Automated, illuminated address display and entrance light

An automated, illuminated address display and entrance light for mounting on the exterior of and near the entrance of a building to enable a visitor during periods of darkness to locate and have the entrance to the building illuminated upon the visitor's approach to the building is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, it comprises: (1) a housing having an interior panel that separates the housing into a front and a rear compartment, with the housing having transparent top, bottom and front surfaces, (2) a first hinge that allows the interior panel to be folded forward to allow access to the rear compartment behind the panel, (3) a second hinge that allows the front surface to be folded outwardly thereby providing room so that the interior panel can be folded forward, (4) a first light source mounted in the rear compartment to provide light that passes through the transparent top and bottom surfaces to illuminate the area around the housing, (5) a second light source mounted to the front surface of the interior panel for illuminating the housing front surface, (6) an electrical control circuit for turning on and off these lights, and (7) address indicia on the housing's transparent front surface.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention generally relates to illumination devices. More 
particularly, this invention relates to devices for illuminating a house 
address display, which is mounted near the house's entrance, so as to 
facilitate the display's observation from the adjoining street, while also 
automatically illuminating the area around the house's entrance in 
response to detecting the motion of someone approaching the house's 
entrance. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
Identifying houses by their street number or other identification and 
illuminating the entrances to houses during night-time hours have been 
long-standing problems. House numbers and the like are generally attached 
on or in the vicinity of the front door of a house, but few of these 
numbers are illuminated so as to facilitate their observation at night. 
Meanwhile, houses often have entrance lights near their front doors, but 
these lights frequently are not illuminated at night when one approaches 
such front doors. 
Many U.S. patents have been directed to providing devices for illuminating 
house-identifying information. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,590,507, 
4,009,535, 4,254,457, 4,373,284, 4,611,265, 4,807,378, 4,848,017, 
4,854,062, 4,901,461, 4,951,406, 5,048,210, 5,305,979, 5,408,733 and 
5,649,378. However, none of these disclose a device capable of 
automatically illuminating both house-identifying information and the area 
in the vicinity of where this information is mounted. 
Despite this prior art, the need exists for an improved means for 
illuminating a house address display which is mounted near the house's 
entrance so as to facilitate the display's observation from the street, 
while also automatically illuminating the area around the house's entrance 
in response to detecting the motion of someone approaching the house's 
entrance. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is generally directed to satisfy the needs set forth 
above and the problems identified in the prior art. The problem of 
automatically illuminating both house-identifying information and the area 
in the vicinity of where this information is mounted is resolved by the 
present invention. 
In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the 
foregoing need can be satisfied by providing an automated, illuminated 
address display and entrance light comprising: 
a housing having an interior panel that separates the housing into a front 
and a rear compartment, said housing having transparent top, bottom and 
front surfaces, 
a panel hinge attached respectively to an edge of said interior panel and 
an edge chosen from the group consisting of said housing bottom and top 
surfaces so as to allow said panel to be folded forward to allow access to 
the rear compartment behind the panel, 
a front surface hinge attached respectively to an edge of said front 
surface and an edge chosen from the group consisting of said housing 
bottom and top surfaces so as to allow said front surface to be folded 
outwardly thereby providing room so that said interior panel can be folded 
forward, 
a first light source mounted in said rear compartment to provide light that 
passes through the transparent top and bottom surfaces to illuminate the 
area around the housing, 
a second light source mounted to the front surface of said interior panel 
for illuminating said housing front surface, 
an electrical control circuit for turning on and off said first and second 
lights, and 
address indicia on said housing transparent front surface. 
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention further includes the 
control circuit having a motion detector switch, connected to the first 
light source and for automatically turning on the first light source when 
there is motion in the region scanned by the motion detector, and a photo 
cell switch, connected to the second light source for automatically 
turning on the second light source in response to darkness created by the 
sun's setting and turning off the second light source in response to a 
general level of illumination associated with the sun's rising. 
This new and improved, automated, illuminated address display and entrance 
light is seen to achieve its object of automatically illuminating both 
house-identifying information and the area in the vicinity of where this 
information is mounted. 
Other objects and advantages of this invention will become readily apparent 
as the invention is better understood by reference to the accompanying 
drawings and the detailed description that follows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawings wherein are shown preferred embodiments and 
wherein like reference numerals designate like elements throughout, there 
is shown in FIG. 1 an exterior perspective view showing one embodiment of 
the present invention for mounting on the exterior of and near the 
entrance of a building to enable a visitor during periods of darkness to 
locate and have the entrance to the building illuminated upon the 
visitor's approach to the building. 
As shown in FIG. 1, the automated, illuminated address display and entrance 
light 1 comprises a rectangular housing 10 have a transparent top 11, 
bottom 12 and front 13 surfaces, address indicia 14 on the transparent 
front surface 13, a motion detector switch 15 for automatically turning 
on/off a first light source 16 that shines through the transparent top 11 
and bottom 12 surfaces to illuminate the area around a building's 
entrance, and a photo cell switch 17 for automatically turning on/off a 
second light source 18 that illuminates the transparent front surface 13 
after dark so that the building's address indicia may be seen and read. 
FIG. 2 is a side view taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1 showing the interior 
of the housing 10 in full lines with the front surface 13, that is 
connected to the top surface 11 by a front surface hinge 19, opened upward 
so as to allow an interior panel 20, that is connected to the interior of 
the bottom surface 12 by a panel hinge 21, to be extended forward in order 
to allow access to a first light source 16 that is mounted in the interior 
rear compartment area of the housing. On the interior panel is mounted a 
second light source 18 that illuminates the transparent front surface 13. 
Also shown in FIG. 2 by dashed lines is the position of the interior panel 
20 in its closed position. 
FIG. 3A to FIG. 3D are views of a preferred embodiment for the housing of 
the present invention. 
In a preferred embodiment, the front surface of the interior panel 20 is 
made of a reflective material so as to reflect as much light as possible 
towards the transparent front surface 13. 
In another preferred embodiment, the front surface 13 is detachably mounted 
to the remainder of the housing. Such a mounting can be achieved in many 
ways, including the use of providing the edges of the top and bottom 
surfaces with a number of threaded holes for receiving screws that pass 
through holes in the housing's front surface. 
There exist many means for mounting address indicia of the housing's front 
surface, these include: (1) having the address indicia be fabricated in 
such a manner so that they possess the means (e.g., adhesive on the 
backside of the indicia) for securely adhering themselves to the front 
surface, (2) providing the front surfaces with grooves that allow thin, 
card-like indicia to have their edges secured in such groves, and (3) 
inscribing nontransparent indicia directly onto the front surface. These 
and others are described in detail in the earlier referenced prior art, 
and will not be described in further details herein. 
For a first light source 16, a three and one-half inch halogen bulb of 
seventy-five watts or less has been found to be a suitable choice. 
Similarly, a six inch tubular bulb of sixty watts or less is suitable for 
the second light source 18 that illuminates the front surface 13. 
A suitable electrical control circuit 22 for the present invention is shown 
in FIG. 4. It can be powered by attachment to a standard 120 volt line 
voltage source. 
It thus will be appreciated that a new and improved, automated, illuminated 
address display and entrance light is seen to achieve its object of 
automatically illuminating both house-identifying information and the area 
in the vicinity of where this information is mounted. 
Although the foregoing disclosure relates to preferred embodiments of the 
invention, it is understood that these details have been given for the 
purposes of clarification only. Various changes and modifications of the 
inaction will be apparent, to one having ordinary skill in the art, 
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as 
hereinafter set forth in the claims.