Patent Application
20130235569
The present invention relates to a lighting system, and, more particularly, to a system for lighting a substantially flat page, book, or artwork.
Musicians have struggled for centuries with properly lighting their music score on their music stand, on a piano or organ, or held in their hands while singing.
Musicians perform and rehearse in many locations such as auditoriums, churches, private homes, and even outdoors. Lighting conditions are often poor thus making it difficult for the musicians to read the music.
Available music lighting solutions include basic and more expensive clip-on lights, basic piano lamps, expensive overhead racking and room lighting, and modified household lighting fixtures.
Generally, all music lights illuminate the music from above, employing a halogen, incandescent, or LED lamp attached to a fixed or flexible goose neck, which is attached to the music stand by means of a crude spring tensioned clamp or placed directly on the surface of a keyboard instrument.
Standard music stand lights and piano lights present many problems, such as inconsistent lighting of the music score both in brightness and in coverage, excessive over-lighting, glare and light in the eyes of the musician, obstruction of the important musician's view of the audience or the conductor, critical eye contact between musicians themselves, and obstruction of the audience's view of the musician. Used on a piano, the overhead light detracts from the beauty of the piano, organ, or music stand.
Generally, the lights require electrical power and in most orchestra settings, this means the use of several extension cords that can be hazardous and unsightly.
For vocalists there are no sensible lighting solutions and they are generally left to rely on whatever room lighting is available.
There are other applications such as artwork lighting and lighting for book reading that share similar issues.
There is a need for a lighting system that provides substantially uniform lighting of a page or other substantially planar and vertical object such as artwork or book. The lighting system must provide minimal spillage outside the light area and must be non-intrusive to the eyesight. It is also desirable that the lighting system be lightweight with low power consumption, low heat dissipation and is optionally battery operable.
A light bar for illuminating a surface that is substantially perpendicular to the light bar includes an elongated housing extending along an edge of the surface to be illuminated. The housing has a wall adjacent the surface to be illuminated, and at least portions of that wall are transparent. A series of light emitting diodes (LEDs) are mounted within the housing and spaced along the length of the housing for illuminating the surface, and a connector couples the LEDs to an electrical power source for energizing the LEDs to produce light that illuminates the surface. In many applications, such as sheet music stands, the surface to be illuminated is substantially vertical, the light bar extends along the bottom edge of the surface, and the wall adjacent the surface is the top wall of the housing.
In one implementation, the LEDs are oriented to direct light produced by the LEDs through the transparent portions of the wall of the housing and onto the surface to be illuminated. The LEDs may be arranged in multiple rows extending along the length of the housing, with the LEDs in different rows oriented to direct light onto different regions of the surface, so that the surface is illuminated substantially uniformly over its entire area. The number of LEDs in the rows preferably varies according to the distances between the light bar and the regions illuminated by the respective rows of LEDs in the light bar, i.e., the rows illuminating more distant regions of the surface contain more LEDs than rows illuminating less distant regions of the surface.
Another implementation includes a reflector within the housing of the light bar for reflecting light produced by the LEDs onto the surface to be illuminated. The reflector may include a first mirror oriented to illuminate a distant region of the surface, and a second mirror oriented to illuminate a closer region of the surface.
The light bar may be pivotably connected to the surface to be illuminated so that the wall of the housing adjacent the surface to be illuminated can be used as a ledge to support the bottom edges of sheet music or other documents resting against the surface to be illuminated. The light produced by the LEDs in the light bar then illuminates the front surface of the sheet music resting against that surface. In one implementation of this embodiment, the light bar housing and the surface to be illuminated are adapted to form a portfolio for carrying the sheet music or other documents.
The foregoing and additional aspects of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided next.
The foregoing and other advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings. Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures.
Although the invention will be described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to those particular embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalent arrangements as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
This invention is directed to a lighting system or a light bar that is designed to uniformly light a substantially vertical and planar surface such as sheet music, artwork or book. In one embodiment, one or more light bar is integrated to a portfolio, which can be placed on a free standing music stand, piano music stands or held by hand for reading or for choir singing. The portfolio can be designed to fold into a thin, flat case that can be used to also carry the sheet music, paper or a book.
In another embodiment, the light bar is integrated with a picture or artwork frame, to uniformly light the picture or artwork.
In another embodiment, the light bar is integrated into the ledge of a music stand.
The light bar generally comprises a housing with room for an electrical power supply or a battery system (dry or rechargeable). The housing includes one or more LEDs and an optical system for distributing the light generated from the LEDs according to a substantially uniform pattern. The optical system comprises one or more devices that transmit, reflect, diffuse or scatter the light. Referring to
Referring to
It would be understood by someone skilled in the art that the embodiment could be implemented with one or more rows, and the number of LEDs per rows can be engineered to achieve different uniformity and lighting strength as required.
Narrow beam LEDs can optionally be used for this embodiment. In this case, lenses can be added to direct the light from one or more LEDs positioned near outer edges of the housing 100 to prevent spillage of light on the edges.
The angle of the LEDs can optionally be controllable on a group or individual row basis to achieve uniformity on a higher or smaller surface while minimizing the spillage. The intensity of the LEDs can optionally be controllable on a group or individual basis.
With this embodiment, the angle of the projected light can optionally be controllable to achieve uniformity on a higher or smaller surface while minimizing the spillage by controlling the lenses and mirror angle. The intensity of the LEDs can optionally be controllable on a group or individual row basis.
One or more light bars can be integrated together to create a lighting system as described below.
The light bar optionally provides a standby mode in which a very low level of illumination is provided that can be switched directly to the previously set level of intensity with a single button push.
A power switch is provided to turn the light on and off. The intensity of the illumination provided by the light bar can be varied using a dimmer control allowing the user to adjust the intensity of light to their brightness preference, and to immediately compensate for changing lighting conditions. Each row of LED can be moved to aim at a different location independently. If multiple light bars are integrated into a system, then each light bar can be independently controlled or controlled together.
The light bar uses ‘white’ LEDs as the source of illumination. The LEDs should create minimal heat dissipation and power consumption should be such that the light bar can be operated at full intensity for several hours optionally using either chargeable batteries or a set of disposable dry cell that can be housed in the light bar. The batteries energize the LEDs to produce light and are coupled to the LEDs via a connector.
The light bar can be integrated to a portfolio 601 or to a substantially rectangular planar component that can be supported by the music ledge of a music stand, which can support music scores or other documents. Referring to
Furthermore, the portfolio 601 further includes a pair of vertical living hinges 604 that permit the portfolio 601 to be folded generally in half along respective vertical axes for storage and transportation. Referring to
The light provides complete and substantially uniform illumination of both facing pages of the music score (i.e. the complete planar area to the portfolio) while minimizing any light that washes beyond the music score over the sides and the top of the portfolio.
As per
Different configuration of the portfolio 601 can be created by integrating light bars of similar or different dimensions and characteristics can be integrated on each side of the portfolio and/or on the top and/or bottom of the portfolio.
Alternatively the portfolio could comprise three or more planar surfaces, each of which having a light bar at the bottom and/or top.
The characteristics of the light bars are designed to achieve a uniform light across the surface. For example, the side light bars may consist of a lower number of rows of LEDs, where each row consists of a larger number of LEDs.
The light bar can be mounted on a sliding mechanism to allow it to be extended out further (to account for thicker books).
One or more light bars can be integrated into any planar surface that requires lighting. For example, it can be integrated into a picture or artwork frame, either at the bottom, top or sides or any combination thereof.
One or more light bars can be integrated into a book holder to be used as a portable book light.
One or more light bars can be integrated at the base of a tripod or pedestal for presentations or to display menus.
While particular embodiments and applications of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise constructions and compositions disclosed herein and that various modifications, changes, and variations may be apparent from the foregoing descriptions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
