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Comment by mckirk | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what power laserpointer you could fit in there without going overboard with the battery... Imagine being able to light matches by looking at them for a bit.

On the other hand, every mirror would be a great chance to lose your other eye as well, so maybe disregard my ideas.

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A low-power laser pointer would still be very interesting and perfectly safe. Star Trek/X-men/Superman/Star Wars dreams of stunning enemies with a beam of light from your eyes, there's no to have power levels that can light matches, pop balloons, or otherwise cause destruction.

One cool use, IMO, would be a time of flight distance-measuring laser: With only a single working eye, OP lacks binocular vision for distance measuring. With the equivalent to a Bushnell rangefinder, they could stare at an object, blink twice, and hear a tiny voice literally in their head say "37.84 meters".

It would need to be an IR laser, or the jig is up for being a useful bar trick.

Heck, the old skool 1st/2nd ACs in the camera department would kill for this. No need to "pull tape" any more.

Perhaps you could add a temperature sensor as well? Heck it might be neat to go full tricorder-in-eye...

Might not even need a voice. I wonder if you could “tap into” the remaining bits of the optic nerve and send a signal that way. The signal would vary based on distance. Maybe simulate intensity of light or something.

Would probably require some kind of crazy training for it to work. Plus I have no clue what I’m talking about!

Wow, you have me excited. That would be so neat.

The issue with high power lasers is heat dissipation.

> On the other hand, every mirror would be a great chance to lose your other eye as well, so maybe disregard my ideas.

At those power levels? Probably every surface in general. A beam powerful enough to light a match or burn through a balloon is powerful enough for the diffuse reflection off a table or wall to blind you.

You could just wear laser safety glasses.

Wait..

Safety monocle.

I think we're making a supervillain recipe here guys...chill

Homelander enters the chat

Username checks out on multiple levels!

This is why Cyclops from the X-Men wears red sunglasses all the time, even when out of uniform.

Safety contacts?

And certainly burn the inside wall of the eyelid when closed and/or blinking.

"Do not look at mirror with remaining eye"

Imagine cooking your face from the inside!

I have some laser pointers capable of lighting matches. They get hot.

>On the other hand, every mirror would be a great chance to lose your other eye as well, so maybe disregard my ideas.

With great powers comes great responsibility.

Not much, laser diodes peak at 60-70% efficiency, which means 30% of that goes into heating the device. Altho short bursts, maybe ?

The other problem is that this small battery won't have that much current capacity

Wouldn’t it burn your eyelid too, from the inside?

If you're eyelids are closed, you can't be looking at what your aiming. Your chances of hitting the target increase infinitely if you keep your eyes open.

Try not to blink challenge?

It would have a blink sensor that turns it off when a blink is detected or it points at your nose or something, right?

Cool concept. I suppose there'd need to be a way to protect the inside wall of the eyelid, however.

Or a sweet predator targeting system.

Optic blast!

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