Backlit Decorative Pool Fixture with Translucent Material
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional decorative fixtures for swimming pools, spas, and fountains are not visible at night without external lighting, limiting their usability and aesthetic appeal during evening hours.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a backlit decorative fixture assembly with a base, casing, and semi-transparent fixture that houses a light source, allowing for internal illumination and visibility during both day and night, while maintaining a realistic metallic appearance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If conventional opaque fixtures are used, then the fixtures maintain a realistic metallic appearance during daytime, but the fixtures become invisible at night without external lighting
Solution Approach 1:
The fixture material changes its optical properties from opaque during daytime to translucent at night, allowing it to be illuminated from within. This is achieved by using a translucent material that can be backlit, transforming the fixture's appearance based on lighting conditions and enabling visibility at night while maintaining aesthetic appeal during daytime.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of illuminating the fixture from the front with external lights, the invention inverts the lighting approach by placing the light source behind the fixture and using the fixture's translucent properties to allow light transmission. This backlighting approach enables the fixture to be visible at night while maintaining its metallic appearance during daytime.
2Illumination intensity
If external lighting is used to illuminate fixtures at night, then the fixtures become visible, but the lighting requires additional infrastructure and installation complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting function is merged directly into the fixture structure itself by incorporating the light source as an integrated component. The fixture becomes both the decorative element and the illuminated element, eliminating the need for separate external lighting infrastructure and simplifying installation while achieving nighttime visibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The fixture illuminates itself through the integrated light source, making the lighting system self-contained. The fixture structure serves its own lighting needs without requiring external lighting infrastructure, reducing installation complexity and maintenance requirements.
3Illumination intensity
If translucent materials are used for fixtures, then the fixtures can be illuminated from within, but the fixtures lose their realistic metallic appearance during daytime
Solution Approach 1:
The fixture material's optical properties change based on lighting conditions - appearing opaque with metallic appearance during daytime and translucent when backlit at night. This dynamic optical behavior allows the fixture to maintain realistic appearance during daytime while enabling internal illumination at night.
Solution Approach 2:
The optical parameters of the fixture material are optimized to provide different visual characteristics under different lighting conditions. The material transitions from appearing metallic and opaque in natural daylight to becoming translucent and illuminated when backlit, achieving both aesthetic requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables decorative fixtures to be viewed and enjoyed during both daytime and nighttime hours, enhancing their aesthetic value and functionality by providing internal lighting that complements the surrounding environment.
Implementation Method 1
a fixture at least partially semi-transparent mounted to the base so as to overlie the front opening of the one passageway of the base, the front opening of the hollow socket of the casing in the one passageway of the base, and the light source in the hollow socket of the casing, so as to restrict the emission of light from the light source from passing therethrough and thereby illuminating the fixture
Data Source
AI summary
A selectively-illuminable decorative water feature in the form of an assembly includes a base, casing, and a light source in communication with a semi-translucent or translucent fixture. The base may, for example, be a portion of a component/feature of a swimming pool, a spa or a fountain. The casing and light source may be mounted within the base and the fixture attached to a front surface of the base. The translucence or semi-translucence of the fixture creates an illumination effect due to limited transmission of light, emitted from the light source, through the feature. The water feature may take on a variety of forms, including, for example, decorative fixtures, receptacles, a bowl-shaped fixture, and a hand grip attached to a structural surface of a pool, spa or fountain.