Laser pointer system for day and night use

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9019366-B2
Application number	US-201113044580-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2011
Priority date	Mar 10, 2011
Publication date	Apr 28, 2015
Grant date	Apr 28, 2015

Abstract

A novel eye-safe, long range laser pointer system for use in day or night conditions is described. The system uses a short pulse laser and a gated camera to detect the laser spot at long ranges in the presence of a strong solar background. The camera gate is synchronized with incident laser pulses using a separate large area, fast photodiode to detect the high peak power pulses. Alternately, gate synchronization using a GPS-disciplined clock can be used. Eye-safe systems operating in the near-UV or SWIR band are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laser pointer system to detect a remote laser spot at long ranges in the presence of a solar background, comprising:
a laser disposed to emit short laser pulses of duration in the 5-20 nanoseconds range incident on a distant surface to mark a remote laser spot;
a synchronization photodiode to detect arriving reflections of said short laser pulses as scattered laser pulses, wherein a first narrow-band spectral filter and a lens are disposed in front of th…

Assignees

• Goldberg Lew
• Mcintosh Christopher M
• Us Army

Inventors

• Goldberg Lew
• Mcintosh Christopher M

Classifications

• F41G3/145 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F41G1/35

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic