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US 9,780,280 B2Granted
Energy harvesting module and illumination member for a vehicle
AssigneeNissan North America, Inc.
InventorsRandall Johnson, Nelson Phan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An illumination assembly for a vehicle includes an energy harvesting module disposed on an exhaust pipe of the vehicle. The energy harvesting module includes an energy harvesting device configured to capture heat and to convert the harvested heat to electrical energy. An illumination member is electrically connected to the energy harvesting module and is configured to be illuminated by the electrical energy supplied from the energy harvesting device.
Claims20
An illumination assembly for a vehicle, comprising:
- an exhaust pipe;
- an energy harvesting module disposed on an outer surface of the exhaust pipe and extending around an entire circumference of the exhaust pipe, the energy harvesting module including an energy harvesting device configured to capture heat and to convert the harvested heat to electrical energy;
- an illumination member electrically connected to the energy harvesting module and configured to be illuminated by the electrical energy supplied from the energy harvesting device;
- and
- a control module configured to control the intensity of the illumination of the illumination member.
2 more elements
A method of illuminating an illumination assembly of a vehicle, comprising:
- capturing heat energy with an energy harvesting device disposed on an outer surface of an exhaust pipe of the vehicle, the energy harvesting device extending around an entire circumference of the exhaust pipe;
- converting the captured heat energy to electrical energy with the energy harvesting device;
- supplying the electrical energy to an illumination member electrically connected to the energy harvesting device to illuminate the illumination member;
- and
- controlling the intensity of the illumination of the illumination member with a control module.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.