Image projecting lampshade

#In today's hectic world of constant activity and instantaneous entertainment, parents face an age old problem with increasing difficulty, namely, getting their children to settle down for sleep. Going to sleep is continuously avoided while the parents patience are tried to the extreme. It is the purpose of this invention, to provide a device for projecting images on the ceiling of a child's bedroom using the bed side lamp as a source of light. A lampshade is used as the housing for the projector.

#The prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,998 and 2,974,435 shows the use of a lampshade to illuminate a photo or other image using the lamp as a source of light, but there is no projection. There are many special purpose projectors for example the signs described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,656,110 and 940,281, or the lamps of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,517,264 and 4,858,079 but none of these use a lampshade for projecting images as does the invention of this application.

#The prior art projectors are cumbersome and expensive and in general will not provide a lamp which can also be used as originally intended, namely to illuminate a room. It is the purpose of this invention to provide a lampshade suitable for use on any standard lamp used at the bedside of a child which is constructed with a projection system mounted within to allow images to be shown on the ceiling. A simple and inexpensive device is described which can be conveniently used to interest the child in a restful manner to bridge the transition from an active day to a peaceful and sleep filled night.

#The preferred embodiment of the invention is described in more detail below with reference to the attached drawing in which:

#FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the lampshade partially cut away to show the mechanism of this invention mounted on a lamp.

#The lampshade 1 of this invention is shown in FIGURE 1 in which the main body or shell 6 of the shade 1 has been cut away to expose the interior. The lampshade 1 is designed to surround the light of a lamp and screen the ambient surroundings from direct exposure to the light. It has a longitudinal axis 14 which in FIGURE 1 is shown to be substantially vertical. A projection system, consisting of a projection lens 2, a slide 3, and a condensing lens 4, is mounted within the shade body 6 to receive light from the bulb 5. The principal axis of the projection system is aligned with the axis 14 of the lampshade.

#Lens 2 is mounted with its principal axis aligned with the axis of the lampshade body 6 on a frame 7. The frame 7 may be constructed of wire and is attached to shade body 6 by tape or other suitable means which will hold the lens in secure position relative to the other components of the projection system. Frame 7 includes a ring with spokes 15 extending radially inward to a bracket 16. The bracket 16 forms a receptacle for the lens 2. Lens 2 is selected to provide a focused image approximately 5 to 6 feet from the top of the lens and the image will be generally enlarged from a slide of approximately 1 inch to an image of perhaps 2 feet. The standard lens formula of 1/f=1/p+1/q in which f is the focal length of the lens, p is the distance of the slide to the lens, and q is the distance of the projected image to the lens. Since the magnification of the lens is equal to ratio of the size of the projected image to the actual image and q/p, these relationships can be used to select an appropriate lens. For example: if the ratio of the images in feet is 2.0/0.1 or 20, and the distance q to the image on the ceiling is 6 feet, than p will equal 0.3 feet. With this information, using the lens formula and solving it for f, the focal length of an appropriate lens will be 0.286 feet.

#The slide 3 is mounted on its own bracket 18 which is supported by spokes 17 extending radially inward from a second frame 8. The bracket is designed to secure the image in place at a distance p from the lens 3. As can be observed from the above relationships, it is important to position the slide to obtain a projected image of a desirable size. The bracket 18 must be constructed to allow the slide to be easily removed and replaced to provide a variety of images.