Patent
Laser Projection Apparatus
A way to build a large, full-color video image out of red, green, and blue laser light — combining and balancing the beams through an optical system so the projected picture is bright, sharp, and correctly colored.
- Patent number
- US 5,136,426
- Issued
- August 4, 1992
- Inventors
- Paul A. Linden, Richard W. Pease
- Assignee
- Advanced Laser Projection, Inc.
U.S. Patent 5,136,426, “Laser Projection Apparatus,” is the cornerstone of Paul’s invention story. Co-invented with Richard W. Pease and assigned to Advanced Laser Projection, Inc., it describes a system for producing balanced, full-color projected imagery using lasers as the light source.
What it does, in plain English
Building a color picture from lasers means precisely combining red, green, and blue beams and controlling their brightness moment to moment. The patent addresses how to converge and balance those beams through an optical system so the final projected image is bright, sharp, and correctly colored — at a scale and depth of focus conventional lamp-based projectors of the era could not reach.
A family date
The patent was issued on August 4, 1992 — the birthday of Paul’s wife, Elaine Linden. Paul is especially proud of the coincidence, and likes to point out that his most important patent shares such a meaningful family date.
The full patent, including its claims and figures, is available from the USPTO and Google Patents. We are adding cleaned, readable copies of the drawings to this page.
Technical abstract
The patent covers aspects of a laser projection system intended to create balanced full-color projected imagery using laser light sources and associated optical components.