The device is built out of two servos. One provides the rotation and the other the tilt. It can be used for example to point at the date on a wall calender (sample below). Here the size is compared to a standard CR2032 battery. A video of the system in action on Youtube: The control programm is written in VB Express but a microcontroller could also be used. This programm provides the following features:
-direct control via buttons
-direct control via area. Clicking the area will send the dot to the corresponding position
-turn the beam on and off
-point the dot at the corresponding date where the month is the X-axis and the day the Y-axis (shown in sample below)
-point the dot at the corresponding time where the hour is the X-axis and the minute the Y-axis
-scale the area for date and time to fit on any calendar or area.
An application example: the dot shows the current date on a big wall calendar and is adjusted automatically. The sample shows the 14th May 2010. If the laser is out of focus it can actually be used to highlight the entire number. A clock with this method is also possible (2D field) but the basic idea was to provide a guide for finding books or DVD's in shelves. The book would be chosen via a little console and the dot would be placed over it. Or it could point to a place on a map. Note that the device would have to be installed in a fixed position for this. Note that due to the micro sized servos no high resolution can be achieved. Thus the area needs to be large OR the device needs to be near to the surface. Precision can be improved by using better/bigger servos.