The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 25, 1996
Filed:
Apr. 05, 1993
Peter Y Ngai, Alamo, CA (US);
Peerless Lighting Corporation, Berkeley, CA (US);
Abstract
An improved task light is comprised of a housing having a center cavity portion, a light passage opening below the center cavity portion, and an edge cavity for supporting a light source that emits light from the housing's edge cavity portion into its center cavity portion. A reflector, at least a portion of which spans the center cavity portion of the housing and which portion has a proximal and distal edge in relation to the light source, lies along a path that curves inwardly of the housing such that, when the reflector is viewed through the housing's light passage opening from the level of a task surface below the task light and from any position to the front of the task light, the luminance of the spanning portion of the reflector from reflected source light is substantially uniform over substantially the entirety of the spanning portion of the reflector. By maintaining the spanning portion of the reflector at a low luminance level, preferably below approximately 250 footlamberts, the reflector, as an operatively luminous optical element that presents itself to the task area, can be substantially eliminated as a source of reflected glare. In a lens version of the invention, a lens covers the housing's light passage opening and becomes the luminous optical element presented to the task area having a uniform low luminance. The lens can advantageously be used to achieve uniform light distributions within the task area.