A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to any reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to a shadow artwork creating device, and more particularly to a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement that allows a user to create his or her desired shadow pattern by selectively placing a plurality of replaceable light shading elements in front of a light platform.
A conventional shadow box is a box housing a lighting element which is able to cast light beams to an opaque object to create a shadow effect. The shadow box can be placed in a bedroom so as to provide a tender and mellow lighting to aid a user to sleep, or can be a tool teaching a child about lighting and shading.
However, since the lighting element and a shadow creating element which comprises the opaque object is secured and housed in the conventional shadow box, the shadow pattern is actually determined when the shadow creating element with the opaque object is assembled in a light path of the lighting element within the box, and a user can only buy a shadow box with a fixed shadow pattern. In other words, the user is not able to change the shadow pattern, so that it is disadvantageous for the conventional box because it is not able to provide various and diversified shadow visual views for the user.
The invention is advantageous in that it provides a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement that allows a user to create various shadow patterns on the shadow artwork platform.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein a plurality of replaceable light shading elements can be placed in front of a light platform so as to allow the user to create his or her desired shadow artwork.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein the light shading elements allow the user to configure desired opaque patterns so as to create the desired shadow pattern.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein multiple light shading elements can be overlappedly aligned in front of the light platform, so as to create illusion of depth for the shadow artwork.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein a plurality of spacers are introduced so as to spacedly apart adjacent light shading elements, so as to spacedly arrange the multiple light shading elements for creating illusion of depth.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein each of the light shading elements is firmly sandwiched between two control spacers so as to prevent light beams to leak out from the lighting control arrangement.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein the spacers are detachably mounted to each other so as to allow the light shading elements sandwiched between two spacers to be selectively replaced by the user.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a shadow artwork platform with lighting control arrangement, wherein when the light source is not turned on, the shadow artwork with the multiple light shading element can be used as a decorative item, and the light shading elements are replaceable, so as to provide multiple decorative patterns.
Additional advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows and may be realized by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointing out in the appended claims.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained by a shadow artwork platform for creating shadow artworks with a plurality of light shading elements, comprising:
According to another aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a method of creating a shadow artwork on a shadow artwork platform with a plurality of light shading elements, wherein the method comprises the following steps:
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
The following description is disclosed to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the present invention. Preferred embodiments are provided in the following description only as examples and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The general principles defined in the following description would be applied to other embodiments, alternatives, modifications, equivalents, and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Referring to
Accordingly, the arrangement of the control spacers 20 with the replaceable light shading elements 30 is able to allow the user to create his or her desired shadow pattern by selectively assembling desired light shading elements 30 by the control spacers 20 on the light platform 10, so as to adjust and control the lighting and shadow pattern of the shadow artwork 100, so that the present invention provides a lighting control arrangement which is able to create various shadow patterns for the shadow artwork 100.
According to this preferred embodiment, the light platform 10 comprises a light source 11 and a support base 12 for supporting the light source 11. The light source 11 comprises a plurality of light illumination elements 111, a circuit board 112 electrically connected to the plurality of light illumination elements 111, an electrical connecting interface 113, an electrical cable 114 which is adapted for electrically connecting to the electrical connecting interface 113 such a USB interface for electrically connecting a power supply to the circuit board 112 so as to supply electrical power to the circuit board 112 for turning on the plurality of light illumination elements 111.
The plurality of light illumination elements 111 can be arranged in an array and is assembled on the support base 12. According to this preferred embodiment, as shown in
The circuit board 112 can be a rigid printed circuit board, Or it is preferred that the circuit board 112 is embodied as a flexible circuit board that can be easy to bend, so that the circuit board 112 can be bent at corners of the support base 12 in the cavity 123 for guiding the light illumination elements 111 to extend along the peripheral edge portion 1211 of the base wall 121, and also the light illumination elements 111 are ensured to be provided to face towards the opening 124 after bending the circuit board.
The circuit board 112 is attached to the base wall 121 by any suitable mounting manner such as by fixing screws. In this preferred embodiment, the circuit board 112 of the light source 11 is attached to the base wall 121 by a bonding glue.
It is appreciated that the person of ordinary skilled in the art should understand that the positions of the plurality of light illumination elements 111 are aligned with edge portions of the a plurality of light shading elements 30, so that most of the light beams emitted from the plurality of light illumination elements 111 are projected to the a plurality of light shading elements 30.
According to this preferred embodiment, the shadow artwork platform comprises the plurality of the control spacers 20 for detachably mounting the plurality of the light shading elements 30 in front of the plurality of light illumination elements 111, so as to create an illusion of depth for the shadow artwork 100.
Each of the plurality of light shading elements 30 of this preferred embodiment may comprise an opaque artwork area 31. The opaque artwork area 31 can be made of any suitable opaque material such as paper, plastic, or painting material. As an example, each of the plurality of light shading elements 30 can be made by papercuts from a paper to define the opaque artwork area 31 having a plurality of penetrating openings 32. The light beams from the light source 11 cast on the opaque artwork areas 31 to form shadows while the light beams projecting towards the penetrating openings 32 are allowed to pass therethrough to provide illumination to an outer side of the shadow artwork 100.
Accordingly, a plurality of artwork papers can be provided to a user, and the user is able to prepare his or her desired pattern of each light shading element 31 by configuring a shape of the opaque artwork area 31 as well as to obtain a desired shadow artwork pattern by the combination of the plurality of light shading elements 30 which is made by the user and is overlappedly and spacedly arranged in front of the plurality of light illumination elements 111 for creating the desired shadow artwork pattern when the plurality of light illumination elements 111 is turned on to cast light on the opaque artwork areas 32 of the plurality of light shading elements 30.
Alternatively, the plurality of light shading elements 30 also can be prepared by the shadow artwork platform. In other words, the user also may not need to make his or her desired pattern of each light shading element 31 by paper-cuts, each of the plurality of light shading elements 30 has a predetermined pattern, and the plurality of light shading elements 30 is arranged to provide various artwork patterns for the user to select therefrom and arrange his or her desired combination from a selected group of light shading elements 30.
Alternatively, as shown in
Referring to
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As shown in
The person of ordinary skilled in the art should understand that a bottom control spacer 20 of the plurality of control spacers 20 is connected to the light platform 20, while a top control spacer 20 of the plurality of control spacers 20 may not need to form both of the first and second coupling elements 231 and 232. The top control spacer 20 can be formed only with the one or more second coupling elements 232 at the bottom side of the corresponding spacer frame 21.
The connecting manner of the first coupling elements 231 and the corresponding second coupling elements 232 can be achieved by any suitable coupling manner. As an example, each of the first coupling elements 231 can be a connecting pin while the corresponding second coupling element 232 is a hole. According to this preferred embodiment, each of the first coupling elements 231 can be magnetically coupled with the corresponding second coupling element 232. The corresponding first and second coupling elements 231 and 232 are magnetically coupling elements having different magnetic poles. Each of the spacer frame 21 may be formed by a plastic material while each of the first and second coupling elements 231 and 232 can be integrally embedded into the spacer frame 21 through an integral embedding process.
Alternatively, each of the first and second coupling elements 231 and 232 can be adhered to the spacer frame 21 via a glue. Preferably, each of the spacer frame 21 may have a groove for receiving each of the first and second coupling elements 231 and 232 so that an exposed surface of each of the first and second coupling elements 231 and 232 is in a same plane with a surface of the spacer frame 21, so that when two adjacent spacer frames 21 are stacked with each other, there is no gap is formed between two adjacent spacer frames 21 for preventing light beams from the light source 11 to leak out.
According to this preferred embodiment, four magnets 230, which are respectively embedded into the four corners of the corresponding spacer frame 21, can be employed to form four first coupling elements 231 and four second coupling elements 232. Each of the four magnets 230 have different magnetic poles at two opposite sides thereof. Accordingly, a first end portion of each of the magnets 230 functions as a first coupling element 231 while an opposite second end portion of each of the magnets 230 functions as a second coupling element 232.
The plurality of spacer frames 21 is preferred to be shaped and sized to overlap with each other to form a spacer stack on the light platform 10 for spacing the plurality of light shading elements 30. A light shading element 30 can be placed between two spacer frames 21 and the light shading element 30 is arranged at a position that it will not cover the coupling elements 231 and 232, so that the function of the coupling elements 231 and 232 will not be influenced.
As shown in
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As shown in
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In other words, the support base 12A can be embodied to have a simple structure and is not required to be installed with the one or more connecting members 125A. The plurality of control spacers 20A can be configured to have a same or similar structure so that they are easy for mass production.
Referring to
The support base 12B further comprises one or more connecting members 125B provided on the base wall 121B for coupling with a bottom control spacer 201B of the plurality of control spacers 20B. Preferably, each of the connecting members 125B is integrally embedded in the base wall 12B for coupling with a bottom control spacer 201B.
As shown in
The enclosing spacer comprises a coupling arrangement 23B which comprises one or more first coupling elements 231B at a top side of the frame support 212B for detachably coupling with other control spacers 20B and one or more second coupling elements 232B at a bottom side of the leg support 211B for detachably coupling with the corresponding one or more connecting members 125B of the light platform 10B.
As mentioned above, the connecting members 125B and the first and second coupling elements 231B and 232B can be any suitable detachable connecting components while they may be embodied as magnetically coupling elements in this embodiment.
A top surface 1251B of each of the connecting members 125B can be coplanar with a top surface 1212B of the base wall 121B. A bottom surface 2321B of each of the second coupling elements 232B can be coplanar with a bottom surface 2111B of the leg support 211B, so that when each of the connecting members 125B is coupled with the corresponding second coupling element 232B, the bottom surface 2321B of each of the second coupling elements 232B is attached to the top surface 1251B of the corresponding connecting member 125B while the bottom surface 2111B of the leg support 211B is attached to the top surface 1212B of the base wall 121B, so as to avoid a gap to be formed between the leg support 211B and the base wall 121B to prevent light beams from leaking out.
Alternatively, the top surface 1251B of each of the connecting members 125B can be indented from the top surface 1212B of the base wall 121B. The bottom surface 2321B of each of the second coupling elements 232B can be protruded from the bottom surface 2111B of the leg support 211B, so that when each of the connecting members 125B is coupled with the corresponding second coupling element 232B, the bottom surface 2321B of each of the second coupling elements 232B is disposed into the recess in the top surface 1251B of the corresponding connecting member 125B while the bottom surface 2111B of the leg support 211B is attached to the top surface 1212B of the base wall 121B. Alternatively, the top surface 1251B of each of the connecting members 125B can be protruded from the top surface 1212B of the base wall 121B. The bottom surface 2321B of each of the second coupling elements 232B can be indented from the bottom surface 2111B of the leg support 211B.
In addition, the shadow artwork platform can comprise a plurality of light platforms 10B, each of the plurality of light platforms 10B is constructed to have a different configuration of the plurality of light illumination elements 111B. More specifically, each group of the plurality of light illumination elements 111B can be arranged to have a different shape or each group of the plurality of light illumination elements 111B may emit different colors of illumination. As an example, the light platforms 10B can be respectively provided with red, blue, yellow, or white LED light illumination elements. The enclosing spacer can be detached from one light platform 10B and assembled on another light platform 10B which is able to provide a different illumination performance.
The rest of the plurality of control spacers 20B can be configured to have a same configuration of the bottom control spacer 201B which is the enclosing spacer comprising the leg support 211B and the frame support 212B. Alternatively, the rest of the plurality of control spacers 20B also can be configured to have a same structure of the above control spacers 20 of the first preferred embodiment.
Referring to
In this embodiment, the coupling arrangement 23C comprises a first coupling element 231C at a top side of the spacer frame 21C and a second coupling element 232 at a bottom side of the spacer frame 21C. Each of the first and second coupling element 231C and 232C can be an adhering element which can be a bonding glue or a double-sided adhesive which is attached on the spacer frame 21C.
Referring to
According to this preferred embodiment, the light platform 10D further comprises one or more connecting members 125D extended from the base wall 121D of the support base 12D for coupling with the plurality of control spacers 20D. Each of the control spacers 20D comprises a spacer frame 21D having a frame opening 22D and one or more coupling holes 24D. Accordingly, each of the connecting members 125D is embodied to comprise a connecting pin 1252D which is adapted for penetrating the coupling holes 24D for detachably mounting the plurality of control spacers 20D on the light platform 10D.
As shown in
Each of the connecting members 125D further comprises a coupling thread 1253D and a screw nut 1254D which is adapted for engaging with the coupling thread 1253D. Accordingly, when all of the spacer frames 20D are overlappedly arranged above the light platform 10D, the user can fasten the screw nut 1254D on the corresponding connecting pin 1252D and engage with the coupling thread 1253D so as to apply a pressing force to the plurality of spacer frames 21D, so as to urge a spacer frame 21D at a top side to firmly bias against a spacer frame 21D at a bottom side, so as to prevent any gap formed between adjacent spacer frames 21D.
In this preferred embodiment, old light shading elements 30 can be taken out from the shadow artwork platform and be replaced with new light shading elements 30. In addition, according to this preferred embodiment, the plurality of spacers frames 21D can slid along the connecting pins 1252D, and there is no need to detach the spacers frames 21D from the light platform 10D when replacing the light shading elements 30. More specifically, by loosening the screw nut 1254D, one or more of the spacers frames 21D can slid along the connecting pins 1252D to be spaced apart from each other, and then an old light shading elements 30 between two adjacent spacers frames 21D can be taken out and replaced by a new one which is placed between the two adjacent spacer frames 21D. And then by fastening the screw nut 1254D again, the plurality of spacers frames 21D are firmly overlapped and stacked with each other again.
Referring to
More specifically, the cover casing 40D may comprise a transparent wall 41D adapted for aligning with the light shading elements 30, a side wall 42D for covering the control spacers 20D and the light platform 10D, so that the control spacers 20D are not exposed, but are hidden and received within the cover casing 40D when creating the shadow artwork 100D.
Referring to
Referring to
Accordingly, it is appreciated that the person of ordinary skilled in the art is able to understand that the light shading elements 30E and 30F of the above alternative modes of the above second preferred embodiments can be integrally formed with the control spacers 20E and 20F.
Referring to
The light platform 10G comprises a light source 11G and a support base 12G which comprises a base wall 121G and an enclosing side wall 122G integrally extended from the base wall 121G to define a cavity 123G with an opening 124G and a plurality of inserting slots 126G. The opening 124G can be exposed or is covered by a transparent cover. The plurality of control spacers 20G is spacedly formed at an inner side of the enclosing side wall 122G and is extended into the cavity 123G. Each of the control spacers 20G is integrally formed with the enclosing side wall 122G and comprises a space frame 21G and a groove 26G is formed between two adjacent spacer frames 21G for receiving and retaining one of the light shading elements 30.
As shown in
Referring to
The light platform 10H comprises a light source 11H and a support base 12H which comprises a base wall 121H and an enclosing side wall 122H integrally extended from the base wall 121H to define a cavity 123H with an opening 124H and a plurality of inserting slots 126H. The light shading elements 30 can be respectively attached to the plurality of control spacers 20H and then the control spacers 20H with the light shading elements can be inserted into the cavity 123H through the inserting slots 126H.
Each of the control spacers 20H of this embodiment comprises a spacer frame 21H and a retention arm 27H integrally and transversely extended from the spacer frame 21H for sealing the corresponding inserting slot 126H when each of the control spacers 20H is mounted and assembled to the light platform 10H. More specifically, each of the light shading element 30 can be adhered to the spacer frame 21H of the corresponding control spacer 20H, and then the control spacer 20H is assembled to the light platform 10H through the corresponding inserting slot 126H and the retention arm 27H is seated on the enclosing side wall 122H to seal the corresponding inserting slot 126H, so that the plurality of light shading elements 30 can be hanging in the cavity 123H and is respectively overlapped with each other in front of the light source 11H.
One skilled in the art will understand that the embodiment of the present invention as shown in the drawings and described above is exemplary only and not intended to be limiting.
It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The embodiments have been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the functional and structural principles of the present invention and are subject to change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.