History of Laser Projection – P2 10/17/25 – Full Disclosure
One of the things I want to learn from this year’s LIPA Annual Meeting is the “WHO?”. I have the good fortune to have had MANY teachers and a few VERY patient backers, that stayed with it. But in the beginning, it seemed like a long shot and even though Laser Illumination has proven its many benefits over time, it had to compete for attention with a much bigger transition – that of Film to Digital. I am NOT a Laser Guy. A better moniker would have been “Vox Clemantis in Deserto”. I did believe that Laser could be applied to projection (and other applications) so studied both the addressable markets and the available technology.
But now I want to find out WHO… and WHY others believed that Laser would someday “power” (illuminate) projectors, from Giant Screen IMAX to NED A/R glasses (hat tip to fellow Oscar-winner, Barry Silverstein, who saw this coming while still inside KODAK, the dominant FILM company, and who is now guiding laser photons to the eye for Augmented Reality.) So clearly, I was only one of many (you others know who you are, but we many not).
People ask me: “What did you invent to get a Tech Oscar?” And the answer is: nothing. My role in this long march was simply to keep marching, and learning and making mistake after mistake – and telling anyone who would listen all about it. I didn’t get the title “The Laser Guy” on my business card until 2014, but by then, that was already what everyone called me.
So why do it? Because I knew it would work and provide many creative and economic benefits. These fall into two main categories: Improved/enabled IMAGE QUALITY (IQ) and reduced OPERATING COSTS (OPS). We pitched the cost savings to investors from 2003 to 2007 and finally got Laser Light Engines (LLE) funded. Thanks to many other innovators along the way, these OPS benefits did arrive and continue to improve projection economics going forward.
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