Teen invents pen-sized pico projector while your kid's busy beating up honor roll students
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 3rd 2009 2:47AM
posted June 3rd 2009 2:47AM
Life can sure be confusing for a teenager in this fast-paced techno-world we live in. Without the proper guidance, a kid could find himself unplugging someone's life support, or going to jail for borrowing the neighbor's WiFi. Hell, if old man General Tommy Franks (retired) has his way you won't even be able to hang out behind the Safeway and enjoy a six pack with your fellow juvenile delinquents without being tracked via GPS! So it warms our hearts when we do hear of a youngster that's bucked the odds and done something constructive. For example, a 13-year-old named David Baker has received a patent for his Light Beam Delivery System, a pico projector that fits in a pen casing, and works by combining three RGB lasers with an optics assembly that creates a light ray that is then shined through a rotating disk to the screen. "When the light goes through the lenses," he explains, "they take each light pixel and shine it onto a screen or wall. The lenses run back and forth until it fills the screen. This process repeats 30 times per second to make it appear as though you're looking at a solid image and not a series of pixels, and you have the image projected." And where did he find the inspiration for all of this? "I was sitting in church thinking about how to make projectors easier to handle and I just thought of it," he says. Here's to daydreaming during mass!
[Via About Projectors]
[Via About Projectors]
b'dass, i wish i was a kid again...id go back and "invent" the ipod
That's asking a lot. All I want to do is go back to last week.......with the lottery numbers.
he's using the concept of how a crt displays images, only difference- one static image in his projector. still great job by 13yr old.
I actually thought about 10 years ago about that phone thats able to show movies would get a few buyers, Unfortunately I knew it wasn't technically feasible at the time. Too expensive and batery life...
As for this I've been tinkering about same idea about 15 years ago.Unfortunately this one isn't even now or in the future technically feasible. Why? Even with 400 lines and 30 pictures per secons the rotating disk would have to rotate 720 000 rotations per minute. (Notice that rotations are usually counted per minute, not second if you think I miscalculated)
720 000 rotations is about 10 times more than a dentist drill makes. And the bearings would have to be done with extremely tight tolerances for the picture not to be fuzzy, but you cant make tight bearings with these rotations.
With 1 laser per line this might be feasible but would lose the size advantage,
Maybe the boy invents something new next time in church as I am sure his parents will be taking him to church a lot more. What a punichment for inventing something patentable for a 13th year old boy.
hey i know its asking a lot but just to walk in on wozniak presenting the apple one at a homebrew meeting and drop a Eee on the table would be a really interesting situation dont you think. think about what technological changes would happen if i just went back then...we'd already have, t-mobile would have a REAL 3g network by now.
Inspired by a CRT.
Inspired by CRT's ? Not exactly, it is the same as what existed before the first CRT's: the Nipkow disk.
The Nipkow disk was a rotating pinhole/lens disc assembly and was used in the first mechanical TV's in the 1920's.
maybe i should go to church... i could get more inventing done. Show off!!
/s
You silly people and your underestimation of teenagers.
Doesn't this just prove again that the patent system is wrong?
I wonder if I could get a patent for something simular, but instead of a pen, a watch...
I probably could...
@TravisJohn
You could patent that spelling of similar.
No kidding. His only proof for this concept is a MS Paint sketch. He didn't invent ANYTHING. Lots of people have had the same thought. Nobody has yet to succeed in MAKING one though, especially not one with any form of battery life. He's ripped off the concept for the CRT, put it inside an imaginary pen, and called it a day.
Is his father a lawyer or something??? I know swindler companies like Apple get away with passing off these BS ideas through the Patent Office every day, but now a kid gets away with it to? Can we just call it a day now? The patent process is officially Foobar. Burn it down.
Max is bitter he didn't think of it first.
Oh, and "FUBAR" stands for something, you can't misspell it, it would no longer make sense.
@Max
Does it seriously anger you this much?
What did you do when you were 13?
Doesn't it cost mucho dineros to register a patent? And to protect it if it's misused, but that's a bridge for later.
So how many logitech-devices-worth of capital did he spent on getting it registered?
So yeah it's a pretty safe bet his dad is indeed a lawyer.
We should all be pissed at this. He's a 13 year old without the resources or ability to create or engineer this, which means he's contributed nothing other than a shitty drawing in MS Paint and if someone did want to try and build this they would have to pay him because he could draw a pen with lights in it.
that's crazy. i wonder what he's gonna do with the patent tho.
He'll wait 'til someone really invents this instead of just imagining it and calling dibs with a patent, and then he'll sue them. Just like everyone else does with patents.
I've got 2 big remarks for this:
- Let's see him make it real and not just a patent.
- It needs 1 second to display 1 image! Not quite what we're looking for in a projector. It only seems usefull for giving a powerpoint presentation.
And don't get me started on how big a screen he's going to get with lasers.
and this is why more money should be invested in education =D
isnt this what we made dlp for?
I'm waiting for a teenager to invent a viable method of generating stable wormholes, and I don't mean for worms.
Did this kid just get a patent for an idea? Doesn't sound like he built anything; just dreamt something up.
Erm, that would be how the patent system works. You don't have to build it. It just has to be buildable; so sorry, no antigravity skateboards!
Hey, if this kid can get a patent for a magic pin with 3 laser LED's crammed inside of it, a moving optical array, driver circuits, AND a battery source that can power the whole thing for longer then 3 seconds... then it's time to patent that Anti-Gravity Skateboard! This item is as realistic as Unicorn Farts.
How exactly is his idea more buildable than an antigravity skateboard? To make an antigravity skate board all you need a skate board, and an antigravity generator. You get the antigravity generator by taking gravity and turning it upside down. -_-
My point is, just because he can describe what something does doesn't mean he should get a patent for it. I can describe how many things work, does it mean I could actually design the components for the device or even cobble together said device based parts already available on the market?
I'm gonna teach you a lesson when I patent breathing... I'm gonna make sure you pay extra! :P
Ellianth, relax. The patent system is set up to reward people for sharing their INVENTIONS with the public. One of the biggest misunderstandings that most people have about patents, including the inventors themselves and the assignees of the patents (owners), is that an invention (as defined by congress) is an idea and not a product. If a product includes the idea, then it is covered by the patent.
Furthermore, the claims of this patent, i.e. the part that defines what rights this kid has, doesnt say anything about a pen or a pen-sized object, or a battery or any of the other things most of you people take issue with. So... there's no reason this couldn't be built in a big-ass box.
He was probably in RE4's church, and got the inspiration from that puzzle.
i thought of that method quite a long time ago. i forgot it just as quickly since moving parts in a small device aren't going to be a success. oops, dropped my laserpen. damn now its broken :(. solid state ftw!
Sorry to break it to ya' kid, but they forgot to teach you very important words in the legal world of patenting: "prior art" and "obvious". First of all, they have been creating cheezy light shows at your local "observatory" set to bad Led Zeppelin covers, using lasers and spinny mirrors since before you were born. Second, the pixel scan back-and-forth you describe is called "interlacing", and as other comments here mentioned, CRT TVs were doing that when your grandparents were considered young. Put the two together, and you have an obvious way to reproduce the CRT effect using lasers. Unless you "invented" the green and blue lasers required (red lasers are older than your parents), and the electronics required to make them emit just the right amount of light at just the right time for each pixel, you've got nothin'. If you try to enforce this patent, you're the bully.
Yes folks, it's a sad day when a 13-year old can break the USPTO. Patent trolls: this is your maturity level.
And what did you do when you were 13?
Thinking back, I think I played D&D and chased 13 year old girls in a way so subtle that they would never, ever know in a million years that I was interested in them. I was really good at it.
As for the invention, if nobody has built something like this until now then I'd consider it pretty original.
"has received a patent"
I'm not a lawyer, but the past tense here means that the patent passed the basic tests and was granted. Good for him. Lots of patents are for useless things, or impractical things, or both. That doesn't stop people from getting patents, nor should it.
@Beebop
So does this mean that when some smart engineers actually figure out how to make that pen, in the future with better batteries, etc., that they'll have to pay this guy to sell them?
@bebop: You obviously don't keep up on patent law or history. The USPTO started reneging on their responsibility to properly vet patents before Einstein worked there. Look at the history of how Alexander Graham Bell stoke key parts of "his patent" on the telephone, with the help of his corrupt patent "examiner".The courts decide what's a valid patent, only after much lawyer's-new-vacation-home money is spent. Google "Bilski" -- you don't even have to include "patent" in the search, because a man's name is now closely associated with the potential liberation of the masses from lame software and business method patents.
This is an example why the US Patent system is broken and is a massive burden holding back US enterprise with patent trolls and submarine trolls. The Office is just inundated with patents and cannot cope.
I was shocked to find out we could apply for a Software Patent because it had a technical effect - yeah what that means is if you software is used to manage something that is physical say the position of a satelliet in orbit it has a technical effect.
Sorry but this is going too far - the only winners - lawyers.
All great inventions begin with an idea. He took an existing electron gun technology and springboarded from that to apply a similar technique to light. I think it's brilliant. And you guys are mad about this? One of my honors students came up with a marvelous and potentially workable idea on how to generate electricity for practically free. I told him he needs to get it patented once he gets it refined. Sometimes kids, who do not have the prejudices and "experience" of adults, can see things from a new perspective, and when they do, adults usually have a predictable response. As evidenced by this board. I teach high school chemistry, and I have learned how to improve my teaching from my students, who see things from angles I never thought of before. You have to be open to it. Not all kids are raving delinquents. If adults actually took the time to stop talking at their kids and started listening TO them, kids would feel respected and empowered at the same time, and that can lead to a healthy adulthood. I don't see the problem with that. The old adage that kids are to be seen and not heard is stupid, destructive to the future generation and did I mention just plain stupid?
And for a patent, he does not have to build it. He has to design it. You're going to hold him to a higher standard because he's a kid??? He's 13, for crying out loud! What, you want him to make you a Legos version?
Did he actually make it or just draw the diagram? Because I've drawn diagrams for all sorts of anti-gravity hovering vehicles but I don't get a mention on Engadget!
...yes, I just looked at the picture and didn't read the article, but for the purpose of my comment that will suffice.
Since when do lasers have pixels???
please tell me you are joking or are younger than 13.
His parents helped him on this. His dad is an inventor of Ethernet and Web technologies, an Intellectual Property Licensing Executive, and a Software Engineer. I'm sure his dad has invented many other things.
If he had parents that weren't inventor's or anything like that, then I would be impressed.
This is the kid's dad.
http://www.richbaker08.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=21
Talk about butt-chin...
Unreal. I have never heard such bitterness over what? A kid inventing something?
The article doesn't make it clear that his Dad probably had a major hand in this.
I am sure other 13 year olds with similarly useful/useless ideas probably wouldn't get as far.
Not sure of the real world implications of this patent though.
'shined'? What happened to 'shone'?
It's still around. Like "spelled" and "spelt;" both are valid, but you see a lot more of one than the other.
I love the smell of jealousy in the morning! ;)
lets hope the wont out to a dance-hall,it will be more interesting than we are seeing guys 'ears will be teared loose'
May have been mentioned prior (don't have time to read through all), but it takes 4-5 years for a patent to get issued, until then it is patent pending. So, when it says "was issued a patent", what exactly is happening there? Maybe he filed for a patent, which anyone and the grandmother can do. All it takes is $200 and a writeup with claims. The USPTO will review the claims (which is the only REAL part of the patent) and decide if they are worthy of issuance. This process rarely takes less than 4 years.