This shines a bunch of purple laser dots but it has to be really dark for them to be visible. I wanted to shine them behind my PC but it wasn't dark enough. At first I thought it wasn't even working but then I tested it out in the closet and it worked in there. Seemed to work best from about 3-6 feet away from what I shined it on. More than that and the dots started getting blurry. Worked really great when I shined it on a white shipping box label, probably because it was smooth and white. Rotating the silver ring changes the pattern of the dots.