ghetto lasershield?

[unixium]

So my wife was working on a presentation, and needed a handful of pages laminated. Instead of using the local Kinkos, she decided to do it herself with some clear contact paper. Specifically "Clear Magic Cover" by Kittrich Corp. ($6.95 or an eight foot roll)

I looked at this stuff, it's translucent and vaguely reminded me of my LaserShield cover. So I decided what it'd do over a license plate. My tests were amazingly unscientific, but I'll share anyways.

I applied a strip of the stuff over the alphanumerics of a LP (the very top and bottom of the plate where uncovered). Then set up laser pointer so when I turned it on, it reflected off a part of the plate without the contact paper, and onto a wall.


(you can see the laser pointer at the top of the LP)

With the lights turned off, you can see the reflected beam from the laser pointer.



Then I repositioned the pointer so that it reflected off the plate where the contact paper strip was applied, and onto the same spot onto the wall:


(again, you can see the laser pointer on the plate)

And a picture of the wall with the lights turned out


That last image is rather pointless. My phone camera isn't sensitive enough to pick up on they very faint red spot that was reflected.

The laster pointer was approximately 2 feet from the LP, and the LP was about 5 feet from the wall.

The reflected laser point, reflected off a mirror (placed directly in front of the LP) was approximately .25 inch in diameter.

The reflected laser point, reflected off the LP without contact paper a diameter of about .75 inch.

The reflected laser point, reflected off the LP with contact paper was somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 inches in diameter.

[nvr2fast]

could you post a picture of this magical clear tape that you applied? Is it like sticky tape?

[unixium]

Hopefully you werent looking for a picture of the product packaging -- it'd be really boring - a 8 foot by 18 inch sheet of medium vinyl rolled up into a 1.25 inch diameter cylinder.

Not that this picture any more exciting ..I took a picture of the stuff, with my lasershield held next to it for comparison.



It's a medium vinyl material with a semi-sticky adhesive. Semi-sticky meaning something between post-it note adhesive, and standard duct tape adhesive.

[nvr2fast]

So it take it this stuff is certainly not as obvious as the laser shield?

[StlouisX50]

I'd like to see you send some of this tape to the GOL and see how it test's out. If it works well it might be able to be applied on head lights.


(Any of you GOL guys interested in testing out this tape?)

[unixium]

So it take it this stuff is certainly not as obvious as the laser shield?

I would disagree with that. The contact paper is a bit more translucent than the lasershield, but I would think anyone that would notice a lasershield would notice this too.

If it works well it might be able to be applied on head lights.

I suppose you could do that, but it would be akin to putting lasershield on your headlights --- and would render them rather ineffective. Perhaps on the turn signals and parking lights.

[stalker]

hmm...not entirely convinced it will work....this calls for a test