Given that most real-life superheroes don’t have the budget of Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, you would assume that their gadgetry wouldn’t be quite on par with what we’re used to seeing in the movies. German cyber weapons hobbyist Patrick Priebe recently dropped us a line, however, to tell us about his latest homebuilt creation – a working laser gauntlet, just like the one made famous by a certain Iron Man.
The aluminum-bodied device opens up for the user to insert their forearm, then gently clamps onto it using a spring/lever system. An LED display on the side of the gauntlet lights up once it’s locked in place, letting the user know that it’s ready to go ... and also to look cool, of course.
When the would-be Iron Man wants to zap something, they do so via button controls on the palm-mounted control module. This initially activates a servo, which causes the laser rig to rise out of the top of the gauntlet. Two red lasers on that rig are then used for aiming at the target, after which a thicker blue laser (mounted between them) is selected to deliver the coup de grâce. It may not be a strong enough beam to disable a car or anything, but as you can see in the demo video at the bottom of the page, you wouldn’t want to be a balloon around this thing.
Although Iron Man’s movie gauntlet utilized a red "destructive" beam, Priebe told us that he went with a blue laser because it’s more powerful and more visible. Additionally, a second blue laser is located in his gauntlet’s palm control unit. All four lasers are powered by one 3.7-volt lithium-ion battery, with two smaller batteries powering the LEDs and the servo.
According to Patrick, it took him 120 hours to build the gauntlet – and he wasn’t working from plans of any kind. As with his past creations (such as a coilgun, flame-throwing glove, and rotary blade-shooting crossbow), he’s not about to tell people how to build one of their own. If you contact him via his website, however, he might be willing to make you one ... for the right price.
