Illuminated Article of Apparel

This invention relates to apparel items, such as arm/hand bracelets, sneakers, earrings, hair ties, and the like, which include illuminated displays, and especially an illuminated strip displays that blink on and off.

Articles of apparel are known which are illuminated in various ways for purposes of aesthetic effect, safety or as a novelty. Thus, for examples, earrings, wigs, jewelry and shoes have been provided with sources of illumination for such purposes. In some cases, light-emitting diodes have been used as the sources of the illumination, and it is also known to turn such light-emitting diodes on and off in response to motion of the body on which they are carried.

The present invention provides other, and novel, illuminated articles of apparel which present unique appearances, and are also easy and inexpensive to fabricate and use.

In accordance with the preferred embodiments of the invention there is provided an intermittently illuminated article of apparel which utilizes a flasher means comprising at least one light-emitting diode, a battery, and pulser means connected to the battery and to the at-least one light-emitting diode, for intermittently and repetitively passing current from the battery through the at-least one diode to produce a series of flashes of light therefrom. Support means are also provided to support the flasher means elements on a wearer. The pulser means preferably comprises a continuously running digital oscillator for generating sequential pulses of voltage, and means for supplying the pulses of voltage to the at-least one diode to cause it to emit light repetitively. In one form, the pulser comprises a free-running digital oscillator for producing a repetitive, periodic sequence of voltage pulses, and a counter circuit for producing therefrom a series of successive voltage pulses on a plurality of separate wires or circuit conductors which are connected to respective light-emitting diodes, to turn them on in sequence.

In a first preferred embodiment of the invention, it is typically applied to a ball-like shell which is secured to an elastic band, used to wrap around the hair of the user and hold the hair in place, while supporting the ornamental ball at its end; a second identical shell is typically attached to the opposite end of the same elastic band. Each shell is preferably designed so as to be easily taken apart and replaced. In this embodiment, each shell is provided with the above-described pulsed light, generated by one or more LEDs within it which shines through the translucent or transparent walls of the shell. The result is an interesting aesthetic effect, requiring low battery current and readily disassemblable to change the battery when needed. Alternatively, the product may be sealed, and thus disposable, upon discharging the battery.

In another embodiment described in detail hereinafter, a linear array of LED's disposed along an elongated strip is typically placed between the tongue and the laces of a shoe, and the flasher means turns the LED's on sequentially, one at a time, so that the illumination appears to progress along the length of the strip, creating an interesting and eye-catching effect. Again, the device is economical to manufacture, draws low current from the battery, is easily installed on the shoe, and permits easy replacement of the battery when necessary. Low current drain is augmented by the use of a CMOS or other low power digital oscillator to generate the pulses, preferably as part of an integrated circuit which draws little current for its own operation, leaving most of the current resources of the battery for use in lighting the LED's.

These and other objects and features of the invention will be more readily understood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken with the accompanying drawings, in which corresponding parts are indicated by corresponding numerals and in which:

FIG. 1: is a sectional view of one preferred embodiment of the invention using a pair of intermittently illuminated hollow balls or shells joined by an elastic band, for use in the hair;

FIG. 2: is an enlarged sectional view of one of the balls or shells of FIG. 1, in exploded form with its two halves separated;

FIG. 3: is a top view of a circuit board of one of the balls of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4: is a side elevational view of the printed circuit board assembly used in the balls of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5, 6, and 7: are schematic electrical diagrams of circuits preferred for use in the ball of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8: is a perspective view showing another preferred embodiment of the invention installed in a shoe;

FIG. 9: is a plan view of the embodiment of the invention of FIG. 8, utilizing a series of successively illuminated light-emitting diodes;

FIG. 10: is a vertical section through the strip of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11: is a schematic electrical diagram of a circuit for pulsing the light-emitting diodes in FIG. 9;

FIG. 12: is a timing diagram illustrating the voltage pulses used to pulse the light-emitting diodes in sequence in the embodiment of FIG. 1, as produced by the circuit of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13: is a diagram of an integrated circuit device which may be used in the embodiment of FIG. 11; and

FIG. 14: is a more detailed electrical schematic diagram illustrating a digital clock and digital driver used in one preferred embodiment of the invention to pulse the light-emitting diodes of FIG. 9.

Turning now to the embodiments of the invention represented in the drawings and without thereby in any way limiting the scope of the invention, FIGS. 1-7 show how the invention is preferably applied to ornamental flashing balls or shells such as 10 or 12 of FIG. 1, for use at each end of an elastic band 16 by which the assembly may be secured to the user's hair. The two balls are identical in this example, hence the details of only one ball will be discussed.

Ball 10 is made in two halves 10A and 10B, and protrusions such as 20 on half 10A mate with depressions such as 22 on the other half 10B, so that the two halves can be pressed together to secure them to each other, and readily pulled apart when access to the interior is desired. Facing cavities 24A, 24B (FIG. 2) are provided within the respective halves 10A and 10B of the ball, to form corresponding shells, such that when the two halves are placed together they define a single common opening 24 (FIG. 1). In shell half 10B is mounted a battery 26, and a passage 30 through the ball provides means for securing the elastic band 16 to the shell by passing it through the passage.

In the other shell-half 10A there are mounted a small printed circuit board 32 which carries the light-emitting diode (LED) 34, the plastic-covered IC chip 38 for driving the LED's; a large-valued capacitor 40, preferably utilized to produce a pulsing voltage larger than the terminal volts of the battery, a negative spring contact 44 and a positive spring contact 46 for the PC circuitry, to be connected respectively to the negative battery terminal and the positive terminal of the battery. The negative contact clip 48 for the battery extends along the side of and above the battery, so as to be pressed against the corresponding negative contact 44 for the PC board assembly in the upper half of the shell; contact between the positive contact 46 of the upper half of the shell and the battery is made by the pressing of the latter positive contact against the top positive contact of the battery itself which occurs when the two shell halves are assembled to each other.

The printed circuitry and circuit elements for the pulser are applied to the top of the printed circuit board 32 in the usual manner. An on/off switch 51 can be provided in the upper or lower shell half, either internally or externally, for manually turning off and on of the pulser. Alternatively, a motion switch can be used instead of a manual on-off switch. In a typical case, the IC chip may be a type LM 3909, and the complete ball may be from 3/4" to 7/8" in diameter. The PC board may be of FR 4 or G10 material, 15 mils thick, and circular with a 0.400" diameter.

FIG. 5 shows in simplified form a typical driving circuit for the ball ornament of FIG. 1, consisting of an oscillator 60, the battery 26 and the LED 34; the capacitor 40 is also preferably used in conjunction with the oscillator as described below. The oscillator may be a conventional digital square-wave generator, and provides the timing and voltage to turn the LED on and off, typically at the rate of about 2 to 3 Hz. Power consumption of the driving circuit is very low, and the circuit preferably allows use of a small 1.35 volt battery to power the oscillator. More particularly, using an LED which requires 1.8 to 2 volts to turn it on, the oscillator 60, in combination with the capacitor 40, used in a known form of voltage-charging circuit, is able to provide pulses of up to 2 volts, so as to enable the turning on of the LED using only a 1.35 volt battery. A step charging circuit could additionally be employed to increase voltage. The electrolytic capacitor 40 may have a capacitance of 200 microfarads.

A typical circuit for driving the ball ornament of FIG. 1 is shown in more detail in FIG. 6, wherein the oscillator is embodied in an IC circuit 70, to which a capacitor 46 of 200 microfarad value is connected as a voltage-booster; the circuit uses an LED 34 powered by the 1.4 volt battery 24. The IC circuit may be a type LM 3909 made by National Semiconductor Co. This circuit was operable for 9.5 days of steady use, using a small hearing-aid button cell battery with a capacity of 90 milliampere hours.

FIG. 7 shows another circuit for implementing the driving or pulsing of the ball ornament LED, using a custom integrated circuit 80 developed by LaMi Products, Inc., two 1.4 volt batteries 82, 84 and an LED 86.

It will be understood that any of a variety of other miniaturized digital current-pulsing circuits may be used for this purpose.

The remaining FIGS. 8-13 show another form of the invention and its operation, in which the LED's such as 90 are distributed in a linear array along an insulating, plastic strip 92, to one end of which is affixed the circuitry 93 for pulsing the LED's sequentially and repetitively, one after another; by way of separate wires leading to the separate LED's (not shown in FIG. 8). FIG. 8 illustrates how the array may be placed in a shoe 94, between the tongue 95 and the shoe's "fasteners", e.g. laces, VELCRO.RTM. straps or buckles. In the preferred embodiment of FIG. 8, the array is disposed between the crossed laces, such as 95A of an athletic shoe or sneaker, with the LED's 90 spaced apart by a distance such that the crossing laces do not obscure the LED's. In this example, which assumes six LED's, each is turned on in sequence so as to give an appearance of light traveling along the strip, as the LED's are successively turned on. The circuitry 93 preferably contains the pulse-forming IC 96, the one or more batteries 97 and battery holder 96A, the optional chip capacitor 96B and the optional chip resistor 96C as shown in FIG. 10.

FIG. 11 shows in rather schematic form a typical circuit for driving such an arrangement. It employs a battery 97 connected to an LED driver 98 which consists of a clock 100 and a decade counter 102. The outputs (six in the example shown) of the decade counter are presented on seven separate leads such as 103, one for each of the LED's such as 90, the opposite sides of the LED's being connected to a common reference-potential line 104 such as ground. More particularly, the driver in this example utilizes a clock 100 which generates a square wave signal to trigger the decade counter 102, and the decade counter generates LED driver pulses at each of its output lines 103 in sequence, which are used to sequentially and repetitively turn on the corresponding respective LED's 90. In the preferred embodiment the clock and decade counter are on the same IC chip.

A preferred timing diagram for a unit like that of FIG. 11 is shown in FIG. 12, wherein time increases along the axis of abscissae and the several quantities listed vertically represent, from the top, the clock pulses CLK, a reset pulse RST, and the successive pulses Q1 to Q6 sent out sequentially by the decade counter to actuate the separate LED's. More particularly, in the top line of the graph is shown the clock square-wave, typically having a clock frequency of about 18 Hz. RST shows the reset pulse, and the successive LED-pulsing pulses are shown at Q1 and Q8.

FIG. 13 shows the pin arrangement, as does Table I, for the driver IC. The letters EN in FIG. 13 denote a signal that will enable the circuit to run from an internal clock without the need to use the external resistor RES. RST is the reset line, CAP is the pin to be connected to the higher-voltage side of the capacitor, and VDD indicates the battery supply voltage pin. Such a circuit can be used to drive up to 6-10 LED's. The driver is preferably fabricated using CMOS or other low power technology to reduce power consumption. The customized circuitry of this invention can be modified to include one-shot circuitry for time-delayed pulsing, motion sensor controlled output, selectable drive current, and jumper selectable clock frequency, for example.

The latter preferred driver circuit is shown in even more detail in FIG. 14, wherein the clock 100 is shown with its IC circuit 202 and its associated resistors and capacitor, used to derive the desired sequential clock pulses. The driver 204 includes the IC circuit 206 which responds to the clock pulses to produce on its output lines, such as 210, separate voltage pulses for turning on respective LED's such as D1 to D6, by way of the emitter-to-collector paths of the respective transistors Q1 to Q6, which are turned on and off by the driver.

Accordingly, there has been provided an intermittently illuminated article of apparel comprising a flasher means using at least one light-emitting diode, a battery, and pulser means for turning the light-emitting diode on repetitively to illuminate the article as desired; support means are provided to mount the assembly on the wearer. The pulser means comprises a digital oscillator for generating sequential pulses of voltage, and means for supplying these pulses of voltage to the at least one diode to produce the desired flashing effect. Two preferred embodiments are shown, one comprising a hollow ball or shell having two separable and reassemble sections within which the various parts are contained, including the LED. In another, strip-like, embodiment, the LED's are mounted and spaced along a strip, so as to be mountable between the laces and tongue of a shoe, and are turned on in sequence by the electronics mounted on the strip.

In each of the above-described products, a timer may be incorporated to shut off power to the device after a predetermined operation time to conserve battery life. This timer, as well as the power itself, may be actuated by a manual on-off switch activated by the user, a motion switch, photo switch, or similar means.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to specific embodiments in the interest of complete definiteness, it will be understood that it may be embodied in a variety of forms diverse from those specifically shown and described, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.