US 5,844,377 AGranted

Kinetically multicolored light source

OwnerMatthew E. Anderson, Thomas A. Hughesinventors

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Abstract

A kinetically multicolored light source is described, comprising: a light source capable of producing a plurality of primary colors; oscillatory means for driving said light source; and means for moving said light source. The oscillatory driving means may drive the light source so that one or more of the primary colors is alternately turned on and off at a frequency above the critical fusion frequency of an observer, whereby each of the colors appears to emanate simultaneously and continuously thereby appearing to the observer as a single secondary color when the light source moves slowly with respect to the observer. The light source may move relative to the observer sufficiently rapidly that each of the oscillating primary colors if viewed alone would appear to the observer to emanate from bright segments of a curvilinear path with intervening dark segments. When viewed together the path segments for each of the primary colors may spatially overlap to varying degrees depending on the relative frequency, amplitude, phase, and duty cycle at which each of the primary colors is produced. The observer may therefore observe a myriad of color alternation pattern along the curvilinear path, which may comprise one or more of: dark segments, bright primary color segments, and bright secondary color segments. Thus, by moving the light source sufficiently rapidly relative to the observer, visually striking, intriguing, and/or pleasing multicolored illuminated displays may be produced by a light source which appears monocolored when moving relatively slowly relative to the observer.

Claims36

Dependent claims

A kinetically multicolored light source, comprising:

a light source emitting a plurality of primary colors;
oscillatory means for driving said light source having a frequency, an amplitude, a duty cycle, and a phase corresponding to each of said primary colors;
and
means for moving said light source relative to a field of view of an observer,
wherein
the frequently corresponding to at least one of said primary colors is above a critical fusion frequency for the observer, whereby each of said primary colors appears to the observer to emanate from said light source simultaneously and continuously when said light source moves slowly relative to the field of view of the observer and thereby appears to the observer as one total secondary color;
said moving means moves said light source sufficiently rapidly relative to the field of view of the observer so that said at least one of said primary colors if observed alone would appear to the observer to emanate from a plurality of bright segments of a curvilinear path with intervening dark segments when driven by said oscillatory driving means;
spatial overlap of dark segments corresponding to each of no said primary colors produces a segment of the curvilinear path which appears dark to the observer;
spatial overlap of a bright segment corresponding to only one of said primary colors and dark segments corresponding to the others of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as said only one of said primary colors;
spatial overlap of bright segments corresponding to at least two of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as a partial secondary color;
and
spatial overlap of bright segments corresponding to each of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as the total secondary color.

9 more elements

A method for producing a kinetically multicolored light display, comprising:

driving a light source emitting a plurality of primary colors with an oscillatory driver having a frequency, an amplitude, a duty cycle, and a phase corresponding to each of said primary colors;
and
moving said light source relative to a field of view of an observer,
wherein
the frequency corresponding to at least one of said primary colors is above a critical fusion frequency for the observer, whereby each of said primary colors appears to the observer to emanate from said light source simultaneously and continuously when said light source moves slowly relative to a field of view of the observer thereby appearing to the observer as one total secondary color;
said light source is moved sufficiently rapidly relative to the field of view of the observer so that said at least one of said primary colors if observed alone would appear to the observer to emanate from a plurality of bright segments of a curvilinear path with intervening dark segments when driven by said oscillatory driving means;
spatial overlap of dark segments corresponding to each of said primary colors produces a segment of the curvilinear path which appears dark to the observer;
spatial overlap of a bright segment corresponding to only one of said primary colors and dark segments corresponding to the others of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as said only one of said primary colors;
spatial overlap of bright segments corresponding to at least two of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as a partial secondary color;
and
spatial overlap of bright segments corresponding to each of said primary colors produces a bright segment of the curvilinear path which appears to the observer as the total secondary color.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.