US20130227899A1

US20130227899A1 - Concrete wall with optical fibers display device

Info

Publication number: US20130227899A1
Application number: US13/868,059
Authority: US
Inventors: Chu-Yih Yu
Original assignee: Taiwan Plastic Optical Fiber Co Ltd
Current assignee: Taiwan Plastic Optical Fiber Co Ltd
Priority date: 2010-02-12
Filing date: 2013-04-22
Publication date: 2013-09-05

Abstract

A concrete wall with optical fibers display device comprises a concrete wall having plurality outer surfaces for display purpose, multiples optical fibers are embedded within the concrete wall for guiding light from one surface to another, and said optical fibers are arranged in a matrix fashion with each optical fibers is spaced by a predetermined space to form a figure or characters, a projecting device placed away from the concrete wall by a predetermined distance as light source, and a layer is painted onto the whole outer surfaces of the concrete wall for reinforcing the junction portion where the tip of optical fibers with the surfaces of the concrete wall.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a continuation in part (CIP) application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/656,648 filed Feb. 12, 2010, which is pending.
2. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Advertising is a form of a communication, sending message to viewers, readers or listeners, to persuade them to take some actions, such as purchasing a product or service of a specific brand. The using of the advertising can be traced back to the Egyptian who used posters or messages. A billboard is an outdoor advertising structure having large size which usually placed in a visible site where lots of viewers passing by every day, such as alongside the road or hung up in a wall of a building. Some billboards, such as those sited in the time square of New York, have even become the landmarks or tourist spots. For attracting the attention of the viewers, the billboard must be eye-catching, thus colorful and vivid color are commonly used; as for modern billboard, paint is replaced by neon light or LED, allowing the message can be seen during the night time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aforementioned billboard possesses following drawbacks:
1. For the billboards with painting, neon light or LED, a constant maintenance is necessary. With a high rent for a good location at aside, such maintenance will become an extra burden for the tenant. Thus, to find an advertising structure with less maintenance has become an objective of the present invention.
2. Motion advertising can be display by an electronic or LCD billboard. However, cost for purchasing or renting these types of billboards is relatively high. Besides, electronic devices like these are delicate and complex and exposing outdoor is usually affected by the weather, such as rain, storm or snow and causing malfunction. Therefore, to invent an outdoor advertising structure with low cost, simple structure, not affecting by the weather and able to display motion advertising has become the second objective of the invention.
3. Most of billboards are limited by its size and shape which is placed, especially when is placed on a wall of the building. The variations and creations are also confined by such limitations. Thus, to design a billboard with less limitation for being more creative has become another objective of the present invention.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, a billboard is realized by illuminated utilizing multiples optical fibers, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,872, however, the displaying structure is only a board, and the fibers part don't be covered with solid material, thus, the displaying structure is too weak to stay stable in bad weather such as wind or rain, and the optical fibers is easy to be broken by outside forces. To overcome the disadvantages, the present invention provides a concrete wall with optical fibers display device mentioned above. Said concrete wall comprises multiple outer surfaces, plurality of optical fibers passing through the concrete wall for guiding the light emission from one outer surface to another. Each optical fibers consists of a first end, a second end and a light guiding body. Said first and second ends are exposed and provided onto two different outer surfaces of the concrete wall, a light-preamble layer which is mainly composed of Titanium compound is painted on the whole surfaces of the concrete wall for reinforce the junction between the concrete wall and optical fibers to prevent loosing of the optical fibers due to the cracks or slits occurred on the surface of the concrete wall, while the light guiding body is embedded within the concrete wall for guiding the light. The optical fibers are arranged in a matrix fashion to form a figure or message of the advertisement and each one is spaced by a predetermined distance. Said concrete wall is lighten by a projecting device, such as a projector, spot light or an illumination display. The concrete wall is primarily to be a wall of the building and the concept is to have a wall incorporates multiple optical fibers, with the light projected from the projecting device, the whole surface of the wall can be utilized for advertising purpose. The present invention can also achieve further the goal of energy-saving by replacing the light from a projecting device with the ambient light, such as the sunlight or the indoor illumination. The second embodiment also can reduce the cost of the device and maintenance.
In comparison with the previous design, the advantages of the present invention are listed as following:
1. The concept of the concrete wall contains multiple optical fibers within illuminated by a projecting device provides an outdoor displaying device with creativity and easy installation. It can be used to display still or motion advertisement by changing the projecting device. No need of complex programming or maintenance for the modern electronic billboard, the present invention saves the installation time and is cost effective.
2. Weather is always the critical factor for the outdoor advertising structure, rain will wash out the painting and damaging the electronic component, the hurricane can blow off the structure and causing casualty. With the device being combined with the outer wall of a building or infrastructure, the human safety is secure and the light-preamble Titanium compound layer isolates the displaying structure from the influence of climate, thus the safety is increased and the possibility of malfunction can be reduced.
3. Those concrete wall set outside of the building or skyscraper are often criticized as blocking the light inlet. The optical fibers, as a light guiding element, not only can display shapes or words, but also guide the light inside the building, thus reduce the energy consumption of the building. Another innovation point is that the structure is illuminated by a projecting light from a spot light or a projector and a shading effect can be generated if an object or a person passing between the projecting device and the concrete wall. The unexpected shading effect can attract the viewers' attention, to achieve the advertising purpose.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial enlarged view of the FIG. 1 focusing on the optical fibers.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the function of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view illustrating the function of the present invention with a possible lighting effect.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the present invention introducing a curved type of installation of the optical fibers.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view illustrating the function of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the present invention introducing an intercross type of installation of the optical fibers.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view demonstrating the function of FIG. 8.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view of illuminating the concrete wall by a light bulb.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail hereinafter.
Referring to FIGS. 1-9, the present invention provides a concrete wall with optical fibers display device which is comprised of a concrete wall (1), multiple optical fibers (2) and a projecting device (3). Said concrete wall (1) comprises several outer surfaces (11) and said optical fibers (2) are embedded within said concrete wall (1). Each optical fibers (2) includes a first end (21), a second end (22) and a light guiding body (23) between said ends. The optical fibers (2) are applied for guiding light from a side of said concrete wall (1) to another side hereof. Said first and second ends (21, 22) of the optical fibers (2) are visible from said surfaces (11) and are arranged in a matrix fashion, spaced with a predetermined distance (h) between each other to form figures or characters. The projecting device (3) is provided at a side of the concrete wall (1) with a projecting distance (W) away from said concrete wall (1), projecting a light to the surface (11) where first ends (21) of said optical fibers (2) are provided. A light-preamble titanium compound layer (4) is painted on each surface (11) of said concrete wall (1) for covering said first end (21) and second end (22) of each optical fibers (2), and filling the slit where the optical fibers (2) jointed with the concrete wall (1), securing the tips of said optical fibers (2) onto the surface (11) of said concrete wall (1).
The optical fibers (2) can make the light projected from the projecting device (3) become downy, to reduce the luminous pollution, such as over-illumination or sky-glows. The only thing needs the electricity for displaying is for projecting device (3), thus, the power consumption of present invention is lower than conventional displaying device such as LED display or LCD (liquid crystal display) TV wall.
Unlike the conventional illuminating elements (e.g. light bulb, neon light or LED) which have limited service life for thousands of hours, the optical fibers (2), as a light guiding element, has relatively longer life of operating under normal condition. With proper maintenance for the projecting device (3), the displaying device endures longer than other types of display.
Crack or slit may occur by the different coefficients expansion of the optical fibers (2) and material of the concrete wall (1), thus, the light-preamble titanium compound layer (4) or equivalent material is painted on the whole surfaces (11) of said concrete wall (1) for securing and reinforcing the junctions between the tips of said optical fibers (2) and the surfaces (11) of said concrete wall (1).
The projecting device (3) utilized for displaying can be selected from the multi-color spot light, mono-color spot light, projector or illuminating display (e.g. LED screen, LCD screen). The concrete wall with optical display device is designed to be able to display static or motion advertisement, for the static advertisement, such as still imagine, multi-color or mono-color spot light can be utilized, as for commercials or other types of advertisements, projector or illumination display can be selected.
The projecting distance (W) can be adjusted depending on the type of the projecting device (3) or size of the concrete wall (1); while the distance (h) is determined according to the required luminous effect and the material of the concrete wall (1).
Said first and second ends (21, 22) of each optical fibers (2) are provided on respective surfaces (11) of the concrete wall (1), said surfaces (11) can be two at opposite ends facing each other or two adjacent surfaces. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 6, the surface (11) includes a rear surface (11A), a frontal surface (11B), a right surface (11C), a left surface (11D) and an upper surface (11E).
The light emission can be guided horizontally from the rear surface (11A) to the frontal surface (11B), as illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 6, the optical fibers (2) can also be set in a curved fashion to transmit the light from the rear surface (11A) to the adjacent surfaces (11C, 11D, 11E), creating multi-directional displaying when one of said surfaces (11) is illuminated by the projecting device (3).
FIGS. 8 and 9 showing an intercross installation of the optical fibers (2), by placing the light-inlet end (A) and light-outlet end (A′) at an intercross fashion, an inverted image will be displayed on the frontal surface (11B).
As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the projecting device (3) could also be replaced by the ambient light, such as sunlight (S) or indoor lighting (e.g. light bulb or fluorescent lamp) to reduce the power consumption of the high-power projector or spot light.
Conventional billboards, whether is electronic or not is made of opaque materials such as fabrics, wood, plastic, thus when said billboards are placed outdoor, especially on the outer wall of a building, would block the light inlet form outside and increasing the power usage as more lights have to be turned on.
As shown in FIG. 10, through using of the optical fibers (2), the sunlight (S) is allowed to enter in the concrete wall to keep the displaying in daytime. For the night time, indoor illumination is guided toward outside through the optical fibers (2), which is functional as said projecting device (3).
The materials for manufacturing the concrete wall (1) can be selected from concrete, stone, metal, ceramic material or translucent or light-proof polymer material. The concrete wall (1) can also be functional as an outer wall of a building.
The light-preamble titanium compound layer (4) acts as a shield to protect the concrete wall (1) from the weather, and the property of the Titanium can also prevent the structure being soiled by the smoke or air contamination.
The present invention has been described but not limited via the detailed illustration of the preferred embodiment. Those who skilled in the art derive variations without departing from the scope of the present invention, might meet the characteristic as claimed hereafter.

Claims

1. A concrete wall with optical fibers display device which is comprised of:

A concrete wall (1);

Multiple optical fibers (2), and

A projecting device (3);

Said concrete wall (1) comprises several outer surfaces (11) and said optical fibers (2) are embedded within said concrete wall (1); each optical fibers (2) includes a first end (21), a second end (22) and a light guiding body (23) between said ends; the optical fibers (2) are applied for guiding light from a side of said concrete wall (1) to another side hereof; said first and second ends (21, 22) of the optical fibers (2) are visible from said surfaces (11) and are arranged in a matrix fashion, spaced with a predetermined distance (h) between each other to form figures or characters; the projecting device (3) is provided at a side of the concrete wall (1) with a projecting distance (W) away from said concrete wall (1), projecting a light to the surface (11) where first ends (21) of said optical fibers (2) are provided.

2. A concrete wall with optical fibers display device defined in claim 1, wherein each surface (11) of said concrete wall (1) is painted with a light-preamble titanium compound layer (4).

3. A concrete wall with optical fibers display device defined in claim 1, wherein said projecting device (3) is selected from one of following: a multi-color spot light, a mono-color spot light, a projector, a LED or LCD illuminating device or ambient light.

4. A concrete wall with optical fibers display device defined in claim 1, wherein said two surfaces (11) where the first and second end of an optical fibers (2) are exposed are facing each other or adjacent.