As president of Laser Product Safety (Cary, NC) and an expert delegate for laser, light-emitting-diode, UV, and IR safety on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group Committee (Washington, D.C.), Ken Puckett has seen and tested laser hardware of all types—industrial, medical, scientific, and consumer. But when he discovered a fishing lure in his lab one day, he wondered who had inadvertently left it there. “When I learned it was actually a new product under testing, I was immediately intrigued, because we are used to dealing with very high-tech state-of-the-art equipment,” says Puckett.
The lure, manufactured by Laserlure (Titusville, FL), contains a red laser diode that attracts game fish. Puckett determined that the lure is indeed quite safe: pulsed at 2.77 Hz, it emits an average power of 1.1 µW in a 9.72% duty cycle. He also learned that the lure had been tested in fresh and salt waters from professionally guided fishing boats, producing 34% more game fish than nonlaser lures fished from the same boat.
Over the years, Puckett has dealt with dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing optical-network switches, optical servers, optical amplifiers, DVD/CD burners, barcode and iris scanners, material and chemical sample analyzers, medical and dental devices for patient treatment, UV lamps, tools, and toys. “One of the most enjoyable things about my job is getting a look at the newest and most innovative products before they hit the public marketplace,” he says. While Puckett does fish, he has not used the lure. “I couldn’t fish with the only sample we had in for testing,” he explains.
The lure, which is patented, will initially be marketed in Canada, then go into the U.S. marketplace, and then the rest of the world. Puckett notes that he does plan to buy one.
John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)
John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.