So Junior is playing Jak & Daxter the other day and the game freezes in the midst of his effort to save the world. Imagine! Anyway, after examining the disc and determining that the console itself is the cuplrit, I willfully execute a warranty-killing manuever and open the console to further investigate. After separating the silver warning tape (the warranty hymen, as it were), and, upon revealing the culprit residual dust and goo surrounding the tracking motor, I am warned of the dangers of laser radiation emitting from the laser lens should I decide to plug the unit in and come within contact of the laser lens. Well, being a layman in the biological arms category, I decide it is in my best interest to refrain from exposing myself to such needless impending danger and ask those who might know.
How dangerous is the radiation emitting from devices such as this? Is it possible to fight off sworn enemies behind rows of plugged in, open playstation units and CD players? Could this possibly be an explanation as to why kids, after playing video games for untold hours, walk through the house spouting off about netherworlds and dark eco pods?
There are a lot of different types of “electromagnetic radiation.” X-rays, radio waves, and light are all types of electromagnetic radiation. Stuff like X-rays can cause cancer and birth defects, which is as close as you are going to get to turning green like the hulk or growing spider web capabilities like spider man. The Hollywood radiation thing just isn’t going to happen.
Most electromagnetic radiation is fairly harmless. Radio waves are presently thought to be safe, unless you get so high of a level of exposure that they start cooking you (which is how your microwave oven works). Light is pretty much the same way. Unless you get enough of it to cook you, it isn’t going to hurt you. If you take a magnifying glass and focus the sun, you can cook ants to death.
This is where the laser comes in. Lasers are just light beams. They are harmless, but they are fairly concentrated. They aren’t powerful enough to cook your skin, but they can easily damage your eyes. Laser beams don’t look like what you see in Hollywood. In fact, they don’t look like much of anything at all. At most you’ll see the spot of light at the end of the beam where it lands on something. In the air you won’t see anything. Many lasers use frequencies that your eye can’t see anyways, just like the remote control for your TV, so you might not even see the spot.
An invisible beam that makes you go blind is a fairly bad thing, so the warnings are well heeded. Don’t take apart a CD player of any sort unless you are well trained in that sort of thing. You can’t make a 1920’s style death ray out of it, but you can cause yourself some serious vision problems.
There are a lot of different types of “electromagnetic radiation.” X-rays, radio waves, and light are all types of electromagnetic radiation. Stuff like X-rays can cause cancer and birth defects, which is as close as you are going to get to turning green like the hulk or growing spider web capabilities like spider man. The Hollywood radiation thing just isn’t going to happen.
Most electromagnetic radiation is fairly harmless. Radio waves are presently thought to be safe, unless you get so high of a level of exposure that they start cooking you (which is how your microwave oven works). Light is pretty much the same way. Unless you get enough of it to cook you, it isn’t going to hurt you. If you take a magnifying glass and focus the sun, you can cook ants to death.
This is where the laser comes in. Lasers are just light beams. They are harmless, but they are fairly concentrated. They aren’t powerful enough to cook your skin, but they can easily damage your eyes. Laser beams don’t look like what you see in Hollywood. In fact, they don’t look like much of anything at all. At most you’ll see the spot of light at the end of the beam where it lands on something. In the air you won’t see anything. Many lasers use frequencies that your eye can’t see anyways, just like the remote control for your TV, so you might not even see the spot.
An invisible beam that makes you go blind is a fairly bad thing, so the warnings are well heeded. Don’t take apart a CD player of any sort unless you are well trained in that sort of thing. You can’t make a 1920’s style death ray out of it, but you can cause yourself some serious vision problems.
Some lasers can burn things, but the only the only thing the laser in the PS2 will burn is your eyeball. Don’t point lasers in your/other person’s eyes.
In summary: The laser in the PS2 is not really dangerous unless it is pointed at someone’s face when it turns on. Which is why the warning label is on the inside of the PS2, because when the unit is closed and the laser is inside the PS2, the laser is not a danger.
The lasers in CD players are much weaker than the laser pointers you can buy for $3. Those can hurt someone’s vision but it has to be pointed at their eyes for some time. The length of time depends on whose lawyer you listen to.
The problem with these lasers and similar things like barcode scanners is that laser light looks weird. Some people want to get a longer, closer look and go “ooh” for a while. Hence the stern warning labels.
Our eyes have an automatic defense mechanism whereby a bright light will cause the pupil to contract. However, since the laser light is invisible, our pupils remain dilated and we let in far more light than we should. The same thing happens when you wear cheap sunglasses or start directly at the sun.