Safe laser pointers with remote directional activation

Claim 1

A directionally activated, audience safe laser pointer system for highlighting aspects of a lecturer's presentation on a screen, said system comprising: (a) an incoherent optical transmitter unit for mounting adjacent the screen including a curved base member, an array of pilsed light emitting diodes mounted on said curved base member for producing an optical output, a mains operated pulsed power supply coupled to said diodes and a power point unit coupled to said power supply and adapted to be plugged directly into a main socket, said pulsed power supply exciting said light emitting diode array over selected portions of the mains frequency cycle; and (b) a hand-held laser beam generator/transmitter unit including an optical detector disposed in a forward end of said generator/transmitter unit for receiving said optical output from said optical transmitter unit and converting said output into an electrical signal, a hollow cylindrical electrical signal amplifier for amplifying said electrical signal and mounted rearwardly of said detector, a shielded electrical cable for conducting the amplified electrical signal from said signal amplifier, a switch-mode laser power supply which is activated and deactivated in accordance with said amplified electrical signal from said cable, and a laser beam generator coupled to said laser power supply and disposed between said power supply and said amplifier, said laser beam generator generating a laser beam which propagates through said signal amplifier when said laser power supply is activated, whereby an output in the form of incoherent light transmitted from said transmitter unit activates said hand-held laser beam generator/transmitter unit to generate a laser beam which impinges on the screen, said laser beam being extinguished when said hand-held unit is turned away from said screen.