Patent Application
20180253993
The invention generally relates to component kits for educational purposes, particularly battery-powered LED lighting kits useful for teaching grade school children the principles of batteries and of electricity.
The following is a summary of some aspects and exemplary embodiments of the present technology, of which a more detailed explanation is provided under the Detailed Description section, hereinbelow.
Exemplary embodiments of the present kit are designed to stimulate creativity, to teach some of the basic principles of electricity and to teach fine motor skills. For example, the kit may be used to teach principles about batteries and diodes, particularly the principle about diodes that only allow for the flow of current in one direction. The kit may also be used to teach about the principles of electrical polarity applicable to both batteries and diodes. The kits may be useful as a stimulating “toy” for children to develop creativity and motor skills, and for a host of other purposes, too numerous to detail, only limited by the imagination.
An exemplary embodiment provides a kit for assembly of a variety of shaped components into a three dimensional lighted work. The kit includes a plurality of selected components that once assembled create a lightable LED plaque that may be used as a badge or worn as an adornment or simply used as a hand held light. As one embodiment the kit includes somewhat flexible front and back planar members useful in mounting and supporting the LEDs, battery and other components. The front and back planar members may be made of any suitable material, but preferred materials are non-conducting. The front and back planar members may be made of conducting material, so long as the electrical circuit is isolated therefrom, by the use of a suitable non-conducting wrap. The most preferred material for the front and back planar members is acrylic. The kit included a generally u-shaped clip that mates with a receptacle notch in the front and back planar members to slidably and securably connect at the notched portion of the front and back planar members in order to secure the front and back planar members together. The u-shaped clip may be made of any suitable material, but preferred materials are non-conducting. The most preferred material is acrylic. The kit also includes LED lights, battery and conductive tape useful in making the electrical connections necessary to complete an electrical circuit and to get the LED lights to work.
The selected shaped components may optionally be transparent or translucent, and the kit includes light emitting diodes (LEDs) which may be of any available color. The shaped front and back planar components may have any shape, geometric or otherwise. For this particular embodiment discussed and exemplified in the Figures herein, a roughly triangular shape for these components was selected, but as one skilled in the art would appreciate, almost any shape may be used as long as the relevant holes (for the LED connections and the battery) and notches (for the secure connection) are included in the shapes. Optionally, the plurality of components of the exemplary kit may be white, and the kit also may include coloring materials, in a variety of colors, suitable for applying color to the plurality of shaped components. The kit may also include decorative elements that may be added to the device, such as cotton or polyester fibers, to cover and to mute or soften somewhat, but not completely obscure the LED lights when lit.
Advantages of embodiments to the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments hereof, which description shall be considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Aspects of the invention are disclosed in the following description and related drawings directed to specific embodiments of the invention. Alternative embodiments may be devised without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention. Additionally, well-known elements of exemplary embodiments to the invention will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the invention.
With references to the figures,
The kit includes battery source 40 as well as LED lights 50 with polar connectors 51. The LED light kit further includes 2 pieces of connective adhesive tape having peel-off adhesive portions (61) as well as connective tape portions 60.
Further, with reference to the figures,
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The foregoing description and accompanying drawings illustrate the principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of the invention. However, the invention should not be construed as being limited to the particular embodiments described above. Additional variations of the embodiments described above will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Therefore, the above-described embodiments should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that variations to those embodiments can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention or the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.
