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:
May. 09, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 20, 1998
Geoffrey Burton Smith, Epping, NSW 2121, AU;
James Bruce Franklin, Sydney, NSW 2006, AU;
Abstract
A lighting system for an interior of a building and the like includes a stack (102) of fluorescent sheets for collecting and converting sunlight into concentrated light. The stack (102) is of a substantially rectangular prism shape having top and bottom surfaces, opposed side surfaces defining therebetween a width of the stack (102), and opposed end surfaces defining therebetween a length of the stack (102), wherein the length of the stack (102) is sufficiently greater than the width of the stack (102) such that its aspect ratio as herein defined is greater than 4.0. The lighting system also includes a flexible light guide (104) for channeling the concentrated light to a light emitting fitting for the interior of the building or the like. The light guide (104) is optically coupled by optical joint (103) with the stack (102) through one of the end surfaces of the stack (102). The total cross-sectional areas of each of the stack (102), optical joint (103) and flexible light guide (104) are substantially the same, and the optical joint (103) is created by a medium having a refractive index close to that of the stack (102) and flexible light guide (104).