The present disclosure relates to faux fireplaces that generate realistic faux flames for homes, apartments, hotels, commercial buildings, and other confined locations.
Faux fireplaces are commonly used in personal homes, condominiums, apartments and the like to generate a faux (synthetic or simulated) flame when a real burning fireplace is not allowable or preferred.
This disclosure includes a faux fireplace designed to eliminate the challenges and disadvantages commonly associated with gas or wood burning fireplaces without compromising the realism of the flames.
A faux fireplace including memory having a video file that is selectively provided by a user. The video file includes a video of a faux flame. The video file can be wirelessly uploaded by a user into the memory of the faux fireplace from a wireless device. The video file can be stored on memory selectively removeable and replaceable by a user. The wireless input device can be a remote control and a smart mobile device running an application.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the examples will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The objects and advantages of the present subject matter may be realized and attained by means of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present teachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings.
The term “coupled” as used herein refers to any logical, optical, physical or electrical connection, link or the like by which signals, or light produced or supplied by one system element are imparted to another coupled element. Unless described otherwise, coupled elements or devices are not necessarily directly connected to one another and may be separated by intermediate components, elements or communication media that may modify, manipulate or carry the light or signals.
Referring to
The ember bed lighting 24 and the down-lighting 26 may be created by a light emitting diode (LED), or the like. The lighting may be comprised of red/green/blue (RGB) lighting. Firebox 12 includes at least one heater 32 configured to generate radiant heat, and vents 34 configured to emit the generated heat using a blower 36.
The ember bed 18 may be formed of a plastic (e.g., Polystyrene or Acrylic) ember bed screen (white color) acting as a diffusion material for the underlaying ember bed lighting 24. The media 21, such as glacier crystals or crushed glass, are laid on top of the ember bed screen to emulate a glowing ember bed of an actual fireplace. The ember bed lighting 24 is positioned uniformly as to not create bright and dim spots on the ember bed screen. Firebox 12 may have a colored glass viewing window 37, such as a tea color, such as tempered glass with sanded edges.
The color of the faux flame 16, the ember bed lighting 24 and the down-lighting 26 is selectively controlled by a controller 28 shown in
In an example, the wireless input control 30 is a wireless smart mobile device with the user interface 31 including a touch display controlled by an application (app) stored in memory 29, as shown in
Video file(s) 33 is selectively provided to memory 29 by a user such that a user can control the displayed faux flame via controller 28, such as by providing removable memory 29 and by using a wireless input control 30 such that a user can select and upload video files 33 with a desired faux flame 16. In an example, wireless input control 30 can present a library of video files 33 to a user for selection, such as thumbnails. Wireless input control 30 can also display a video of the video files 33 on display 31 to allow the user to preview the video files 33. The user can select and wirelessly upload one or more desired video files 33 to memory 29 using wireless input control 30. In an example, the video files 33 can have different flame patterns with different flicker characteristics, different colors, different flame speeds, different sizes and so forth. This method is described further with reference to
Referring to
A flame speed slider button 44 allows the user to change the flame speed of the displayed faux flame 16 between three settings of current flame displayed, shown as slow, default and fast. The flame speed slider button 44 controls the playback speed of the video loop displayed on display 14 to give the user control of the flame and a rate of a flame flicker. A volume control slider button 46 allows the user to change a sound effect and volume, such as a flame crackling sound, displayed as having a selection of off, default, medium and high. A down-lighting control button has an icon shown at 48 which opens a down-light sub-menu shown in
Referring to
At block 1102, the display 14 is selected to be on to generate the faux flame 16, using a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1104, the color of the ember bed lighting 24 is established using a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1106, the color of the down-lighting 26 is established a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1108, the speed of the faux flame 16 as displayed on the video display 14 is established using a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1110, the heater 32 is controlled using a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1112, the blower 36 is controlled by using a button of the control panel 38, the remote control 30 as illustrated in
At block 1202, a user of wireless input device 30 selects one or more video files 33 from a library of video files, such as displayed on display 31. The library of video files can be preloaded on wireless input device 30, and may be downloadable from a remote server, such as a server hosted by a manufacturer. The manufacturer of faux fireplace 10 can continuously update the library of video files on the server to provide product support to the customer over the lifetime of faux fireplace 10.
At block 1204, controller 28 receives the wirelessly uploaded video files 33 from wireless input device 30. The uploaded files 33 can be transmitted using a wireless interface, such as using BlueTooth and WiFi.
At block 1206, the uploaded video files 33 are stored in memory 29. The user can manage the video files 33 stored in memory 29 using wireless input device 30, such as to delete undesired video files 33.
At block 1208, faux fireplace 10 displays faux flame 16 using the uploaded video files 33. The user can select one of several uploaded video files 33 to display during use, in real time, and also by using the schedule as described using wireless input control 30. In an example, a different video file 33 can be programmed by a user to executed and displayed at different times and dates as desired.
The appended claims set forth novel and inventive aspects of the subject matter described above, but the claims may also encompass additional subject matter not specifically recited in detail. For example, certain features, elements, or aspects may be omitted from the claims if not necessary to distinguish the novel and inventive features from what is already known to a person having ordinary skill in the art. Features, elements, and aspects described herein may also be combined or replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent, or similar purpose without departing from the scope of the invention defined by the appended claims.
This application is a Continuation-in-Part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/968,380 filed Oct. 18, 2022, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,725,791, entitled Faux Fireplace With Variable Flame Speed, which is a Continuation-in-Part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/666,200 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,473,745 entitled Faux Fireplace With Synchronized Lighting filed Feb. 11, 2022 and claims priority therefrom.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17968380 | Oct 2022 | US |
Child | 18233854 | US | |
Parent | 17666200 | Feb 2022 | US |
Child | 17968380 | US |