Laser ocular flash effects

During this decade, lasers on the modern battlefield will become a directed energy threat to the eyes of ground force military personnel (1, 2, 3). One needs only to reflect on the enormous increase in electro-optical battlefield devices presently being developed to both train and equip troops for combat to suspect that a dramatic increase in accidental and intentional exposure incidence may well occur. Laser rangefinders (single pulse) and designators (multiple pulse) are anticipated to be commonplace in the modern electronic battlefield. While the future may hold to the concept of a laser injury as radiation that 'vaporizes' its target, now we need only to be concerned with those devices that disrupt the complex man-machine interface by ocular injury. Such interfaces are critical to a modern equipped Army, and ocular injury will severely affect this complexity. Laser devices that inflict such ocular damage are easily available and will be prolific in ground battlefield scenarios. The present investigation was designed to incorporate several key features of the military scenario in order to address the question of a low level laser threat to the eye and acute vision.