[Sort of OT] Laser Beam To Discourage Thieves

[Chuck Coleman]

A simple spotlight might do just fine. Something that won't hurt  
anyone or run you up against some obscure law but will get the job  
done. You could get a servo setup and use something like Oculus  
http://www.intlweb.com/Oculus3.1/Intro.html (don't seem to have an  
OSX version) to turn on when there is motion.

The ultimate would be to have the light shine where the motion is  
detected. As the person moves it follows them. Oculus could be set up  
to do that but it is beyond my abilities for sure.

Chuck

On Jan 19, 2006, at 9:53 AM, James Sentman wrote:

>
> On Jan 19, 2006, at 12:13 PM, heather james wrote:
>
>> Look out for that. If its the site I'm thinking of, they had high
>> power green lasers that were
>> 3 to  7 times the power of the regular laser pointer "toys" ... and
>> warned that they had the potential of eye damage.
>> Can't you just see some ambulance chaser coming after you because
>> their client suffered eye damage by staring at your building alarm  
>> for
>> too long ...
>>
>>     -=)-(eather=-
>>
>
>
> A real 5mw or so (perfectly legal if you dont point it at an  
> airplane) can actually be seen as a beam in the dark. They are used  
> as pointers to stars by astronomers. Ones that actually output that  
> much power though are still very expensive though.
>
> They dont make the air fluoresce or anything like that, but your  
> eye is so much more sensitive to that color than the red we're used  
> to that it takes much less scattering to make it visible to you.  
> It's not like in a room filled with fog, but you can definitely see  
> it with dark adjusted eyes.
>
> If you leave the porch light on though it will be too bright in the  
> yard to actually see the beam. Plus it's illegal to shine laser  
> pointers at police or cars (in many places) and probably lots of  
> other restrictions on their use. especially their public exibition  
> which is what your random scanner might count as. The laws about  
> laser shows are pretty intense, you have to have physical lock outs  
> on your beam scanners to keep them from hitting the crowd or going  
> up into the air above a certain power. And all sorts of things.
>
> Probably OK to do it for fun though :)
>  James
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/19/06, Rob Lewis <rob at whidbey.com> wrote:
>>> I saw an ad for a green laser pointer that claimed you could see the
>>> beam in the air (IIRC, they were talking about the night sky, not a
>>> lit-up room).
>>>
>>> I'm highly dubious, but maybe the right wavelength can excite air
>>> molecules to re-emit or scatter visible light? Any physicists out  
>>> there?
>>>
>>> On Jan 19, 2006, at 8:38 AM, Chester Lapeza wrote:
>>>
>>>> I found this link:
>>>> http://www.epanorama.net/documents/lights/lasercontrol.html
>>>>
>>>> But really, with a randomly moving laser beam, as cool as it
>>>> sounds, unless you're going to be flooding the room with mist or
>>>> smoke (something for the laser to light up and be seen), all you're
>>>> going to get is a red (or green!) dot moving along a wall or the
>>>> floor. ...or if you get it moving fast enough, a line or squiggly
>>>> smear, making your own laser show... then all you need is some
>>>> stoners and some Lynyrd Skynyrd!
>>>>
>>>> "Freebird!"
>>>>
>>>> Love the idea, tho!
>>>>
>>>> Chester
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Friday, January 20, 2006, at 01:42AM, Joe Sonne <joe at sonne.ca>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Although there will be wireless sensors all over the place in  
>>>>> the new
>>>>> front office of a building that we are setting up I thought that
>>>>> something like a randomly moving laser beam would be a good visual
>>>>> discourager for would be thieves. Can anyone point me in the
>>>>> direction of something that would do the trick? This can be  
>>>>> along the
>>>>> lines of the 'Beware of Dog' sign when you don't really have a  
>>>>> dog.
>>>>> Just something to make amateur thieves think twice before breaking
>>>>> in.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>             -= )-(eather =-
>>        =------------------------------=
>>         thewebgal at gmail.com
>>
>>  Heather's Photo Blog: http://www.thewebgal.com/blog/
>>  The Triumph Project:  http://www.hjames.net/my-bike.html
>>> ==========================================<
>