Lighting system with combined directly viewable luminous or transmissive surface and controlled area illumination
First Claim
1. A lighting system comprising:
- a. a supporting structure or fixture adapted for placement at a lighting location;
b. a first light source creating a visible but relatively low level of luminance; and
c. a second light source or sources and an optic system or systems adapted to provide directed task light at or around the lighting location;
d. so that the luminance related to the first light source provides a perceived but relatively low level to observers, and luminance related to the second light source(s) provides directed and relatively low level of illumination on a target area, together presenting a traditional-looking light source but allowing much less light to be used for effective illumination of the target area while deterring glare, up-light and spill light.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus, system and method for lighting an area, for example, an outdoors pedestrian area or building facade or an auto traffic area, or an indoor large area, which provides indicator/guide light, reference light for structures, and task lighting for a target area. The method uses first lighting sources that are directly viewable by observers and which can be historical, architectural, or aesthetically selected sources, but which produce a relatively low level of light or luminance insufficient to effectively light the area but sufficient to act as an indicator or guide, as well as to provide reference illumination on buildings or structures. Second lighting sources are configured to produce directional light to light the area but hide the light sources from most conventional observer viewing angles and may be enclosed within the general outlines of the globe or transmissive surface area of the fixture. Additionally, the fixture may appear to the average observer that the two sources are one historic or architectural source. Use of low-level directly viewable sources allows lower levels of light from the second sources to effectively light the area. This produces benefits regarding light pollution, such as reducing sky glow, glare, and spill light, as well as reducing energy usage.
51 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A lighting system comprising:
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a. a supporting structure or fixture adapted for placement at a lighting location; b. a first light source creating a visible but relatively low level of luminance; and c. a second light source or sources and an optic system or systems adapted to provide directed task light at or around the lighting location; d. so that the luminance related to the first light source provides a perceived but relatively low level to observers, and luminance related to the second light source(s) provides directed and relatively low level of illumination on a target area, together presenting a traditional-looking light source but allowing much less light to be used for effective illumination of the target area while deterring glare, up-light and spill light. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17)
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15. A method of lighting an outdoors area comprising:
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a. generating a relatively low level, multi-directional reference luminance directly viewable by observers at and around the area; b. illuminating one or more specific targets at the area with directional lighting comprising a full cutoff optic system that is shielded from direct view by most observers in defined viewing areas; c. wherein the reference luminance is an effective amount to condition observers'"'"' eyes to a low level of luminance and produce the appearance that it is causing illumination of the area, but is small enough that it does not contribute significantly to sky glow, glare, or spill light;
nor to relative bright adaptation of the viewing eye when compared to the luminance from the area intended to be observed provided by the illumination from the directional lighting; and
the luminance from the target area provided by the directional lighting is an effective amount to provide observers with visual recognition of the targets, but low enough and directional enough that it does not contribute significantly to sky glow, glare, or spill light. - View Dependent Claims (16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of lighting an area comprising:
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a. creating luminance which can be directly viewed by observers at and around the area;
said luminance comprising a reference level of light to condition the observers'"'"' eyes to a low level of light wherein the light source creating the luminance is relatively low power;b. creating illumination of targets in the area with one or more light sources that are relatively low power in comparison with existing art and directive optic systems to block the light sources from direct view by the eyes of observers in defined areas of observation, but provide a designated amount of illumination to the targets that may be, but is not limited to being, relatively low in comparison to existing fixtures; c. wherein the low power light source for creating luminance by way of a luminous surface/transmissive surface/visible lamp is selected to minimize or decrease energy usage, sky glow, glare, or spill light relative to conventional fixtures as well as to condition observers'"'"' eyes, and the low power light source and directive optic system for illumination of targets is selected to minimize energy usage, sky glow, glare, or spill light. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of providing aesthetic area lighting with less sky glow, glare and spill light comprising:
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a. positioning a plurality of aesthetically-selected lighting fixtures at spaced-apart locations around the area to be lighted; b. illuminating in each lighting fixture a directly viewable first light source with a relatively low power to provide a low level reference level of light for observers at or near the area; c. illuminating predetermined targets within the area with light sources that are not directly viewable by the eyes of observers in defined areas of observation in or around the area; d. so that i. the lighting is aesthetically pleasing; ii. the low reference level of light allows 1. a lower amount of light to adequately illuminate the targets; 2. less sky glow; 3. less glare; and
/or4. less spill light. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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33. A method of lighting an area comprising:
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a. placing a plurality of aesthetic, historical, or architectural fixtures around the area; b. each fixture; i. producing a relatively low, multi-directional reference luminance directly viewable by persons in and around the area and which does not produce human visual photo-responsive adaptation to persons in or around the area ii. producing a relatively low, directional task lighting illumination which creates luminance from the target area, and which illumination is not directly viewable from most viewing angles by the persons in or around the area; iii. so that 1. the fixtures provide both daytime or night-time visual guidance/demarcation of the area, and 2. the reference luminance provides ancillary illumination of the area at levels that accommodate dark sky regulations; iv. the ratio of multi-directional luminance to luminance from the target area, perceived by most persons at or near the area deters triggering of visual photo-responsive adaptation response of the eyes of the persons such that the target area is obscured relative to the reference luminance. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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35. A method of lighting an area comprising:
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a. providing directly viewable surface luminance; b. providing directional, non-directly viewable task lighting illumination which produces viewable reflected task luminance; c. the ratio between the highest luminance of the directly viewable luminance and the lowest luminance from the task illumination being within the adaptivity range of the human eye for the particular lighting application and environment, wherein the ratio as measured in lux is on the order of 20;
1 or 10;
1 for lower light or nighttime conditions and on the order of 6;
1 or 5;
1 for very low light conditions approaching lowest level of eye sensitivity. - View Dependent Claims (36)
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37. A method of lighting comprising:
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a. creating primary reference luminance and secondary luminance from a target area characterized by; b. an effective scene brightness ratio between the secondary luminance and primary luminance which is less than the typical scene adaptive range of a human eye, wherein the ratio as measured in lux is on the order of 20;
1 or 10;
1 for lower light or nighttime conditions and on the order of 6;
1 or 5;
1 for very low light conditions approaching lowest level of eye sensitivity. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method for lighting in an area adapted for viewing or traversing by people comprising:
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a. providing a non-point light source at or near the area; b. providing task lighting generally at or near the non-point light source; c. producing with the non-point light source and task lighting a scene brightness ratio that is less than the typical scene adaptive range of a human eye; d. wherein the non-point is directly viewable from most viewing angles but a source of the task lighting is not. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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Specification