Laser safety is a well known issue, IEC60825 offers mathematical models to calculate the safety category (e.g class 1/2) of a laser device, which are based on physics models of the eye from first principles and empirical data. There is nothing particularly special about LIDAR lasers that makes these models not valid as far as I know. Generally, there is a tradeoff between exposure time and intensity, so LIDAR systems have redundant hardware methods to ensure the pulse time is not exceeded.
Any laser product generally has to be tested to IEC60825 to check which category it fits within, under the safety rules of the jurisdiction (e.g. CE for EU, FDA for USA). This LIDAR system would have to pass that too, and it should be reasonably easy for them to check if it would when developing it.
The laser isn't tested to IEC60825. Instead the manufacturer (Oester in this case) would submitted information about the laser scanning system design to the FDA to get approved as a Class 1 device.
thanks for mentioning IEC60825, which will come in handy for a project, but I would always feel out of place asking for it on a tangential HN thread, so I am really glad it popped up spontaneously...
1) Does it offer the eye models themselves or only some results of the eye models? If it is only based on eye models, where can I learn more about the eye models/empirical data themselves?
2) Does IEC60825 only pertain to laser safety, or does it also treat LED safety?
The Ouster OS-1 in the article, as well as all other automotive lidars that I know of, are class 1 laser eye-safe, meaning that it is safe even if you put your eye right up to it for hours.
The power also decreases dramatically once you get far away from it, since the laser beams spend most of their time pointed in different directions, and the collimation is not perfect.
Besides, infrared security cameras put out just as much, if not more 850 nm - 940 nm light.
"lasers we use are well under the eye safety limit and have been certified as Class 1 eye-safe lasers by third party labs."
I'm a bit surprised by that since IIRC 850 nm can go through the water in your eye to reach your retina but won't trigger a blink reflex. So it has to be pretty low power to get that rating.
905 nm can also go through the water in your eye (the eye safety limit for 905 nm is maybe 2 times higher than for 850 nm), but Velodyne and many other lidar companies have been using 905 nm for years with no problems. The 2x higher sensitivity of silicon CMOS detectors to 850 nm in comparison to 905 nm makes up for the lower power.
Any laser product generally has to be tested to IEC60825 to check which category it fits within, under the safety rules of the jurisdiction (e.g. CE for EU, FDA for USA). This LIDAR system would have to pass that too, and it should be reasonably easy for them to check if it would when developing it.