a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secondary optical system, and more particular to an optical system which provides radial scattered light (decoration light) to optical fibers for decoration, facilitating a decoration light system to be more saturated and uniform, with a longer transmission distance.
b) Description of the Prior Art
For environment of lower brightness, in addition to providing illumination, an electro-optical illuminator can be utilized to project light and change light color, thereby increasing lumen and providing a sense of gorgeousness and beauty. On the other hand, for a directional or limited illumination portion, a light transmission design can be even utilized; for example, an optical fiber which is arranged in a line or band, or an electro luminescent, can all be used as the lighting decoration in a surface, line or band.
Regarding to the design of optical fiber transmission, the present inventor has already filed a patent application to Taiwan and United States, such as the U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,267, “Optical Fiber having Continuous Spot-Illumination.” In this patent, the spot-shaped light source is emitted from the micro-windows to generate the bright light pedals of strong contrast, along with the radial scattered light of the spun fibers or the background light of environment. As shown in
An outer circumference of the light guiding element 3 is sheathed by a transparent tube 1 for protection. As the transparent tube 1 is transparent, from an outside of the transparent tube 1, a user can see a scattered beam B0 which is emitted through the light guiding element 3 by the traveling beam B and a first refraction beam Bt1 which is refracted from the transparent tube 1, forming a scattered light stream 11 after penetrating out. On the other hand, light beams which are generated by the spot-shaped light sources 300 will form light pedals 12 after refracting out of the transparent tube 1. Therefore, the light pedals 12 are similarly in a shape of spot, when being seen from the outer surface of the transparent tube 1; whereas, the scattered light stream 11 penetrates out directly. The shape of the light guiding element 3 can be clearly seen from the outside of the transparent tube 1 and the scattered beam B0 is refracted out directly; thus, the scattered beam B0 at that spot is of full intensity and is lost from the spot.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide an optical system which is provided with a secondary assistance function, utilizing a flexible and refractive optical tube, a hollow piping of which provides for pivoting a flexible and bendable light guiding element, such that by forward reflection of the optical tube, a distance of beam transmission for the system can be increased and a scattered beam for light decoration can be restrained to reach saturation and finally to be highly uniformly diffused.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a secondary optical system, wherein an optical layer of the system is a layer of high crystallization which is hydrophilic by its high density.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a secondary optical system, wherein a refraction index of the optical layer of the system is small, but a reflection index is large.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a secondary optical system, wherein the light guiding element is made by plastic spun fibers which are assembled as bunches to synthesize higher scattering intensity.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a secondary optical system, wherein the optical layer and the tube are formed integrally and the optical layer is elastic and extensible.
A sixth object of the present invention is to provide a secondary optical system, wherein an interior of the optical tube is provided with optical particles to achieve a higher diffusion index.
To enable a further understanding of the said objectives and the technological methods of the invention herein, the brief description of the drawings below is followed by the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
Referring to
The present system utilizes an optical tube 2 which is provided with a flexible and refractive tube unit 21 as a main body. A hollow piping 20 is formed at a cross section of the tube unit 21 and is defined by an inner cross section of an incident surface 200 on an inner circumference. An outer surface of the tube unit 21 is tightly enclosed by an optical layer 22 between which and the tube unit 21 is formed with an optical interface 23. The said hollow piping 20 provides for pivoting with a light guiding element 3 in a shape of long line.
The light guiding element 3 is basically a light conductor. After being implemented by plural spun fibers which are assembled as bunches, the light guiding element 3 in a shape of single unit is formed. The light guiding element 3 is used for light decoration and hence it will be provided with loss light which is scattered in a radial direction.
After a radial scattered beam B0, which is generated by the light guiding element 3, has undergone an optical reaction with the optical tube 2, part of light intensity will be distributed on an outer surface of the optical tube 2, forming a decoration light Bn.
The abovementioned optical layer 22 is made by polymer and is capable of inward reflection and outward refraction. In addition, by using the polymeric optical material to form the outer surface enclosing the tube unit 21, the optical tube 2 is hydrophilic and will not be hydrolyzed. Therefore, the optical tube 2 can be deployed in a hydrophilic site for use in a long time, such as a bottom of a swimming pool, where the light Bn emitted can serve as the explicit light decoration and be used for alerting.
Referring to
An interior of the optical tube 2 is provided with a hollow piping 20 defined by an incident surface 200 on an inner circumference. The hollow piping 20 provides for pivoting with a light guiding element 3.
The light guiding element 3 itself is formed with an incident port which is able to receive an external light source (not shown in the drawing) and reflect forward. After entering, an external traveling beam B will move forward in a core of the light guiding element 3. The forward moving way is that the traveling beam B utilizes an inner reflection surface 30 of the light guiding element 3 to achieve a reflection pattern, forming a reflection beam Br and resulting in a forward moving action of light transmission by using a marching angle of a component of the reflection beam Br. In addition, as being made by the optical fibers for light decoration, the light guiding element 3 has to be provided with part of the radial scattered light. Therefore, part of the outward scattered beam B0 will be formed on the inner reflection surface 30 and that scattered beam B0 is a light source of a sideway light decoration of an ordinary spun fiber of decoration.
To aid in the marching of light transmission and allow the decoration light Bn to be uniform and saturated, the outer surface of the tube unit 21 is combined with the optical layer 22 between which and the tube unit 21 is formed with the optical interface 23. The optical interface 23 is reflective and refractive and its reflection index can be larger than the refraction index. On the contrary, the refraction index of the tube unit 21 is larger than that of the optical interface 23. Therefore, a first refraction light Bt1 resulting from the scattered beam B0 which enters from the incident surface 200 will form a first reflection beam Br1 on the optical interface 23; whereas, part of the first refraction light Bt1 will radiate out a second refraction light Bt2 from the outer surface 220 (as shown in
The optical interface 23 is refractive and will form part of the second refraction light Bt2. After being refracted from the optical layer 22, the second refraction light Bt2 will form the outward light Bn on the surface. Thus, no matter what lumen and uniformity of the light guiding element 3 is provided with, the outward light Bn which is distributed from the optical layer 22 will be more uniform, after going through the reflection and the refraction of the tube unit 21. In addition, under a condition that the reflection index of the optical interface 23 is large, the scattered beam B0 which enters from the incident surface 200 will be refracted and reflected according to the Snell's law, where the extended length of marching distance is determined by an angle at which the scattered beam B0 enters into the incident surface 200 and by intensity of a light source.
After entering from the incident surface 200, the scattered beam B0 will form the first reflection beam Br1 through the reflection of the optical interface 23. When the first reflection beam Br1 acts on the incident surface 200, the second reflection beam Br2 will be formed according to the reflection in a dense medium of the incident surface 200. Therefore, each beam that results from the entering of the scattered beam B0 will move forward as a wave in the tube unit 21, thereby allowing the beams to transmit to a longer distance.
Part of the first refraction light Bt1 that travels in the tube unit 21 is reflected by the optical interface 23 as the first reflection beam Br1 and part of the first reflection beam Br1 will penetrate out of the incident surface 200 in a reverse direction to form a reverse outward beam Br0; whereas, a component of the reverse outward beam Br0 will follow an ultimate orientation of the traveling beam B to march. Thus, whether for the marching of the first reflection beam Br1 or the second reflection beam Br2, the reverse outward beam Br0 will be included, such that the beams that come out of the light guiding element 3 can all be assisted in marching, as long as the beams are within a critical reflection angle of any optical surface.
Referring to
In the present invention, an interior of the optical layer 22 can be filled with optical particles 4 which are metallic materials or gas bubbles, as long as that an optical reflection can be formed on surfaces thereof. Therefore, after undergoing the refraction of the optical interface 23, the first refraction light Bt1 that enters from the light guiding element 3 will irradiate toward the optical particles 4 and using an unlimited angle on a curve of a surface of the optical particle 4, a diffusion function will be resulted after the second refraction light Bt2 has reached the optical particles 4, thereby forming plural split beams. The beams after diffusion will form the very uniform light Bn on the outer surface, which is the base of third uniform illumination of the present invention.
The implementation of the abovementioned optical particles 4 can be similarly applied in the interior of the tube unit 21 to achieve a diffusion operation in advance, diffusing concentration of the beams.
The present invention provides an optical system of the optical tube 2, as shown in
The tube unit 21 and the optical layer 22 can be formed integrally and is made by drawing simultaneously. The optical layer 22 is made by polymer and is provided with an elastic strain capability of extension. The tube unit 21 is also flexible. Therefore, when being deployed in a curve at a light decoration site, if the surface of the tube unit 21 is formed with a change of curvature, then the optical layer 22 can be tightly combined to deform simultaneously, keeping the integrity of the optical interface 23. Besides, the light guiding element 3 used is also flexible and bendable to provide for deployment in a curvature of water liquid, to increase the distance of light transmission and to uniform the outward decoration light, after fitting the entire system, which is the primary object of the present invention. Besides, according to the implementation in
It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described herein is merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and that a wide variety of modifications thereto, as long as that the outer surface of the light guiding element 3 is implemented with a design to aid in extending the transmission distance and that the design is provided with the outward refraction capability, may be effected by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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098142190 | Dec 2009 | TW | national |