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US 2003/0227771 A1Published application
Lighting system utilizing a display screen for illuminating a predefined area in front of said display screen
AssigneeBurns Doane Swecker & Mathis LLP
InventorCharles Hunter
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lighting system includes a lens element which redirects light emitted from a display screen onto a keypad, keyboard or a control pad placed in front of or adjacent to the display screen such that without disturbing the display of other information on the display screen, the light emitted by the display screen illuminates the keypad, keyboard or control panel without the need for auxiliary light sources or auxiliary power sources. A simple program or program modification controls the display screen to provide appropriate light to the lens element.
Claims20
A lighting system, comprising:
- a lens element (15) including:
- an external light receiving surface (15a),
- an internal light redirecting element (15b), and
- a light emitting surface (15c),
- wherein at least one of said internal light redirecting element and said light emitting surface controls light emitted from said light emitting surface to project into a predefined area at a predefined distance;
- and
- a display screen (11) which emits light, said display screen including an first area (11a) of said screen designated to not emit light into said external light receiving surface of said lens element and a second area (11b) designated to emit light into said external light receiving surface of said lens element.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.