Patent Application
20180116032
The present invention relates to the field of electrical switches and more particularly relates to a switch activated by environmental interaction and a strip of LED's individually controlled by a local switch such that the individual LEDs may be discretely activated and deactivated by a change in a user controlled environmental condition, such as the presence of a magnetic field.
Electric lighting has evolved from the simple novelty of the incandescent lamp to a tool that has become necessary in the functioning of today's society. As part of that evolution, specialty lights are being made to illuminate various areas which had not been illuminated before. These areas tend to be hard to reach or access and any lighting structure for these areas also tend to be specialized; therefore, accessible and easily activated lights are a desired improvement upon the art.
Environmental switches open or close based on ambient environmental conditions. These are ideal for situations where a user does not want or cannot engage in constant vigilance or when the user can control the environment for a short time frame to alter the ambient environment and trigger the switch. One type of environmental switch is a magnetic switch. The use of magnetic switches is known in the prior art. However, the most common magnetic switches are non-latching and revert to an original (open or closed) state when the magnetic field is removed. This fact alone can be troublesome in some applications as either a switch must be made to latch or the magnetic field must be maintained to keep the switch in a closed state.
Another need is the individual and discrete activation and deactivation of lighting sources. While individual light circuits may be activated from a centralized power source, such circuits tend to be heavily engineered both from hardware and software standpoints. A simpler device, with individual light control circuits in parallel, which control at most a few LEDs, may provide more targeted and manually controlled lighting with a lower cost. Being constructed of individual and discrete electrical circuits allows the system to be made into flexible, rigid, or rigid-flexible embodiments by providing a proper support substrate.
The present invention is a strip of light sources which are discretely activated by a user controlled environmental conditions, such as by a magnetic switch. Such light sources may include LEDs, Incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps. The strip is utilizable in many settings where lighting is desirable, including but not limited to shelving and merchandizing racks.
The present invention represents a departure from the prior art in that the light strip of the present invention allows for manually triggered environmental activation and deactivation of parallel, discrete, and targeted lighting control circuits for lighting purposes.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of lighting structures, this invention provides a convenient light source which is adaptable to multiple environments. As such, the present invention's general purpose is to provide a new and improved light strip that is easily manufactured, has easily activated and deactivated switches, and is easily deployable in many scenarios.
To accomplish these objectives, a preferred embodiment of a strip may be divided into individual parallel circuits which have at least one light source, like an LED, and at least one switch. When an environmental condition is met, such as being in the presence of an appropriate magnetic field, the at least one switch closes or shifts from one circuit (off) to another (on), allowing the at least one LED to activate. A counter magnetic field could then open the at least one switch and deactivate the at least one light source. Ideally, the presence of a stronger than ambient magnetic field, or other abnormal environmental condition, should be required to open or close the switch. In this manner, the switch maintains its on or off condition when the normal ambient condition is restored. By maintaining a plurality of circuits in series, light sources such as individual LEDs or groups of LEDs may be specifically targeted for activation and deactivation by a user initiated change in the ambient environmental condition
The more important features of the invention have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may better be appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.
Many objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention
With reference now to the drawings, basic and preferred embodiments of an environmentally controlled light strip are herein described. It should be noted that the articles “a”, “an”, and “the”, as used in this specification, include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.
With reference to
Circuits such as the one depicted in
The light strips may then be utilized in many different applications. One of the most interesting is use in merchandizing displays. Product 40, 50 on a merchandiser may be illuminated by a light strip hidden in the merchandiser structure 10, as is shown in
It is to be readily understood that circuit design choices as to type of components, type of light sources, number and types of LEDs, power considerations, and physical dimensions are all determined by the designer and many variations of these considerations still fall within the purview of the invention. Likewise, a switch driven by other environmental factors other than magnetic field, such as but not limited to temperature, ambient light, barometric pressure, and relative humidity, may be designed and still fall in the purview of the invention. Likewise, combinations of two or more different environmental conditions may be utilized to affect different aspects of a control circuit for different lighting effects. The switch may also be designed to either reset or to maintain its last electrical state in the event of a power failure.
Other exemplary embodiments are shown in
Given the numerous permutations possible to create different embodiments of the invention, it is important to not see the above exemplary embodiments as limiting. Numerous modifications and variations can be made and still the result will come within the scope of the invention. No limitation with respect to the specific embodiments disclosed herein is intended or should be inferred.
