The invention relates generally to night lights that plug into household AC current, and more particularly to providing a nightlight that outputs a dynamic light display that is both entertaining and soothing to a viewer.
Night lights are commonly found in every household. Essentially they are small perhaps 15 Watt AC filament lamps that plug directly into a wall mounted AC outlet. The lamp outputs light (and heat) for as long as the lamp is turned on. While such lights can adequately provide a comforting level of light, they do little else. Although small children may find such lights reassuring, the lights themselves do little to sooth children and others viewing the light.
What is needed is a nightlight that can entertain and sooth a viewer, as well as merely output light. Preferably such a night light should output a display of light that is dynamic but can be user-frozen in a designed light pattern.
The present invention provides such a nightlight.
The present invention provides a night light that includes a housing adapted to plug directly into a household type AC socket, an array of light emitters, an AC:DC voltage converter, associated electronics disposed within the housing, and a light diffuser to soften output from the light array.
Preferably the light array comprises several differently colored light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are driven by electronics within the housing such that the array output, as viewed through the light diffuser, is a dynamically changing pattern of light. The displayed light patterns vary smoothly and continuously from monochrome to different color combinations of light, with the cycle repeating over a cycle period that may be sixty seconds or so in length. Preferably the electronics includes a microcontroller unit that executes a sequence of instructions causing a light driver unit to switch on various of the light emitters during various portions of a pattern cycle. During the cycle period, a user may at any time activate a switch to xe2x80x9cfreezexe2x80x9d an especially attractive pattern of output light. The xe2x80x9cfrozenxe2x80x9d light pattern will be displayed until the user again activates that switch (or the night light is turned off or otherwise disconnected from the source of operating potential). The viewer may later activate the same switch, which xe2x80x9cunfreezesxe2x80x9d the output light pattern, and permits the electronics to again drive the LEDs to produce a continuously varying pattern of light that is gradually modulated in color and in intensity. Preferably a red LED, a blue LED, and a green LED are used, and the drive electronics preferably is controlled by a microcontroller (or equivalent) that determines the light patterns output by the present invention.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiments have been set forth in detail, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.