John Huntington’s Blog has covered a lot of holiday light displays over the years. Brooklyn’s Holiday Light Spectacular is the newest one covered on the blog. It tells about Holiday Light Spectacular display with nice pictures, and also gives details on technology behind the display.
If you want to do your own holiday light display then here are some links to interesting project ideas from around Internet: Control your holiday lights with a magic wand circuit allows you to turn on your holiday bulbs with a wave of the magic wand. DIY Christmas Light Suit project uses LabVIEW to perform sound analysis of a playing music and uses LabVIEW Interface for Arduino (LIFA) to drive various Christmas light strings based on the power level at various frequency ranges. Smart Christmas Tree Lights with JenNet-IP video plays with the idea that “What if every Christmas tree light had an Internet address?”. Don’t forget my older Christmas Lights blog postings.
Light shows are nice to watch, but the technology used in them be can dangerous. Blink-182′s Mark Hoppus’ Retina Damaged by a Show Laser posting tells about the potential dangers of light displays that involve powerful lasers. In video Mark Hoppus Presents: The World’s Most Powerful Touring Laser Blink-182‘s bassist and singer Mark Hoppus talks about how he suffered retinal damage during a show in Milwaukee. In the video, he does a pretty good job of explaining how the laser show process works in terms of protecting the audience and what went wrong in performance. That show used a very powerful 26W Lightwave Lightwave Prism Series laser show equipment (you have read right, that’s watts, NOT milliwatts you normally see in most laser specifications).
Remember that this kind of laser damage to eye is usually permanent. Primary personal hazards of high-power laser exposure are skin burns, blind spots when the laser strikes the retina, and the worst case total blindness. Lasers have been coming back into vogue in recent years on touring concerts, so be careful if you happen to be near them or operate them. Remember Laser Safety. There is also a a growing concern over the increased potential risk of eye damage from high power LEDs as well because intense blue light can cause damage to the retina. Do not stare at lasers or very high brightness LEDs, because doing so may cause permanent damage to your eyes. Remember that lasers can also damage cameras and camcorders, and even video projector chips (DLP).
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Real-time Laser Measurement with a Webcam
https://hackaday.io/project/190054-real-time-laser-measurement-with-a-webcam
Measuring the flatness of a surface with a laser and a webcam to microns over large surfaces.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The New Kind of LASER You Should Know About!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9eHX2zP_xY
Dave explains how lasers work, from crystals to dichroic mirrors to galvanometers. He takes us on a tour of the internals of a LaserCube Pro 2500 and how it’s used to render complex light shows for concerts and festivals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homemade CO2 Laser Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zpbXpHWSB0
As this video seems to be gaining traction, I feel I need to address a few things:
1) I didn’t actually achieve an output here, I thought the camera picked up on some IR that I couldn’t see, but on further research, there is no dang camera in this world (excluding IR cameras) that would pick up the 10.6 um that this tube should be producing.
2) I called what was happening here “lasing”, it is not. What I achieved here was an electrical discharge, which is a big step in the right direction, but certainly not “lasing”. (yet!)
I’m new to all of this and still learning! Just sharing my progress as I make it, and as with any learning process, there will be mistakes. I’m not trying to spread misinformation here!
Homemade CO2 Laser Tube Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gfdlH9kcvU
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/
If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color?
—PETER LIPOWICZ
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/188046-laserprojector-v2
LaserProjector V2
Battery-powered, ESP32-based laser XY scanner with auto-homing and wireless control
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/07/hackaday-links-may-7-2023/
We spotted a story on PetaPixel about a smartphone camera that was destroyed by a laser that makes us just cringe — and not just because it shows someone recording video in portrait mode. It happened at a concert in Naples back in April, where the concertgoer was using his camera to record the proceedings when a laser beam swept vertically through the frame several times. This appears to have permanently fried the image sensor in the camera; presumably at least some of the cameras around this victim were zapped too. If the laser could do that to a CCD, what did it do to all those retinas?
Smartphone Camera Destroyed by Laser Beam During Concert
https://petapixel.com/2023/05/03/smartphone-camera-destroyed-by-laser-beam-during-concert/
A concert-goer had their smartphone camera broken by a laser beam that fired directly into the lens.
The incident took place during a Geolier gig at the Palapartenope Theatre in Naples, Italy on April 19.
In the video, Geolier is seen on stage as a sea of people holding smartphones and pointing their cameras toward the rapper.
An aggressive laser can be seen chopping down, as the beam points from up to down extremely quickly. It repeats this motion several times until a line appears in the picture where the laser beam had just been.
Within milliseconds, the entire picture is covered in black lines, ruining the image. In some of the frames, the picture disappears entirely — replaced by static.
The person filming carries on but points their camera away to inspect the damage. Not much is known about the smartphone camera’s owner, but it appears the camera sensor is irrevocably damaged.
Laser Beams and Camera Sensors
In 2021, Sony officially published a warning on its website stating that it is aware that lasers can cause damage to its cameras’ image sensors.
“Do not directly expose the Lens to beams such as laser beams. This may cause damage to the image sensor and cause the camera to malfunction,” the warning published in July 2021 reads.
“Note: In either outdoor or indoor environment when there is a laser display, the tendency of direct or indirect (laser beam bounce from reflective object) damage to the camera CMOS Sensor is still very high.”
his is not the first time PetaPixel has reported on laser beams breaking camera sensors, in 2010 an unlucky photographer lost his Canon 5D Mark II when a laser shined directly on the sensor.
Sony Officially Warns That Lasers Can Damage its Cameras’ Sensors
https://petapixel.com/2021/08/02/sony-officially-warns-that-lasers-can-damage-its-cameras-sensors/
Sony has published an official warning on its website that states that it is aware that lasers can cause damage to its cameras’ image sensors. While this information is probably not news to most, Sony notably has finally publicly acknowledged the danger.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/laser-projector-built-from-an-old-hard-drive/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/artemis-ii-will-phone-home-from-the-moon-using-laser-beams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 Laser Projector with stepper motors | StanleyProjects.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1O48Ysdiiw
LaserProjector V2 is a battery-powered, ESP32-based laser XY scanner using stepper motors to deflect the beam. It has auto-homing functionality, and can be controlled wirelessly (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth).
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:56 Theory
4:24 Electronic Design
7:14 PCB Assembly
8:33 Physical Design
10:36 Firmware
11:20 Outro
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone Camera Destroyed by Laser Beam During Concert
https://petapixel.com/2023/05/03/smartphone-camera-destroyed-by-laser-beam-during-concert/
A concert-goer had their smartphone camera broken by a laser beam that fired directly into the lens.