Created by Stark Industries,[2] the Gamma Ray Projector was a special type of electro-magnetic wave generator that was adapted for projecting concentrated Gamma Rays. The device was installed in a radiation room at a Culver University facility. During a military-funded project to research the creation of super soldiers, scientist Bruce Banner underwent a procedure to test a serum that would buffer the effects of harmful radiation on the human body by bombarding his own hippocampus with Gamma Radiation.[3] After the device was turned on and prepared by his colleagues, Banner manually upped the dosage of the radiation on the device, despite warnings from Betty Ross, after no apparent effects to 15 seconds of exposition at level 1.[1]
However, the serum turned out to be an attempt at recreating the Super Soldier Serum developed by Abraham Erskine, and the resulting combination of the serum with the immense dosage of gamma rays transformed Dr. Banner into the destructive green creature known as Hulk, who subsequently destroyed the Gamma Ray Projector in an angered rampage.
A device similar to the original Gamma Ray Projector was installed at Grayburn College. It was used on Emil Blonsky to activate the mixture of a recreated Super Soldier Serum and Banner's gamma-irradiated blood in his system. After Samuel Sterns prepared the device and aimed the projector at Blonsky's hippocampus, he began to mutate and transform into the Abomination.[3]
In the comics, Bruce Banner created the Gamma Ray Projector in order to study and produce a large amount of gamma radiation. For a period, exposition to the Gamma Ray Projector was the only way to trigger a transformation between Banner and the Hulk.
Jennifer Walters using the Gamma Ray Projector in a dream sequence
The device in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is mostly based on what Banner used in an attempt to make himself stronger, but instead caused him to become the Hulk, whenever enraged or extremely stressed, on the 1970s The Incredible Hulk TV series. In a dream sequence at the beginning of Whose Show is This? which parodied the opening sequence of The Incredible Hulk, Jennifer Walters uses the device.
