How Do Laser Tag Guns Work?

Everyone loves a good old game of amplified light through stimulated emissions of radiation chasing. If that sentence was confusing for you to read, you're not alone, because it was confusing for me to write. What we're talking about here is laser tag.
Laser tag has become an immensely popular game in the last several decades. It has become a fan favorite for birthday parties for both kids and adults alike. We can barely imagine a better way to bond with your friends than by shooting beams of light at them, hoping to score sweet victory - all in good fun, of course.
But while playing laser tag is awesome on its own, have you ever wondered just how these real-life shooter games work? Let's delve into the science of laser tag.
All images courtesy of Creative Commons or protected under Fair Use. For questions or concerns about the use of any media, please contact the page directly.
Media:
Divider by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: chriszabriskie.com/divider/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
A HUGE THANK YOU to BoomChild for letting me use his laser tag content. Go check out his channel here: / boomchild
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[@ConcerningReality]

A HUGE THANK YOU to BoomChild for letting me use his laser tag content. Go check out his channel here: kzbin.info

[@DubzCo]

Sooo they are basically t.v remotes in the end of controller in the shape of a gun, I get it

[@conradmcdougall3629]

I recieved Lazer Tag for Xmas in 1988. Loved it

[@untilnow581]

Video brings back childhood memories.

[@chicagodancefactory2840]

For those of you familiar... That was Alcatraz at Icombat in Chicago... which sadly was shut down and dismantled because of the pandemic.... RIP ICombat Chicago... Great Times... Great Friends.. Great Battles... We miss you....

[@superluigi9490]

This is incredibly helpful. I’m wanting to build a Star Wars/Halo laser tag game.

[@localmemer8762]

I miss Lazer tag, the CQC, in the field, hostage rescue, (staff were the hostage if there are alot of players) and the players were very cooperated. The teenagers were the best as I can say.

[@pi.gmnogo9806]

Lowsvvg

[@unvergebeneid]

There are IR laser diodes and they can be pulsed, so that part of the explanation of "why not lasers" made very little sense. As for the eye damage, that occurs because there's too much light in too short a time at the back of the eye. It doesn't matter if it's laser light or not. Lasers should in fact be more coherent and therefore less dependent on distance, ergo it should be easier to tune them to be bright enough to be detected yet dim enough not to cause harm. There is a point to be made why lasers are more dangerous than other light sources and that is that the pupillary light reflex can't block out a ray of light that is too thin but since we are not talking about visible light anyway, this can't be a point either. So I'm sure there's a good reason lasers aren't used but it wasn't in the video.

[@lucasc5622]

i would imagine, as always, it comes down to cost. at that time, ir was being used in remotes for tvs all around the world, making the ir leds cheap as chips. lasers, however, are much more expensive because they have no use in the consumer space, especially in the 80s when we weren't really using optical means of storing information, e.g. cds. but you're right, lasers arent really dangerous, especially when filtered/used with pwm, otherwise we wouldnt have laser pointers to piss around with cats.

[@unvergebeneid]

@@lucasc5622 That would be my guess, too. But again, the only thing I can say for certain is that none of the explanations actually given to us in the video check out.

[@lancer737]

Just because the human eye cant see an ultra violet laser or if laser, doesn't mean it cant damage your eyes. I was just watching a video about a guy that made a greater than 1 MW IR laser that will blind permeability whatever you shine it at, even though the light can not be detected by a human eyeball. Granted they are gonna use 1 MW lasers for laser tag, I would think.

[@unvergebeneid]

@@lancer737 Sure, but if you had the same brightness as a normal light source, it would be just as damaging. And since you would tune the brightness to be enough for the sensors, it's not that a laser is inherently stronger or anything.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

the point being that the infrared diode detects infrared light waves NOT laser waves. So that's why lasers are not used.

[@masomaf]

I am really curious of accuracy , because a tv remote or other remotes using IR dont have to be pointed very accurately at the receiving unit.

[@Lucy_Lou2]

S tier video

[@Ed-gf3mv]

It's the same technology as what allows you to have multiple buttons on your TV remote

[@treakzy_9594]

nice one, keep it up

[@ROLOGamingOfficial]

So fancy TV remotes.

[@michaelschenk3404]

Very good video

[@stormtroop1298]

I just got back from laser tag there was fog so we could see the laser beams it made it way better than usual

[@YouthFreedomFighters]

The first laser tag sport, invented by George Carter III, was called Photon. That should've been mentioned in the video.

[@philipxxxdj]

some of the old laser tage pro gear was real lasers you can look it up and there is new more safe lasers

[@szymonnowak9989]

Why call a guy "The third", when nobody knows nor cares, who were the first two?

[@ConcerningReality]

Because that’s literally his name. Like his legal name has III after it

[@AndweleHarris]

I get what you're saying

[@purplegill10]

3:22 mild epilepsy warning

[@mr.tomraypaz6085]

I never knew that laser tag didn’t actually use lasers. That might be a good thing, as lasers can be dangerous, as stated in the video.

[@thegreatmikejonez]

Actually new ones use class 1 lasers

[@ML-zi1vg]

still, the greatest purveyor violence in the world today, my own country.

[@Alexolotal]

the fact that they don't use lasers is odd, as the Lazer tag place I go to has class 1 Lazer warning stickers on the guns

[@RandomakerYT]

They often have a single low power laser (Like a cat laser pointer) that flashes when you fire, but its just so you know where you are hitting.

[@thegreatmikejonez]

The new guns use class 1 lasers which is why they are a whole lot more accurate now and have very long ranges. They do not use inferred beams. I know thins because I own some of the new guns. I have battle company’s BRP guns.

[@thegreatmikejonez]

@@RandomakerYT no the new ones use the class 1 lasers instead of ir light. I have Battle Rifle Pros they have a range of 700ft accurately in daylight. Inferred guns don’t have close to that range.

[@God_forlife.]

I went laser tag 2 days ago and I overpowered red team they was camping in the middle so I ran up the middle and killed them all it was sick

[@augi1034]

if laser tag has lasers i will be blind or dead

[@charlzwarde5990]

To bad there is no laser tag here

[@seans316]

Hmm it would be nice to get credit for using my video when I have no association with this channel

[@ConcerningReality]

Hey Sean! All the credit I used was in the Creative Commons. Is there something missing attribution? Shoot me a message and we’ll get it sorted👍🙏

[@chicagodancefactory2840]

@@ConcerningReality Yea. It's kind of suspect that the "Artist" is some guy in Florida. I doubt he even knows that's Alcatraz or ICombat Chicago. That's definitely Sean's video.

[@Kosh60262]

The guns seem like they cost 1000 but they can be about 40-100 on Amazon

[@God_forlife.]

Also every time I took my 1 of my hands of the gun the gun told me of for holding it with 1 hand 😂😂😂😂

[@jacobrussell570]

Did you get permission from the creators to use their footage for this? I can count multiple sections that my buddies filmed that did not give you permission to use their content

[@ConcerningReality]

All the content I used was in the Creative Commons, is there something missing permission? Have them reach out happy to add it in the about section 😊

[@lamboking8able]

thumbnail *I am captain iron thor!!!*

[@tonyaballard9762]

when i was little i used to play laser tags to there was alien on the wall (it was fake) i screamed so loud lmao

[@minitech9686]

Laser tag. Naaaaah. Tazer tag is more like it

[@veterayt6800]

That's what the Americans are playing