Safe design of laser consumer products

Abstract

In recent years, consumer products containing lasers are becoming increasingly more prevalent. For example, lasers used for environmental depth sensing or eye tracking have entered into mainstream consumer culture. Risks involving such products are increased due to a combination of purposeful intra-beam viewing and large populations of products (estimated at over 100 million devices globally). In order to protect the general consumer population, it is imperative to develop a safety program that is fully integrated within the product development lifecycle and that incorporates industry best practices. In this paper we propose a design-for-safety approach to product development that follows a rigorous safety design philosophy that can allow for optimization of both performance and safety.In recent years, consumer products containing lasers are becoming increasingly more prevalent. For example, lasers used for environmental depth sensing or eye tracking have entered into mainstream consumer culture. Risks involving such products are increased due to a combination of purposeful intra-beam viewing and large populations of products (estimated at over 100 million devices globally). In order to protect the general consumer population, it is imperative to develop a safety program that is fully integrated within the product development lifecycle and that incorporates industry best practices. In this paper we propose a design-for-safety approach to product development that follows a rigorous safety design philosophy that can allow for optimization of both performance and safety.