Damn. That really makes me wonder where to draw the line with these diodes... for instance I'm thinking that simply viewing the beam in thick fog (at night) might be enough to be a problem in the long term.
Now hold on here, they just used an IR (aka night vision) camera to track him down. This doesn't have anything to do with the IR emitted by his laser...
The video wouldn't play for me, but assuming it's the one on youtube where they blow up a watermelon, then I reckon it's fake as hell.
Evidence that it's fake:
YouTube - Re: Modern Binary Explosives
Hello. Nope I have not adjusted the diode power. It is overspec because of the rigorous testing LG does -- i.e. it's absolutely guaranteed to perform at its rated output, but in most circumstances it will perform better.
For some reason I find it hilarious that there's a book called The Blue Diode: The Complete Story!
Very tempted to buy a copy just so I could give it to somebody for a birthday present :D
Seriously though, I'm sure it's a very interesting read... but most (if not all) of it would be way over...