May 9, 2018
Researchers have developed new technology that could make it possible to actually shoot laser beams from your eyes, according to reporting by Forbes.
Professor Malte Gather of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland worked with a team that included Ifor Samuel and Graham Turnbull to develop an ultra-thin membrane laser using organic semiconductors. They published a paper on their work in Nature Communications claiming that the tiny lasers can be safely operated in the human eye. They demonstrated the system using a cow eye as a model.
“By floating a thin plastic film off a substrate we have made some of the world’s smallest and lightest lasers and put them on contact lenses and bank notes,” Forbes contributor Eric Mack quotes Samuel as saying.
Mack explains that, as cool as the thought of shooting lasers from your eyes is, the true purpose is security-oriented. “The idea is not to equip our eyeballs with new weapons, but instead a new security feature, perhaps for authentication purposes,” Mack writes. “…laser-emitting membranes placed in eyes, on fingers or cash can act as a flexible and wearable security tag.”
