Do the math. His 2-5 visible CW watts into a 5 foot cone into 25 foot is well above NOHD at one step forward into the beam at two and blows the NOHD everywhere at five watts. Without proper conditioning of the beam, it will have hot spots. Do not assume that less then two watts is safe, either. There is a probability curve for when the damage will occur.
NOHD is a statistical probability. The closer you get to the high end of it, the more likely you are to do actual damage.
Most laser safety and optical thresholds are calculated not to ensure any damage of all, but to have a low probability of damage occuring. NOHD is the one where the probability of damage is close to unity, ie will occur.
Ie, A 1 in 10,000 chance of some damage or death might be acceptable to Law Enforcement in a emergency. A 1 in 100,000 chance of death might be acceptable when doing off road racing.
I didn't come up with Batman. But I do sort of approve. When he asked me if I wished I could have upped the power, that is the clue that something is not quite right. I would not have needed increased power at all. In fact there is a clever technique to reduce it down to milliwatts. Scanning is one such way.
I have spent plenty of time in Less then Lethal land. Both Audio and Visual. Got to take a hit of nearly everything LTL but the Millimeter Wave. My boss tried it for me. Stood down range of my own optical and auditory products, too.
Primary requirement in that line of work, you are your own test monkey.
So are we going to take this thread so far as to teach people how far they can push eye exposure? On a forum mainly about having fun with pointers. Occupied mainly by young people who , for the most part, do not have the test gear, nor the product engineering experience to ensure safe guards?
This forum is here to educate and teach, and sell, and help with safety. Not to create possible accidents.
Upon this rock of technology comes often the need for Engineering Ethics. That is a valid branch of this discussion.
Steve
LSRFAQ~
Sorry about the Batman / Steve mix-up....I wasn't paying attention. All sarcasm and BS posts aside, you make a good point with respect to where I was expecting this thread to lead? The truth is, I didn't have any destination in mind. I completely understand the reality of posts regarding the "unmentionable" and the fact that they seem to inevitably lead to the same sort of discussions. But what if this time it didn't? What if it lead somewhere else?
Phaser Array got it spot on when he mentioned that I was an Industrial Designer, and that we are a different breed. Industrial Design (ID) is not a well understood field, the few people who have even heard of it usually think it's either some type of technical artist, or a type of engineering. In actuality, ID can't really be described the way that other professions can. While it is a formal profession with a formal degree, neither the profession nor the degree has very much to do with what ID is.
This isn't the place to describe Industrial Design in detail, so I will summarize it for you and you'll just have to take my word for it. Industrial Design is problem solving. The degree is both very technical and very creative. In fact, I almost changed majors because we didn't have any electives, and the intensive class load was so bizarre....every class I took was required, and many of them were seemingly unrelated? It wasn't the very end that I finally understood what ID was all about.
It's not an education, it's a reprogramming of your thought process. The tangible part is a skill set that relies on completely changing the way that you think and see the world. The thought process of an Industrial Designer is what I like to call "unrestrained utilitarianism". To an Industrial Designer, there are no "dead ends"...and nothing is ever taken for granted, for example, the fact that a car deteriorates as it gets older. But why? Why not a car that gets BETTER with age? Of course that's ridiculous for a variety of reasons. But that doesn't mean it's impossible. The thought process of an Industrial Designer begins with a problem that needs to be solved. The very first step is to begin to ask questions, and no question or idea is off limits. You see, even though you might know that a car cannot physically improve with age and use, asking the question and exploring the idea often leads to unexpected places that you never would have found if you weren't willing to look in tat direction.
The point is, think of all of the incredible things we have now...like the products from Apple for example, you can't achieve those kinds of innovations if you don't know how to break the rules. If your thought process follows the status quo, or if you're afraid to "step off the path", you'll never discover anything amazing.
Back to the beginning...where did I think this was going to go, especially with the strong president set by all of the former discussions of this topic? I didn't "think" it was going to go anywhere, I just wanted it to go somewhere, and if were lucky, we might just discover some neat things along the way.
best ~ nick
You can't even laser paint/intimidate your predator in that short time. They drive to nice white neighborhoods from the slum south side, got a off duty cop(CC) last summer with his wife-a guy who lives 'situational awareness'.
As if a gun won't cause permanent injury or even death? I know I'd pick getting blinded over getting killed, but that's just me.. 
