Viewing Instrument For A Toy Gun

• US 20180104613A1
• Filed: 10/13/2016
• Published: 04/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bradley S. Faecher
• Original Assignee: Bradley S. Faecher
• Inventors: Faecher, Bradley S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,213,703 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/22 Optical, colour, or shadow toys puzzles with optical elements A63F9/0613; kaleidoscopes G02B27/08
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/30 Imitations of miscellaneous apparatus not otherwise provided for, e.g. telephones, weighing-machines, cash-registers savings boxes A45C1/12; toy ticket punches G07B9/02
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 5/04 Pistols or machine guns operated without detonators; Crackers cracker bonbons A63H37/00
• CPC Class Codes: F41B 11/89 for toys
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 1/345 for illuminating the sights
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 1/46 for particular applications

Abstract

A viewing instrument has an optical module having a first light pathway for conveying visible light reflected from an object to an eye of a user viewing the object; a thermal radiation detecting module having a thermal radiation detector adapted to detect thermal radiation emitted from the object being viewed to thereby generate one or more signals; an aiming module having at least one visible light-emitting member electrically connected with the thermal radiation detecting module, wherein the aiming module is adapted to receive the one or more generated signals from the thermal radiation detecting module, and in response to the received one or more signals, project a visible mark along the first light pathway to the eye of the user. The invention also provides a toy gun having the viewing instrument as described above.

Claims

1. A viewing instrument, comprising:

an optical module having a first light pathway for conveying visible light reflected from an object to an eye of a user viewing the object;

a thermal radiation detecting module having a thermal radiation detector adapted to detect thermal radiation emitted from the object being viewed to thereby generate one or more signals;

an aiming module having at least one visible light-emitting member electrically connected with the thermal radiation detecting module;

wherein the aiming module is adapted to receive the one or more generated signals from the thermal radiation detecting module, and in response to the received one or more signals, project a visible mark along the first light pathway to the eye of the user.

2. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the at least one visible light emitting member of the aiming module is adapted to emit light of one or more colors in response to the one or more generated signals received from the thermal radiation detecting module, such that the projected visible mark comprises the one or more colors.

3. The viewing instrument according to claim 2, wherein the at least one visible light emitting member of the aiming module is adapted to emit light with a change of color from at least a first color to at least a second color in response to a change of the generated signals received from the thermal radiation detecting module, such that color of the projected visible mark is changed from at least the first color to at least the second color.

4. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the thermal radiation detecting module comprises at least a first lens member adapted to focus the thermal radiation emitted from the object being viewed to the thermal radiation detector.

5. The viewing instrument according to claim 4, wherein the first lens member comprises a fresnel lens.

6. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the thermal radiation detector detects thermal infrared radiation being emitted from the object being viewed.

7. The viewing instrument according to claim 2, wherein the at least one visible light-emitting member comprises one or more light-emitting diodes adapted to emit light of one or more colors.

8. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the optical module comprises a lens for focusing visible light reflected from the object onto an eyepiece arranged at an end of the first light pathway.

9. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the aiming module comprises a reflecting member for reflecting the projected visible mark along the first light pathway to the eye of the user.

10. The viewing instrument according to claim 8, wherein a rear surface of the lens is arranged to reflect the projected visible mark along the first light pathway to the eye of the user.

11. The viewing instrument of claim 10, wherein the rear surface of the lens is provided with a reflective film whereby said reflective film does not substantially reduce the light transmission quality of the lens for visible light impinging on a front surface of the lens and passing through said lens along the first light pathway.

12. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a light sensor arranged at an exterior of the instrument for detecting ambient light intensity, the light sensor being adapted to electrically connect with the thermal radiation detector.

13. The viewing instrument according to claim 12, wherein a signal from the ambient light sensor is utilised by a controller to control operation of the thermal radiation detector.

14. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a first inlet at the optical module arranged at the first light pathway adapted to receive the visible light reflected from the object.

15. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a second inlet at the thermal radiation detecting module adapted to receive the thermal radiation emitted from the object.

16. The viewing instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a mount for mounting the instrument at a substrate.

17. A toy gun comprising the viewing instrument according to claim 1.

18. The toy gun according to claim 17, wherein the viewing instrument is releasably mountable on the toy gun.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to control operation of:

an optical module having a first light pathway for conveying visible light reflected from an object to an eye of a user viewing the object;

a thermal radiation detecting module having a thermal radiation detector adapted to detect thermal radiation emitted from the object being viewed to thereby generate one or more signals; and

an aiming module having at least one visible light-emitting member electrically connected with the thermal radiation detecting module;

the processor being configured to control reception by the aiming module of one or more generated signals from the thermal radiation detecting module, and in response to the received one or more signals, control the aiming module to project a visible mark along the first light pathway to the eye of the user.