Anyone who has ever tried to hang wallpaper or to cut fabric knows that it can be hard to achieve any kind of long, straight edge. If you are working with expensive materials, the cost of having snipped a section which is slightly too short, because of irregularity in the cut edge, can be very high. So you might try using a long ruler and marking the line to follow…but that requires potentially defacing the very item which is soon to be on show.
Today’s invention is a pair of scissors equipped with a small laser beam projector (adapted from those which are commonly used in eg portable CD players).
The laser beam is mounted on the outer face of one of the halves of the shears and, driven by a small pendulum, this ocillates so as to describe a fine, coloured straight line along the surface of the material being sectioned, directly in front of and in line with the scissors.
A more advanced version might take the form of a stationary projector which would form an entire cutting pattern image, showing eg a tailor or a vehicle upholster where the blade should go.
