BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The features of this invention and the manner of attaining them will become apparent, and the invention itself will be best understood by reference to the following description of certain embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of two states of an array of lights that form a conventional light source, for example a flashlight, built from a plurality of solid state emitters (LEDs), which is switched on and off like any flashlight as constructed according to the prior art.
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of three states of an array of lights that form a conventional vice which turns on selected grouping of the LED light sources to provide different flashlight beam intensities as constructed according to the prior art.
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of three states of an array of lights according to an embodiment of the invention, wherein after the light source turned on, the light source may automatically sequence between two different LED patterns to give a motion effect to the display.
FIG. 4 is a pictorial view of an embodiment of the animated light source housed in a flashlight housing.
FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view of five states of an array of lights according to an embodiment of the invention, where the animated light patterns may be smoothly ramped in intensity from one to the next, instead of abruptly switching between the animating patterns as in FIG. 3.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a microcontroller-based circuit to achieve the effect depicted in FIG. 3, as well as many other pattern sequences.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a circuit to cause one set of LEDs to be linearly dimmed at the same time a second set is linearly increased in intensity, achieving the example effect depicted in FIG. 5
FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view of two states of an illumination component for a source of illumination such as a flashlight, traffic signal, automobile tail light or other light source turning on and off as constructed according to the prior art.
FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic view of three states of an embodiment of the present invention animating a light source similar to the one shown in FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 is diagrammatic view of three states of an embodiment of the present invention in a traffic signal application, in which a left-turn arrow may be first turned on, and then animated by turning the arrow head on off, for the purpose of increasing visibility due to the motion.
FIG. 11 is a rear view of an automobile using conventional tail lights, constructed either with incandescent lights or arrays of LEDs that are switched on and off according to prior art constructions.
FIG. 12 is a rear view of the automobile which has been fitted (or retrofitted) with a light source according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 13 is a pictorial view of an embodiment of the invention, in which the animated light source may be connected to a personal computer to allow user-customization of the animated light patterns.
FIG. 14 is a diagram in the form of a legend to aid understanding of the figures of the drawings, showing examples of four different patterns to indicate various brightness levels of an LED element.
FIG. 15 is a pictorial view of a signal light source assembly, which is constructed according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic view of a light source apparatus in the form of a traffic signal light employing the signal light source assembly of FIG. 15.
Patent Application
20070183152
