Laser light is literally making us sick!!!

Hey there laser pointer forum. My friend and I are making this laser light halloween display. It's really elaborate and cool and we are spending a lot of time on it. However we are experiencing a very weird and unexpected problem: the laser light it making us nauseous! All three of us. The laser light is coming from a small laser projector thing, that is used to make crazy patterns of laser light on the walls, floors, etc. We are not looking directly into the lasers. We're just looking at the patterns on the walls and stuff. Well it's literally making us sick. And after only a couple of minutes, maybe 10 minutes at most. Weird! Anyone else have this problem? How can we prevent it?

Welcome to the forums...

Maybe wear goggles?
Edit; Nevermind, I was busy and didnt read the whole question.
Keep lights on when using the projector?

Well, I would say its kinda like sea sickness but reversed. Your eyes are seeing movement but the liquid balance in your ears is not picking it up so it creates an imbalance which makes you dizzy.

Try keeping the environment lit brightly and/or wear safety goggles. Besides, wearing safety goggles can make you look like a mad professor and that would be good for halloween

TuhOz said:

Welcome to the forums...

Maybe wear goggles? It should help

Click to expand...

Jesus.

YES, wear goggles so you apsolutely do not see any laser projected patterns intentionally designed to do nothing but to look pretty, i.e. be LOOKED AT.

No offense, nothing personal, but what's with you? If you're handing out advice to newcomers, maybe make sure the advice given is actually advice, or at least somewhat-speculative guess based on common sense.

Sorry for rant, now, back on topic:

Rockworthy, you're not the first one to report being nauseous after seeing lasers - it's rare but it's been reported before. As far as I know, nobody figured out what's wrong, same lasershow that people watch for hours, makes a couple sick after 10 minutes. Best guess was that it's somewhat related to "motion sickness", watching at the dots or patterns messes with your sense of balance and orientation.

Do you get sea-sick maybe (as in, getting sick while travelling via ferry or boat)? Have another person watch the same thing with the two of you, somebody you know isn't getting motion sickness easily, see if it's related.
Do you also get the same feeling when playing around with regular pointers?

I'm sorry but I cannot be of any more help

Lilbit weird that he sais ( All three of us )

Sounds like motion sickness to me too. Brighter light around should 'fix' your brain from thinking it's moving. Try watching 10 minutes of fixed pattern .. that shouldn't cause any problems. On the other hand maybe even your scanner is so slow that blinking alone could be unpleasant. But then again, lot of light around would help.

Eudaimonium said:

Jesus.

YES, wear goggles so you apsolutely do not see any laser projected patterns intentionally designed to do nothing but to look pretty, i.e. be LOOKED AT.

No offense, nothing personal, but what's with you? If you're handing out advice to newcomers, maybe make sure the advice given is actually advice, or at least somewhat-speculative guess based on common sense.

Click to expand...

That was just a suggestion...
I said "maybe use goggles" :na:

But you're right, I was busy when I made that post, I didnt read the question so well.

Back to OP;
Maybe just use low OD-rated goggles so you can see the patterns... I dont mean any OD4+ rated goggles, I mean cheapy goggles (or sunglasses...?), or keep lights on when using the projector.
But im not sure, hopefully someone more talented person can help you :beer:

Rockworthy said:

Hey there laser pointer forum. My friend and I are making this laser light halloween display. It's really elaborate and cool and we are spending a lot of time on it. However we are experiencing a very weird and unexpected problem: the laser light it making us nauseous! All three of us. The laser light is coming from a small laser projector thing, that is used to make crazy patterns of laser light on the walls, floors, etc. We are not looking directly into the lasers. We're just looking at the patterns on the walls and stuff. Well it's literally making us sick. And after only a couple of minutes, maybe 10 minutes at most. Weird! Anyone else have this problem? How can we prevent it?

Click to expand...

My guess is motion sickness and not directly caused by the Laser
emitted light....

Try this if you can... just turn on the Laser without any patterns...
only a single beam dot on a wall that does not move.

If your sick felling goes away then it was due to motion sickness.
If you experience the same sick feeling with just the Laser dot on
the wall then there may be another cause...


Jerry

No doubt sea sickness. Just pray you don't have some pokemon-ish seizure! The most surefire method to prevent it is to turn the machine off.

Try keeping the lights on in the room while the device is operating. If there are no other lights in the room it intensifies that apparent loss of reference that can induce motion illness.

You're sure it's not just the booze?

Otherwise I'd go for the above.

I have no issues watching my projector for hours...
Try keeping the lights on that will lower the intensity of the lasers compared to the ambient lighting and will make your body less likely to react to it...
Also could be something to do with scan rate, laser power etc... What hardware are you using?

It could also be epilepsy. The likelihood that both would have such a condition is pretty low, but it's possible that one legitimately does, and the other is getting sick by suggestion / placebo.

Perhaps your allergic to lasers.

TuhOz said:

Welcome to the forums...

Maybe wear goggles? It should help

Click to expand...

That would defeat the whole purpose of a light show, not to mention that a projector is many different wavelengths.

Is that just the magical answer to everything now? wear safety goggles?

Mohrenberg said:

That would defeat the whole purpose of a light show, not to mention that a projector is many different wavelengths.

Is that just the magical answer to everything now? wear safety goggles?

Click to expand...

Might not be multiple WLs... some are monochrome projectors...

No one wears goggles while using projectors as intended that's kinda silly..
I wear goggles when I am using it up close for long periods to relieve strain on my eyes but other than that I don't... Also they aren't going to have goggles for the people coming in that see the thing...

Mohrenberg said:

Is that just the magical answer to everything now? wear safety goggles?

Click to expand...

You didn't get the memo? Just wear a pair of these and you're all set, doesn't matter what the problem is, they will fix it!



As for the OP... see if the laser is pulsed, or continuous wave. I find rapidly flashing LED to be very annoying/nauseating personally, depending on the speed.