CN118499719A - Welcome lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

A welcome light includes a first image source, a second image source, a lens array, and a focusing lens. The lens array includes a first lens and a second lens, wherein the first lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the first image source, and the second lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the second image source. The focusing lens is disposed downstream of the optical paths of the first lens and the second lens at the same time, wherein the optical paths of the first image source and the second image source before the focusing lens are independent of each other, and the image of the first image source and the image of the second image source can substantially overlap downstream of the optical path of the focusing lens, so that the substantially overlapping images can be observed by a user.

Description

Welcome Light

This application is a divisional, and its parent case is the Chinese patent application (filing date is July 19, 2018, application number is 201810799137.6).

Technical Field

The invention relates to a lamp, in particular to a welcome lamp.

Background Art

Generally speaking, a welcome light (also called a ground light) is used as an auxiliary lighting device for ground lighting or for lighting the route in low ambient light. For example, a welcome light used in a car is usually installed on a car door or rearview mirror. When the door is opened, the lighting function is turned on and an image is projected on the ground. It not only produces a unique and dazzling image light and projection image, but also provides the function of illuminating the ground when the car door is opened in low ambient light at night, so that people getting on and off the car can pay attention to the ground condition and will not accidentally step on dirt, puddles, or other dangerous terrain on the ground.

The principle of the conventional welcome lamp is to use the deviation between the optical axis of the projection lens group and the optical axis of the image source to make the projected image sources overlap. However, the conventional welcome lamp cannot be further reduced in size because the deviation between the optical axis of the projection lens group and the optical axis of the image source must be considered. If the number of image sources is to be further increased, the number of projection lenses must be increased accordingly, which not only increases the size of the lamp, but also increases the manufacturing cost.

Summary of the invention

A specific embodiment of the present invention provides a welcome lamp, the volume of which can be further reduced and the cost is relatively low.

A welcome light according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises at least two image sources, a lens array and a focusing lens. The lens array comprises at least two lenses, both of which have positive refractive power, and the two lenses are respectively arranged downstream of the optical paths of the two image sources. The focusing lens is also arranged downstream of the optical paths of the two lenses, wherein the optical paths of the two image sources before the focusing lens are independent of each other, and the images of the two image sources can substantially overlap in the optical path downstream of the focusing lens, so that the substantially overlapping images can be observed by the user.

A welcome light according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises at least two optical element groups and a lens disposed outside the optical element groups. Each optical element group comprises an image source and a lens, and the lens in the optical element group is disposed downstream of the optical path of the image source. The lens disposed outside the optical element group has positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical paths of the two optical element groups. The lenses in the two optical element groups are the same element and are in the form of a single element. The images of the two optical element groups have substantially the same imaging position through the lens disposed outside the optical element group, so as to form overlapping images that can be observed by the user.

The welcome light of one embodiment of the present invention comprises at least two image sources, a lens array and a focusing lens. The lens array comprises two lenses with positive refractive power, and the two lenses are respectively arranged downstream of the optical path of the corresponding image source. The focusing lens is arranged downstream of the optical path of each of the aforementioned lenses. In addition, the optical path of each image source before the focusing lens is independent of each other, and each image source has a center point. After the center points of each image source are imaged by the focusing lens, the distance at the imaging position is less than 5 mm, so that overlapping images that can be observed by the user can be formed.

Based on the above, the welcome lamp in one embodiment of the present invention adopts a lens array, so that the image source can substantially overlap the optical path downstream of the focusing lens, so that the welcome lamp of the present invention has the advantage of being small in size. In addition, since the welcome lamp in one embodiment of the present invention adopts a lens array, it is not necessary to use a lens whose optical axis deviates from the image source, so the volume of the welcome lamp is small, and as the number of image sources increases, the overall volume will not increase, and the cost can be further reduced.

The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of the present invention. In order to more clearly understand the technical means of the present invention, it can be implemented in accordance with the contents of the specification. In order to make the above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the following specifically cites a preferred embodiment and describes it in detail with the accompanying drawings as follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a welcome light according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a welcome light according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a plane where an image source is located relative to a lens array in one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

However, in order to emphasize the features, FIGS. 1 and 2 of the present invention are not drawn to scale, and the scale of FIG. 3 is adjusted relative to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a welcome light according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, in the present embodiment, the welcome light 100 includes an image source 111, an image source 121, a lens array 130, a focusing lens group 140, and a controller 160.

In this example, the image source 111 (which may be referred to as the first image source) and the image source 121 (which may be referred to as the second image source) are respectively a combination of a device or element that can provide an image beam. The image source 111 and the image source 121 may include a backlight source and a fixed image light valve, respectively. The backlight source provides an illumination beam, and the backlight source may be a packaged light emitting diode light module, a packaged laser light module, or a device or element that can output illumination light, such as a fluorescent lamp or an electrothermal light emitting element (lamp). In this example, the backlight source includes a packaged light emitting diode module. The fixed image light valve is a device or element that can convert illumination light into an image light including a fixed and unchangeable pattern. The fixed image light valve may be, for example, a black and white, monochrome or color slide, negative film, or a sheet material (such as a metal or plastic plate, etc.) having a light-transmitting portion (such as a hole) of a specific shape. The process of converting illumination light into image light by the fixed image light valve does not consume power. In this example, the fixed image light valve is a slide, which is a transparent film carrying a specific pattern. When light passes through the specific pattern, it will be partially absorbed, blocked or reflected, and some light will be allowed to pass through to form the pattern. In addition to the above-mentioned design, the image source 111 and the image source 121 can also be active image light output devices, such as an organic light emitting diode screen composed of multiple light-emitting pixels, but the present invention is not limited to this.

The lens array 130 in this embodiment is provided with a lens 131 (which may be referred to as a first lens) and a lens 133 (which may be referred to as a second lens). The lens array 130 may be a single element, and the single element includes a plurality of refractive surfaces arranged in an array. That is, the lens array 130 may be integrally formed, and may be a single element made of the same material and in a single element form (One piece formed).

For example, the lens array 130 in the present embodiment is an array lens, such as a fly-eye lens. At this time, lens 131 and lens 133 refer to each sub-lens unit (Cell) on the array lens including the light entrance and exit surfaces. For example, the aforementioned fly-eye lenses are arranged in an n*m matrix, and either n or m can be 1 or more, and the other is 2 or more. That is, when the lens array is a fly-eye lens, it can be arranged in a manner of 1 row and 2 columns, 2 rows and 1 column, or 2 rows and 2 columns. In addition, the surfaces of the light entrance and exit directions of the fly-eye lens can be respectively provided with refractive surfaces; or, only one of the light entrance direction surface or the light exit direction surface has a refractive structure and the other is a flat surface. Furthermore, in another embodiment, the lens 131 and the lens 133 may each be a cylindrical lens or a barrel lens, a concave lens, a convex lens, or a spherical or aspherical lens such as a hyperbolic lens having different curvature radii along the radial direction perpendicular to the optical axis. The lenses 131 and the lenses 133 in the above examples each have positive refractive power. In addition, the positive and negative values of the refractive power of the lens 131 and the lens 133 may be the same or different, and in this example, the refractive power values and positive and negative values of the lens 131 and the lens 133 are the same.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the lens 131 and the lens 133 may also be two separate lenses. The lens 131 and the lens 133 are two lenses and may be embedded in a fixed frame for fixation, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the lens 131 and the lens 133 may also be fixed in other ways.

The focusing lens group 140 in this embodiment may include one or more optical elements, such as lenses, prisms, reflectors, etc., all of which are examples. In this example, the focusing lens group 140 includes only one focusing lens with positive refractive power and has positive refractive power, that is, it has the ability to converge light. In another embodiment, the focusing lens group 140 may also include multiple lenses or optical elements without refractive power, such as flat glass, etc., and the refractive power of each lens included may be positive or negative, but the sum of their refractive powers is recommended to be positive.

The controller 160 in this embodiment may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a programmable controller, a programmable logic device (PLD), other similar devices or a combination of these devices, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In addition, in one embodiment, each function executed by the controller 160 may be implemented by a plurality of program codes, which are stored in a memory, so that the program codes can be executed by the controller 160. Alternatively, in one embodiment, each function implemented by the controller 160 may be executed by one or more circuits, but the present invention does not limit whether each function executed by the controller 160 is implemented by software or hardware.

In addition, the lens 131 has positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the image source 111, and the lens 133 has positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the image source 121. The focusing lens group 140 is disposed downstream of the optical paths of the lenses 131 and 133, wherein the optical paths of the image source 111 and the image source 121 before the focusing lens group 140 are independent of each other, and the image of the image source 111 and the image of the image source 121 substantially overlap in the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140.

Therefore, in terms of optical path design, the light 112 emitted by the image source 111 first passes through the lens 131, and then passes through the focusing lens group 140 to be imaged at a position P1 downstream of the optical path of the focusing lens group 140, and the light 122 emitted by the image source 121 first passes through the lens 133, and then passes through the focusing lens group 140 to be imaged at a position P2 downstream of the optical path of the focusing lens group 140, wherein the optical paths of the image source 111 and the image source 121 before the focusing lens group 140 are independent of each other, and the image of the image source 111 and the image of the image source 121 substantially overlap at the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140.

It is worth mentioning that light is transmitted from the upstream to the downstream of the optical path. Therefore, the downstream of the optical path of a component can be understood as the portion of the optical path after the light passes through the component. For example, the downstream of the optical path of the image source 111 is the optical path after the light is emitted from the image source 111. For example, the lens 131 is located downstream of the optical path of the image source 111, and the lens 140 is located downstream of the optical path of the lens 131, and so on.

Furthermore, the image of the image source 111 and the image of the image source 121 are substantially overlapped in the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140. Specifically, in terms of geometric optical design, it means that the distance between the imaging position P1 and the imaging position P2 after the center C1 of the image source 111 and the center C2 of the image source 121 are imaged by the focusing lens group 140 is less than 1 cm, the effect is acceptable, less than 5 mm is better, less than 1 mm is better, and less than 0.5 mm is the best. In this embodiment, the welcome lamp 100 can be further designed as follows: the center C1 of the image source 111 is located on the optical axis of the lens 131, and the center C2 of the image source 121 is located on the optical axis of the lens 133.

In this example, the actual design of the aforementioned components can be seen in Table 1 below.

Table 1

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a plane where an image source is located relative to a lens array in an embodiment. FIG3 is drawn according to the actual scale of the product using the structure of FIG1. The detailed parameters can be referred to Table 1. Please refer to FIG1, FIG3 and Table 1 at the same time. For example, the image source 111 and the image source 121 of this embodiment are surface 1, the light incident surface of the lens 131 (or the sub-lens surface 232a of FIG3) is surface 2, the light exit surface of the lens 131 (or the sub-lens surface 234a of FIG3) is surface 3, the light incident surface of the focusing lens group 140 is surface 4, and the light exit surface of the focusing lens group 140 is surface 5, wherein the thickness of a surface is the distance between the surface and the next surface on the optical path. In this example, surface 1 and surface 2 are in contact, so the thickness of surface 1 is 0, and surface 1 is the image source, so the radius of curvature of surface 1 is infinite; in addition, the thickness of surface 2 in optical design is 10.00 mm, the radius of curvature is 3.75 mm, the refractive index is 1.53, and the Abbe number is 56.28; the thickness of surface 3 is 0.20 mm, the radius of curvature is -3.75 mm; the thickness of surface 4 in optical design is 2.15 mm, the radius of curvature is 6.00 mm, the refractive index is 1.53, and the Abbe number is 56.28; and the thickness of surface 5 is 1000.00 mm (i.e., the distance between the focusing and imaging surfaces in the focusing lens group 140) and the radius of curvature is 6.13 mm.

From another perspective, referring to FIG. 1 again, the welcome lamp 100 in this embodiment includes an optical element group 110 (which may be referred to as a first optical element group), an optical element group 120 (which may be referred to as a second optical element group), and a lens 150 .

The optical element set 110 includes an image source 111 (also called a first image source) and a lens 131 (also called a first lens). The optical element set 120 includes an image source 121 (also called a second image source) and a lens 133 (also called a second lens).

The lens 150 in this embodiment can be an optical element with positive refractive power, such as a lens, a prism, etc. In this example, the lens 150 is a lens with positive refractive power.

In addition, the lens 131 is disposed downstream of the optical path of the image source 111. The lens 133 is disposed downstream of the optical path of the image source 121. The lens 150 is disposed downstream of the optical paths of both the optical element group 110 and the optical element group 120. The optical element group 110 and the optical element group 120 have substantially the same imaging position through the lens 150. As described above, the optical element group 110 and the optical element group 120 have substantially the same imaging position through the lens 150. Specifically, in terms of geometric optical design, when the distance between the imaging position P1 and the imaging position P2 after the center C1 of the image source 111 of the optical element group 110 and the center C2 of the image source 121 of the optical element group 120 are imaged through the lens 150 is less than 2 centimeters (cm), the effect is acceptable; when it is less than 5 millimeters (mm), the effect is good; when it is less than 1 millimeter (mm), the effect is even better. In this example, the welcome lamp 100 may be further designed as follows: the center C1 of the image source 111 is located on the optical axis of the lens 131 , and the center C2 of the image source 121 is located on the optical axis of the lens 133 .

In addition, the controller 160 of the welcome lamp 100 in the above-mentioned related embodiment is electrically connected to the image source 111 and the image source 121, and is used to control one of the image source 111 and the image source 121 to emit light, or to control the image source 111 and the image source 121 to emit light at the same time. The pattern of the image source 111 is the same as or different from the pattern of the image source 121. When the pattern of the image source 111 is the same as the pattern of the image source 121, the purpose of this design is to increase the brightness of the image source, or to project two different brightnesses according to the environmental conditions. When the pattern of the image source 111 is different from the pattern of the image source 121, the controller 160 can control the image source 111 and the image source 121 to emit light at the same time or one of them to emit light (that is, the image source 111 emits light while the image source 121 does not emit light, or the image source 121 emits light while the image source 111 does not emit light). Therefore, the welcome lamp 100 can project three different patterns through the controller 160.

In order to improve the quality of the image source after projection and minimize the size of the welcome lamp, the image source 111 is in contact with the lens 131, and the image source 121 is in contact with the lens 133. The definition of the image source in contact with the lens is that no other optical element with diopter is set between the image source and the lens. In this example, the fixed image light valve of the image source 111 is in contact with the lens 131.

Based on the above, since the welcome lamp 100 of an embodiment of the present invention adopts a lens array, the image source can be substantially overlapped with the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140, so that the welcome lamp 100 of the present invention has the advantage of being small in size. In addition, since the welcome lamp 100 of the embodiment of the present invention adopts the lens array 130, it is not necessary to use a lens whose optical axis deviates from the image source, so the volume of the welcome lamp is small, and as the number of image sources increases, the overall volume will not increase, and the cost can be further reduced.

However, the present invention does not limit the number of lens arrays of the welcome light of the above-mentioned related embodiments. Therefore, in another example of the present invention, the welcome light can be reconfigured with lens arrays according to the needs of the optical path. Moreover, in another example of the present invention, the welcome light can also be provided with multiple image sources (for example, FIG. 2 shows multiple image sources) according to design requirements, and multiple lenses are correspondingly provided on the lens array, so that the image sources can pass through the focusing lens and substantially overlap on the optical path downstream of the focusing lens. In addition, the present invention does not limit the number of focusing lenses, or the focusing lens can also be a lens group. Therefore, the focusing lens can include multiple lenses with different refractive powers, as long as the focusing lens has a positive refractive power as a whole.

Specifically, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a welcome light according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 2, in another embodiment of the present invention, the lens array 130 of the welcome light 200 includes an array lens 270 and an array lens 280, each of which has a surface 271 (which may be referred to as a first surface) and a surface 281 (which may be referred to as a second surface).

The surface 271 includes a plurality of sub-lens surfaces 232 (which may be referred to as a plurality of first sub-lens surfaces), and the surface 281 includes a plurality of sub-lens surfaces 234 (which may be referred to as a plurality of second sub-lens surfaces). The surface 271 and the surface 281 illustrated in FIG. 2 are surfaces of the array lens 270 and the array lens 280, respectively. The array lens 270 and the array lens 280 are both in the form of a single element, and the array lens 270 and the array lens 280 are separated from each other and not connected, and are respectively two fly-eye lenses. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the array lens 270 and the array lens 280 may also be replaced by an array lens in the form of a single element as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 .

In addition, in this example, the array lens 270 and the array lens 280 can be respectively formed of a single element, and can also be selectively formed of a plurality of sub-lenses. For example, the array lens 280 can include a plurality of independent sub-lenses, and the array lens 270 can be a single element, or vice versa. When the array lens 280 includes a plurality of independent sub-lenses, these separate sub-lenses can be embedded in a plastic frame. In addition, please refer to Figure 2 again. It can be seen that the surface 281 is arranged between the surface 271 and the focusing lens group 140, wherein a sub-lens surface 232a and a sub-lens surface 234a corresponding to the downstream of the light path of the image source 111 are two refractive surfaces of the lens 131, and a sub-lens surface 232b and a sub-lens surface 234b corresponding to the downstream of the light path of the image source 121 are two refractive surfaces of the lens 133, and the sub-lens surface 234a forming the lens 131 is arranged at the focus of the sub-lens surface 232a forming the lens 131, and the sub-lens surface 234b forming the lens 133 is arranged at the focus of the sub-lens surface 232b forming the lens 133.

In the optical path design, for example, the optical paths of the image source 111 and the image source 121. The light 112 emitted by the image source 111 passes through the sub-lens surface 232a, the sub-lens surface 234a, and the focusing lens group 140 in sequence to form an image on the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140, and the light 122 emitted by the image source 121 passes through the sub-lens surface 232b, the sub-lens surface 234b, and the focusing lens group 140 in sequence to form an image on the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140, wherein the optical paths of the image source 111 and the image source 121 before the focusing lens group 140 are independent of each other, and the image of the image source 111 and the image of the image source 121 substantially overlap on the optical path downstream of the focusing lens group 140.

Similarly, the welcome lamp 200 in this embodiment can be electrically connected to multiple image sources via the controller 160 as shown in FIG. 1 to control at least one of the multiple image sources to emit light. The patterns of the multiple image sources are the same, or the pattern of at least one of the image sources is different from the patterns of the other image sources. Therefore, the welcome lamp 200 in this example can control the multiple image sources to emit light at the same time or at least one of them to emit light via the controller, so the welcome lamp 200 can project a combination of multiple different patterns via the controller, and can use the projection of the same pattern to produce different brightness changes.

It is worth mentioning that the image sources shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are centered toward the light emitting direction. However, specifically, the center of the image source should be oriented toward the transmission direction of the light path, for example, FIG. 3 , which simply illustrates the image sources 111 and 121 relative to the sub-lens surface 232 , the sub-lens surface 234 and the focusing lens group 140 , wherein the centers of the image sources 111 and 121 are oriented toward the transmission direction of the light path.

In summary, the welcome light of the embodiment of the present invention adopts a lens array, so that the image source can substantially overlap with the optical path downstream of the focusing lens after passing through the lens array, and the lens array is in the form of a single element or embedded in a plastic frame, so that the welcome light of the present invention has the advantage of being small in size. In addition, since the welcome light of the embodiment of the present invention adopts a lens array, it is not necessary to use a lens whose optical axis deviates from the image source, so the volume of the welcome light is small, and as the number of image sources increases, the overall volume will not increase, and the cost can be further reduced. In addition, the welcome light of the embodiment of the present invention can project a combination of multiple different patterns through a controller, and different brightness changes can be generated by projecting the same pattern.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and does not limit the present invention in any form. Although the present invention has been disclosed as a preferred embodiment as above, it is not used to limit the present invention. Any technician familiar with this profession can make some changes or modifications to equivalent embodiments of equivalent changes by using the methods and technical contents disclosed above without departing from the scope of the technical solution of the present invention. However, any simple modification, equivalent change and modification made to the above embodiments according to the technical essence of the present invention without departing from the content of the technical solution of the present invention still falls within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A welcome light, comprising: The first image source; Second image source; A lens array including a first lens and a second lens, wherein the first lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the first image source, and the second lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the second image source; and A focusing lens is disposed downstream of the optical paths of the first lens and the second lens, wherein the optical paths of the first image source and the second image source in front of the focusing lens are independent of each other, and the image of the first image source and the image of the second image source can substantially overlap downstream of the optical path of the focusing lens, so that the substantially overlapping images can be observed by a user. 2. A welcome light, comprising: The first optical element group includes: a first image source; and A first lens is disposed downstream of the optical path of the first image source; The second optical element group includes: a second image source; and A second lens is disposed downstream of the optical path of the second image source; and A lens having positive refractive power, the lens being disposed downstream of the optical paths of the first optical element group and the second optical element group; The first lens and the second lens are in the form of a single element, and the image of the first optical element group and the image of the second optical element group have substantially the same imaging position through the lens, so as to form an overlapping image that can be observed by a user. 3. A welcome light, characterized by comprising: The first image source; Second image source; A lens array including a first lens and a second lens, wherein the first lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the first image source, and the second lens has a positive refractive power and is disposed downstream of the optical path of the second image source; and A focusing lens is disposed downstream of the optical paths of the first lens and the second lens, wherein the optical paths of the first image source and the second image source before the focusing lens are independent of each other, and the distance between the imaging positions of the center of the first image source and the center of the second image source after imaging by the focusing lens is less than 5 mm, so that overlapping images observable by a user can be formed. 4 . The welcome lamp according to claim 1 , 2 or 3 , wherein the first image source is in contact with the first lens, and the second image source is in contact with the second lens. 5 . The welcome lamp according to claim 1 , 2 or 3 , wherein the first image source and the second image source are slides with backlight sources. 6 . The welcome lamp according to claim 1 , wherein the first lens and the second lens are independent components and are embedded in a fixed frame. 7. The welcome lamp according to claim 1 or 3, characterized in that the first lens and the second lens are in the form of a single element. 8. The welcome lamp according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the center of the first image source is located on the optical axis of the first lens, and the center of the second image source is located on the optical axis of the second lens. 9. The welcome lamp according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the lens array comprises: A first surface including a plurality of first sub-lens surfaces; and The second surface includes multiple second sub-lens surfaces, and the second surface is arranged between the first surface and the focusing lens, wherein the first sub-lens surface and the second sub-lens surface corresponding to the downstream of the optical path of the first image source are two refractive surfaces of the first lens, and the first sub-lens surface and the second sub-lens surface corresponding to the downstream of the optical path of the second image source are two refractive surfaces of the second lens, and the second sub-lens surface forming the first lens is arranged at the focus of the first sub-lens surface forming the first lens, and the second sub-lens surface forming the second lens is arranged at the focus of the first sub-lens surface forming the second lens. 10. A welcome light as described in claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the welcome light also includes a controller, which is electrically connected to the first image source and the second image source, and is used to control one of the first image source and the second image source to emit light, or to control the first image source and the second image source to emit light at the same time, wherein the pattern of the first image source is the same as or different from the pattern of the second image source.