Laser Beacon Adaptive Optics
Robert Q. Fugate
In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Sumner Tainter,
unveiled a dramatic advance in optical communication technology,
which they called "the photophone." Without the benefit of lasers or modern detectors, the photophone could transmit a human voice hundreds
of meters on a beam of light. The photophone was the world's first
electro-optical system, and Bell and Tainter's experiments preceded wireless voice communication by radio by at least 19 years.
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