The laser pointer is a low-cost portable laser that can be carried around. It is designed to point out the area of the slide or picture to be displayed during presentations, instead of holding wooden sticks or retractable metal pointers. It is superior to the old pointer because it can be used hundreds of feet away in dark areas, and it can accurately produce bright spots where users need them. It has also become a universal pointing tool and has become so commonplace that laws restricting its use have been passed.
Technically, the term laser is an acronym that stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation", but the term has become so common that it is no longer capitalized. Radiation is the light emitted from the laser. The human eye can or cannot see this light. Technically, only some laser engraver use optical amplification, but the term laser is still used for devices that produce monochromatic (all colors or wavelengths), coherent (light waves are similar enough to move in one direction) radiation.
All lasers have laser medium, energy source and resonator. The laser medium is a material that can be pumped (excited) to a higher energy state by an energy source (such as light or electricity). After pumping, the laser medium can release energy as monochromatic radiation. The resonator is the area that allows the released energy to accumulate before it is released. The basic resonator is a pair of mirrors at both ends of the laser medium. A mirror is completely reflective, so all light reflected to it will be reflected back into the laser medium. The other is partially reflective, so some of the light that hits it will be reflected back into the laser medium, and some of the light will pass through the medium and exit the blue laser pointer. A pair of mirrors reflects light back and forth in the laser medium and aligns it in one direction, thereby creating light coherence.
Unfortunately for Gould, the US Patent Office rejected his application in 1959 and granted it to Bell Labs the following year. Therefore, there is some controversy on this point, because Bell Laboratories and Gould are both engaged in laser work at the same time. Bell Laboratories only filed patent applications in 1958 and 1959. This led to 28 years of legal disputes. Gould received a minor patent in 1977 and won the first major victory in patent litigation in 1987.