Category Archives: Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: Using Lasers to Uncover Lost Cities

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Lasers are helping uncover centuries-old “lost cities” in Cambodian jungles near Angkor Wat.

The area, a UNESCO World Heritage site and ancient wonder of the world, has been a region of study for archaeologists for years.

As it turns out, the cities and temples buried under the jungle are larger and more widespread than previously imagined. Using technology known as LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, it’s similar to radar in its ability to survey areas. The key difference, however, is in the use of laser light, rather than radio waves, to perform scans of the land. The LiDAR device is mounted to a helicopter and is used to create detailed map scans for later study.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Uncovering What Lies Beneath

For years, researchers speculated about what lies beneath the dense jungle vegetation. The utilization of LiDAR was able to validate those ideas, revealing some structures for the very first time. The city dates back to the early to mid 1100s, under the rule of King Suryavarman II, during the Khmer Empire’s rule.

Considered one of the largest pre-industrial cities, initial scans in 2012 revealed the existence of temple city Mahendraparvata, near Angkor Wat. In 2015, a more in-depth scan confirmed the existence of additional, undiscovered structures, including the presence of both Hindu and Buddist iconography.

The new scans also revealed a city complex around Preah Khan of Kompong Svay temple, sites for iron mining, as well as a complex waterway system. With the new information, future archeological digs will be simplified. Maps with even higher detail are in the works.

The new research findings were presented at the Royal Geographic Society in London, in June.

Thanks for reading! Do you enjoy our Throwback Thursday Laser Posts? Read about the History of Laser Tag here. 

Interested in attending one of our upcoming content-packed laser conferences? Click here to learn more about our inaugural Industrial Laser Conference and this year’s ICALEO. 

Throwback Thursday: Exploring the History of Laser Tag

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What a Game of Laser Tag Can Tell Us about Lasers Today 

Rising in popularity in the 1990s, the game of Laser Tag has served as a staple for kids’ birthday parties, after school recreation, and most recently, a fun team building tool for corporate and company events. While most of you who are reading this have played – you may not know that the roots of laser tag are firmly set within the United States military.

Initially developed for training purposes for the Army in the 1970s and 80s, the first “toy” version of the game was released in 1979 in the form of the Star Trek Electronic Phaser Guns Set. A few years later, George Carter III got to work designing an arena based game, like the ones still found across the country today. The first center for competitive play opened shortly after, in 1984.

Laser Tag is more advanced today than it was in the 1980s.


Laser Tag’s Evolution

Over the years, the equipment and technology used in laser tag saw many different iterations and designs. In most cases, players wear a device – usually a vest – equipped with sensors that are sensitive to infrared light. The laser “guns” emit an infrared light at a wavelength that is safe for the human eye and body. The device worn by players then responds to the contact of the light, usually by buzzing or lighting up. Often times, low-powered visible lasers are also included in the gun for visual purposes.

As laser tag grew in popularity, more and more styles of play were developed, at varying levels of complexity. Some are grandiose, “capture-the-flag games,” while others play with elimination in mind. Others involve complete “missions” that tie into a story, for a fully immersive experience. In its most evolved form, the infrared light is encoded with information such as where the beam originated from and where it was received. This helps keep score at the end of a match.

More than just a family-friendly activity, laser tag competitions have taken place worldwide for over a decade. With help from the Laser Tag Museum, the laser tag industry recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

With new concepts for laser tag popping up in theme parks, tourist attractions, and entertainment centers to this very day, here’s looking to another 30 years of laser-centric fun.

For more fun, engaging laser history, click to read our blog on the Origin of the Word Laser.

Throwback Thursday: The Origin of the Word “Laser”

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“What’s in a name?” It is difficult to imagine a laser called by any other name. The word itself sounds a bit futuristic in nature. While the unaware may imagine that the laser was simply named upon discovery, the history of the word has an intriguing depth and history to it.

Before the 20th century, “laser” had a very different meaning. In ancient civilizations, specifically Egyptian and Mediterranean cultures, “laser” referred to the resin of the silphium plant. The silphium plant, now considered an extinct species, was used as a food seasoning and for a variety of medicinal properties. While this has little bearing on the lasers of today, the shared namesake is an interesting historical coincidence.

Instead, the naming of the laser took after its predecessor, the maser. The maser, at its origin, was not actually its own word, but rather an acronym standing for “Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” Laser, differing only in its energy source, is “Light Amplification by Stimulate Emission of Radiation” Both acronyms eventually evolved into their own accepted singular word over the course of a few decades.

Gordon Gould, one of a handful who fought for the laser patent rights, is credited with coining the acronym, and by extension the word “laser,” although he is not credited with the patent for the laser itself. (He was later awarded a number of other patents, related to laser development and applications.)

While the acronym-turned-word origin may not be as interesting as ancient roots in Latin or Greek, “laser” and “maser” make for intriguing examples of acronyms turned to commonly accepted words, joining the likes of “radar” which was initially an acronym for “RAdio Detection And Ranging”

The evolution of these acronyms into full-fledged words makes an interesting argument in favor of the influence of science and technology on language. It is a marked evolution of language, in direct contrast to criticisms that argue the acceptance of acronyms and initialisms as words.

“Laser” has come a long way since it was coined in the 1960’s, leading to its modification for different tenses. Lasing refers to the “generation of coherent light by a laser” and to lase means “to give off coherent light, as in a laser”

These variations illuminate the transition of “laser” from an etymological standpoint. While the origin of the word pales in comparison to the applications of lasers, the history of the word shines a light, or rather lases the impact of lasers upon the world. At the very least, it makes a great “betcha didn’t know fact” among laser professionals and word nerds alike.

 

Throwback Thursday: The Birth of a Bose-Einstein condensate

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Twenty-one years ago, researchers at University of Colorado put the predictions of Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein to the test, resulting in the first gaseous condensate.

Known now as a Bose-Einstein Condensate, the state of matter refers to a diluted gas of bosons, which are cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. When exposed to this temperature, the majority of the bosons are in the lowest possible quantum state. Once in this state, the bosons show quantum qualities at the macroscopic, rather than atomic level. This behavior is known as macroscopic quantum phenomena.

June 5th, 1995 saw the birth of the very first pure Bose-Einstein Condensate. Using the diluted vapors of nearly 2,000 rubidium-87 atoms, researchers Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and staff cooled the atoms, using a combination of lasers and a process known as magnetic evaporative cooling.

Compared to other states of matter, the Bose-Einstein Condensate is fairly fragile. Disruptions to the surrounding environment can affect the temperature of the condensate, bringing it to a standard gaseous state. That is not to say that the Bose-Einstein condensate is too unstable for practical research, but rather that it has opened many doors into theoretical and experimental research in physical properties, and beyond.

Since its origin in the mid-1990’s, the Bose-Einstein Condensate has been used to slow light pulses to low speeds. Others are using it as a way to model black holes to study their properties, in an observable environment. Using an optical lattice, or “the interference of counter-propagating laser beams,” allows researchers to observe the Bose-Einstein condensate in less than three dimensions.

In recent years, researchers in the emerging field of atomtronics utilize the concepts of the Bose-Einstein Condensate to manipulate groups of identical atoms using lasers. Atomtronics is defined as the “creation of atomic analogues of electronic components.” In layman terms, atomtronics utilize super-cooled atoms to, theoretically, replace traditional analogues found in the electronics we use every day. The flow of the condensate is similar to that of an electric current, priming it as a potential successor to traditional electronics.

The Boss-Einstein Condensate was theorized nearly a century ago. Two decades have passed since the theories were first put to the test. Today, the once-theoretical state of matter is used, often hand in hand with laser cooling, to challenge what we know about the study of physics and beyond.  While atomtronics will not be replacing our electronic devices anytime soon, it is a study worth noting as many seek alternatives to our current energy consumption.

Throwback Thursday: Lasers and the Development of the CD Player

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Since the invention of the laser in the 1950’s, the impact of lasers has been felt worldwide in an innumerable amount of industries. One industry that owes a lot of its commercial success to the advent of the laser, is the entertainment industry. In the 1960’s Theodore Maiman proposed the idea of lasers capable of reading stored data, around 30 years later the compact disc and corresponding player was developed, forever changing the way the general public consumes audio and digital media.

Companies Philips and Sony were in fierce competition when developing the CD, but it was the accumulation of other important developments and discoveries that brought the compact disc and player to life.

The first optical digital recording is credited to James Russell in 1970, following other digital recording patents from Dr. David Paul Gregg in the late 1950’s.  (The development of optical digital recording is a murky one, with inconsistencies in attributions.)

In 1960, Irving S. Reed and Gustave Solomon developed the Reed Solomon Code, an algebraic error connecting & detection code that helped to develop the tracking method that was instrumental in the playback function of a CD player.

The first prototype CD, the Phillips Glass Disk, initiated the race to develop the playable compact disc. After the prototype, Sony began investing in laser research, wanting to use lasers to “read” the newly created glass disks. Phillips quickly followed suit. Sony later developed the optical digital audio disk, able to play 150 minutes worth of stored information. Not wanting to be bested by their competitor, Phillips is the first to release the completed compact disc.

The first test pressing was created in Hanover, Germany, at the Polydor Pressing Operations Plant. In 1982, the first commercial CD, a recording of Claudio Arrau performing Chopin Waltzes, was released. The first popular music recording available the public on CD was ABBA’s The Visitors, in 1983. Smaller than vinyl records, greater storage space than a cassette, and affordability pushed the CD to great lengths of success, and despite the rise of digital downloads, still sustains itself as a medium to distribute and enjoy music.

As a piece of equipment found in almost every modern home and vehicle, not many stop to think about how exactly a CD player works, and by extension, what involvement lasers play in making sure the tunes keep playing, without a user’s assistance.  Here’s how it works: A CD contains digitally encoded data. That CD is placed into a CD tray, that either ejects outward or is contained inside the device. The CD is then read by an internal mechanism and “scanned” by a laser beam, in a spiral track. The beam shines directly onto the disc’s surface. The lens must be able to move, with a close-range focal length, in order to focus the beam onto the disc. The beam is kept on track by a low mass lens, attached to an electromagnetic coil. The track, at only around 600 nanometers wide, is very small.  The focus detection method of the CD player depends on the manufacturer, but most use the outputs of four photo diodes. Perfect focus is typically achieved when all four diodes situate themselves in circular pattern. The tracking is controlled by analogue servo amplifiers, which helps to control the output of the disk. The signal, read from the disk, is digitized, processed, and decoded into analog audio and digital control data. The “perfect focus” is used by the servo amplifier to keep the lens at proper reading distance, even in the instance that the disc is warped. This data is used by the CD player to position the playback mechanism on the correct track.

The lasers used in CD players are typically low in power, classified as Class 1 or 2 lasers. In 1996, the technology used in CD players was altered to develop the DVD player. Where in a CD player the wavelength of a laser is usually around 780 nanometers, this was reduced to 650 nanometers for the DVD player. In 2000, a 405 nanometer beam was utilized in Blu Ray players.

Despite the rise of digital downloads taking a cut of sales in CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray, the optical CD drive is still utilized in a majority of devices and vehicles, years later. It is safe to say that the laser-based technology will stick around, and likely be improved on, for years to come.