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Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

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Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#91

Post by Florin_Andrei »

beloch wrote: post #84

To those looking for more concrete info on how this razor is supposed to work, here's the patent for it: http://www.google.com/patents/US9017322 As far as I can tell, the idea is to use evanescent coupling to transfer light into hair follicles. There's no free space laser beam, just an optical fiber that you drag across your face. They also claim that chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at r…

> chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at relatively low powers

What if you're blond?

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#92

Post by OopsCriticality »

beloch wrote: post #84

To those looking for more concrete info on how this razor is supposed to work, here's the patent for it: http://www.google.com/patents/US9017322 As far as I can tell, the idea is to use evanescent coupling to transfer light into hair follicles. There's no free space laser beam, just an optical fiber that you drag across your face. They also claim that chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at r…

Nice find on the patent.

> So, what this product needs in order to work is a fiber that's durable enough to survive being dragged across skin while having very little cladding so as to allow evanescent coupling.

Facial hairs are alleged to be of similar toughness to copper wire when dry (see [0], too lazy to find a better reference). I have a difficult time conceiving how one could drag a multimode fiber across one's face without abrading the fiber to the point of failure.

> Second, they need to pack a high power multi-wavelength laser source and the power reserve to run it into a very tiny handle.

What is even trickier is incorporating a cooling mechanism for the theoretical self-contained, handheld, high-power, battery-powered white laser.

> There's nothing here that looks outright impossible to me. Just very, very tricky.

If it were not self-contained in a handheld unit, then yes, maybe it would be possible. I'm going to say that the their device, based on the proposed renderings, is impossible even if one were to throw Apple's war chest of money at it. There are also the problems of eye safety, skin exposure, heat, and fumes that remain to be overcome.

[0] http://www.economist.com/node/2281888

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#93

Post by homulilly »

dogma1138 wrote: post #19

It's sad that people thought it was real, forget about lasers and stuff it's basic common sense. A AAA battery doesn't store enough power to drive a laser capable of burning hair for any reasonable amount of time. When the laser isn't interrupted by the hair it has to go some where which means that heat is produced, if it can get something hot enough to burn the hair off it would get hot enough that you won't be able…

It'a also worth noticing that laser hair removal usually does not actually destroy the hair its self, it still has to fall out on its own. A laser that actually cut the physical hairs would probably have to be even higher energy than typical laser hair removal which is already not safe for home use.

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#94

Post by homulilly »

beloch wrote: post #84

To those looking for more concrete info on how this razor is supposed to work, here's the patent for it: http://www.google.com/patents/US9017322 As far as I can tell, the idea is to use evanescent coupling to transfer light into hair follicles. There's no free space laser beam, just an optical fiber that you drag across your face. They also claim that chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at r…

Even if all this is workable I still don't see what's preventing the hair from being heated to the point it damages the surrounding tissue.

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#95

Post by OniBait »

monochromatic wrote: post #90
beloch wrote: post #84

To those looking for more concrete info on how this razor is supposed to work, here's the patent for it: http://www.google.com/patents/US9017322 As far as I can tell, the idea is to use evanescent coupling to transfer light into hair follicles. There's no free space laser beam, just an optical fiber that you drag across your face. They also claim that chromophores (color bearing molecules) in hair can be severed at r…

I'm also not sure what keeps the light from coupling into your skin, instead of just the hairs.

From what I recall on their original Kickstarter info, the frequency of the laser light only reacts with something that is in hair and not skin. The "breakthrough" was finding something that worked for blond hairs.

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#96

Post by pavornyoh »

d23 wrote: post #42
DannoHung wrote: post #40

The thing that is weird about this case is that one of the principals, Morgan Gustavsson, is actually the dude who invented the real laser hair removal that is used in clinics and has been involved in dermatology since. I don't know if he was actually involved in this project or not, but that was the one thing that made me think that this maybe wasn't 100% a scam? Anyway, the implication they make in their pitch isn'…

> Of course, if this really is such a revolutionary advance, why go to Kickstarter to bring it to market? Why not traditional investors. The obvious benefit being that you don't actually have to give Kickstarter "investors" any money back.

>The obvious benefit being that you don't actually have to give Kickstarter "investors" any money back.

Shouldn't that make them have strong check and balances in place to help people funding these projects?

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#98

Post by mesozoic »

pavornyoh wrote: post #96
d23 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course, if this really is such a revolutionary advance, why go to Kickstarter to bring it to market? Why not traditional investors. The obvious benefit being that you don't actually have to give Kickstarter "investors" any money back.

>The obvious benefit being that you don't actually have to give Kickstarter "investors" any money back. Shouldn't that make them have strong check and balances in place to help people funding these projects?

You would think...

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#99

Post by thisisdave »

steckerbrett wrote: post #44
vicbrooker wrote: post #33

Their prototype reminds me of concept car designs that look great but don't have enough internal space for an engine. You'd maybe fit a AAA battery in the handle but I haven't even seen a torch that works without more juice. Also, I was kind of suspicious when I noticed that more than half of the team have beards.

I doubt you could get more than a watt out of a AAA anyway.

A one-watt laser is pretty powerful (Class 4). Most laser pointers in the US can't exceed 5 milliwatts. One watt is several times what's needed to light various common materials on fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woiTedSKPrk

Re: Laser Razor suspended by Kickstarter

#100

Post by mesozoic »

dogma1138 wrote: post #19

It's sad that people thought it was real, forget about lasers and stuff it's basic common sense. A AAA battery doesn't store enough power to drive a laser capable of burning hair for any reasonable amount of time. When the laser isn't interrupted by the hair it has to go some where which means that heat is produced, if it can get something hot enough to burn the hair off it would get hot enough that you won't be able…

But lasers are magical future technology though and solve every problem!
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