I'm assuming you're talking about very basic, low power, pointer style lasers. If that's the case, it's time to go into very basic electronics. You're basically replacing the switch in that with some lines connected to your i2c/gpio/whatever. It's not going to be different from turning on an LED. Laser you can program == cheap laser pointer, taken apart, switch replaced.

If you're talking about some bigger devices, then you probably want more interesting electronics and a lot of info about laser safety...

Have you seen https://laserboy.org/?

There are also a lot of commercial offerings, like Quickshow and others: https://photonlexicon.com/forums/showthread.php/19036-WHAT-i...

Seems like that's a forum all about lasers and lights.

You can get inexpensive "programmable" lasers that are controlled by DMX, but that protocol isn't fast enough (250kb/s) to do anything besides pick preprogrammed patterns. If you're up for some hacking / reverse engineering, maybe you could replace the control electronics for one of these.

Another alternative is a laser projector that uses the ILDA standard - it supplies a bunch of analog channels over a DB-25 connector. With a projector and an ILDA DAC (typically connected via USB), you could write code to generate all the signals to drive the scanner + control the laser color. That'd mean generating 10 signals at audio-ish rates, so pick your language accordingly.

FWIW, there seem to be a handful of packages for the openFrameworks coding toolkit specifically for talking to ILDA ports, for instance:

https://github.com/memo/ofxIlda

Try searching for DMX-512, the industry standard protocol for controlling all manner of lighting devices. Since you are more interested in the software side, you could look at a product such as: https://djcity.com.au/product/laserworld-el-400rgb-laser which you can then control using a USB-to-DMX512 dongle.

Building your own unit is possible, but you'll need electronics and mechanical engineering skills. Even micro-mirror devices require lots of electronics.

[Random advice from the internet on starting your project]

+ If you just want to play around with software, TouchDesigner has a free tier and is very powerful.

+ Buy the cheapest "DJ laser projector" and play around programming it using DMX/MIDI.

+ Then you will have a better understanding of your actual interest in programming laser light shows versus your interest in the-idea-of-programming-laser-light-shows.

+ A habit of working on a new adult interest develops over months and years. Having low investment hardware on hand will let your project advance at a natural pace.

Good luck.