Illumination – With furniture – Bed
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-23
2003-07-22
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
With furniture
Bed
C362S127000, C362S084000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06595654
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to furniture, specifically to a bed-lighting mechanism that significantly improves upon the safety, affordability, practicality, convenience, overall usable illumination and aesthetic qualities of all previous bed-lighting mechanisms, and can also be applied to other articles of furniture.
Ever since electric lighting was made available to the public, people have been developing it to be integrated into all types of furniture in a variety of ways, for a variety of purposes. Two good recent examples of this type of related art are U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,251, Abke 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,932, Morrison 1999. While these and other related art pertaining to other types of furniture may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, none are as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.
A thorough analysis of related art reveals that a popular article of furniture to illuminate is the bed. Inventors have attempted to integrate lighting into headboards, footboards, side rails, ornamental finials atop bedposts, and the area under the bed. A safe, practical and convenient method of illuminating the bed and its immediate area would aid in caring for the sick, reading or working from a reclining position in bed, and many other bed-related activities needing illumination.
Many bed-light combinations have been developed for hospital or nursing use, and are highly complex in nature. This complexity is due to the fact that hospital beds need to be multi-functional. In addition to illuminating, the functionality needs to allow the user to call medical personnel, adjust the orientation of the mattress, etc. A recent example of this type of related art is the lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,642 to Bokamper, May 22, 2001. This was a hospital style bed incorporating a night light into the pre-existing moveable components driven by an electric motor, and provides for amplification of said light by employing a luminescent or light-conducting rod. Since this design relies on preexisting wiring, this invention cannot be applied to a standard residential bed lacking motor-driven functionality.
Related art dating back to 1906 shows that inventors have been working on bed-light combinations for residential purposes for almost a century. Most of the bed lighting found in this type of related art is aesthetically awkward and functionally cumbersome. This type of bed lighting does not harmonize with the bed on which it is mounted because it is made simply as an accessory, not as a design element. Many other examples of bed-light combinations attempted in the last hundred years failed in terms of safety, practicality, convenience, ease of use and overall appearance. The following examples are most illustrative:
The related art closest in concept to the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 819,068, Ives, May 1, 1906. Wiring is run through the tubular metal bedposts of a four-post bed, and the spherical finials atop the posts are fitted with incandescent lamps. Although Ives' bed lighting arrangement was innovative for his time, modern technology allows for many improvements in safety, practicality, ease of manufacture, and aesthetic appeal.
The lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,298,362 to Lewry, Mar. 25, 1919 put incandescent lamps within small cutouts of the posts of a four-post bed. Lewry's lighting configuration fails to shed light efficiently and usefully. The specific locations of the lamps within the bedposts did not make the best use of the lamps' available light, casting intrusive shadows with only a limited amount of light for the bed's occupants.
The lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,866 to Cunard, Jan. 11, 1940 was an incandescent lamp that attached underneath the bed. This configuration is functionally inadequate because of its single location placement and use of an incandescent lamp, requiring a switch to turn it on and off.
The lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,186 to Kamin, May 1, 1956 was incandescent lamps attached to the tops of bed posts. This arrangement fails to make a bed-light integration both functional and attractive, as evidenced by its exposed wires and switches.
The lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,298 to Stephen, Aug. 7, 1990 was a series of incandescent light bulbs connected to the side rails of a bed powered by a mechanism initiated by pressure from the mattress. This too fails all of the functional standards for the lighting to be used by the occupant(s) of the bed because of the location of the lights.
The lighting for a bed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,169 to Lucas, et al., Nov. 4, 1997 was a bed featuring four fluorescent light tubes employed as bedposts. This arrangement is inappropriate for home use due to the many drawbacks of fluorescent lights, including the high voltage of fluorescent lighting, the need to replace ballast, the fragility of the light tube itself, the harsh quality of fluorescent light as opposed to other types of light, the high cost of fluorescent light, and the buzzing sound that fluorescent light makes when it is on.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
As the discussion of the related art revealed, many beds have lights as secondary accessories (e.g., reading lights or track lighting), and some integrate light fixtures as part of the overall design. However, no related art uses light as a primary component in an inexpensive, safe, convenient, practical and aesthetically-pleasing manner. Further, no related art combines bedpost lighting with under-bed lighting, as does the present invention.
The present invention improves upon previous bed-light combinations by providing sufficient ambient lighting and non-intrusive safety lighting for the whole bedroom in a safe, convenient, attractive and practical manner. In this case, improvements to safety are made by using low-voltage halogen lamps. Further, many of the electrical components of the lighting system are concealed within the tubular structure of the bedstead itself, increasing the safety of the bed-light combination. The lights are oriented towards the ceiling so that the whole room is illuminated, not just the immediate area of the bed as in other bed-light combinations. The touch-switch feature allows for convenient operation of the halogen lights while still in bed, by locating the touch pads on or near the headboard within easy reach, instead of having to operate a switch. The dimmer feature allows for adjustment of the intensity of the halogen lights according to the user's needs. Under-lighting the bed using cool electroluminescent lamps provides non-intrusive night visibility for safety, without interrupting the sleep of others in the room. Additionally, the quality of the light emitted by the electroluminescent lamps gives the entire bed a “floating” effect.
An object of the present invention is to provide an aesthetically pleasing bed structure, easily adapted to any interior design theme, in a manner that does not expose the electrical components.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel, improved and unique bed-lighting mechanism that is of low cost to manufacture with respect to its materials and labor. Not only is the lighting arrangement less expensive than in previous iterations of the lighted bed, the substitution of PVC pipe for metal or hardwood makes a lighted bed less expensive to manufacture and therefore less expensive to sell. Manufacturers of this bed can pass that savings on to the consumer, who can then enjoy a lighted bed at an affordable price.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the halogen light fixtures embedded in the bedposts, oriented towards the ceiling, can fill the entire room with warm, natural-looking light.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the multi-level touch-dimmer switch adjusts the intensity of the halogen lights.
Another
O'Shea Sandra
Sawhney Hargobind Singh
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