I must be very lucky

[smogon_user]

I brought my 75 mW green laser to my friends house today and I shined it at the windows while inside (stupid I know) and it reflected directly into my left eye for a split second, afterwards I had a dull pain in my eye for about 5 minutes but luckily my vision seems to be completely unaffected. Has anyone else ever had something similar to this happen?

 

[ndrew2505]

the military use for green lasers is to intentionally shine in ppls eyes. as long as theres no ir leakage and its not prolonged exposure you should be ok. i think most of us have had moments like that tho.

 

[laserlover]

the military use for green lasers is to intentionally shine in ppls eyes. as long as theres no ir leakage and its not prolonged exposure you should be ok.

that is correct but the military unfocuses the lasers before they shine it at someone! therefore making the exposure less harmful!

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

A window would not reflect all of it into your eye, some of it would go through the window. I say that you got lucky, but just keep in mind that these things happen and I'm sure you don't want it to happen again..
Lesson:
Wear safety goggles! It doesn't matter how you look with them, I would rather look nerdy for a few minutes than have a blind spot in my eye for the rest of my life.

 

[RA_pierce]

as long as theres no ir leakage and its not prolonged exposure you should be ok.

IR leakage wont do sh+t.

Windows reflect only about 8% so you only got hit with 6-10mW at most.
But still, reflective objects are bad.

 

[Justin]

the military use for green lasers is to intentionally shine in ppls eyes. as long as theres no ir leakage and its not prolonged exposure you should be ok. i think most of us have had moments like that tho.

This is completely wrong. Depending on the range and power of the laser in question, a 0.1 sec exposure could be sufficient to do permanent eye damage. Just because the military does it to people does not make it safe. Now, in this particular case you're probably okay because the power is only 75mW and the reflection from the window will be a low percentage of the total power, but don't give people the wrong idea about laser safety. Getting a laser in your eye is never okay.

 

[Foobario]

Just because the military does it to people does not make it safe.

Hehe.... understatement? They are pretty much diametrically opposed to 'safe', they exist specifically to do unsafe things.

I've been hit with a crowd-control laser... it was the first green laser I ever saw. The Portland cops started a riot (they do this sometimes) downtown in the same block the light-rail dropped me off from work. They were out in full riot gear, bristling with their favorite toys (though they later claimed they were just minding their own business when some hippies jumped them... they never explained how or why they happened to be minding their own business in SWAT gear in a downtown square). I saw a cop on a horse taser a hippie girl, saw another cop taser the first cop's horse (pretty sure he was aiming for the hippie girl's boyfriend), then saw nothing but green sparklies when I got hit with a 'dazzler'.

I don't know exactly what they do, but it's not just the power that gets you - it's modulated weirdly too, so you see flashes and shapes and colors. I was fascinated, but also pretty much rooted to the ground because 3 directions led to angry cops and the other led into traffic and I couldn't see a damn thing for about two minutes.

Later I read about these being used by the military, but the only times I've seen them mentioned on the news (plus a Youtube video I think) they never show the 'dazzling', they just show a constant beam.

 

[diachi]

I brought my 75 mW green laser to my friends house today and I shined it at the windows while inside (stupid I know) and it reflected directly into my left eye for a split second, afterwards I had a dull pain in my eye for about 5 minutes but luckily my vision seems to be completely unaffected. Has anyone else ever had something similar to this happen?

The window only reflects 10-20% of the light AT MOST anyway so the most you could have gotten in your eye would be like 7.5-30mW, which is generally safe for shorter exposures .

 

[hydrogenman15]

I think that the reflection is like one 1/10 the output so 75/10=7.5mws but don't
quote me on that.

--hydro15

 

[diachi]

yeah 1/10 is 10%

Granted its an X-75 it probably outputs 80-90mW Avg. It depends on the glass what the reflectiveness is though, some glass is different, I'd say mines reflects about 20%, probably because it's so damn old and dirty (Hey, thats like ridin' dirty, or white and nerdy ).

 

[VillageIdiot]

as long as theres no ir leakage and its not prolonged exposure you should be ok.

Just be glad Justin beat me to it. That's quite an ignorant statement.