Abstract:
A color-simulating apparatus is provided, which can be applied to change the color of an article to various colors. The color-simulating device first analyzes a color to be simulated and then produces a light having the color according to the analysis result. Lastly, the color light is used to provide the color of an article.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a color-simulating apparatus. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Human beings living in the world are sensitive to the variation of colors. Various colors might affect the feeling of people. Therefore, sometimes people have to change the color of an article in order to arrange various colors in pairs. There are some prior arts focusing their research on colors and how to arrange various colors in groups. Conventionally, in order to change the color of an article, pigment or dye in various colors has to be coated on the article. This conventional method is troublesome and can not change the color of an article in real time. 
     Besides the conventional method described above, some prior-art articles are made of the material which can change its color under various temperatures or while illuminated by various intensities of lights. However, such an article can only change its color from deep to light or between two different colors. The color variation of the prior-art article is monotonous. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, in order to overcome the drawbacks of the prior arts, an object of the present invention is to provide a color-simulating apparatus, which can be applied to change the color of an article to various colors. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a color-simulating apparatus, which can change the color of an article in real time. 
     According to this invention, the color-simulating apparatus first analyzes a color to be simulated and then produces a light having the color according to the analysis result. Lastly, the color light is used to provide the color of an article. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the color-simulating apparatus according to one embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the color-simulating apparatus according to another embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the color-simulating apparatus according to the other embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the light source device used in the color-simulating apparatus of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the demodulation device used in the color-simulating apparatus of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the demodulation device used in the color-simulating apparatus of FIG.  2 ; 
         FIG. 7  is a diagram illustrating the structure of the demodulation device used in the color-simulating apparatus of FIG.  3 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the color-simulating apparatus comprises: a light source device  10 , a demodulation device  14  and a light-emitting device  16 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the light source device  10  includes three-primary-colored light sources  10   a ˜ 10   c  for providing lights of three primary colors, and modulators  10   x ˜ 10   z  for modulating the lights of three primary colors, respectively. 
     The modulated lights of three primary colors produced by the light source device  10  is reflected by the article  12  and is then received by the demodulation device  14 . Referring to  FIG. 5 , the demodulation device  14  includes an optical sensor  140  and demodulators  14   x ˜ 14   z.    
     Corresponding to the modulation way of the modulators  10   x ˜ 10   z , the demodulation device  14  demodulates the modulated signals. For instance, if the modulators  10   x ˜ 10   z  modulate the lights of three primary colors with three different frequencies f 1 , f 2  and f 3 , then the demodulation device  14  has to demodulate the modulated signals corresponding to the three frequencies f 1 , f 2  and f 3 . 
     The reflectivity of the article&#39;s surface is different for different colored lights. Therefore the lights of three primary colors has different light intensities after being reflected by the article. The intensity signals of the three-primary-colored lights can be obtained by using the demodulation device  14  to demodulate the signals of the reflected light. 
     The light-emitting device  16  includes light-emitting elements of three colors, such as light-emitting diode or laser diode. The driving circuit of the light-emitting device receives the intensity signals output from the demodulation device  14  and then drives the light-emitting elements of three colors to emit a colored light to simulate the color of the article  12 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the color-simulating apparatus comprises: a light source device  20 , a filtering device  24 , a demodulation device  26  and a light-emitting device  28 . 
     The light source device  20  includes a white light source for emitting a white light and a modulator for modulating the white light. 
     The modulated white light produced by the light source device  20  is projected to and is then reflected by the surface of the article  22 . 
     The reflected white light is directed toward the filtering device  24 , which includes filters of three primary colors for filtering out the lights of three primary colors from the white light. 
     The lights of three primary colors obtained through the filtering device  24  are received by the demodulation device  26 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , the demodulation device  26  includes optical sensors  26   a ˜ 26   c  and demodulators  26   x ˜ 26   z . The optical sensors  26   a ˜ 26   c  respectively receive the lights of three primary colors and convert the optical signals of the lights to electrical signals. The demodulators  26   x ˜ 26   z  respectively demodulate the electrical signals to obtain the intensity signals of the three-primary-colored lights. 
     In this embodiment, the modulation/demodulation of the lights is adopted to prevent the signals from the interference of noise signals. Regarding the modulation/demodulation way, for instance, the white light can be modulated with a certain frequency f. The demodulation device  26  demodulates the modulated lights corresponding to the frequency f. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , according to the third embodiment of this invention, the color-simulating apparatus comprises: a light source device  30 , a filtering device  34 , a demodulation device  36  and a light-emitting device  38 . 
     The light source device  30  is the same as the light source device  10  of the first embodiment. The modulated lights of three primary colors produced by the light source device  30  are projected to and then reflected by the surface of the article  32 . 
     The reflected three-primary-colored lights are directed toward the filtering device  34 , which includes filters of three primary colors for respectively passing the lights of three primary colors. 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , the demodulation device  36  includes optical sensors  36   a ˜ 36   c , filters  36   p ˜ 36   r  and demodulators  36   x ˜ 36   z . The filters  36   p ˜ 36   r  are used to further purify the lights of three primary colors obtained through the filtering device  34 , respectively. The optical sensors  36   a ˜ 36   c  respectively receive the lights of three primary colors and then convert the optical signals of the lights to electrical signals. After filtering out some noise signals by the filters  36   p ˜ 36   r , the demodulators  36   x ˜ 36   z  respectively demodulate the electrical signals to obtain the intensity signals of the three-primary-colored lights. 
     The filters  36   p ˜ 36   r  can be band-pass filters for passing the signals having a certain frequency range. Since the light source device  30  modulates the lights of three primary colors with different frequencies, the filters  36   p ˜ 36   r  can be used to pass different colored lights of three primary colors, respectively. 
     The color-simulating apparatus of the above embodiments can emit a colored light corresponding to the color of the article. In practice, a light guiding apparatus can be used to direct the colored light toward a certain position. For example, the color-simulating apparatus can be applied to a cup. A light-guiding layer is formed on the outer surface of the cup. Light diffuser is doped into the light-guiding layer. Thus, when the cup is placed on a table, the color-simulating apparatus can emit a colored light corresponding to the color of the table. The colored light is transmitted to the whole surface of the cup through the light-guiding layer, and is uniformly emitted from the surface of the cup due to the affect of the light diffuser. This method can be applied to various articles to change the color of an article. 
     Besides, the colored light emitted by the color-simulating device can directly illuminate the surface of an article. The article can present various colors when the color-simulating apparatus is placed on an environment having various colors. 
     Finally, while the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.