Patent ID: 8475507

Claim:
A handheld apparatus for use by a non-physician consumer for fractionally resurfacing skin of the consumer, comprising: a housing dimensioned to be manually grasped and manipulated relative to a skin surface of the consumer; a laser inside the housing, the laser configured to generate an optical beam containing coherent electromagnetic radiation; an optical pattern generator inside the housing, the optical pattern generator including a rotatable component that continually rotates during operation of the laser about a rotation axis in a single direction, thereby deflecting the optical beam during rotation to divide the electromagnetic radiation into pulses that propagate from the housing toward the skin surface and form a fractional pattern at the skin surface for performing a skin resurfacing dermatological treatment, the rotatable component including a plurality of fins and a corresponding plurality of reflective segments that rotate through the optical beam to deflect and divide the optical beam into the pulses; a transducer configured to output a signal for each pulse of the electromagnetic radiation generated by the rotatable component, the transducer including an encoder having a source light and a detector positioned within the housing such that one of the plurality of fins rotates to interrupt a path between the source light and the detector each time one of the pulses is generated by the rotatable component; and a controller inside the housing and operatively coupled to the transducer, the controller working during operation of the laser to determine an accumulated number of pulses by counting each signal communicated from the transducer, and to compare the accumulated number of pulses with a threshold number of pulses associated with the end of a dose of radiation.