Patent ID: 9574735
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: F21V,F21Y,G02B

Claim:
1. A luminaire comprising a light source and a shell integrator that surrounds said light source, wherein: the shell integrator is configured to transform light output from said light source into a virtual image proximate to said light source; the shell integrator comprises a dome made of a transparent material with inner and outer refractive surfaces, where there is a space between said inner surface and said light source; said inner and outer surfaces are formed as arrays of lenslets convex away from the transparent material of the dome, where each convex lenslet in the array on said inner surface is paired with an associated convex lenslet of said array on said outer surface; edges of said array of convex lenslets on both said inner and outer surfaces are formed onto said transparent material as polygonal tessellations forming common edges and vertices between lenslet neighbors, thereby substantially covering said dome without gaps; each lenslet of the inner surface is configured so as to image the light source onto a respective associated lenslet of the outer surface; each lenslet of the outer surface is configured so as to image the respective associated lenslet of the inner surface as a virtual sub-image having an apparent position at the position of the light source and forming part of said virtual image proximate to the light source; and each lenslet of the inner surface is configured so as to image the light source onto substantially the whole of the respective associated lenslet of the outer surface.