By Scott Smith
smith@newsroom.byu.edu
Two BYU professors and a graduate student have invented a new teleprompter for the Conference Center in response to a request from the prophet.
Dr. Robert H. Todd, professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Justin Peatross, assistant professor of physics, and Michael Ware, 26, a graduate student from Provo majoring in physics, showed their invention to students and faculty in a symposium Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 20.
Peatross said the new teleprompter confines an image to a very narrow space.
The speaker can see a bright, easily read image, yet those sitting a few feet to either side or above, can't see anything, he said.
Ware said in the past few weeks they have taken the new teleprompter to the Conference Center and tested it.
Ware said the General Authorities that have seen the image of the new prompter have been extremely pleased by the brightness and clarity of the image.
'We are shooting to use it in October Conference. The main thing is, it has to work right,' Ware said.
If the new teleprompter is used, it will be the culmination of 10 months of hard work.
Todd said he received a phone call from Elder Neil Anderson of the Quorum of the Seventy in early January.
During the phone call, Elder Anderson said President Gordon B. Hinckley had requested the teleprompter in the Conference Center have a restricted area where only the speaker could see the text.
The problem arose when the Church prepared to move General Conference into the Conference Center. When conference was in the Tabernacle, the glass plates used to reflect the text of each talk were small and close to the speaker. This made it so very few people could see the text as the speaker delivered the talk.
Todd said that in the Conference Center, the glass plate is five-feet wide and 35-feet away from the podium, making the text easily read by anyone sitting on the stand.
Todd said he thought a special lens called a Fresnel Lens could be used to accomplish the task.
Todd said at the time he did not know how to use the Fresnel Lens, so he helped Elder Anderson come up with a quick fix to the problem.
After several months and many ideas about how to solve the problem, Peatross said they returned to the Fresnel Lens.
Paul Eastman, professor of mechanical engineering, said the results were great.
'When people collaborate to work on a project, great things happen. They would be the first to say inspiration is a great part of discovery,' Eastman said.
Todd said they are working on a patent for the process.