Orientation-Based Illuminant Control for Submerged Electronic Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic devices designed to float on water after being dropped consume unnecessary power as all illuminants, including those underwater, are activated during submersion, leading to inefficient power usage.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device with a submersion detector, a plurality of illuminants, a lighting circuit, and an orientation detector that only activates the visible illuminants based on the device's submersion orientation, reducing power consumption by ensuring only the illuminants visible from above water emit light.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If all illuminants are activated during submersion to ensure visibility, then the electronic device can be easily found, but power consumption increases unnecessarily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making different parts of the illuminant system have different functions based on their orientation. Specifically, illuminants are divided into those facing upward (visible from above water) and those facing downward (submerged), with only the upward-facing ones activated during submersion. This selective activation based on local orientation resolves the contradiction by maintaining visibility where needed while avoiding unnecessary power consumption from submerged illuminants.
2Illumination intensity
If multiple illuminants are used to ensure visibility from all orientations, then the electronic device can be found regardless of orientation, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies inversion by reversing the conventional approach: instead of providing illuminants in all orientations and activating them all, the system provides illuminants in specific orientations (upward-facing only) and activates only those. The orientation detector identifies which illuminants are visible from above water, and only those are activated. This inverted strategy maintains visibility functionality while reducing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device including a submersion detector, illuminants, a lighting circuit, a controller, and an orientation detector. The submersion detector detects submersion of the device and detect retrieval of the device. The illuminants are arranged inside a casing such that at least one of the illuminants is visible from above water when the device is submerged in any submersion orientation. The lighting circuit lights up at least one of the illuminants in response to an input of a lighting signal. The controller generates and outputs the lighting signal to the lighting circuit for a period of time from the submersion at least until the retrieval so as to light up the at least one of the illuminants. The orientation detector detects a submersion orientation of the device. Only the at least one of the illuminants that is visible from above water lights up, in accordance with the detected submersion orientation.