Laser Pointers are widely used by business executives, professionals, university and school teachers to project a point of light to a display screen to highlight contents of a presentation and lecture to replace traditional telescopic style pointing and teaching sticks.

Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation which is generated in a narrow and concentrated beam and can be in different colours and strength of power.

Laser Pen Presenters or Laser Presentation Pointers may be manufactured with various features. The first generation of Laser Pointer is simply a pen laser pointer with a button for the user to switch laser on and off. They have liberated speakers and teachers from standing closely to the screen and blackboard while running a presentation or a lecture if they are used to use a presentation stick.

Laser Presentation Pointers with integared remote Page Changers become available recently have offered the speakers a further liberty as they do not have to stand in front of a computer to turn the page up and down while doing a presentation from a computer as slides and pages can be changed by the presenter from a distance away.

A Page Changer works in similar principle as a remote control for a TV. It sends an instruction to a signal receiver to drive the computer to move slides and pages forward and backward without touching the mouse or keyboard of the computer. Signal receivers can be a USB dongle or a mini mouse connected to a laptop or a PC. The instruction signal can be sent either by a Infrared (IR) or Radio Frequency (RF) format. The user needs to point presenter to the signal receiver to send page change instruction to the computer if with IR technology while there is no such a constrain if with RF technology.

The latest models of Laser Presenters can include even more advanced features and work like a remote and wireless mouse and keyboard to move the cursor around to open and close a file from a distance away. Some models have even got a built-in Timer to help the user to control the process of presentation smoothly.

Laser pointers in the UK have special legal requirements under Health and Safety legislation. Laser pointers used for presentation and lecture should be less than 1mW (milliwatt) of Class 1 or Class 2 as defined in the British Standard for laser safety. Laser pointers of Class 3R less than 5mW should only be used for some applications in the workplace where the user has received adequate training. It is illegal to use a laser pointer with power higher than one watt (1,000mW) for a member of the general public. More information about health and safety for laser pointers and details about definition of Classes of laser pointers of British Standard can be seen at website of Health Protection Agent

Laser Presentation Pointers are not toys and should not to be used by anyone under 21. It is illegal to direct a laser pointer at people, animals, any flying objects, moving vehicles and any public and private structures. Laser Pointer can be dangerous if not be used properly and should be securely stored when not in use.