Real lightsaber hits UK stores

[Rarhnor]

What's its powersupply?

I already see this scheme. They sell us the lightsaber. They put a cheap price on it. But when it runs out of juice, we're gonna have to buy 550$ lightsaber charge-kits.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

snup

I agree that outright banning things because of potential danger (within reason) is a bad idea. All I'd like to see is a little more discretion regarding who it's sold to.

Oh and just to say.
Yes army posseses laser based weapons
Funnily enough laser based weapons are banned to use in warfare by Geneva Convention.

Actually, the Geneva Convention bans the use of laser weaponry to blind enemy combatants. Using a gigantic chemical laser mounted on a cargo plane to outright destroy shit is A-okay.

...there is the matter of the laser rifle that is soon to be fielded, which causes temporary blindness, but it's legal due to the effect's lack of permanency.

 

[Fursnake]

These things are ridiculous, dangerous and shouldn't be available to the general public in any form. These things can set flesh on fire. Also, they really aren't that similar to lightsabers at all.

In a way these are pontetially more dangerous than guns. Another example of the negative side of invention.

 

[lonercs]

Once again! It is fake! It is just a normal laser with a fancy handle. A laser they describe is impossible. The power supple is yo great to fit into the handle. Also we do not have the technology to create something like this. Granted we do have high powered lasers, but we can't make something like this. It consumes 3.7V yet can kill people on contact. 2 AA batteries have 3V. If anyone knew a thing about lasers is that at 3.7V, a laser is pretty harmless. IT IS FAKE!


There is are a lot of other problems with the possibility of this laser existing but I'll let other people to find that out on there own.

 

[Netrosis]

I'm sure the claims by the company are what the laser is capable of, not what it will actually do.

The laser itself is a blue diode extracted from a Projector, which has made access to these lasers extremely cheap within the last year. It is already possible for existing lasers in consumer products (blu-ray drives, for example) to be just as dangerous.

Here is a video of this particular laser (445nm, blue diode) in action. Perhaps it'll put a lot of the misconception in perspective. At the end of the video you can see him slicing through electrical tape. nom.
__5CpKlr4-4[/youtube]

In retrospect, here is a BluRay (PHR-803T) laser cutting electrical tape:
7srUKI_Yg1Y[/youtube]

Also, blue "lightsaber" replicas that burn have been around for a while:
8AdolRYXKLY[/youtube]
You can just tell with sound effects that someone is going to hurt themselves or worse, someone else with these "toys".

I'd be quite happy requiring myself to register for a licence before owning one of these things.
Apart from the obvious idiots that want to buy this for a lightsaber, in the next year it will be quite feasible for a laser enthusiast to acquire one of these new projectors with the blue diodes inside, and build a laser pointer for themselves.

 

[Sneaky llama]

that is awesome
trading standerds must be retarded if they are allowing people toi actually buy this

 

[Mercurio128]

-Hello Sir, may I purchase a knife?

-Why No, you may not, you are underage and may use such a device for nefarious purposes I daresay!

-OK then, I'll just take a packet of crisps and a high powered death ray

-That'll be £12.50

 

[Kie]

I am actually worried about this, I mean we already have people knifing each other in Britain but now we're giving them LIGHTSABERS? PERMANETLY BLINDS AND GIVES CANCER NOT TO MENTION BURNS THROUGH SKIN! The way I see it I really don't want to leave for College anymore. It will only take one lightsaber weilding maniac and I'm blind, have cancer and possibly dead. So all in all, thanks creator for selling Britain lightsabers and potentially killing us all.

 

[Treblaine]

Dammit... I wish the "experts" hadn't resorted to such ridiculous hyperbole with "Durp, dis shit can take out A COMMERCIAL AIRLINER... nerp!" which is patently ridiculous, it just makes everyone ignore them.

I wouldn't say that this is entirely rediculous, merely unlikely. From any distance it's going to be impossible to aim it accurately enough to do anything more than perhaps ruin the pilot's night vision for a few seconds, and that is nothing near enough to cause a crash.

It's things like an aircraft on final approach which can cause problems... the perspex windows on modern jetliners are always slightly scratched due to wear from abrasion with dust and whatnot in the air, and just general wear... not enough to affect visiability under normal conditions, but a high powered laser shining onto these windows at night will cause a hell of a lot of scattering and refraction, which would SEVERELY impede both the pilot's ability to see out (A 1 watt laser is really frickin' bright), and make it more difficult for them to read the instruments (while vision out of the windows is not nessecary to make a safe landing, being able to read the instruments is). It would also temporarily blind them... which makes reading the dimly lit instruments difficult. Again, this on it's own would probably not cause an accident... it would certainly be a major distraction, but I doubt it would be powerful enough to completely prevent a pilot from making an instrument landing.

However, while the laser on it's own wouldn't bring down a plane, hardly any aviation incident is caused by one thing alone... What would happen if a plane was having difficulties, perhaps a failure of some important instruments or some other problem? Suddenly, visability out the windows becomes a hell of a lot more important. A laser may end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back and causes an otherwise minor incident to escalate into a disaster.

Unlikely? Yes, of course. But to claim that the threat lasers pose to aircraft is 'rediculous' is plain naiive. The last thing pilots need is a laser shining into their cockpit. Particularly somthing like a light aircraft, which has less instrumentation and requires more pilot imput to fly safely than a commercial jet.

It's all highly unlikely, because airports and the surrounding area are crawling with security, planes move very fast so this is vanishingly small. I mean a greater concern is ANY high power rifle, which can do more damage than this laser, but modern aircraft are full of double if not triple redundancy. Two engines, two hydraulic systems, two flight computers, two pilots, etc. Nothing short of simultaneously blasting a large hole in a fuel tank AND igniting the fuel will bring a plane down with any certainty. I mean blowing a hole in the fuselage won't even do it as in the case of Aloha Airlines 243. You really do need high explosives, a lot of high explosives, detonated in the right place to bring down a jet.

And if the plane's windows are scratched enough to refract the laser, that is a GOOD thing! 1 watt is not a lot of power, it is only dangerous in a laser because of how focused it is, scattering it over just a square foot would make it no worse than shining a torch in their face.

People have been obsessing and speculating over "what could bring down a commercial jet" and people are certainly losing a lot of perspective and muddying the issue.

"a high powered laser shining onto these windows at night will cause a hell of a lot of scattering and refraction, which would SEVERELY impede both the pilot's ability to see out"

SEVERELY impede?!!? What. the. hell.

Pilots take off and land by instruments, why would they need to see out at a black sky and black horizon? The instruments are brightly lit and anyway if there was any problem the pilot can simply abort, pull up and fly away. They don't need to look at anything to do that, just follow their training and ease back on the yolk and announce an abort to the tower.

I am a MAJOR plane geek and probably for all the air travel I do I look into air-crash investigations a lot.

And what are the chances that the pilot just happens to be overloaded with crisis after crisis in the cockpit only then a 1 in a trillion chance a laser shoots in and fries both of he pilot's pair of eyeballs? No, refraction won't do it, the laser has the hit each eye directly dead centre and hold there without them blinking or ducking.

You're the Naive one here, you're the one dwelling in INCREDIBLY REMOTE possibilities which CANNOT be repeated, the second someone tries this then a metric ton of shit will come down on them, airports are saturated in security cameras someone shooting from a car with gets their reg number recorded and their door knocked down by Government hard nuts... any other mode of transport won't get away in time. So this is not like a silent fault that can repeat over and over again till it coincides with another problem, this happens once and that is the last time.

I mean someone trying this might as well point a fake gun at an armed officer... it is just as likely to hurt anyone and just as likely to land you in a world of shit. The only reason anyone would attempt this are those who are both extremely stupid and mentally disturbed, deluded to think it would have any effect and likely want to get caught in some attention seeking effort.

 

[Waif]

Wow, this is awesome ^~^! I figure it is pretty useless though otherwise, and I don't know what the average person would use it for (except maybe for mischief). Though still, it seems that it's like a normal laser and doesn't terminate at a specific point. So it's not really a true lightsaber.

 

[steeple]

just a question:

what if a group of people, lets call them "terrorists", will each buy this device, go into a place filled with people, and just go nuts?
shit hits the fan, i presume?

EDIT: since somebody has to say it: the future is here... and its fucking stupid

I'm sitting here wondering why they cant do that with guns.

they could use guns, sure... but then after the shot a few dozens of people they will get caught and killed (still pretty severe)

imagine that instead of guns, they just point they lasers all over the place, burning people flesh and blinding some...

it may get less casualties but it WILL cause more panick, since people will just have no idea wtf is going on (some will suspect aliens). now, if they will be aware of the laser's existence, they will freakout wondering who the hell did it to them...

overall i think that using this type will cause more havoc and chaos, since its much more unconventional and as we all know, the people are afraid of things they dont understand

in one sentence to your question: yes they can do it with guns, but it will do less

 

[Anti-gravity]

That's really awesome!

 

[Emilox The Great]

Luke I Am Your Father.

 

[lostzombies.com]

Im thinking Christmas will be a lot more fun this year

 

[GLo Jones]

Is it wrong that I spent a good hour or so today trying to buy one of these?

 

[Insomniac55]

Once again! It is fake! It is just a normal laser with a fancy handle. A laser they describe is impossible. The power supple is yo great to fit into the handle. Also we do not have the technology to create something like this. Granted we do have high powered lasers, but we can't make something like this. It consumes 3.7V yet can kill people on contact. 2 AA batteries have 3V. If anyone knew a thing about lasers is that at 3.7V, a laser is pretty harmless. IT IS FAKE!


There is are a lot of other problems with the possibility of this laser existing but I'll let other people to find that out on there own.

I don't think it is fake. Exaggerated, perhaps, but a 1 watt laser is well within the limits of today's technology. Think about it. 1 watt is not much energy, it is the nature of the concentrated and highly directional light emitted from a laser which makes it dangerous. This laser will not kill you. It will not blast a hole straight through you. It won't instantly set you on fire from miles away.

What it will do is give you instant, permanent eye damage from any direct exposure at close-ish range (I don't know the beam divergence so it's impossible to tell if this range will be 20 meters or 200). From close range it will cause small burns with ease.

Voltage has nothing to do with it. If your power supply can provide enough currant, you can turn 3v into 3 million volts with the right circuitry. Modern AA batteries (in particular, rechargable NIMH cells) can easily supply 1 amp for a bit under two hours, and (depending on the particular cell) are able to supply MUCH more in shorter bursts.

I've got a couple of LED flashlights which drive a Cree LED at about 3 watts or so, and these run off 2 AA cells. You don't need to give a laser much actual power for it to become rather dangerous.

 

[lostzombies.com]

yep the technology isn't new, it's gained new exposure because they price of manufacturing the technology has dropped significantly

 

[DanDeFool]

Terrible idea. If I was a gang leader, I'd buy a box of these and give them to my enforcers. They'd be able to stand on rooftops and blind and set fire to police officers, blow out the tires of police vehicles, and basically kill anyone who 'effed with me.

This is awful.

 

[General BrEeZy]

yeah. brilliant. like that internet kill switch bit from several days back.