Patent Publication Number: US-6991341-B1

Title: Illuminable umbrella

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
   Not Applicable 
   FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
   Not Applicable 
   SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM 
   Not Applicable 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of Invention 
   This invention relates to easy manufactured umbrellas bearing low-energy consumption flashing light visible during night and poor visibility conditions. 
   2. Background of the Invention 
   It is unquestionable many pedestrian accidents that occur during night and poor weather conditions are due to poor visibility. During rainy conditions, vehicle operators often find difficulty in being watchful for nearby pedestrians when their focus is on other vehicles on the road. On the other hand, most pedestrians carry umbrellas. The opened umbrellas that they carry could reduce the visibility of the pedestrians. Hence, it is worthwhile to study efforts to reduce this hazard, when the automobile industry and population are ever booming. The idea of having light at the apex of the umbrella could improve visibility of pedestrians during poor weather and night conditions. 
   A few illuminable umbrellas have been proposed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,381 to Carver (1977), the design requires a precise position of the conductors in order to connect the electrical current to turn on the light source. This calls for meticulous manufacturing of the umbrella parts. Any slight error during manufacturing will cause the conductors to slide beyond or under the range of contact. Thus, it is not easy to manufacture the umbrella, and prolong use of the umbrella will increase the chance of malfunction. Moreover, the design is not adaptable on automatic umbrellas. The more recent invention of illuminable umbrellas such as, U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,798 to Yang (1993), U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,922 to Andreasen (1992), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,385 to Pennella (1989) features lights not only on the apex of umbrella, but throughout either the hood, tips and skeleton of the umbrella. The disadvantage of this feature is the huge energy consumption costing more energy to power the umbrella. 
   Most of the inventions of illuminable umbrellas require customary manufacturing to enable the unique features to work. Therefore, the designs are not adaptable to any convention umbrella. Thus, increases the cost of manufacturing, since it requires special made shaft with specified indentation or cutout to enable a switch to be place in it. 
   BACKGROUND OF INVENTION—OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES 
   Accordingly, besides the objects and advantages of the illuminable umbrella described in my above patent, several objects and advantages of the present invention are: 
   1. The umbrella uses a unique feature to enable the light emitting device (LED) unit, that is, the concept of electrical conduction via contact of conductive plate that can be added to a convention umbrella, be it automatic or manual operated. This feature is extremely adaptable to any umbrella, thus, provides easy manufacturing and cost reduction. 
   2. The umbrella design is waterproof as there is no direct exposure of parts to water contamination. 
   3. The umbrella design only allows LED unit to activate when the umbrella is in fully opened position. Several advantages of this feature includes:
         childproof as it prevents child play,   less step to activate and deactivate the LED unit. The is especially for users who are forgetful and are in hurry to do other tasks,   excellent energy conservation mechanism.       

   4. The umbrella design is very user friendly as it also allows option to turn LED unit off if a user desires to switch off LED unit when umbrella is in opened position. 
   5. The design requires very minimal cost of manufacturing because the invention does not require major customary work. Since the invention utilizes the mechanism of the existing umbrella for its operation, it does not require parts that will significantly alter the design of a convention umbrella. The features of the design are common elements which can be manufactured and installed easily to a conventional umbrella. It can be fitted in high-end, as well as low-end quality umbrellas. 
   Additional objects and advantages are to provide an illuminable umbrella, which can be used easily on poor weather condition for safety. When the umbrella is opened, light is turned on spontaneously, without requiring additional step to turn on/off the light unit. The umbrella is cheap to manufacture, as it is adaptable to any conventional umbrella. 
   SUMMARY 
   In accordance with the present invention, the illuminable umbrella comprises a hollow rod, a stationary hub having electric conductor means on the inferior of contact surface, a pivotable hub having electric conductors means on the superior contact surface, a plurality of rib elements which supports the umbrella hood, a compartment carrying power for operation and switch, an light emitting device (LED) unit on to of umbrella hood connected electrically via wires to power source. 

   
     DRAWING—FIGURES 
       FIG. 1  shows a longitudinal cross section of an automatic umbrella comprises LED unit, stationary hub, and the pivotable hub with plurality of rib elements, which support an umbrella hood. 
       FIG. 2  shows a longitudinal cross section of a manual umbrella comprises LED unit, stationary hub, and the pivotable hub with plurality of rib elements, which support an umbrella hood. 
       FIG. 3  shows a longitudinal cross section of the stump of the umbrella in which the battery storage and on/off switch is located. 
       FIG. 4  shows a frontal view of the stump of the umbrella with on/off indicator is placed with a ring controller. 
       FIG. 5  shows a traverse cross section of the inferior surface of stationary hub or the superior surface of the pivotable hub. 
       FIG. 6  shows tine frontal view of the full automatic umbrella. 
       FIG. 7  shows the frontal view of the manual umbrella. 
   

   DRAWINGS—REFERENCE NUMERALS 
   
       
         10  apex of the umbrella 
         20  Light emitting device (LED) unit 
         22  umbrella hood 
         24  plurality of ribs 
         30  stationary hub 
         32   a  conductive plate A 
         32   b  conductive plate B 
         40  pivotable hub 
         42  spring mechanism 
         44  conductive plate C 
         50  umbrella shaft 
         60  umbrella stump 
         62  manual on/off controller 
         64  on/off switch mechanism 
         66  power source 
         68  cap 
         70  hood release button 
         72  latch anchor 
         80  latch spring mechanism 
         92  insulated electric wire A 
         94  insulated electric wire B 
         96  part of hub 
     
  
   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIGS. 1 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 A,  5 B and  6 —Automatic Embodiment 
   Automatic embodiment of the present umbrella is illustrated in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 6 . The umbrella includes an apex  10 , positioned above the LED light unit  20 . The LED light unit is attached to an elongated hollow rod  50  with a handle  60  at its other end. The LED light unit is attached to stationary hub  30  on the outer and inner surface surrounding two conductive plates: plate A  32   a  and plate B  32   b , in the center. The conductive plates are depicted in  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 5A . 
   On an automatic umbrella, the pivotable hub  40  consists of a conductive plate  44 , shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 5B . The conductive plate  44  sits on top of the pivotable hub  40 . The pivotable hub also consists of a spring mechanism  42  and a plurality of rib elements  24  which supports the umbrella hood, much like in a regular automatic umbrella.  FIG. 6  shows the latch anchor  72  above the stump  60  of umbrella to lock the umbrella in a closed position. 
   The hollow rod  50  consists of two insulated electrical wires: wire A  92  and wire B  94 . The ends of the wire A are the conductive plate A  32   a  on the stationary hub  30 , and the power source  66  in the umbrella stump. The ends of the wire B  94  are the conductive plate B  32   b  on the stationary hub and the power source. Wire B is also connected to the circuit board of the LED unit  20 . 
   The stump  60  of the umbrella carries the on/off switch mechanism  64  shown in detail in  FIG. 3 . The on/off switch gives user an option to turn off LED light unit  20  when the hood  22  is in opened position. The stump also includes the power supply  66 , which is connected to wire A and B. Externally, as illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the stump has a controller  62  shaped like a ridged ring with “ON” and “OFF” indicator, and a cap  68  on the bottom for insertion of battery. 
   FIGS.  2  and  7 —Manual Embodiment 
   The embodiment of the manual umbrella is similar to the automatic umbrella except it lacks the spring mechanism  42  present in the automatic umbrella to make the hood pop up automatically. Instead, the manual umbrella, as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , consists of a resilient latch element  80  much similar to traditional umbrella to hold the pivotable hub  40  in place to maintain the hood in open position. 
     FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  6 ,  7   
   The manner of using the illuminable umbrella is identical to that for umbrella in present use. When the latch released button  70  is pushed, the automatic umbrella hood  22  opens. The pivotable hub  40  slides along the hollow shaft  50  and stops in contact with the stationary hub  30 . When the conductive plates A  32   a  and B  32   b  on the stationary hub touch the surface of the conductive plate  44  on the pivotable hub, the circuitry is complete for the LED unit  20  to turn on. Light remains flashing as long as the conductive plates are in contact. 
   With the manual umbrella, the pivotable hub  40  is pushed upward along the shaft  50  and anchored on a resilient latch element  80  to keep hood in open position. At this position, the stationary hub  30  and pivotable hub  40  is in contact via the conductive plates. Thus the circuitry is complete. 
   When the umbrella is closed by manually sliding the pivotable hub  40  along the shaft  50  away from the stationary hub  30  and towards the stump  60  of umbrella, the circuit is disconnected. Thus the LED light unit  20  is turned off. The pivotable hub  40  continues to slide until it is locked on latch anchor  72 . 
   As depicted in  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 , the internal of the stump consists of an on/off switch  64  which is governed by the external controller  62  shaped like a ridged ring for easy grip. The controller  62  allows user to turn off the LED unit  20  when the hood is in opened position. The two wires  92 ,  94  are connected to the power source  66  which is replaceable by opening the cap  68  at the bottom of the stump.