Miniature user-powered lighting device, system and method of using same

Abstract

A miniature, self-powered, user-powered lighting device, employing mechanical energy storage and incorporating miniature lighting elements which are illuminated on-demand for a limited duration for backlighting or illumination purposes without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device. The device comprising a manual spring loading mechanism, a spiral spring, a manual trigger mechanism, a transmission for increasing the rotational speed, a miniature generator, and at least one light source.

Description

COPYRIGHT & LEGAL NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Further, no reference to third party patents or articles made herein is to be construed as an admission that the present invention is not entitled to antedate such material by virtue of prior invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to auxiliary powered devices and in particular devices for powering low consumption features of portable instruments such as wrist watches. With electronic or quartz watches, an electric power source exists by which an electric energy consumption element such as a light source, typically a conventional LED, may be activated to illuminate a watch face to facilitate reading time at night. However, mechanical watches do not typically have an electric power source and rely typically on luminescence to enable reading of the watch face at night.

Miniature lighting devices exist which incorporate miniature lighting elements which are illuminated on-demand for a limited duration for backlighting and/or illumination purposes. Such devices however do not provide a trigger for releasing stored mechanical energy.

Other devices, not just lighting devices, can benefit from an ability to trigger their operation for a short duration.

What is needed therefore is a means to trigger the operation of an electric power consuming element for a limited time, such as to illuminate a mechanical watch that does not rely on luminescence or a battery or other electro-chemical storage device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A miniature, user-powered portable device for triggering the operation of an electric power consuming element is preferably wearable, employs mechanical energy storage and incorporates miniature special effect elements which are activated on-demand for a limited duration for backlighting, illumination, or other special effect purposes without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device. The device comprises a manual spring loading mechanism, a spiral spring, a manual trigger mechanism, a transmission for increasing the rotational speed, a miniature generator, and at least one electric power consuming element such as a transmitter or a light source, preferably a light emitting diode.

An object of the invention is to provide a battery-free device which electrical and/or communications functionality.

Another object of the invention is to avoid depletion of energy stored for a principal function such as keeping time, with secondary functions such as lumination, emitting an alarm or sending a signal to a remote device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front-side schematic view of a device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a back-side schematic view of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic top perspective view of the device integrated into a watch housing.

FIG. 5 is a basic electrical circuit diagram used in the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of illumination angles used in the present invention where the special effect element is a light source.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, dimensions may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of the invention and its embodiments. Furthermore, when the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, and the like are used herein, their use is intended for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. Moreover, relative terms like ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, and the like in the description and/or in the claims are not necessarily used for describing exclusive relative position. Those skilled in the art will therefore understand that such terms may be interchangeable with other terms, and that the embodiments described herein are capable of operating in other orientations than those explicitly illustrated or otherwise described.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The following description is not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way as they are exemplary in nature and serve to describe the best mode of the invention known to the inventors as of the filing date hereof. Consequently, changes may be made in the arrangement and/or function of any of the elements described in the disclosed exemplary embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the system 100 of the present invention includes several components that interact with one another and user 102. User 102 energizes spring loading mechanism 104 by winding the mechanism via the winding knob 104. Spring loading mechanism 104 actuates a sub-system which includes spring 106, push button 108 and transmission 110. Transmission 110 then energizes miniature electrical energy generator 112 as e.g. model number MG4.0 (drawing 110.P01.1), available at Kinetron B. V. in Tilburg, Netherlands (described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,619, particularly beginning col. 3, line 21 to col. 7, line 47, and the corresponding drawing figures) but other generators such as those described in Japanese patent publication JP-A-53026169, JP-A-52 067365, CH-A-334720 and European Patent-EP 0170303 A, the contents of which, including the Kinetron patent, are incorporated herein by reference thereto and relied upon, may be used. Miniature electrical energy generator 112 then supplies electrical power to a special effects element such as a lighting element 114, e.g. LED, incandescent, LEC (light-emitting electrochemical cell), and laser diodes. Note however, the invention should not be considered as limited to lighting elements. Any number of special effects elements may be triggered by the device of the invention.

When the special effect element is a light source or sources, such light source(s) may distribute light to desired locations via fiber optics, wave guides, and light diffusion in glass or plastic components be they transparent, colored or translucent (such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,488,418B2, particularly in relation to FIGS. 3B and 3C and the corresponding text, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,429 B2 and US20100170115A1, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference and relied upon).

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, a miniature, user-powered lighting device 200, 300 employs mechanical energy storage via the sub-systems described above, and incorporates miniature electricity consuming elements 114 in one embodiment are light sources which are illuminated on-demand for a limited duration for backlighting or illumination purposes without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device in a watch or watch housing (although the description describes a watch other variants of the invention which include other compact user worn devices as well as other energy consuming elements other than light sources can be used). The devices 200, 300 include sub-systems that have a manual spring loading mechanism 202, a spring 206, and a manual trigger mechanism 204. As shown in FIG. 3, the transmission 304 is provided for increasing a rotational speed of other components of the sub-system and is mechanically coupled to a miniature generator 302 for generation of electrical energy. Generator 302 generates electrical energy and then energizes any suitable electric energy consumption device, in one embodiment, one or more light emitting diodes 306 and 308 (FIG. 3).

In a sub-system, the manual spring loading mechanism 202 is mechanically coupled to the spring 206. The spring 206 is released by a user 102 via the manual trigger mechanism 204 to actuate the at least one electricity consuming effect element such as a light-emitting diode 306 or 308. The generator 112, in another variant of the invention, may also energize other electricity consuming effect elements, e.g. GPS circuitry, screens, sensors, etc. The spring 206 is coupled to the transmission 304 which is in turn coupled to the miniature generator 302. The miniature generator 302 is electrically coupled via one or more circuitry sub-systems to the one or more effect elements such as light emitting diodes 306 and 308. The electrical output of generator 112 (and the miniature generator 302 illustrated in FIG. 3) provides sufficient electrical energy to activate the at least one or more electricity consuming effect elements such as light emitting diodes 306 and 308 for a time out period or a pre-set or limited amount of time, until mechanical actuation or loading is again provided.

In one variant of the invention, the spring 106 includes a spiral spring (of course other types of springs are also used in other variants of the invention). The spring loading mechanism 104 is a watch winding knob or crown (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) but may, for example, be a lever coupled to a rotational mechanism (shown schematically as an alternate feature to feature 106 in FIG. 1). The lever is, for example, a cantilever spring which is deflected by the user to store energy, the end of which is attached to a rotational mechanism such as a pulley which is biased to wind up when the lever is depressed, the rotational mechanism locking at a maximum deflected position via, for example, a ratchet releasable at will by the user to release energy which is then input into the generator. The spiral spring is disposed in the watch housing, and is sized and dimensioned to be located with a spring barrel. In another embodiment, the manual trigger mechanism is a push-button 108. In yet other variants, the button 108 and watch crown are one in the same component.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the device 100 is incorporated into a timepiece 400, e.g. a wrist watch. The device 100 illuminates the watch face 402. In other variants, the light sources (e.g., LEDS) are located on other portions of the watch housing 405 and the light is conducted to a desired location by optical fibers or the like, as mentioned above The watch housing includes an upper surface portion 409 which is disposed on a unitary housing 495.

The light source 306, 308 (FIG. 3) may be replaced or supplemented with additional light sources disposed at any interior location within the housing 405, either on the upper portion 409 or on the lower portion 495, both portions or any location therebetween, even on a wrist watch band as desired. The housing optionally includes an electrical connector port (not shown) into which a mating plug inserts for feeding electrical energy to another device connected to the system by, for example, a removable cable tether (not shown).

In one variant, the miniature generator 112 produces an alternating current, enabling continuous lighting of optical fibers as described in DE102005063208A1, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference thereto. Further, changing of the color emitted by the light sources is possible as well. Referring now to FIG. 5, light sources 306, 308 are connected in parallel in opposing senses such that positive components of an electrical signal illuminate one diode 502 and negative components of the electrical signal illuminate the other diode 504. In another variant, the miniature generator 112 produces a direct current, and/or a second separate (or more) miniature generator produces an alternating current. Here, an electronic rectifier is incorporated between the miniature generator 112 and the light emitting diode or diodes 306, 308 to convert the alternating current to direct current.

Referring now to FIG. 6, the fields of illumination of the system of the invention is described in which the at least two light sources 665, 695 are arranged on planes 618, 648 at a non-zero angle ∞ 640 with respect to each other. Light source 665 illuminates through angle α 612. Light source 695 illuminates through an angle Ω 641. The sum of the illuminate of angle α 612 and angle Ω 641, together, provide a larger field of illumination 601 than the individual parts.

In another variant, the lighting elements 306, 308 emit light of a frequency which excites a fluorescent substance within one or more tubes or at specific locations within the watch housing 405. It is appreciated that due to excitation of the fluorescent substance, visibility of the indicators on the watch 400 is increased from the perspective of a user's eyes.

In a further variant, the invention provides a complete, functional wristwatch comprising the device 100 described herein. In another variant, a compact user worn item of jewelry may also include the device described herein. The jewelry includes a housing of a precious metal, optionally gold or platinum, and precious gems, optionally diamonds or rubies, for ornamentation. A jewelry matching system includes one or more related matching and coordinated jewelry items other than the compact user worn item of jewelry. In one variant, a system of personal accessories is also provided (not shown), e.g. necklace, pendant, rings, and ear rings. The system includes the wristwatch of the invention described herein, a wired or wireless energy transferring sub-system, the sub-system optionally including a device remote from the wristwatch, the device remote from the wristwatch being triggered via one way communication emanating from the wristwatch. The special effect element may also include micromotors which trigger a mechanical or electro-mechanical animation on demand of the user, such as provided by the watch manufacturer, Van Cleef & Arpel (animations sur demande). Here, an animation may be executed by one or more electric motors animating a mechanical system. For example, in another embodiment, an animation may be triggered by the invention, such as described in FIGS. 6C, 6D, and 6E of PCT/M2015/001336, filed 6 Aug. 2015 (and the descriptive text which refers to these figures), the content of which is incorporated herein by reference thereto and relied upon.

Another special effect element may be a sound producing device such as a speaker which produces, for example an alarm or music. Alternatively, the special effect element may produce a signal which is transmitted by a transmitter in the device of the invention and received by a receiver in an external device such as an alarm or speaker and which triggers the external device. The transmitter/receiver may be replaced by a wire where wireless communication is not used. In this embodiment, a transmitter, as the special effect element, is energized by the generator, either directly or indirectly through a circuit optionally having processing elements such as a converter, inverter or rectifier. Upon receipt of a triggering signal from the device of the invention, the external device takes a prescribed action.

Other embodiments are shown and described in appendices attached to the priority filings, which is incorporated herein in this written description. Further, this application incorporates by reference the contents of PCT Appl. No. PCT/IB2010/002054 of the same applicant, entitled FLUID INDICATOR, filed on the 20 Aug. 2010, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto and relied upon.

In an advantage, the invention provides a battery-free device which electrical and/or communications functionality.

In another advantage, the invention avoids depletion of energy stored for a principal function such as keeping time, with secondary functions such as lamination, emitting an alarm or sending a signal to a remote device.

It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and described herein are representative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way. Furthermore, any connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional physical connections or functional relationships may be present and apparent to someone of ordinary skill in the field.

Moreover, the apparatus, system and/or method contemplates the use, sale and/or distribution of any goods, services or information having similar functionality described herein.

The specification and figures are to be considered in an illustrative manner, rather than a restrictive one and all modifications described herein are intended to be included within the scope of the invention claimed, even if such is not specifically claimed at the filing of the application. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined by the claims appended hereto or later amended or added, and their legal equivalents rather than by merely the examples described above. For instance, steps recited in any method or process claims should be construed as being executable in any order and are not limited to the specific order presented in any claim. Further, the elements and/or components recited in any apparatus claims may be assembled or otherwise operationally configured in a variety of permutations to produce substantially the same result as the present invention. Consequently, the invention is not limited to the specific configuration recited in the claims.

Benefits, other advantages and solutions mentioned herein are not to be construed as necessary, critical, or essential features or components of any or all the claims.

As used herein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any variation thereof, are intended to refer to a non-exclusive listing of elements, such that any process, method, article, composition or apparatus of the invention that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements recited, but may also include other elements described in this specification. The use of the term “consisting” or “consisting of” or “consisting essentially of” is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the enumerated elements named thereafter, unless otherwise indicated. Other combinations and/or modifications of the above-described elements, materials or structures used in the practice of the present invention may be varied or otherwise adapted by the skilled artisan to other design without departing from the general principles of the invention.

The patents and articles mentioned above are hereby incorporated by reference herein, unless otherwise noted, to the extent that the same are not inconsistent with this disclosure. Other characteristics and modes of execution of the invention are described in the appended claims. Further, the invention should be considered as comprising all possible combinations of every feature described in the instant specification, appended claims, and/or drawing figures which may be considered new, inventive and industrially applicable.

Multiple variations and modifications are possible in the embodiments of the invention described here. Although certain illustrative embodiments of the invention have been shown and described here, a wide range of modifications, changes, and substitutions is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure. While the above description contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as exemplifications of one or another preferred embodiment thereof. In some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of the other features. In addition, the term “flexible” as used herein encompasses the concept of variable, in that a variable volume reservoir should be considered a flexible chamber, even if no individual components flex. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the foregoing description be construed broadly and understood as being given by way of illustration and example only, the spirit and scope of the invention being limited only by the claims which ultimately issue in this application.

Claims

1. A wristwatch having a miniature, user-powered electrical generating device incorporating therein, the wristwatch having a watchband, employing mechanical energy storage and incorporating miniature special effects elements which are activated on-demand for a limited duration without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device, the wristwatch comprising a. a spring,b. a manual spring loading mechanism mechanically coupled to the spring,c. a manual trigger mechanism mechanically coupled to the manual spring loading mechanism,d. a transmission,e. a miniature generator, andf. one or more special effect element, the spring mechanically coupled to the transmission for increasing a rotational speed, the transmission mechanically coupled to the miniature generator the miniature generator electrically coupled to the one or more special effect element, wherein the manual spring loading mechanism is further mechanically coupled to the spring, the spring being releasable by a user via the manual trigger mechanism to actuate the one or more special effect element, the spring being mechanically coupled to the transmission which is in turn rotationally coupled to the miniature generator, the miniature generator being electrically coupled to the one or more special effect element to provide a special effect, and the miniature generator providing sufficient electrical energy to activate the one or more special effect element for a given time period.

2. The timepiece of claim 1, wherein the special effect element is a light source.

3. The timepiece of claim 2 wherein light is distributed via a light distribution means selected from one of the group of light distribution means consisting of fiber optics, wave guides, and light diffusion in glass or plastic components.

4. The timepiece of claim 2, wherein the light source is selected from one of a group of light sources consisting of incandescent, LEC (light-emitting electrochemical cell), LED, laser diodes, and IR LEDs.

5. The timepiece according to claim 4, in which the lighting elements emit light of a frequency as to excite a fluorescent substance, whereby a visibility of the fluorescent substance is increased.

6. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the spring comprises a spiral spring.

7. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the spring loading mechanism is a watch crown and barrel combination.

8. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the spring loading mechanism is a lever coupled to a rotational mechanism.

9. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the spring is a spiral spring contained in a spring barrel.

10. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the manual trigger mechanism is a push-button.

11. The timepiece according to claim 10, in which the button is a watch crown or is comprised in the watch crown.

12. The timepiece of claim 1, wherein the timepiece is a watch, whereby the special effect element is one or more light source which illuminates the watch face to increase visibility of components of a watch.

13. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the one or more light sources further comprise at least two or more light emitting diodes.

14. The timepiece according to claim 13, in which the at least two light emitting diodes are arranged on planes at a non-zero angle with respect to each other, providing an overall angle of illumination greater than that of one single light emitting diode.

15. The timepiece according to claim 13, further comprising electrical circuitry, and in which the miniature generator generates an alternating current and in which there are at least two light sources which are light emitting diodes connected in parallel in opposing senses such that positive components of an electrical signal illuminate one diode and negative components of the electrical signal illuminate the other diode.

16. The timepiece according to claim 1, in which the miniature generator produces a direct current.

17. The timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the miniature generator produces an alternating current.

18. The timepiece of claim 17, wherein an electronic rectifier is incorporated between the miniature generator and the light source to convert the alternating current to direct current.

19. A system of personal accessories comprising: the timepiece of claim 1 and an external device, the timepiece being communicatively connectable with an external device remote from the timepiece which is energized upon receipt of a triggering signal from the timepiece so as to active a special effect in the external device.

20. The timepiece of claim 1 further comprising one or more components and/or indicators electrically energized by the miniature electrical generator.

21. A miniature, user-powered electrical generating device incorporated therein, employing mechanical energy storage and incorporating miniature special effects elements which are activated on-demand for a limited duration without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device, the device comprising a. a spring,b. a manual spring loading mechanism mechanically coupled to the spring,c. a manual trigger mechanism mechanically coupled to the manual spring loading mechanism,d. a transmission,e. a miniature generator, andf. one or more special effect element, the spring mechanically coupled to the transmission for increasing a rotational speed, the transmission mechanically coupled to the miniature generator, the miniature generator electrically coupled to the one or more special effect element, wherein the manual spring loading mechanism is further mechanically coupled to the spring, the spring being releasable by a user via the manual trigger mechanism to actuate the one or more special effect element, the spring being mechanically coupled to the transmission which is in turn rotationally coupled to the miniature generator, the miniature generator being electrically coupled to the one or more special effect element to provide a special effect, and the miniature generator providing sufficient electrical energy to activate the one or more special effect elements for a given time period, wherein further the device is incorporated into a timepiece comprising electrical circuitry in which the miniature generator generates an alternating current and in which there are at least two light sources which are light emitting diodes connected in parallel in opposing senses such that positive components of an electrical signal illuminate one diode and negative components of the electrical signal illuminate the other diodes.