709results about "Hollow light guides" patented technology

A system and method is provided for illuminating a subject using a light pipe that transmits light from a source, such as an LED ring illuminator to an outlet that directs the light appropriately as either bright field illumination, dark field illumination or both. The light pipe can include concentric cylinders, typically with a bright field illuminator nested within a dark field illuminator. The tip of the dark field illuminator may be angled so as to internally reflect light inwardly toward the central optical axis of a camera at a low angle. The tip can be located near the focal plane of the camera for the desired field of view. The field of view of the camera sensor can be modified to reject data outside of a illumination field of a particular shape. This illumination field can be created by shaping the light pipe in a predetermined form that projects the modified illumination field. Likewise, a set of aiming illuminators (in, for example, a noticeable color) can be provided around the perimeter of the light pipe to delineate outer boundaries of the illumination field or area of interest. These approaches facilitate better aiming of the sensor into the desired area of interest so that it is illuminated and / or acquired most-fully.

Methods and systems are described for illumination in different applications. Real thin illumination systems ( 200 ) with good luminance uniformity, good efficiency and good colour mixing uniformity are obtained, even if different light sources emitting different colours are used. A plurality of light sources ( 102 ), emitting light from different colours, couple their light sideways, i.e. substantially parallel to the plane of light out-coupling, into a light guide ( 104 ) through recesses ( 108 ) distributed over the light guide ( 104 ). Providing a specially structured surface pattern ( 106 ), in combination with light in-coupling parallel to the plane of light out-coupling of the light guide ( 104 ) allows to obtain a good colour mixing of the differently coloured light originating from the plurality of light sources ( 102 ). The light then is only coupled out after it has been in the light guide ( 104 ) for a significant long time such that the light emanating from different light sources ( 102 ) is significantly mixed. The illumination system ( 200 ) has an important application in non-emissive displays.

Various embodiments described herein comprise mixers comprising a light pipe having input and output ends and a central region therebetween. An optical path extends in a longitudinal direction from the input end through the central region to the output end. The central region of the light pipe comprises one or more rippled reflective sidewalls having a plurality of elongate ridges and valleys and sloping surfaces therebetween. Light from the input end propagating along the optical path reflects from the sloping surfaces and is redirected at a different azimuthal direction toward the output end thereby mixing the light at the output end. Illuminance and / or color mixing can therefore be provided.

Diffuse reflective materials proximate to a structure formed by thermally induced phase separation of a thermoplastic polymer and a diluent providing enhanced flexibility and reflectivity especially in the visible wavelengths of 380-730 nanometers are described. Such materials find a wide variety of application among combinations with other reflective layers. The diffuse reflective articles are useful in backlight units of liquid crystal displays, lights, copy machines, projection system displays, facsimile apparatus, electronic blackboards, diffuse white standards, photographic lights and the like.

Diffuse reflective materials proximate to a structure formed by thermally induced phase separation of a thermoplastic polymer and a diluent providing enhanced flexibility and reflectivity especially in the visible wavelengths of 380-730 nanometers are described. Such materials find a wide variety of application among combinations with other reflective layers. The diffuse reflective articles are useful in backlight units of liquid crystal displays, lights, copy machines, projection system displays, facsimile apparatus, electronic blackboards, diffuse white standards, photographic lights and the like.

The present invention relates to a backlight unit having a reflective portion, including a light source module for emitting a light, a first reflective portion arranged spaced a first distance away from one side of the light source module to have an open region, and a second reflective portion arranged spaced a second distance which is greater than the first distance away from the other side of the light source module to have at least a portion with a sloped surface for reflecting the light toward the open region of the first reflective portion.

An edge-lit backlight having a light recycling cavity with concave transflector is disclosed. The edge-lit backlight has an output area and includes a back reflector facing the output area of the backlight. The backlight further includes a transflector that partially transmits and partially reflects incident light, the transflector being shaped to form a concave structure facing the back reflector to provide one or more recycling cavities therebetween, where the one or more recycling cavities substantially fill the output area of the backlight. The backlight further includes at least one light source positioned adjacent a first edge of the backlight. The at least one light source is operable to inject light into the one or more recycling cavities through an input surface of the one or more recycling cavities, where the input surface is substantially orthogonal to the output area, and where the at least one concave structure converges with the back reflector in a direction distal from the input surface.

An illumination module for a vehicle includes at least one illumination source for illuminating a target area at the vehicle. The illumination module may be mounted at a handle of a vehicle door and may be operable to illuminate the handle region and / or pocket region of the vehicle door and to illuminate a ground region adjacent to the vehicle and generally below the door handle assembly. The illumination module may include an icon established thereat and the at least one illumination source may back light the icon so that the icon, when the illumination module is activated, is viewable by a person viewing the vehicle. The illumination module may project or direct the illumination toward a targeted area so that the icon is discernible at the targeted area.

A light transmission tube includes a tubular clad and a core section having a higher refractive index than that of the tubular clad. A belt-like reflecting layer is formed between the tubular clad and the core section, extending in the longitudinal direction of the tubular clad, in a manner such that a light passing through the core section is reflected and scatterred by the reflecting layer and then emitted from an outer surface area of the tubular clad, which outer surface area is located opposite to one side of the tubular clad where the reflecting layer has been formed. Further, the reflecting layer may be so formed that a light is allowed to be emitted in a plurality of directions. Moreover, the belt-like reflecting layer may be formed into a spiral configuration. The width of the belt-like reflecting layer may be changed in the longitudinal direction of the light transmission tube. The tubular clad is allowed to have a non-circular cross section. The clad formation material may contain an ultraviolet light shielding material or an ultraviolet light absorbing material.

Optical devices according to the present invention include a multilayer optical film in which at least one of the layers comprises an oriented birefringent polymer. The multilayer optical film exhibits low absorptivity and can reflect light approaching at shallow angles as well as normal to the film.

A backlight unit (10) has a hollow cavity (16) instead of employing a light guide. One or more light sources (24a-c), such as LEDs, are arranged to emit light into the cavity, which is formed by a front (12) and a back reflector (14). The backlight is typically of the edge-lit type. The backlight can have a large area, is thin and consists of fewer components than conventional devices. Its design permits light recycling. The unit emits light of a predefined polarisation and can be arranged to have desired horizontal / vertical viewing angle properties. Light is uniformly distributed within the guide and the light output (20b, 2Od) is substantially collimated. Such backlights occupy a specific region in a parameter space defined by two parameters: first, the ratio of the output emission area to the total source emission area should lie in the range 0.0001 to 0.1; and second, the ratio of the SEP to the height of the cavity (H) should be in the range 3 to 10, where the SEP is an average plan view source separation, a special measure of the average spacing of light sources in the plane of the unit. There is also a discussion on the required number of light sources N, their arrangement near the periphery of the cavity, as well as the shape and size of the output emission area. A required minimum brightness uniformity (VESA) value to be maintained, when a subset of Madjacent sources is switched off (where M is at least 0.1 N or M>2 or both), is also disclosed. The backlight can be used for a display or for general lighting purposes.

Provided is a light tunnel including a guide member for guiding an incident light to proceed therein while being reflected by a side wall thereof to merge the incident light into a uniform light beam, and an optical path change portion provided at least one end portion of the guide member inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis of an incident light to reflect the incident light and direct a path thereof.

A small size connector has an insulative housing and two edge card-receiving slots disposed in a stacked arrangement with in the connector housing. Each slot receives an edge card of an electronic module therein. The slots support conductive terminals that extend from a plurality of individual terminal assemblies. The terminal assemblies include clip members that engage an opposing shoulder formed on the interior of the connector housing. The front face of the connector is provided with various engagement openings that receive engagement members of light pipe assemblies and shielding assemblies, so that when assembled, the connector, shield, terminal assemblies and light pipes all act as a single, integrated component.

A hollow light-recycling backlight has a “semi-specular” component providing a balance of specularly and diffusely reflected light improving the uniformity of the light output. The component may be arranged on the reflectors (1021), (1014) or inside the cavity (1016). This balance is achieved by designing the component's “transport ratio” defined by (F−B) / (F+B), (F and B are the amounts of incident light scattered forwards and backwards respectively by the component in the plane of the cavity) to lie in a certain range. Furthermore, the product of the front and back reflector “hemispherical” reflectivities should also lie in a given range. Alternatively, the “cavity transport value”, a measure of how well the cavity can spread injected light from the injection point to distant points in the cavity should lie in a further range and the “hemispherical” reflectivity of the back reflector should be >0.7.

Light boxes for uniformly illuminating panels include a frame that supports one or more translucent panels. The light boxes further include a light source positioned within the light box. Example light sources can include fluorescent bulbs, incandescent lights, and / or light-emitting-diodes. In at least one implementation, a manufacturer positions a relatively limited number of light sources aimed and / or positioned in a particular way to uniformly distribute light throughout the light box and evenly across the translucent panels such that there are no shadows, hot spots or other non-uniform light patterns on the translucent panels.

A small size connector has an insulative housing and two edge card-receiving slots disposed in a stacked arrangement with in the connector housing. Each slot receives an edge card of an electronic module therein. The slots support conductive terminals that extend from a plurality of individual terminal assemblies. The terminal assemblies include clip members that engage an opposing shoulder formed on the interior of the connector housing. The front face of the connector is provided with various engagement openings that receive engagement members of light pipe assemblies and shielding assemblies, so that when assembled, the connector, shield, terminal assemblies and light pipes all act as a single, integrated component.

A partially transmissive reflective film is provided on a second transparent substrate, and a reflector is provided on a first transparent substrate. The partially transmissive reflective film and the reflector are held parallel to each other with a predetermined spacing therebetween. Thereby, light is incident from a protrusion portion on which the reflector of the first transparent substrate is formed, the light is reflected by the partially transmissive reflective film and the reflector, and the incident light is guided by an air layer between the partially transmissive reflective film and the reflector. A refractive index of the air layer is lower than that of the second transparent substrate. A part of the guided light is extracted from the partially transmissive reflective film, and is emitted from the second transparent substrate on a side opposite to a surface on which the partially transmissive reflective film is provided.

To obtain a planar light source which is free from brightness variations or chromaticity variations by using a point light source having a high directivity for emitted light, and to provide a liquid crystal display device capable of obtaining superior display characteristics by using this planar light source device. A planar light source device having an opening in the upper surface comprises a hollow box, a diffusion plate disposed in the opening, a reflecting plate disposed on the bottom of the hollow region of the box, and a plurality of point light sources disposed in a row along at least one side surface of the box. This planar light sources device is characterized by including a refracting element disposed parallel to the row of point light sources and between the point light sources and the hollow region for refracting the light from the point light sources, whereby the light at an incident angle at which the brightness is greatest in the luminous intensity distribution of the light radiated to the irradiation subject surface of the refracting element is refracted to the bottom surface of the box by the refracting element.

A compact light source module includes a compact light source and a collimator that includes a parabolic first reflective surface to reduce a radiation angle at which a light beam radiates from the compact light source, so as to emit the light beam through a side aperture and a plane second reflective surface which is located under the first reflective surface and comprises an incident portion through which the light beam radiates from the compact light source. The compact light source is located in the vicinity of a focal point of the first reflective surface.

An angled illumination tube is capable of reducing a dark spot behind the reflector, while illuminating the tube uniformly over the length of the tube. The tube is used in combination with a light source providing a light beam and comprises an angled transparent tubular conduit having a first end and a second end on opposite longitudinal ends of the conduit. The conduit has a bend between the first and second longitudinal ends, and is used with the first end receiving the light beam from the light source in order to guide the light beam along the length of the conduit. A reflector is disposed within the bend to reflect the light beam from the first end to direct a reflected light beam towards the second end. The reflector defines an incident light axis along which the light beam is guided to the reflector, and a reflected light axis along which the reflected light beam is directed to said second end. The reflector is composed of a plurality of mirrors arranged in a parallel array along a bisector that divides an included angle between the incident and reflected light axes at an angle ( theta ) with respect to the incident light axis. Two adjacent ones of the mirrors are spaced at a fixed distance (d) along the bisector and of uniform length (L) measured within a plane including the incident and reflected light axes. The mirrors are arranged to satisfy the following relation:

A minor assembly can include a housing, a mirror, and a light source. In certain embodiments, the mirror includes a light pipe configured to emit a substantially constant amount of light along a periphery of the mirror. In some embodiments, the mirror assembly includes a sensor assembly. The sensor assembly can be configured to adjust the amount of emitted light based on the position of a user in relation to the mirror. Certain embodiments of the minor include an algorithm to adjust light based on the position of a user relative to the mirror, the level of ambient light, and / or the activation of different light modes.

Hybrid lighting systems use light distributor tubes to distribute artificial light and natural sunlight through the same distributor tubes. Devices for gathering uncollimated light from conventional sources (such as electrically energized arcs or filaments housed in evacuated or gas filled glass envelopes) and directing the light into the ends of tubes designed to distribute such light. Devices for gathering and concentrating inherently collimated sunlight to be fed into the same light distributing tubes used by the artificial light. One preferred embodiment comprises a light gathering and concentrating system in the form of a pair of opposed parabolic reflectors, one which is preferably large, e.g. having a diameter of five feet, and the other much smaller, e.g. the size of the much smaller distribution tubes. This light gathering system is connected to the light distribution tubes through a pair 90° elbows which are rotatable in the X and Y axis in order to track the location of the sun in the sky. The two parabolic reflectors are positioned to share a common focal point so that the larger reflector will direct the sunlight through the focal point of the smaller reflector, which will, reflect the light as concentrated, collimated light. A central aperture in the larger reflector passes the concentrated beam on its way to the distribution tubes.

A light source device (2) and a planar light source device (6) for a liquid crystal display device. The planar light source device includes a light source device and a light guide plate (67). The light source device includes a light-emitting element (21) and an optical guiding member (20) having a reflective surface. The reflective surface receives light rays emitted by the light-emitting element (21), and guiding the light rays out from a plurality of generally aligned through holes (23) defined in a front light-emitting surface (28) of the optical guiding member. The light guide plate has a light incident surface being adjacent to the light source device. The planar light source device can diminish greatly possible dark regions on the light-emitting surface of the light guide plate and provide uniform illumination for an LCD.

An edge-lit backlight having a light recycling cavity with concave transflector is disclosed. The edge-lit backlight has an output area and includes a back reflector facing the output area of the backlight. The backlight further includes a transflector that partially transmits and partially reflects incident light, the transflector being shaped to form a concave structure facing the back reflector to provide one or more recycling cavities therebetween, where the one or more recycling cavities substantially fill the output area of the backlight. The backlight further includes at least one light source positioned adjacent a first edge of the backlight. The at least one light source is operable to inject light into the one or more recycling cavities through an input surface of the one or more recycling cavities, where the input surface is substantially orthogonal to the output area, and where the at least one concave structure converges with the back reflector in a direction distal from the input surface.

A nutrient system for automatically supplying growth medium to an algae growth system comprises a tank for mixing nutrients, together with a plurality of computer-controlled pumps for supplying metered amounts of selected constituents to the tank. The nutrient mix is heated to a preselected temperature under computer control, and recirculated until the desired uniformity is achieved. The nutrient mix is then supplied to the algae growth system.

Provided is a hollow type planar illuminating device having uniform luminance distribution over the entire light emitting surface. A reflecting surface member (2) is arranged on the bottom side of a hollow unit case (1), a light emitting surface member (3) is arranged on the side facing the reflecting surface member of the unit case, and a space sandwiched between the reflecting surface member and the light emitting surface member of the unit case is permitted to be a hollow light guide space (10). An LED light source unit (5) wherein many LEDs are mounted in a row on a wiring board is arranged adjacent to the both sides or one side of the hollow light guide space so that light is emitted to the hollow light guide space. Between the LED light source unit and an end surface of the hollow light guide space, a light collecting lens (9) is arranged. The light collecting lens reduces the directivity angle of light emitted from the LED light source unit in the device thickness direction. Thus, a hollow type planar illuminating device (30) is formed. The surface roughness (Ra) of the surface of the reflecting surface member (2) facing the hollow light guide space (10) is set to satisfy the inequalities of 1 μm<RA<10 μm.