Claims
- 1. An alarm clock of the analog type with hands to indicate the hour and minute; said alarm clock comprising:
a housing; a dial disposed in the housing, said dial containing indicia for the hours, said dial being generally transparent; an illumination module with front and rear surfaces, said illumination module disposed in the housing with the front surface of said illumination module disposed behind and adjacently to the dial, said illumination module having an edge with a recess defined in the edge; and a light source disposed in said recess to provide illumination into said illumination module; said edge of the illumination module having light reflective properties to reflect light about the interior of said illumination module and out the front surface of the illumination module and through said dial to provide illumination exterior to said clock.
- 2. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said illumination module is of generally ovate shape with an enlarged end, said recess is defined in the edge of the illumination module at the enlarged end.
- 3. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said light source comprises one or more light emitting diodes.
- 4. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said rear surface of the illumination module has light reflecting properties.
- 5. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said rear surface of the illumination module has an engraved surface to improve light dispersion within and out of the front surface of said illumination module.
- 6. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein a light reflective material is disposed adjacently to the rear surface of the illumination module to reflect light within and out of the front surface of said illumination module.
- 7. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said illumination module is formed of a clear plastic material.
- 8. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a light sensor to sense the ambient lighting conditions, to activate the light source when the ambient lighting conditions are below a predetermined threshold, and to deactivate the light source when the ambient lighting conditions are above the predetermined threshold.
- 9. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a dimmer control to control the amount of illumination provided by the light source to the illumination module.
- 10. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 wherein said rear surface of the illumination module has an engraved surface to improve light dispersion within and out of said illumination module.
- 11. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 further comprising:
a second recess defined in the edge of said illumination module; and a second light source disposed in the second recess.
- 12. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 11 wherein said second light source is of a different color than said light source.
- 13. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 12 further comprising:
a battery to supply electrical power to said light source and to said second light source; wherein said second light source is a red color and is activated when the battery needs replacement.
- 14. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 1 further comprising:
a manually operable alarm switch to enable an alarm.
- 15. The alarm clock in accordance with claim 14 wherein said manually operable alarm switch has an alarm off position, an illumination on position that enables the light source, and an alarm on and an illumination on position that enables both the alarm and the light source.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This patent application is a non-provisional application of prior U.S. provisional patent application Serial No. 60/387,989, filed on Jun. 12, 2002, and is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent applications “Clocks Having Diffusion Reflector Lighting”, Ser. No. 10/304,329, filed on Nov. 26, 2002 and Ser. No. 60/334,428, filed on Nov. 30, 2001, the rights of priority of which are hereby claimed for this patent application.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60387989 |
Jun 2002 |
US |
|
60334428 |
Nov 2001 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10304329 |
Nov 2002 |
US |
Child |
10459786 |
Jun 2003 |
US |