Laser style illumination?

[nomadboi]

Okay, wild-ass question from someone not too familiar with the technology... but here's a question:

Could laser technology be used to illuminate something, as an alternative to the xenon, led, or halogen flashlights?

Okay, it's a bit odd, and may seem like 'why bother', but one advantage I see is that while it's easy to see someone holding a flashlight and immediately pinpoint their location, someone with a laser is only visible if they are in heavy smoke/dust or if it's pointed directly at your face. Otherwise it illuminates the spot it's pointed at... and only that spot.

Seems like if you could make something that illuminated a larger area (say a foot wide at 12 feet distance?) but where the beam wasn't visible to anyone outside that cone, this could have a good tactical advantage. Could also be plenty bright enough, and lasers already come in several colors.

Any thoughts from someone who knows more about this than I do?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Lucky]

yes, And furthermore the rumours that looking at a key-chain laser will damage your eye, they're false. The energy loading per square millimeter needs to be exponentially higher.

However you can illuminate with laser. And even better - you can blind. There is a laser device being tested for anti-hijacking, it is the size of a hand-held flashlight, and depending on the dispersion focus it is blinding from several feet to over a couple dozen feet. Absolutely blinding, if you look towards the laser all you see is green, and then after-images for a while too. No permanent damage, though. So you could shine it in the cabin of an airplane and it would blind anyone from even looking towards you. Unless they have green contact lenses.

 

[nomadboi]

I'm assuming that for tac-light applications, you'd need at least the option of not causing any lasting damage to anyone's retinas- but that'd be a nice option to have as a non-lethal defense, I suppose.

For a while one of the big sports scandals in the UK was people sneaking laser pointers into football (soccer) matches and using them to distract players at key moments.

 

[Lucky]

It is absolutely non-permanent. Was designed that way. The ultimate tac light. Was just a progress update on a science page, though. For the price of some tac flashlights you could buy a large bucket of carrots and a cheap night-vision scope, though!