Green laser pointer can cause eye damage

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Green laser pointers are readily available in stores and on the Internet. Class 3A green laser pointers are increasingly being used by amateur astronomers to pinpoint objects in the night sky and by the construction industry and architecture educators to point out details of structures in daylight.

Dennis Robertson, M.D., Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist, conducted investigations with a green laser pointer directed to the retina of a patient’s eye - scheduled for removal because of a malignancy.
The exposure was 60 seconds to the fovea, the center of acute vision; five minutes to a site 5 degrees below the fovea; and 15 minutes to a site 5 degrees above the fovea. Color photographs were taken of the eye before and after exposure to the laser.

The green laser damaged the pigment layer of the retina, although it did not cause a measurable decrease in the visual function of the patient’s eye. it is believed that longer exposures could harm vision.

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Laser treatment may help reverse effects of dry AMD

A ground-breaking laser treatment may help reverse the effects of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In early proof-of-concept trials involving about 50 people, the laser technique, which was developed by pioneering eye expert Professor John Marshall of King's College London, appeared to return the back of the eye to its youthful state.

In the technique, a painless 'short pulse' laser boosts the release of the enzymes to clean away natural waste materials, but without damaging the cells that enable vision. The researchers now plan further studies in patients already suffering from AMD in one eye with the aim of saving the sight in their better eye for as long as possible.

Professor Marshall said that he hoped the treatment would be available within two to five years. There is currently no treatment for the most common form of AMD -- known as 'dry' AMD -- which the new laser technique could prevent.

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Scanning for Lasik corneal surgery

Two students from UC Berkeley are working on a project that could make Lasik Surgery cheaper (and these guys become millionaires!)
"Previously, microscanners have been fabricated using complex technology involving multiple steps," says Choo, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. "Our method is very straightforward, involves only a few processing steps, and uses only tools that are conventional for processing integrated circuits".

Guiding Eye for MEMS

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