
and dashes, you could try voice encoding. Set up
a microphone, audio amplifier, and transformer
to vary the frequency and intensity of the laser
beam, and at the receiving end, a light sensor
will feed another audio amplifier, connected with
a speaker (see Make: Volume 12, “Simple Laser
Communicator,” makezine.com/projects/simple-
laser-communicator).
I’ve seen videos that demonstrate this, but it’s
nontrivial over a significant distance. Personally
I like to keep things simple, and the simplest
approach is to use logic chips to switch a laser
beam on and off. In fact, to make it really simple,
I’m going to use just the number of pulses to