Patent ID: 7174647

Claim:
A pattern projecting system comprising: (a) a light source configured to project an illuminating beam having a non-circularly patterned cross section so that an intersecting projection of the beam onto a spaced away, reflective and facing wall, if the wall is present, will produce an illuminated marking on the wall where the illuminated marking is substantially in the shape of a line or another fanning-out pattern that is parallel-wise alignable to a hypothetical line on the wall by virtue of the fanning-out shape of the illuminated marking; (b) a spherically rotatable support having a center of spherical rotation, where said center has associated therewith first, second and third hypothetical planes that are orthogonal to one another and move in unison with said support, and the first through third planes are defined to intersect with one another and with the center of spherical rotation, where said light source is mounted to the spherically rotatable support such that, in one fixed or user-selected mounting orientation of the light source, its projected illuminating beam will have a fanout of its non-circularly patterned cross section aligned to the first hypothetical plane at a predefined angle, where said spherically rotatable support includes a guided surface which can be urged against a supplied movement guide so as to guide movement of the spherically rotatable support in a spherical rotation about said center of spherical rotation; and (c) one or more orientation indicators operatively coupled to the spherically rotatable support and adapted to at least indicate if the first hypothetical plane is in a level condition, wherein said one or more orientation indicators are located so as to not block said light source from projecting the illuminated beam away from the spherically rotatable support.