ABSTRACT
Lasers have become so much a part of daily life that many people may not realize how ubiquitous they are. Every home with a CD player has a laser; hardware stores are now selling a wide variety of laser-based products; many, if not most, computers, printers, and copiers are using laser technology. Laser technology is also playing an increasingly large role in a large variety of safety applications, particularly with respect to developing sophisticated warning and alerting systems. Illustrating this trend, most automobile manufacturers currently offer collision avoidance systems (CASs) as an option for higher-end vehicles. Emerging evidence, including recent
CONTENTS
Introduction .........................................................................................................309 Laser Applications in Safety and Ergonomics ................................................ 311
Collision Avoidance Systems ........................................................................ 311 Laser-Based Speed Enforcement Devices ................................................... 315 Presence Sensing Safety Devices .................................................................. 317 Intrusion Alarms ............................................................................................ 317 In-Line Process Monitoring .......................................................................... 322 Human Scanning ............................................................................................ 324 Human Position Tracking ............................................................................. 326 Remote Sensing .............................................................................................. 327 Hazardous Gas Leak Detection .................................................................... 328 Food Safety ...................................................................................................... 331 Fire Detection ..................................................................................................334 Dam Safety ......................................................................................................335 Identity Authentication Systems in Healthcare .........................................336 Eye Tracking Technology in Human-Computer Interaction ...................336
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 337 References .............................................................................................................340
