Part of the Entertainment Lasers Metanode

In order for a laser image to be seen, it must be projected onto some sort of surface. The simplest of these are front and rear projection screens. The scanners scan onto the screen just like a typical LCD video projector. Similarly, laser images can be scanned onto waterfalls or water screens. Some products allow the scanners to draw images on surfaces that are not flat. Using specialized optics, the laser image can be drawn on the inside dome of a planetarium without distortion. This is common at many larger planetariums. Lasers with similar optics have been placed inside giant inflatable balls, columns, and horseshoes. This allows the projector to draw an image that wraps all the way around a surface. While true 3D holography with lasers does not exist yet, approximations of the effect have been achieved by scanning perspective images onto scrims and glass sheets. This can make an object appear to float in space and have dimension while it is in effect being drawn on a screen.

However, images on a screen, even laser images are old hat. The real power and beauty of entertainment lasers lies in beam effects and audience scanning.

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