Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F21—LIGHTING
  • F21V—FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OR DETAILS OF LIGHTING DEVICES OR SYSTEMS THEREOF; STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS OF LIGHTING DEVICES WITH OTHER ARTICLES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F21V14/00—Controlling the distribution of the light emitted by adjustment of elements
  • F21V14/003—Controlling the distribution of the light emitted by adjustment of elements by interposition of elements with electrically controlled variable light transmissivity, e.g. liquid crystal elements or electrochromic devices
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F21—LIGHTING
  • F21V—FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OR DETAILS OF LIGHTING DEVICES OR SYSTEMS THEREOF; STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS OF LIGHTING DEVICES WITH OTHER ARTICLES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F21V23/00—Arrangement of electric circuit elements in or on lighting devices
  • F21V23/003—Arrangement of electric circuit elements in or on lighting devices the elements being electronics drivers or controllers for operating the light source, e.g. for a LED array
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F21—LIGHTING
  • F21V—FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OR DETAILS OF LIGHTING DEVICES OR SYSTEMS THEREOF; STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS OF LIGHTING DEVICES WITH OTHER ARTICLES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F21V23/00—Arrangement of electric circuit elements in or on lighting devices
  • F21V23/04—Arrangement of electric circuit elements in or on lighting devices the elements being switches
  • F21V23/0442—Arrangement of electric circuit elements in or on lighting devices the elements being switches activated by means of a sensor, e.g. motion or photodetectors
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F21—LIGHTING
  • F21Y—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASSES F21K, F21L, F21S and F21V, RELATING TO THE FORM OR THE KIND OF THE LIGHT SOURCES OR OF THE COLOUR OF THE LIGHT EMITTED
  • F21Y2101/00—Point-like light sources

Definitions

• Portable lamp comprising an electrical control device for the geometry of the wiring harness
• the present invention relates to the field of portable electric lamps and in particular a frontal portable lamp with an improved control of the management of the geometry of the light beam.
• this embodiment requires two separate light sources, which can significantly increase the manufacturing cost but especially the size of the light source.
• this was not the least inconvenient disadvantage to be able to have a very homogeneous luminous flux, it is necessary that the light sources are well matched, which can be difficult and all the more that, in general, the LEDs have different aging profiles resulting in a fairly rapid loss homogeneity in the production of the respective luminous flux of the two (or more) LED lamps, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the phenomenon of "zoom" sought.
• FIG. 2 it is a headlamp comprising at least one LED type light emitting diode 1 1 and an optical sensor 14 housed in its vicinity and intended to capture a signal representative of the light reflected by the surface of an object 16 illuminated by the lamp.
• a control circuit 13 provides a processing of this signal for the purpose of automatically regulating the power of the LED according to a predetermined threshold. In this way, automatic regulation of the light beam emitted by the lamp is performed without further manual action to adapt the lighting environment, while managing energy consumption.
• the present invention proposes to significantly improve this situation by proposing a new control device of the geometry of the beam perfectly adapted to these new needs appeared with the new functionalities likely to appear in the modern headlamps.
• the object of the present invention is to propose a portable lamp structure, such as a frontal one, enabling easier control of the geometry of the light beam.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for controlling the geometry of the beam of a portable lamp, reducing the manufacturing costs but also the size of the lamp.
• a portable electric lamp such as a headlamp, comprising: a light source generating at least one light beam generating a narrow beam;
• a window arranged in front of said light source said window comprising an electro-optical diffusion device controlled by an electrical signal for the production of an electrically adjustable diffusion
• the electro-optical device may be a liquid crystal diffuser controlled either by a current or by a control potential.
• the pane consists of a PDLC film through which passes through said narrow beam, said PDLC film comprising polarization electrodes for receiving a control potential of the transparency of said film.
• the portable lamp Preferably the portable lamp:
• a light source comprising at least one LED generating a narrow beam
• a power source for the power supply of the LED or LEDs; a control unit for generating a control potential for controlling the transparency of said PDLC film.
• control potential is generated from a manual controller.
• control potential is generated from information generated by a sensor capturing a fraction of the brightness reflected on an illuminated object.
• the control potential is generated from information generated by an accelerometer-type sensor, thus allowing the control of long lighting when the user is running or jogging.
• the control potential is generated from information generated by an image sensor.
• the portable lamp comprises communication means for receiving information from which is generated the control potential of the adjustable transparency.
• This information can come either from another communicating lamp - configured in master mode - or from a data processing device such as a mobile phone, a tablet etc .. likely to control the features of the portable lamp.
• the portable lamp is particularly suitable for producing a headlamp.
• Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram of a conventional lamp with an "electric zoom”.
• Figure 2 shows the block diagram of a conventional lamp with "dynamic lighting"
• FIG. 3 illustrates a first preferred embodiment of a portable lamp having an electrically adjustable transparency pane.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a second embodiment combining an electro-optical diffuser with a dynamically illuminated lamp.
• FIG. 5 illustrates a third embodiment of a portable lamp comprising an accelerometer used for generating the control potential of the electro-optical diffuser.
• FIG. 6 shows a fourth exemplary embodiment of a portable lamp comprising an image sensor and an image processing processor for generating control information for generating the control potential of the electronic diffuser.
• -optical shows a fifth embodiment of a portable lamp comprising communication means for receiving information for generating the control potential of the electro-optical diffuser.
• a particular embodiment of a lamp such as a headlamp generating a light beam, and equipped with an improved device for controlling the geometry of this light beam, will now be described with reference to FIG.
• the lamp comprises a light source 31 generating a light beam generated for example by means of one or more LEDs (s).
• the light source 31 may be provided with a primary optics for providing a first collimation so as to allow the formation of a rather narrow beam.
• a secondary optics 32 may be provided to improve collimation of the source as necessary and thus increase, as necessary, the narrow geometry of the beam.
• the lamp then comprises an electro-optical device 33 arranged in front of the light source, such as an electro-optical diffuser allowing a control electrical transparency / opacity, so as to control the geometry of the light beam generated by the LED (s).
• an electro-optical device 33 arranged in front of the light source, such as an electro-optical diffuser allowing a control electrical transparency / opacity, so as to control the geometry of the light beam generated by the LED (s).
• the electro-optical device 33 consists of a PDLC film (liquid crystals dispersed in polymers or dispersive liquid crystal polymer) which, as a person skilled in the art knows, consists of a particular implementation of crystals. heterogeneously dispersed liquids within a polymer matrix.
• This PDLC film can advantageously replace the glass usually disposed in front of the light source and protecting the latter, and comprises two polarization electrodes 34 and 35 for receiving a control signal, for example a control potential Vc generated by a control unit 36. .
• the portable lamp can, therefore, provide new features (ambient light - lantern - dawn simulator alarm clock).
• the potential Vc is controlled via a member or manual switch actuated by the user of the lamp which can thus come to adjust - as desired - the scattering angle of the beam.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a second embodiment of a lamp 100, assumed to be frontal, combining the use of an electro-optical diffuser within a "dynamic" type lamp.
• the lamp 100 comprises a power module 450 associated with a control module 400 and a light source 460 comprising one or more LEDs (s) provided, where appropriate its own focal system (not shown).
• the power supply of the LED 460 - via the conductors 461 - is performed under the control of an information or a control signal 401 generated by the control module 200.
• the module 450 specifically comprises all the components conventionally encountered in an LED lighting lamp for the production of a high intensity light beam, and in general based on PWM Pulse Width Modulation (or Pulse). Width Modulation in the Anglo-Saxon Literature), well known to a person skilled in the art and similar to that encountered in class D audio circuits. This PWM modulation is controlled by means of the control signal 401.
• the term "signal” mentioned above refers to an electrical quantity - current or voltage - which makes it possible to cause the control of the power module 450, and in particular the PWM modulation used to supply power to the LED diode 460.
• the "control signal 401” any "control information", for example a logical information stored in a register and transmitted by any appropriate means to the power module 450 for the purpose of controlling the transmission power of the light beam.
• the two control modules 400 and power 450 are integrated within the same integrated circuit.
• control signal 401 when referring to a "control signal 401", one indistinctly includes the embodiments using an electrical control quantity - current or voltage - as well as the embodiments in which the control is performed by means of logical information transmitted within the power module 450. For this reason, we will speak here below without distinction of signal or command information.
• the switch components and circuits that make up the power module 450 - be they bipolar transistors, FET (Field Effect Transistor) or MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) or MOSFET transistors - are well known. a person skilled in the art and the presentation will be deliberately lightened in this regard for the sake of brevity. In the same way, the reader will be invited to refer to the general works dealing with various aspects of PWM modulation.
• control module 400 comprises in particular a sensor 410 with its own focal optics, intended to capture a portion of the light reflected on an illuminated object, so as to generate useful information for the implementation of "dynamic” or “reactive” lighting.
• This information produced by the sensor 410 is processed by the control module 400 so as to derive, by means of appropriate logic and analog circuits, a control potential Vc which is transmitted via conductors 471 appropriate to a PDLC film 470 so as to control the phenomenon of diffusion of the light beam passing through this film PDLC.
• control of the diffusion is such that in the absence of control voltage Vc, the diffusion operated by the PDLC film 470 is maximum, thus producing light rays in all directions (represented by the beam 473 on the Figure 4).
• control module 400 when the control module 400 generates a high potential Vc - of the order of 75 volts today but with the objective of lowering it below the value of 24 volts - the PDLC film will prove to be transparent total or quasi-total, so that only a narrow beam 472 will be generated by the portable lamp.
• FIG. 6 shows another example of a more sophisticated embodiment in which the lamp comprises an image sensor 430 such as that described in the patent application WO 2012/1 19756 dated March 6, 2012, and allowing the control of the geometry the beam from an image analysis from an image processor 435 shown in Figure 6.
• This image analysis leads, via appropriate digital processing, to the generation of a suitable control potential Vc allowing to pilot the diffusion of the PDLC 470 film.
• the reader will particularly refer to the developments described in this patent application for the particular embodiment of a portable lamp equipped with such a sensor.
• FIG. 7 shows another embodiment in which, to the elements described in the embodiment of FIG. 4 (and which concisely preserve the same numerical references), a wireless communication unit 440 is added, and in particular transmission / reception circuits for the reception of a control information received from a device external to the lamp, said information serving to generate the control potential Vc of the electro-optical scattering device.
• the communication circuits are of the Bluetooth type or equivalent and allow an exchange of information between two portable lamps so as to allow a master / slave type control between the two lamps.
• a centralized control of the diffusion of the PDLC film is achieved.
• the wireless communication circuits 440 are used to ensure data exchange between the portable lamp and an external data processing device, such as a mobile phone or a touch pad 500, which will thus be able to take advantage of all the processing power. available in these external devices, but also their communication features.
• an external data processing device such as a mobile phone or a touch pad 500
• This arrangement can be particularly advantageous since it will then become possible to use the large computing power available within these external equipment, and extended functionalities including communication, to come provide a fine and powerful adjustment of the geometry beam.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
• Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
• Lighting Device Outwards From Vehicle And Optical Signal (AREA)
• Circuit Arrangement For Electric Light Sources In General (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

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Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Families Citing this family (14)

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• 2014
  • 2014-02-14 FR FR1400407A patent/FR3017692A1/fr active Pending
• 2015
  • 2015-02-13 WO PCT/EP2015/053127 patent/WO2015121429A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2015-02-13 EP EP15707057.4A patent/EP3105498B1/de not_active Not-in-force
• 2016
  • 2016-05-16 US US15/155,439 patent/US20160258599A1/en not_active Abandoned

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