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This is laser lumia: not your run of the mill beam show.

Laser Lumia

Laser Lumia is a colorful wispy sort of display, just about the opposite of what you might think of when you think laser show. It looks like the video at the left.

This is created by shining laser beams through rotating textured glass. The basic principal was invented in the 1930s by Thomas Wilfred; we have a page about this on another of our sites: http://wobbsite.com/lumia.html

In the early 1970s, laser engineer Elsa Garmire combined the above with lasers, and modern-day lumia was born. She inspired Ivan Dryer to create Laserium, a dome theater for laser shows.

We build our own laser lumia projectors, called "Lumiators"; the first of which we created for Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI, in 2012. These were built into PVC pipe, and hung from theatrical tripods. We still use these today, controlled from a console called the "6-Chan".

The photo on the right shows them in use at a show for the University of Michigan School of Engineering. Illuminator Production coordinator Tom Bray is shown aiming them.

We now have around 40 of these that we use in various combinations, all controlled by the 6-Chan, lunchboxen, or other controllers.

ECE Family night 2015 Tom Bray and Lumiators

Here is a shot of the 6-Chan lumia mixer, created by Wayne Gillis in 2013. We use this in situations where the show is not interactive, i.e., it is controlled by Illuminauts.

Note the keyswitch in the upper left: this, and the resettable on-switch, are mandated by federal laser safety regulations.