Patent ID: 7769063

Claim:
A method of operating a system for generating a projected laser image, the system comprising at least one laser source, an optical intensity monitor, and laser scanning projection optics, wherein the optical intensity monitor forms at least a portion of an output power feedback loop configured to control a gain section of the semiconductor laser as a function of optical intensity and the method comprises: projecting a laser image by utilizing an image signal to drive the laser source and the projection optics, wherein a series of control signals G 1 , G i , . . . G j are applied to the gain section of the semiconductor laser for projection of a series of discrete portions V 1 , V i , . . . V j of the image signal; utilizing the output power feedback loop to generate optical intensity feedback signals representing actual output power of the laser source for the discrete portions V 1 , V i , . . . V j of the image signal; generating error signals E 1 , E i , . . . E j representing the degree to which actual projected output power varies from a target projected output power for the discrete portions V 1 , V i , . . . V j of the image signal; and utilizing the error signals E 1 , E i , . . . E j to apply corrected control signals G 1 ′, G i ′, . . . G j ′ to the gain section of the semiconductor laser for projection of compatible discrete portions V 1 ′, V i ′, . . . V j ′ of the image signal, wherein the temporal or physical placement of the compatible discrete portions V 1 ′, V i ′, . . . V j ′ of the image signal in the projected laser image is such that the image content of the compatible discrete portions V 1 ′, V i ′, . . . V j ′ of the image signal is likely to mimic the image content of the discrete portions V 1 , V i , . . . V j of the image signal.