Patent Grant
10653192
The present invention generally relates to an article of light-emitting clothing, more particularly to an article of light-emitting clothing which is able to automatically turn on the light-emitting component to emit light when being worn.
An article of clothing added with a reflective device or a light-emitting device can increase the attention of others to improve the user's safety. One of the conventional manners is to attach or sew a reflective object on a surface of an article of clothing, so as to increase safety. As a passive warning device, the reflective vest is unable to produce light refraction warning effect until the reflective vest is illuminated by an external light source. When there is no street light or other light source around in dark environment, the reflective vest is hard to provide warning effect. For example, when a car drives on a bend and approaches a person on the road, the light of car lamp cannot be detected early and cannot illuminate the reflective vest early on the bend, and the reflective vest is unable to produce warning effect, so that a light-emitting vest which lights electrically is developed.
For example, ROC utility model patent No. M442719 discloses a light-emitting fabric with reflective including a fabric body, at least one reflective component, a plurality of light-emitting components, and a circuit assembly. The reflective component is disposed on an outer surface of the fabric body, the light-emitting components are disposed on the fabric body, and the circuit assembly is electrically connected to the light-emitting components. The light-emitting fabric has a reflective effect and a light-emitting effect, so as to enhance the warning function.
The above-mentioned light-emitting fabric includes a switch, and the user must find the switch to turn on the power source to drive the light-emitting components to emit light. However, in many emergency situations, the user may delay to use the light-emitting fabric, for example, in a condition that the user's car stops in an emergency at the roadside for maintenance because of vehicle breakdown, the user may want to wear the light-emitting vest to improve safety, but the user cannot find the switch because of being unfamiliar with the vest, which is not used for a long time.
Similarly, some people in outdoor activities also carry light-emitting clothing based on safety factors, but they may not wear the light-emitting clothing until it becomes dark. However, the user may spend a lot of time to find the switch in a low-light environment.
Another conventional light-emitting clothing can turn on the light by sensing manner, for example, ROC utility model patent No. M448766 discloses a wearing objects with warning function, and ROC utility model patent No. M528935 discloses a wearable bicycle indicating device, and these patents disclose the devices capable of emitting light by the sensing means; however, these conventional devices need to use central processing units or microprocessors for calculation, and also have complicated structures and are expensive. Furthermore, the user is required to turned off power source after every use, and then turn on the switch to activate the power source for use; otherwise, the power stored for the light-emitting component may be exhausted before use.
Furthermore, the applicant has previously gained ROC utility model patent No. M550556 disclosing a self-light-emitting vest, which uses a Hall sensing element to activate lighting function of the vest. Although the Hall sensing element consumes very low power, and the vest can maintain in standby status for a long time when the button cell battery is used to support the sensing function, but a low sensing current in the standby status still may exhaust the power of the battery, and it causes inability to drive the light-emitting component to emit light. Therefore, what is needed is to develop self-light-emitting clothing which can more extend the standby time, to solve the above problems.
An objective of the present invention is to provide an article of clothing which is able to emit light automatically when being worn, so as to prevent the user from delaying to use because of unable to find the switch in time.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an article of light-emitting clothing which can turn off power for the light-emitting component automatically when not use, so as to extend standby time of a battery.
According to an embodiment, the present invention provides an article of self-light-emitting clothing comprising an article of clothing, a driver device, and a group of electric coupling switches. The article of clothing includes a light-emitting component, and includes a first arrangement area and a second arrangement area defined on a surface thereof. When the article of clothing is folded, the first arrangement area and the second arrangement area are in contact with each other, and when the article of clothing is unfolded, the first arrangement area and the second arrangement area are separated from each other. The driver device is fixed on the article of clothing, and includes a battery and a switch circuit. The battery is electrically connected to the light-emitting component through the switch circuit. The group of electric coupling switches includes a first coupler and a second coupler disposed on the first arrangement area and the second arrangement area of the article of clothing, respectively. The first coupler is electrically connected to the switch circuit. When the first coupler and the second coupler are electrically coupled to each other, the switch circuit is in open-circuit status to disconnect the battery and the light-emitting component, and when electric coupling between the first coupler and the second coupler is disconnected, the switch circuit is conducted to enable the battery to supply power to the light-emitting component.
In an embodiment, the group of electric coupling switches comprise indirect-sensing electric-coupling switches, and the first coupler is a Hall sensor device, and the second coupler is a magnetic component.
In an embodiment, the group of electric coupling switches comprises direct-contact electric-coupling switch, and the second coupler is electrically connected to the switch circuit.
In an embodiment, the first coupler and the second coupler are conductors.
In an embodiment, the first coupler and the second coupler are metal fastening devices configured to fasten with each other.
In an embodiment, the first coupler and the second coupler are magnetic conductive plates configured to attract to each other.
In an embodiment, the article of clothing is one of a raincoat, a windbreaker, an overcoat, a cloak, a warning vest, a reflective vest, a life jacket, and pet clothing.
In an embodiment, the driver device is disposed on an inner surface of the article of clothing.
In an embodiment, the self-light-emitting clothing further includes a plurality of electric wires disposed inside the article of clothing to serve as conductive wires for electrical connection.
The structure, operating principle and effects of the present invention will be described in detail by way of various embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The following embodiments of the present invention are herein described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. These drawings show specific examples of the embodiments of the present invention. It is to be understood that these embodiments are exemplary implementations and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention in any way. Further modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are also included within the scope of the appended claims. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete, and fully conveys the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. Regarding the drawings, the relative proportions and ratios of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated or diminished in size for the sake of clarity and convenience. Such arbitrary proportions are only illustrative and not limiting in any way. The same reference numbers are used in the drawings and description to refer to the same or like parts.
It is to be understood that, although the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, and so on, may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component. Thus, a first element discussed herein could be termed a second element without altering the description of the present disclosure. As used herein, the term “or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present.
In addition, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise” and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements.
Please refer to
The driver device 30 is fixed in the article of clothing 10. In this embodiment, the driver device 30 can be disposed in a pocket of the article of clothing 10. It is preferred that the pocket is able to prevent rainwater intrusion; furthermore, the driver device 30 can also be fixed in other portion of the article of clothing 10 by a sewing manner, an adhesive manner, or a high frequency welding manner. In an embodiment, the driver device 30 can be disposed on an inner surface of the article of clothing 10 for better waterproof effect. The driver device 30 includes a battery 31 and a switch circuit 32. The battery 31 and the switch circuit 32 can be disposed in a shell member 33, the switch circuit 32 is electrically connected to external device through an electric wire 34 and the shell member 33, and the battery 31 electrically connected to the light-emitting component 20 through the switch circuit 32.
In this embodiment, the circuit design of the driver device 30 is similar to the circuit design of a disconnection warning device, so the driver device 30 can maintain in standby mode for a long time. When the conductive wire is disconnected, the driver device 30 can emit warning message. The disconnection warning device has applied in applications of home security and product anti-theft, but not applied in the article of clothing yet.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the article of self-light-emitting clothing can comprise a plurality of electric wires 34 disposed inside the article of clothing 10 to serve as conductive wires for electrical connection. The electric wire 34 is configured to electrically connect the driver device 30 to the first coupler 41 and the light-emitting component 20, and the electric wire 34 can be a typical electric wire disposed inside the article of clothing 10. It is preferred that the electric wire 34 can be disposed on an inner surface of the article of clothing 10. With progress of material and textile technology, the electric wire 34 can be the electric wire directly distributed in the article of clothing 10, and can also be conductive conductor knitted with the textile material of the article of clothing 10 integrally.
The battery 31 is a button cell battery, a lithium battery or a rechargeable battery. The button cell battery is also called as a watch battery or a coin battery. The battery 31 can be in electrical contact with the switch circuit 32 directly. The battery 31 provides electrical power to the light-emitting component 20 for emitting light. The switch circuit 32 is disposed on a circuit board, and other electronic circuits of conventional light-emitting circuit can also be disposed on the circuit board, for example, the electronic circuits can include a regulator, a flashing circuit, or a light sensing circuit.
The group of electric coupling switches 40 includes a first coupler 41 and a second coupler 42 disposed on the first arrangement area 11 and the second arrangement area 12 of the article of clothing 10, respectively. The first coupler 41 is electrically connected to the switch circuit 32. In this embodiment, the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 are conductors, and the group of electric coupling switches 40 includes direct-contact electric-coupling switch. It should be noted that the direct-contact electric-coupling switch defined in the present invention means that the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 of the group of electric coupling switches 40 can be the components electrically connected to each other physically, and the material of the components can be various conductors and the material which can flow current in normal temperature and under normal pressure. When the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 are in contact with each other, the current can flow the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42, and when the first coupler 41 is not in contact with the second coupler 42, the flowing of the current is stopped. Please refer to
In this embodiment, the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 can be magnetic conductive plates which can attract to each other, for example, the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 can be square plates (as shown in
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When electric coupling between the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 is disconnected, the switch circuit 32 can be conducted to enable the battery 31 to supply power to the light-emitting component 20, so that user can receive the article of clothing 10 after confirming that the light-emitting component 20 is turned off. As a result, when not in use, the article of clothing 10 can automatically turn off the light-emitting component 20, so as to extend standby time of the battery 31.
When the user wants to wear the article of clothing 10, for example, the user encounters heavy rain in the night and take the article of clothing 10 out of a luggage bag or a storage box of motorcycle, the user must unfold the article of clothing 10 to wear, so the first coupler 41 and the second coupler 42 disposed on the first arrangement area 11 and the second arrangement area 12 of the two sleeves of the article of clothing 10 can be separated from each other automatically; and, after the first coupler 41 leaves away from the second coupler 42, the switch circuit 32 is in ON status to turn on the light-emitting component 20 to emit light, so that the user can turn on the light-emitting component 20 to emit light automatically without finding the switch in time. It should be understood that the circuit of the present invention can include a physical switch, and the user can manually control the physical switch to turn off the light-emitting component 20 for saving power when it is not necessary to turn on the light-emitting component 20 in current environment. According to the above description, the present invention provides an article of clothing which is able to emit light automatically when being worn, so as to prevent the user from delaying to use because of unable to find the switch in time.
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The group of electric coupling switches 50 includes the first coupler 51 and the second coupler 52 disposed on the first arrangement area 11 and the second arrangement area 12 of the article of clothing 10, respectively. The first coupler 51 is electrically connected to the switch circuit 32, and it is not necessary to electrically connect the second coupler 52 and the switch circuit 32. The battery 31 and the switch circuit 32 of the driver device 30 are disposed in the shell member 33, and the switch circuit 32 can be electrically connected to an external device through the electric wire 34 and the shell member 33. The battery 31 is electrically connected to the light-emitting component 20 through the switch circuit 32, and the first coupler 51 and the switch circuit 32 can be disposed on the same circuit board. The indirect-sensing electric-coupling switch defined in the present invention means that the first coupler 51 and the second coupler 52 of the group of electric coupling switches 50 are sensing devices not electrically connected to each other physically, and when the first coupler 51 and the second coupler 52 are moved close to effective magnetic area where the first coupler 51 and the second coupler 52 can affect each other, the switch circuit 32 can be controlled, according to the sensing result, to change a status thereof.
Please refer to the circuit block diagram of
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When the user wants to wear the article of clothing 10, the article of clothing 10 can be spread out, and the first coupler 51 at the first arrangement area 11 and the second coupler 52 at the second arrangement area 12 can leave the effective magnetic area, and in this time, the switch circuit 32 is in ON status to turn on the light-emitting component 20 to emit light, so that the user can turn on the light-emitting component 20 to light automatically without finding the switch. It should be understood that, in this embodiment, the physical switch can also be disposed on the circuit, and the user can manually control the physical switch to turn off the light-emitting component 20 for saving power when the light emitted from the light-emitting component 20 is not required in environment. According to the above description, the present invention provides an article of clothing which is able to emit light automatically when being worn, thereby preventing the user from delaying to use because of unable to find the switch.
The present invention disclosed herein has been described by means of specific embodiments. However, numerous modifications, variations and enhancements can be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure set forth in the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 106210776 U | Jul 2017 | TW | national |
| 107200366 U | Jan 2018 | TW | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20100251453 | Chen | Oct 2010 | A1 |
| 20110075399 | Yuan | Mar 2011 | A1 |
| 20160348890 | Polanowski | Dec 2016 | A1 |
| 20180048953 | Park | Feb 2018 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20190021411 A1 | Jan 2019 | US |
