This little project belongs firmly in the ‘Do not try this at home’ category of robots, according to its creator, especially if you’re considering a field test of the device. An intrepid inventor has designed, with detailed do-it-yourself instructions, an Arduino-powered robot that will flash lights back at drivers who ride up behind a vehicle at night with their brights on.
It almost goes without saying that using the LuxBlaster, as the project is known, is likely illegal if you want to actually install it in a car. At the very least it is a hazard on the road because, although a driver may be projecting enough lumens into your mirror to make driving difficult, they’re probably not expecting a high-powered beam of light to hit them in the face in return.
Which is exactly what the LuxBlaster does. It homes in on the brightest light source hitting its sensors and directs a beam of light back at the source. Just how bright the light hitting its sensors has to be and how illuminating the response is is up to the builder so it could quite easily be used for malicious purposes as well as the one we all wish we could put it to. But it might be a better idea to pay attention to the many disclaimers in the video and modify the light-reflection robot on display to do something a little less lethal. Perhaps turn it into a new piece of nightclub equipment instead.
Source: via PopSci