The use of lasers for manufacturing in the medical sector was the hot topic of discussion at a recent workshop organized by AILU.
The advantages of laser-based manufacture and advice on how to be successful in the medical sector were just two of the topics addressed in a one-day workshop organized by the Association of Laser Users.
With the total markets for medical technology now estimated at €180-260 bn, around 70 delegates gathered to hear how lasers can be used to manufacture a range of medical devices.
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Popularity: 9% [?]
When the multi-billion US dollar James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launches in 2013, it will be a monumental day for all involved. Optical technologies that until recently did not exist will be used in space for the first time to gather infrared (IR) light from distant objects that have not yet been observed.
Among the suite of optical technologies is an innovative wavefront sensing and control (WFS&C) system and a primary mirror with a built-in support structure.
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Popularity: 4% [?]
A New Mexico Tech engineer has received a patent for a system that could evaluate a bridge’s structural health more accurately and quickly than current methods, possibly helping prevent disasters such as this summer’s Minnesota bridge collapse.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ashok Ghosh has invented a laser-based testing system that can check a bridge’s safety while vehicles use the structure.
“Traffic will never notice this is getting tested right now,” Ghosh said.
A laser gun mounted on one of the bridge’s unyielding supports shoots a cross-shaped beam to a pixel board attached to a span, or an area between two supports.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
A customized laser scanning system produces an accurate 3D analysis of wrinkles in laminated plastics.
Wrinkles can be a serious problem for manufacturers of laminated plastics and textiles. Different schemes for measuring and characterizing surface wrinkles in these materials have been developed, but don’t provide true 3D data on the wrinkle’s size and shape.
Now, however, a team at the University of Texas, Austin, has developed a laser-based system that enables 3D analysis of wrinkles in laminated plastics.
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Popularity: 6% [?]
OhGizmo! Review by Andrew Liszewski
Lasers are one thing that every geek really wants, but few of us actually need. Sure they might be useful for scientific applications, and occasionally pointing, but when it comes down to it most of us don’t have any real reasons for buying one.
Maybe it’s because lasers are one of the rare items seen in science-fiction films that we actually have access to. Or maybe it’s because a laser brings us one step closer to the holy grail of geekdom, the lightsaber. To be honest though, I have no idea what the real reason is.
What I do know is that when Wicked Lasers asked me if I wanted to review their new Photonic Disruptor model, they had me at the word ‘laser.’
In addition, not many people know this but OhGizmo! has an official policy of reviewing any device with the terms ‘Photonic’ and ‘Disruptor’ in its name. Not surprisingly, this laser is the first.
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Popularity: 14% [?]
A laser-based system can diagnose decompression sickness in seconds, before the onset of physical symptoms.
Decompression sickness is a well-documented risk for divers and other people who experience sudden changes in pressure, but it’s usually not detected until clinical symptoms appear. The new device could allow advance warning of the sickness by spotting microbubbles of nitrogen as small as 6 µm across in blood and tissues.
“This is a fresh idea, a technique that has not been used to detect microbubbles in blood before now,” Kirill Larin of the University of Houston told optics.org. “Each test only takes a few seconds and is completely non-invasive.”
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Popularity: 9% [?]
The graffiti research lab paid a tribute to The Pirate Bay during the Amsterdam Museum N8 by projecting stunning laser graffiti onto the outer walls of a museum. The laser graffiti was “painted” from a pirate ship of course, where else?
Other noteworthy tags displayed during the Amsterdam Museum N8 are “Yahoo is a NARC” and “all your museum are belong to us”.
This is in short how it works: a camera and laptop running the Laser Tag software track the laser movements generated on the face of a building, these generate graphics based on the laser’s position which then get projected back onto the building with a high power projector.
The source code of the Laser tag application is available for download if you want do some laser graffiti yourself.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
The U.S. State Department has a high-tech solution to keeping its security contractors from killing any more Iraqi civilians unnecessarily: Give the mercs laser dazzlers and helmet cameras.
U.S. officials also tell ABC News that “the State Department plans to double the number of its diplomatic security agents to 90 so that one of its agents can accompany every convoy guarded by Blackwater and other private security contractors.”
This isn’t the first time the dazzlers — which temporarily blind targets, with pulses of green laser light – have been pitched as life-savers for non-combatants in Iraq.
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Popularity: 14% [?]
A portable device that could scan fingerprints in microseconds has been developed by scientists in India. The system, which works using a technique called optical coherence tomography, promises to be better than existing fingerprint detection methods since it does not require any chemical processing.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is like an optical version of ultrasound imaging. The technique is already routinely used in medicine, but has not had a forensic application until now.
The technique provides a transparent 3D structural picture by sending light though the pattern of natural secretions left on a surface by a finger and combining the reflected beam with a “reference beam” produced by bouncing light from a laser off a mirror.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
The use of lasers for manufacturing in the medical sector was the hot topic of discussion at a recent workshop organized by AILU.
