Passion Project 3.7 - Present

Problem
I've chosen to address the issue of laser strikes on aircraft, which are when troublemakers intentionally shine lasers at the cockpit of aircraft landing and taking off. Laser strikes may also however be unintentionally caused by home laser light show devices. There has yet to be an accident directly attributed to laser light, however, there are also no preventative measures aside from penalties. In Canada, someone caught shining a laser at an aircraft faces up to $100,000 in fines, 5 years in prison, or both. Despite these penalties, laser strikes continue to be on the rise with almost 600 incidents in Canada alone in 2015: that's more than 10 a week.

*FAA simulation of a legal 5 mW laser pointer at 350 feet (110 m).




Obviously the worst case scenario would be to have a pilot be blinded severely enough to cause a catastrophic crash which is especially prevalent as laser strikes most often occur at low altitudes during landing and takeoff, especially critical and dangerous periods of a flight.

Research
I realized the only way for light to be weakened would be to have a physical object between the source and destination so I thought of transitioning windows so pilots would still be able to see my solution was not in use.
The following is research on various transitioning windows.

SPD (Suspended Particle Device)
Particles are in random patterns without charge
Dark without charge
Clear with charge
On Boeing 787 windows but take time to transition

Liquid Crystals
Particles are misaligned but align parallel with charge
Translucent without charge
Transparent with charge
Transition is instant

Electrochromic Device
Particles change color with charge
Clear without charge
Darken with charge
Transition is instant


SPD windows were immediately ruled out due to the transition time it takes for them to darken and PLDC film was ultimately chosen for my experimental use as it was the cheapest and the manufacturer replied to my emails.

Solution

I've sent emails to

Smart Glass - Requesting Sample Square (~2x2inch)
Sageglass
Polytronix Glass

Aircraft Firms - Viability Questions
Boeing
Airbus
Bombardier

Aviation Window Suppliers - Viability Questions
PPG Aerospace
GKN Aerospace

I've gotten a response from Polytronix glass and ordered a PLDC film that is naturally opaque and will turn clear when current is applied. I have also bought the components needed to allow an Arduino to control an outlet and plan to program the Arduino to depower the film upon luminance crossing a programmed threshold. In a real cockpit, electrochromic or PLDC film could be sandwiched between the layers of acrylic cockpit windshields and have the sensor behind the pilots in the cockpit.

Below is an image of the Arduino rig that would control the outlet.

Upon sensing a certain luminance of light a light sensor on the Arduino in the cockpit would allow electricity to flow to the 5v converter that then powers an outlet. The film would be connected to that outlet and turn on and off according to the Arduino.