Since the appearance of the members of the X-Men, Marvel’s group of mutant superheroes, quite a few fans have begun to discuss the question – what will happen if and when humans can develop their own superpowers. Most of the fans who grew up and got stronger over the years were deeply influenced by the comics, so it is not surprising to discover that some of them tried (most of them without success of course) to bring the wonderful inventions from the comics to reality.
One of the inventions that managed to get off the page is nothing less than the most deadly weapon of the leader of the X-Men from the original Cyclops – the laser glasses that allow him to focus his forces on a specific object instead of firing indiscriminately.
Unlike the comics, where the special glasses are designed to prevent the laser from leaving Cyclops’ eyes indiscriminately, the glasses invented by content creator AnselmoFanZero in 2014 are designed to simulate laser production. As soon as the invention was announced, he claimed that “it is a very stupid and dangerous idea”, but he revealed that the glasses are activated only by winking. Obviously, the device never reached the market, due to its danger, but in the demonstration performed by the creator on his YouTube channel, he showed that the laser is indeed real and capable of setting fire to paper and blowing up balloons – a great birthday trick.
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The attempts did not stop there, and in 2020 a group of French scientists announced that they had succeeded in developing a laser lens worn on the human eye, which would display a laser marker on the place where the person is looking. The developers used a 3D printer in order to print the components they needed and in fact the goal was to allow a person to use different screens without having to press them with their hands, but to choose the desired option on them by looking only.
The system is built from the lens worn on the eye as well as a camera, which examines where the person’s gaze wanders. According to the scientists, “the system will be able to detect where the person is looking and the laser beam will tell us exactly what he was looking for.” In the video published by the scientists, they even showed the operation of the lens in real time.
“The advantage of the Cyclops lens is that it does not have any external components. All its parts are assembled inside the lens,” claimed the researchers. According to them, if they ever manage to transfer their invention to a situation where they can market it for home use, they will try to attach a rechargeable battery that will take care of keeping it.
As for the question of safety – the researchers have not yet found a perfect solution to the danger from the laser, which could burn a person’s eyelids: “A person blinks on average 15 times every minute, which means that every hour the eyelid will be exposed to the laser beam about 900 times. Even so, the beam is too weak for to do real significant damage.”