Lighted safety apparel and method

Abstract

A lighted apparel article is provided. It includes at least one lamp coupled to a power source. The power source includes a device operable to convert incident light into electrical energy that is coupled to an energy storage device that is rechargeable to store electrical energy for later use to power the lamp. A controller is coupled to the energy storage device and the lamp and is operable to selectively control the transmission of electrical energy from the storage device to the lamp.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to lighted safety apparel that can be worn by workers particularly in low light conditions to improve their visibility. The apparel utilizes a free standing power source that improves on environmental impact from use and efficiency.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The use of lighted safety equipment to improve visibility of a wearer, particularly highway and construction workers, during use is known. Early versions of such apparel utilized light reflective material that reflected incident light from lights such as headlights. Such equipment also included auxiliary lights carried by or attached to a worker and garments that have attached lights and a battery power source. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,377,663, 6,834,395 and 6,267,482 disclose forms of safety vests which utilize lights powered by batteries. Other forms of lighted vests are offered and a common feature appears to be the use of a battery pack to power the lights. While some manuf...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]The present invention involves the provision of an apparel article with improved visibility in low light and dark conditions. In one embodiment, the article is adapted for carriage by a human and has a panel with an illumination device associated therewith. A power source is operably coupled to the illumination device and operable to selectively provide electrical energy to the illumination device. The power source includes an energy storage device and a photovoltaic device coupled to the energy storage device to provide electrical energy thereto for storage. A controller is coupled to the power source and the illumination device and is operable to permit selective transfer of stored energy in the energy storage device to selectively illuminate the illumination device.

Problems solved by technology

While some manufacturers claim a battery life of as much as 400 hours from a set of AA batteries there would be little actual light output because of the limits on energy stored in batteries.

Further, once the batteries are used, they are disposed of which creates environmental concerns as well as expense.

Early on, light bulbs were incandescent and inefficient in energy usage and had relatively short lives with burn out being unexpected requiring a change in bulbs to continue to provide light.

At least one manufacturer claims to have achieved as much as 400 lumens / watt light output although such an efficiency is not affordable for inexpensive light devices and such a lamp appears to be an experimental non-commercial device.

While these advances help make safety equipment more viable for extended use without service or attention, there are still problems.

One significant problem is that a lighting system with high enough light output for visibility in low light and in dark conditions, may not have a fully available energy source to reliably provide high light output over an anticipated extended use period.

Checking batteries for available energy may be difficult to do without some form of data to convert voltage to remaining use life.

This though results in waste of batteries and other attendant issues.

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