick1768 AHAHAH
Thanks for opening my eyes to how dangerous cheap lasers are. Good job 👍
As a laser hobbyist thank you for doing this video. I have two pairs of professional grade laser safety glasses that cover most wavelengths that cost me about $125US each after a group buy discount. Expensive yes, but last I knew I couldn't order a new eye from Amazon even with Prime. A word of warning unless they've changed the glasses Wicked Lasers included with their 445nm (and likely others) were a joke and offered next to no protection. One of my "5mw" green pens is like the first two you tested and metered 50mw on my LPM but when I filtered out the 532nm I found that ~35mw of it was IR which didn't surprise me one bit. Also not surprised your units from Laserglow are properly filtered. They're a quality company with quality products and the prices reflect that. This video reminds me I need to get my argon-ions out and give them a workout soon but it's been miserably hot here lately.
LtKernelPanic hey I've been looking everywhere for advice on my laser, it's a 405 1000mh I think and I reversed the polarity on it first day because I'm an amateur, what would I need to repair it? Or do you think I should just buy a new one?
I’m glad I came across this video. I recently found a green laser pointer laying around in the grass at a park and just brought it home. It looks identical to the first couple green lasers you used, except this one says the maximum output power is < 20000mW.
This video is a lifesaver
Finder's keepers, don't lose your peepers!
😁😁😁
Seriously, these readily available unchecked green laser pointers are nothing but trouble. Especially seeing as how they usually end up in the hands of people who should not be handling them at all. (I don't mean you, obviously.)
These really cheap green laser pointer usually ends up in a child hand they can make everyone blind
Yup. I use lasers of the IR variety for my day job, and we treat them as weapons, same as anything else. It's frightening how many times I've seen morons play with them like lightsabers until they were literally tackled.
I tell people that aren't generally around them that if they wouldn't point a machine gun being shot at their friends, they probably shouldn't point the laser that will melt their eyes at them, either.
But they are so fun to point at planes flying overhead. I'm joking but I have actually seen lasers hitting the belly of an airline plane coming in for a landing before a fireworks show near an airport.
Warning: Do not look directly into laser beam with remaining eye.
Recently I'm clicking videos of specific things that interest me and it just so happens to almost always be this channel! Subscribed and thank you for good content. Your approach is refreshing and original.
Sometimes you’ll see brake discs glowing purple in video footage, such as pit stops, it’s the camera picking up the near infrared.
Sometimes you see brake discs glowing yellow with your bare eyes.
Sebas Eu that's why you use IR diodes when using those cameras. For humans it's dark but for camera it's brighter than day
isn't heat IR?
EXcentriX it’s complicated. It can be.
@@Sypaka IR is a way of transmitting heat. Heat has conduction. Convection and radiation, IR would be the heat radiating from the source.
Thank you for spreading awareness of this!
I've had a green argon laser shot in to my left eye twice in the last two months, but it wasn't an accident: I had a torn retina that needed repairs to prevent retinal detachment. It wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of IR coming out of that one, since the surgeon described what she did as "spot-welding"!
Oh wow, how did it go?
OK, I suppose. The first time they did quite a lot (~ 600 pulses, they said), and my eye looked horrible for weeks - all red. The second time was much shorter, patching up some areas they missed the first time round. That was two weeks ago: it's going to take some time for the "floaters" to clear.
PS edit: as for why it happened, it's a known risk in people like me who are very myopic (short-sighted) - so I need to watch my other eye for problems too.
+Brian T Good to hear that! It's better to fix the problem before it's late.
lol "floaters" never go away dude. There is a surgery for that but its somewhat risky. Ive had floaters for at least 15 years, and they are never getting better.
+Andrew I’ve had some floaters for years too, but because of what happened they’re much worse than normal. I have been told that most will go away. I don’t want a vitrectomy if that’s what you mean: everything I’ve heard about that sucks horribly for weeks, and then you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a cataract in a few years. Nope.
I was always scared of lasers, mostly because my dad, a scientist who worked with them, explained to me how dangerous they are. The problem is that almost no one else knows about the danger. Children use them as toys, even purposefully directing the laser at other people's eyes.
This should be a required viewing at elementary schools.
I feel so stupid because as a kid I used to point lasers at my siblings eyes for fun and they used to do the same, luckily it was a cheap $1 laser and I still have 20/20 vision.
I've never actually seen an inverse-Stokes fluorescence upconversion phosphor! I've only ever seen the normal visible light charged ones that are pushed out of their metastable state by the IR. Apparently the very first visible leds weren't red gallium arsenide phosphide but just the original infrared GaAs diodes with a dab of this green upconversion phosphor on it! Barely visible though for obvious reasons of abysmal efficiency. I would love to see a video explaining the difference in types of "light upconversion" from metastable phosphor excitation, to second harmonic frequency generation, to true phosphor upconversion (whose actual physical mechanism I can't remember right now!). I don't think anyone else has done a video on that yet.
Yes, it is quite nice. Fluorescence is not limited to the usual UV-->VIS conversion. I don't know enough about it (yet) to make a video, but I'm interested in it and may look further into it. All I know right now is, that the phosphor on the green card is an 'yttrium-ytterbium-erbium compound'. Thanks for watching!
Really? You mean all three of the elements that came out of the Ytterby mine? What a coincidence!
Eric Lloyd All three? I'm pretty sure (but not absolutely certain) that the first half dozen or so lanthanides came from that mine
Sam Musson I misspoke - I meant the three that were *named* for the Ytterby mine. I stand corrected.
Big words
I use my military grade infrared laser refractor lenses with my military gas mask when handling chemicals and lasers.
BlinGames sorry bud military grade just means it was made by the lowest bidder.
I've got one of those blue lasers, fun to play with in a canyon, I don't don't turn it on in enclosed areas. Once I tried burning a hole in a box with the safety glasses on well it didn't do anything to the box but it did burn a hole in the plastic backing on a desk I had the box on. Left me the impression they can be quite dangerous to the eyes.
>5mW laser pointers are treated like guns and other weapons in Australia since 2011. We had a spate of idiots shining cheap green lasers at aircraft and dazzling pilots.
Same in (kinda) all Scandinavian countries, but there's not a huge crackdown on the lasers, cinse I can get them easily through customs
Australia is a shitshow so this isn't much of a surprise.
It's very distracting i have copped 2 at the same time while driving. From a long distance the laser dot is the size of a dinner plate on the car. I'm not surprised they are banned from being imported.
@@jaqq333
Portugal is a shithole compared to Australia. So many Porkandcheese people coming back here after moving back there because of the sinking economy. I can insult Portugal because I am of Portuguese heritage. Foda se
I love the people saying that you shouldn't look directly into the laser. That's excellent advice of course. It is important to also not look at indirectly reflected laser light, such as off matte surfaces. Extremely high powered lasers can cause instant damage with even from reflections off matte surfaces like wood or paper. Also the difference in wavelength between the green and IR will often cause the IR to be unfocused, so if you irradiate your eye it could be curtains for your whole retina.
In most cases the fast divergence and minimal residual NIR, the density is low and would take a direct hit and or specular reflection to inflict damage. I did several measurements years back and typically saw less than 5mW of 808/1064nm combined. In units utilizing a class 4 pump diode they usually ship with a filter. Though be careful none the less...
Your videos are always great.
Great work! I love that u added KSP background music
I love your videos & your voice. Thanks for your work!
Thank you for this video. I'm sure you saved someone's sight.
great video as always brainiac
Thanks for proposing other options than just buying expensive layers to solve the problem. This make me trust you more because I felt you weren’t just trying to advertise for more expensive lasers but actually looking for solutions. Hope that made sense
Brainiac75 you got me thinking. Right after you shared this video I posted a link to the cat forum I am part of . That way cat lovers can make sure to hot damage the eyes of there pets.
One thing I need to check on is some of the Christmas laser projectors. Most came from Costco but you know that they were "Made In China". I doubt that the buyer knew what to look for.
So it's time I got the tools and tested these things to be sure that they are safe to use. Thank You for the video.
There are better ways to entertain a cat anyway. Not only are lasers potentially dangerous to their eyes, there's also no reward/success for the cat.
By making a cat chase something, you trigger their hunting instinct. It's okay to make them lose the chase every now and then, but similar to dogs, they NEED to win sometimes in order to not get frustrated.
It's like playing a game yourself, if you keep losing forever, you're more likely to lose interest, but if you overcome a challenge you will get in a better mood immediately
So basically the main risk from this is when you point your laser on a dark surface, you will have some reflection that you cannot see?
Because as I understand it in all other cases the green is mixed with the infrared and you will see the reflected beam / watch out more.
Oh and regular laser safety glasses wont block infrared I guess.
Sort of. To copy my answer to someone else:
Notice how the infrared dot on the card is larger than the actual green beam's diameter. The infrared is spread a little more than the green beam.
Also, infrared can be reflected better than visible light on some surfaces. Worst case scenario is someone shining the laser through a modern window which can have an infrared reflective coating to keep heat in/out of the building. In this case, the green beam will go through the window while all the infrared is reflected back. Maybe into someone's eye and they don't notice until it's too late because it's invisible. Invisible beams are always a problem since you don't really know where they are and don't react or blink when they hit your eye (until it's too late...). Thanks for watching!
Ah got it, have to keep that in mind with my cheap chinese laser. Thanks for the answer!
That, and the IR can be orders of magnitude higher power, instant eye damage levels, even when the green isn't.
I was watching some presentations today, and when I saw someone pull out a green laser pointer, I felt less bad about falling asleep.
I worked at a planetarium that had been running laser shows for decades (at the time it was the longest running in N. America) and the laser bench had been created (the newest one) by someone who is now a giant in the laser entertainment industry. Although our 10W mixed-gas white laser wasn’t supposed to emit IR, WE *_still_* had multiple IR filters as the first optics in the (really quite beautiful) train.
Oh my god! Thank you for this video. I was just messing around with a cheap green laser pointer without any awareness of damaging my eyes. But now I know what it might lead to. Thank you so much!
Someone accidentally flashed me right in the eye with one of these, not sure how powerful it is, I can just tell you that in the late evening you can actually see the beam very clearly, so it seems pretty powerful. It was also a very cheap one. As far as I can tell, no damage was done. Took a minute for my vision to return to normal though. It quickly crossed paths with my eye as he was waving it, so it was over with before I closed that eye and turned my head, had someone intentionally aimed for my eye it would have been worse.
so if i buy a infrared pass filter and take long exposure photos outside. it should in theory be the world as seen in IR?
alto camera lenses normal have an IR block on the front
I got so stoned... started the video.. & got about 3 minutes in until I realized I was watching an ad the whole time.
There was an article in the _New Yorker_ a year or two ago about some joker from the Bronx who thought it was great fun to shine a high-powered laser pointer at approaching aircraft. The police located the apartment where it came from by flying a police helicopter so as to resemble an airliner on final approach. The guy who lived there was in big trouble (the police having found the laser on his refrigerator), until his brother-in-law, who had been sleeping on his couch, confessed.
So basically, don't be lazy with lasers?
Brilliant video.i had one of those cheap unbranded lasers and gave myself some eye damage. I was not looking directly into the laser but using exactly how it meant to be used which is pointing at building defects mainly. Took a while for my eye to heal a small dim dot in the center of right eye. I tell every one to throw them away. Especially if they have children.
This is good to know, i really dont like using mine anymore, i have accidently had a direct reflecitoin into my eyes, and got
blurry vision for a few minutes till my eyes reajusted
Very interesting and well organized video. Thank You. Lasers were respected when i was in school, but thanks to China getting the price point so low that every idiot can afford one, laser devices have left university labs and professional environments, and become "novelty devices". One innocent misdirection of a laser might permanently harm vision of myself, friends or family. This video is reminder of that.
hightttech - Someone beaming a green laser (or any of the highly visible colors) nearby aircraft, whether intentional or not, will lead to an investigation and odds are, jail. So with the low price point, that's a hazard we gotta think about too with them and kids.
Sure, blame everything on China, the laser-buying idiots don't live in China though, hmm.
IR is the bigger issue witch is invisible and you don't detect until its to late
Runze Liu Pretty sure China has a domestic market too.
In the least criticizing way possible, what's the point of buying such expensive and powerful laser? What do you do after shining it around a couple minutes and saying "wow that's bright."?
Why do people collect Beanie Babies, stamps, matchbox cars and Lego kits. Why do people shoot firearms for fun? Why collect swords or knives? Just because something is unappealing or apparently meaningless for you... I think you can see where I'm going to finish that sentence.
@Kilo Byte Congratulations on being a contrarian.
@Kilo Byte No, but you're certainly an idiot. I cite as supporting evidence your two replies. One in which by being contrary you weakened my initial point, the second in which you made a value judgement against my character erroneously because I didn't like your first. Your first was un-necessary and your second doesn't make sense, since if I was a "liberal", I likely wouldn't have included shooting in my example of things that other people don't understand.
Now fuck off. You utter, utter dickhead.
@@UnitSe7en Bud, you are wasting your time arguing with an ignorant person.
@@VagueMemory And that's why I'm not. My political values have nothing at all to do with the point and I refused to reply to an argumentative, inane question.
Is it possible to put two spheres, on top of each other?
Better yet, can you put a square peg in a round hole?
At 2:05, you can see that the KTP crystal doubles the frequency so that the wavelength halves from 1064nm to 532nm. The KTP doesn't just produce the second harmonic, it also produces the third harmonic as well so, in addition to 1064 (IR) and 532 (vis) there is also 355nm (UV) and if you shine the green laser at something that fluoresces (preferably not green), it will fluoresce in the UV light from the KTP 3rd harmonic.
Where can I buy the glasses? Does it protect against green, Red, and purple lasers?
Gotta love the KSP music at 8:52 XD
By the way, the emission of IR remote controls is purple because all consumer cameras have built-in IR-filter. It cuts 700-750 nm and bigger amp up to 950-1000 nm and some of IR-transmitter emission goes through stimulating all 3 receiving diode types. But display should show something to you and it chooses mix from visible lengths, mixing 480 and 600 nm in this case, or mostly red and blue which your eye interprets as purple.
can we get the link to the glasses you bought. thanks
What brand are those glasses? I need them!!
Can you link to the glasses you have? I want to get a pair for my own safety.
TH-cam recommended me this video and I watched it, because I once saw in a flee market a green laser pointer that called my attention but I didn't buy it, thank god, if you didn't make and I didn't watch this video I could have hurt someone, I subscribed to you now, if I ever buy a laser to play with I will be prepared thanks to you, I'll be careful and informed in the future.
Thanks for saving what little eyesight I have left...I was going to buy one of those green beams to play around with. Not if just the reflection of an invisible freq can cook my retina in an instant. Risk/reward ratio all wrong. Thanks..you saved a bunch of eyes with this!
All I can do is click a like sadly. I did that though with great joy. You are great man and I wish your channel grows exponentially! Keep up the great work and thank you!
Product references and links? Please share the names and models of the specific safety products you mention in this video. Specifically include the laser safety goggles and the testing cards and filters. Surely, I’m not the only one who would like to safely test the green laser that I’ve purchased.
Nice video, crystal clear content, pacing is terrific!
1:20 Everything with a temperature above 0K emits infrared radiation.
Technically speaking yes, but practically speaking no. Objects have to get up around 100K before they start emitting enough IR to be detectable against cosmic background radiation.
An undetected glow is still a glow is still a glow.
When I was learning to weld, I could take a hunk of metal that was glowing brightly red hot, take it outside in the sunlight and the glow would vanish. It was still red hot, but the sunlight would make it invisible.
As I said before, you are _technically correct,_ but your original comment -- that anything above 0K emits IR radiation -- is _not especially important_ in daily life. Anything below about 330K can't possibly burn you even from direct physical contact, much less from emitted IR radiation.
@@erictaylor5462 tytit77o8ai7070 on
I like and appreciate all your content thank you for producing this for us all. Cheers
To be honest, I actually like infrared leakage, it's cool having some nice 808/1064 nm light.
Respecting the eyes. Love it
At school in physics class we were using a powerful laser and hadn't been warned about them. I was just about to look down the beam when the teacher slammed down his metre rule and shouted louder than I thought was possible. That wasn't the last time I nearly met with catastrophic injury in science class. There was this time with a 1 farad capacitor ..........
I really want a high powered laser!! They sound really interesting.
Yay I’m 7th lol
They are amazing when they reach the power level where you can see the beam mid-air without using any fog, smoke etc. A 50 mW green 532 nm laser is actually enough for this in a dark room. Just wish they weren't an eye-hazard 8)
would be nice if you included links to the ir cards and the filters you talk about.
It isn't super hard to make the "sky high" efficiency filters. They are likely Dichroic filters.
Very cool, had no idea the risk they carried. Thank you for educating me. :)
Forgive my ignorance. What is the danger posed by a laser pointer emitting infrared radiation? Heat? Or something more sinister?
Now the question remains, why do you need these? On a side note i've always been careful with laser pointers turning them off before they 'hopefully' hit someone's vision, even the cats that usually play with it, i always avoid the eyes.
Fantastic accurate testing!
Hi, great informational video. I calibrate and repair construction lasers and there are green ones being more popular that 20 years ago that when I started doing this. I assume they are safer that the new pocket laser pointer type stuff but I would like to see you test them. I work with brands like Spectra/Trimble, Leica, Topcon and Laser Reference. Most of them have IR, red or Green units. It would be very interesting to see the results.
I'm learning that these "5 mW" green lasers from Amazon, eBay, etc. are actually a lot more powerful than the label says, maybe more like 50 mW. How safe is it to look at the laser spot on a wall, or say, a match head while trying to light it? Is just looking at this bright spot enough to cause eye damage?
I was thinking how the green light is way more dangerous as it's more energetic. But then i realized you were talking about when you wear a green filter...
Those ir cards are really cool. I didn't know they existed!
I'm really loving your videos!
Thank you :D
Thank you for this heads up, infra red is more dangerous than most realise, as it burns to the back of the eye
and not just the surface as does ultraviolet, like welders "arc eye" which one can recover from quickly (24 hours)
Lasers is cool, but what use do you have for a big handheld laser? The only use I can see for lasers are when they are mounted to something to do some sort of measurement or precise operation, the only time I see a use for a kind of laser is as a pointer or a cat toy, but those do not need to be real lasers and are often better if they are rather weak.
It is very worrying that people sell lasers that are far more powerful than stated, and then also have IR not filtered out as you'd expect.
This is a very informative and clear video, i loved it!
I enjoyed your channel and descriptive language you used :) subbed, very nice braniac
After seeing this and pointing my remote at a wall which the TV will somehow detect, I’m just gone assume that infrared reflects off of anything; I’m no longer using my green laser pointer
What a great, professional video. Thanks.
IR radiation is that what allows the lazers to burn things or is that just a super focused lazer?
Photographer here.
Also should be noted that when playing around with lasers, like our eyes, one should not point it straight into camera. The sensor can take damage from it and every photo/video you take afterwards will have glitchy stripes in em. One of my mates camera took literally one quick swipe off a concert stage laser and it was all it took to basically make that (very expensive) cam useless. Take care!
Love the Kerbal Space Program music at the end.
Really cool and interesting. I had no clue about this.
We have come to a point where ALL videos about anything uses that same KSP music... I know, it's royalty free, but it gets old at some point.
Hi Brainiac75, nice vid. I´d like to know how this Ir leak compares with normal Ir emission from daylight. Is it really an issue to worry about, or is this Ir leakage just as powerful as regular Ir emission we handle with every day?
I purchased a laser pointer online for $290 plus another $60 for the power source, and it will burn anything you point it at. UK techs sure know how to build them very powerful✌
The man loves his lasers!
That was very informative and helpful. Thank you.
Are the cheap red ones as dangerous? Where I'm from I rarely see green ones, but the red ones still worry me.
What causes the orange glow on the paper @ 6:50? It looks like the IR filter is reflecting the blue laser but something is getting past and lighting up the paper.
0:17 this reminds me of the scooby doo film series u know the OLD one where shaggy made those faces and they would unmask a guy
the IR block filter is just a piece of glass, wonder how much you spent on that one.
Great experiment
Love the accent, reminds me of Gert Fröbe in "Goldfinger"...
Oh my God its tooo awesome sir. Thanks a lot .
Can I use that IR filter over a green laser to make an IR weapon aiming laser that I can only see with night vision?
Some idiots actually fool around with lasers.
What's worse is that they are not only endangering their eyes, but also other people's too.
This is alarming. Thanks.
Is there any efficient protective filter to place on a Sony camcorder to avoid burning the CMOS (black or white dots) sensor each time shooting a laser music show ?
Not just digital cameras, but even analog video cameras. It doesn't have anything to do with if the signal is digital or analog.
Would it be possible to get a link or a make and model on those Honeywell Safety glasses?