Portable apparatus for use with a light-emitting disk

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6513951
  • Patent Number
    6,513,951
  • Date Filed
    Friday, July 13, 2001
    23 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, February 4, 2003
    21 years ago
Abstract
The present invention relates to a portable apparatus including a fastening mechanism for use with the light-emitting disk. The clamping area of the light-emitting disk has a plurality of conductive terminals, and the touch portion of the fastening mechanism connected with the conductive terminals can supply electrical power to light up the light-emitting disk. Furthermore, the light-emitting disk can light partially, intermittently or colorfully by itself because the fastening mechanism controls the electrical power in different modes.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




1. Field of the Invention




The present invention relates to a portable apparatus for use with a light-emitting disk, and particularly to a portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk placing conductive terminals on the clamping area.




2. Description of Related Art




Compact disks have been extensively used as a medium for recording audio, video and digital data. Usually, a readable surface containing data read by laser is on one side of the compact disk, and a transparent protective layer is used to cover the readable surface. In addition, patterns are printed on the other side of the compact disk for marking the content of the compact disk and enriching the appearance of the compact disk. As the medium for advertisement progresses, purely planar printing gradually draws less attention of people and loses its appeal.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




The main object of the present invention is to propose a portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk. The light-emitting disk can be held by users with a fastening mechanism, hanged on the chest of a user or placed on a table, etc.




The second object of the present invention is to increase functions of the light-emitting disk by emitting light from a part of the disk, an intermittent light, lights of different colors or designing a special model for increasing the pleasure and purchasing desire of the user/consumers.




The third object of the present invention is to increase business functions of the light-emitting disk. The sponsor of a party, a signing show or a pub can previously record the singer's song on a light-emitting disk, combine the light-emitting disk into a portable apparatus by the teaching of the present invention, and give as a present to viewers or draw lots to determine the prize winners for increasing a scene atmosphere or for advertising effect.




The present invention comprises a light-emitting disk and a fastening mechanism. The light-emitting disk includes a readable surface and a light-emitting surface, and a plurality of conductive terminals are placed on a clamping area of the light-emitting surface. The fastening mechanism includes an extending portion, a touch portion and a power source. The extending portion is used for passing through a central hole of the light-emitting disk, and the touch portion is connected to the extending portion and used for transferring the power source to the conductive terminals to excite the light-emitting disk to luminesce.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS




FIGS.


1


(


a


) and


1


(


b


) shown light-emitting disks according to embodiments of the present invention;




FIGS.


2


(


a


) and


2


(


b


) show front view and back view of a first embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention;




FIGS.


3


(


a


) and


3


(


b


) show a cross-sectional view of the extending portion and touch portion of the present invention;





FIG. 4

shows an exploded view of the extending portion of the present invention;




FIGS.


5


(


a


) and


5


(


b


) show a second embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention;




FIG.


5


(


c


) shows a possible usage of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk shown in FIGS.


5


(


a


) and


5


(


b


);





FIG. 6

shows a third embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention;




FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


) shoe exploded views of a fourth embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention;




FIGS.


8


(


a


) and


8


(


b


) show exploded views of a fifth embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention;




FIGS.


9


(


a


) and


9


(


b


) show an embodiment of combining the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk shown in FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


) to a base.











PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION




FIGS.


1


(


a


) and


1


(


b


) show light-emitting disks


10


according to an embodiment of the present invention. The light-emitting disk disclosed in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/399,326 mentioned above is only an embodiment invented by the inventor. The present invention does not limit the process or structure of the light-emitting disk


10


, and all the light-emitting disks


10


whose one side (readable surface


11


) is used to record data and another side (light-emitting surface


12


) is used for illumination by applying external electricity are suitable to the present invention. Besides, the readable surface


11


of the light-emitting disk


10


still has the recording capability, such as prior CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, MD, etc., and the light-emitting disk


10


still has various shapes, such as a shape of a heart and ellipse or other irregular shapes. The light-emitting surface


12


can emit light partially, intermittently and with various colors, and can be made by EL, OLED, PLED, etc. The shape of the light-emitting disk


10


in FIG.


1


(


a


) is circular, and two conductive terminals


13


are placed on the clamping area


15


of the light-emitting surface


12


. When external electricity is applied to these two conductive terminals


13


, the light-emitting surface


12


will be excited to luminesce. The light-emitting surface


12


acts as a light source; a front sheet with a special pattern (such as dolphins in the embodiments) can be directly adhered on the light-emitting surface


12


, and only lights on these regions. The light-emitting disk


10


in FIG.


1


(


b


) has a rim having a plurality of protruded regions


14


, and a plurality of conductive terminals


13


are placed on the clamping area


15


of the light-emitting surface


12


. One of the conductive terminals


13


can serve as a voltage reference point, and other conductive terminals


13


are used to turn on or turn off the illumination of corresponding protruded regions


14


. External electricity can be applied to the plurality of conductive terminals


13


and voltage reference point for lighting the light-emitting surface


12


partially, intermittently or with various colors.




FIGS.


2


(


a


) and


2


(


b


) show a front view and a back view of a first embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention. The portable apparatus


20


for use with the light-emitting disk mainly comprises a fastening mechanism


21


and a light-emitting disk


10


, and the fastening mechanism


21


includes a hand-carrying portion


22


, an extending portion


23


and a touch portion


24


. The extending portion


23


extends from the top of the hand-carrying portion


22


, and includes a battery box for embedding a battery to provide power source for the portable apparatus


20


. In this embodiment, the touch portion


24


is a pair of separate metal blocks, which is used to transport the power source of the battery into the plurality of conductive terminals


13


of the light-emitting disk


10


and combine the fastening mechanism


21


and the light-emitting disk


10


tightly.




FIGS.


3


(


a


) and


3


(


b


) show a cross-sectional view of the extending portion


23


and touch portion


24


of the present invention. After a user pushes buttons


232


in the extending portion


23


, the touch portion (the pair of metal blocks)


24


shrinks inwards for passing through the central hole of the light-emitting disk


10


. When the buttons


232


are released, the touch portion


24


returns to its original positions, and the fastening mechanism


21


and the light-emitting disk


10


are combined tightly. In FIG.


3


(


b


), the touch portion


24


will contact conductive terminals


13


of the light-emitting disk


10


when returning to its original positions to obtain the purpose of electrical connection.





FIG. 4

shows an exploded view of the extending portion


23


of the present invention. The buttons


232


mainly utilizes the elasticity of a spring


233


to make the touch portion


24


shrunk inwards or expanded outwards. Batteries could be placed in the battery box


231


for providing power source of the portable apparatus


20


for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention. The batteries could further connect to an inverter for transferring a DC voltage to an AC voltage and frequency. A typical voltage is about 60V to 150V, and a typical frequency is about 100 Hz to 5KHz.




FIGS.


5


(


a


) and


5


(


b


) show a second embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention. The difference from the portable apparatus


20


in

FIG. 2

is that the portable apparatus


50


in

FIG. 5

does not use a hand-carrying portion


22


, but connects the extending portion


23


to a base


51


. The combination of the portable apparatus with the light-emitting disk can serve as means of storage for disks and provide apparatus


50


can use a plug


52


to plug into an indoor socket on the wall instead of using the battery.




In FIG.


5


(


c


), a rope


54


passes through the hole


53


on the portable apparatus


50


. A user can hand the portable apparatus


50


for use with the light-emitting disk on the chest or wind the portable apparatus


50


round her wrist. Besides, the sponsor of a partly, a singing show or a pub can previously record the singer's song on a light-emitting disk, combine the light-emitting disk


10


into a portable apparatus by the teaching of the present invention, and give as a present to viewers or draw lots to determine the prize winners for increasing a scene atmosphere or for advertising effect.





FIG. 6

shows a third embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the hand-carrying portion


61


further adds a ball pen function to increase the valuation of the products.




FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


) show the exploded views of the fourth embodiment. The portable apparatus


70


for use with the light-emitting disk mainly comprises a fastening mechanism


71


and a light-emitting disk


10


, and the fastening mechanism


71


includes a hand-carrying portion


72


, an extending portion


73


and a touch portion. The hand-carrying portion


72


can embed a battery


721


serving the power source of the portable apparatus


70


, and further comprises a fixed button


722


pressed by users for controlling the timing of lighting the light-emitting disk


10


, and a removable housing


723


. Also, the fixed button


722


can be replaced with a shaking switch (not shown), and the light-emitting disk


10


will light when the portable apparatus


70


is shaken to conduct the button. The extending portion


73


extends from the top of the hand-carrying portion


72


for passing through the central hole of the light-emitting disk


10


and combining the fastening mechanism


71


and the light-emitting disk


10


tightly. The object of the touch portion is to transfer the power source of the battery


721


into the plurality of conductive terminals


13


of the light-emitting disk


10


. Therefore, the design methodology of the touch portion is to consider how to combine tightly with the extending portion


73


and contact well with the conductive terminals


13


. The touch portion shown in FIG.


7


(


a


) includes concave metal shrapnels


74


. After the extending portion


73


passes through the central hole of the light-emitting disk


10


, the metal shrapnels


74


recover their original elasticity and contact the conductive terminals


13


to reach an electrical connection purpose. The touch portion shown in FIG.


7


(


b


) is a tube-shaped mechanism


75


having a plurality of contacts


76


corresponding to the conductive terminals


76


on the surface contacting the light-emitting disk


10


. The inner side of the tube-shaped mechanism


75


has dovetails


77


, which combine the extending portion


73


tightly and make the contacts


76


electrically connect the conductive terminals


13


after the extending portion


73


passes through the central hole of the light-emitting disk


10


. The fastening mechanism


71


shown in FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


) further comprises an electrically connecting mechanism (such as wires) to connect the battery


721


and the contact portion. In FIG.


7


(


b


), the contacts


76


can electrically connect to the electrically connection mechanism through the dovetails


77


serving as a medium. Another design key of the portable apparatus


70


for use with the light-emitting disk is how the touch portion can firmly contact the conductive terminals


13


. Of course, the user can slightly rotate the light-emitting disk


10


on the fastening mechanism


71


until the light-emitting disk


10


is lit up.




FIGS.


8


(


a


) and


8


(


b


) show exploded views of the fifth embodiment of the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk according to the present invention. The portable apparatus


80


for use with the light-emitting disk omits the hand-carrying portion


72


shown in FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


), and locates the battery


721


, button


722


and the removable housing


723


into the extending portion


81


. The object of the design is to reduce the volume of the whole apparatus and to make it more portable.




FIGS.


9


(


a


) and


9


(


b


) show an embodiment combining the portable apparatus for use with the light-emitting disk shown in FIGS.


7


(


a


) and


7


(


b


) to a base. The portable apparatus


70


for use with the light-emitting disk obtained from the party can be combined with a base


91


to act as a nightlight.




The above-described embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative only. Numerous alternative embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claims.



Claims
  • 1. A portable apparatus for use with a light-emitting disk, comprising:a light-emitting disk including; a readable surface and a light-emitting surface, and a plurality of conductive terminals placed on an clamping area of the light-emitting surface; and a fastening mechanism including; an extending portion, a touch portion and a power source, the touch portion connected to the extending portion and used for transferring the power source to the conductive terminals to excite the light-emitting disk to luminesce.
  • 2. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extending portion includes a button and the touch portion includes separate metal blocks, and a close level of the touch portion could be controlled by pressing the button.
  • 3. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power source is placed in the extending portion, and is further connected to an inverter.
  • 4. The portable apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a base connected to the extending portion.
  • 5. The portable apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a hand-carrying portion connected to the extending portion.
  • 6. The portable apparatus of claim 5, wherein the hand-carrying portion includes a writing mechanism.
  • 7. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch portion includes concave metal shrapnels.
  • 8. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch portion is a tube-shaped mechanism whose surface has contacts.
  • 9. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light-emitting disk is placed between the touch portion and the extending portion, and the touch portion and the extending portion are combined with dovetails.
  • 10. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the fastening mechanism further comprises a hole passed by a rope.
  • 11. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein a front sheet is placed on the light-emitting surface for showing special patterns.
  • 12. The portable apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a base connected to the hand-carrying portion.
  • 13. The portable apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a shaking switch to turn on the power source.
  • 14. The portable apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fixed button to turn on the power source.
  • 15. The portable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light-emitting disk lights partially, intermittently, or with different colors by applying electricity to the plurality of conductive terminals.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

U.S. application Ser. No. 09/399,326 by one primary inventor of the present invention, entitled “Disk with Light Emitting,” discloses a light-emitting disk containing a compact disk portion and an electroluminescent (EL) portion. The compact disk portion includes a substrate on which digital data is recorded. The EL portion can luminesce by applying external electricity. The compact disk can be a CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R0M, DVD-RW, MD, etc., and the EL portion can be manufactured by EL, OLED or PLED. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/805,033 by one primary inventor of the present invention, entitled “Dimmer Light Utilizing a Light-Emitting Disk”, discloses a dimmer light including a light-emitting disk and a socket. The light-emitting disk includes a readable surface and a light-emitting surface provided with a plurality of conductive terminals. The socket, including a body and a plug, and a lengthwise slot, is placed on the top surface of the body for receiving the light-emitting disk, and a plurality of solder bumps are placed in the slot for the electrical connection to the plug. When the light-emitting disk is inserted into the slot, the plurality of conductive terminals and solder bumps are electrically conductive to excite the light-emitting disk to luminesce. However, the above dimmer light, utilizing a light-emitting disk, can only be used at a fixed place and lacks a mobile function. Therefore, how to design a personal and mobile light-emitting disk, adding additional business value, is an important issue.

US Referenced Citations (5)
Number Name Date Kind
4338547 McCaslin Jul 1982 A
6082868 Carpenter Jul 2000 A
6280809 Wang et al. Aug 2001 B1
6347877 Douglass, II Feb 2002 B1
6380387 Yanazaki Apr 2002 B1