Drawer light fixture for those having vision difficulties

Details Drawer light fixture for those having vision difficulties Drawer light fixture for those having vision difficulties

1999-06-07

2001-03-20

Sember, Thomas M. (Department: 2875)

Illumination

With furniture

Cabinet

C362S276000, C362S802000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06203167

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Our invention has to do with an electrical light fixture for brightening the usually dimmer portion of a drawer storage area. Also, this electrical light fixture is small enough to be attached to an inside surface of a desk. More specifically, this invention provides an automatic ON and OFF features using a photo-conductive sensor.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Drawers come in different sizes. Desk drawers are usually smaller than the drawers inside a dresser, kitchen cabinet or a closet. In turn, any lighting fixtures designed for cabinets, dressers and closets are generally too bulky for use in the desk drawers. A typical cabinet lighting system in the market today has more than one lamp attached to an inside cabinet wall near a cabinet door. This cabinet lighting fixture also has a transformer and a distribution box. Altogether, the fixture makes it too bulky for use inside a desk drawer. Practically speaking, this lighting fixture can not be easily carried off and be used in another place, and it would be too hard for those who have vision difficulties (e.g., the vision-impaired, young children, and the elderly people) to install and set up.
Although there are light fixtures available in the market today that are specifically designed for illuminating drawers, there are still many disadvantages in using those fixtures. Such a light fixture typically uses a mechanical switch for power turn-on, and it is fixedly attached to a drawer, and therefore, making battery changes difficult. Another such light fixture attaches to the inside surface of the drawer front face, which when the drawer is opened, its emitted lighting often is found to be unnecessary because of the existing room light. As the drawer opens, the attached light fixture also moves away from the back and dimmer portion of the drawer whereby making the light fixture less useful. Furthermore, this light fixture takes up storage space inside the drawer and takes away the space available for storage.
Therefore, one advantage of our invention is to provide a light fixture that does not take away the drawer space available for storage.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a light fixture whose lighting is directed toward the dimmer portion of the drawer, and in such a manner, whereby enabling better illumination and easier recognition of the items stored toward the back of the drawer.
Yet another advantage of the invention is to provide a light fixture that is easily taken off from the desk for battery changes and that it powers the light bulb ON automatically when the drawer is opened. Furthermore, it provides an automatic light bulb power OFF when the drawer is closed. Alternatively, the light is automatically shut-off after a pre-determined amount of time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to these and other features of our invention, a light fixture is provided for illuminating a drawer for overcoming the disadvantages of the known light fixtures. Briefly, our drawer light fixture has a housing that contains a bulb and battery as its power source. It is removably attached to the inner surface of the desk face that is immediately above the drawer. It further has a photo-conductive sensor that operates as a gating element between the light bulb and the battery. The sensor serves as an ON/OFF switch and is sensitive to the background room light. When triggered by the room light, the sensor would electronically close the switch and turn the light bulb ON. As the drawer closes, the lack of room light would cause the sensor to open the circuit whereby turning the light bulb OFF. Alternatively, a timer circuit electronically coupled to the photo-conductive sensor would turn the bulb OFF after a pre-determined amount of time.


REFERENCES:
patent: 1532935 (1925-04-01), Patton
patent: 2415055 (1947-01-01), Weiskopf
patent: 4442478 (1984-04-01), Stansbury
patent: 5758947 (1998-06-01), Glatt
patent: 5839816 (1998-11-01), Varga et al.

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