Safety Eye Light for Garage Floor Illumination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing garage lighting systems, including overhead lighting and garage door openers, are inadequate for illuminating the garage floor and surrounding areas, making it difficult for homeowners to safely navigate, especially when entering or exiting with vehicles or carrying loads, and fail to provide adequate lighting when needed, such as during nighttime parking or when obstacles are present.
Innovation Solution
The integration of safety eye lights into the garage door system, which include infrared sending and receiving units and visible spectrum lights, are positioned near the garage floor and can be activated remotely using a wireless control, providing directional and adjustable illumination to ensure safety by illuminating the floor level and surrounding areas, including the sides and rear of vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If ceiling mounted lights are used, then overhead illumination is provided, but floor level illumination is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from overhead ceiling-mounted lighting to floor-level lighting by integrating lights into the garage door opener system positioned near the floor. This dimensional change in light source placement directly addresses the insufficient floor level illumination while maintaining system simplicity through integration with existing garage door infrastructure.
2Illumination intensity
If garage door opener lights are used, then automatic activation is provided, but illumination direction is suboptimal for floor lighting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates motion-activated sensors that detect movement and automatically illuminate the garage floor when needed. This dynamic activation mechanism combines the convenience of automatic operation with optimized floor-level illumination direction, allowing the lights to respond to user presence and activate only when required.
3Ease of operation
If remote activation is implemented, then lighting availability during parking is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple functions into the garage door opener system, including remote activation capability, motion sensing, and floor-level illumination. By making the lighting system multi-functional and compatible with existing remote controls and motion detectors, it provides convenient remote activation without significantly increasing overall system complexity.
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
The safety eye light system enhances safety by providing improved illumination of the garage floor and surrounding areas, preventing accidents from obstacles and enhancing security by allowing homeowners to see their environment clearly, even when entering or exiting with vehicles, and can be activated conveniently using a remote control.
Implementation Method 1
The opposed safety eyes operate by use of an infrared beam 110 of light that is emitted from a first safety eye 106 mounted at one side of the garage door entry towards the second safety eye 108 mounted at the opposed garage door entry
Implementation Method 2
one or more safety lights for illuminating a space. In this disclosure, safety light refers a light having a visible spectrum of light commonly used to illuminate a space
Data Source
AI summary
Garage door opening systems commonly include lighting generated from lower wattage bulbs mounted to an electric operator near a garage ceiling. This lighting is inadequate to fully illuminate a garage space particularly at the floor level. Since vehicles park under the light, the vehicle can become a blocker of light. Disclosed are garage door opening systems including a safety eye light which integrates a light source into the safety eye of a garage door opening system thereby providing additional illumination to poorly lit areas of a garage. This additional source of lighting helps assure users safer home to vehicle ingress and egress. In some forms, the lights in the safety eye light are fixed, in other forms the lights are adjustable in direction. Various methods of integrating a safety eye light into a garage door opening system and use of the safety eye light are disclosed herein.