GB2549700A

GB2549700A - Mirror

Info

Publication number: GB2549700A
Application number: GB1606767.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Holman David; Littlefair David
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-04-19
Filing date: 2016-04-19
Publication date: 2017-11-01

Abstract

A portable mirror unit 10 includes housing 18, a mirror 16 carried by the housing and a heating device within the housing. The heating device includes a battery and a heating element 26 drivable by the battery 28. The heating element enables heating of the mirrors surface and hence resists fogging. The battery may be rechargeable. The heating device may further include a wireless energy receiver 46 for charging the battery, as well as at least one light emitter 40 powered by the battery to pass light through the mirror. The wireless receiver may be an inductive receiver. The housing and mirror form may form an enclosure which is sealed against water, and no electrical contacts may be present external to the enclosure. This provides an advantage in that the mirror may be used in high moisture environments such as a bathroom. The mirror unit may be mountable in a charging stand (12, fig 5), which includes a wireless energy transmitter.

Description

Mirror

The present invention relates to mirrors, and particularly to fog-resistant mirrors. A problem most readers will have experienced is fogging of a mirror in a bathroom. The term "fog" in this context refers to water condensate on the mirror surface, typically in the form of small droplets, which obscure or completely hide the image in the mirror. The atmosphere in a bathroom is often warm and laden with moisture, especially after a shower or bath, and can be appreciably warmer than the mirror, leading to the condensation on its surface. Wiping the mirror often causes smearing which in itself obscures the mirror's image, and fogging can return rapidly after the mirror is wiped.

There are various products available to reduce fogging of mirrors, including anti-fog sprays (which require periodic re-application, with associated expense), permanent anti-fog coatings (at least some of which serve to prevent formation of small droplets but not to prevent condensation as such), and heated mirrors. Heating the mirror surface can prevent water from condensing upon it and so provide effective protection against fogging. There are heated mirrors on the market which are to be wall-mounted and to be connected to the mains electricity supply, but installation of these typically involves the expense of leading mains wiring into the bathroom, and in the UK at least must be undertaken by a qualified electrician, which adds to expense. Such mirrors cannot be used in direct proximity to a shower or bath.

There are small portable mirrors on the market which incorporate a reservoir for warm water to heat the mirror element and so prevent condensation. These are for use in shower, and if suitably positioned will fill with water when the shower is on. But they appear unsuited to use in other contexts, owing to the need to fill them with warm water in order to resist condensation.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is a portable mirror unit according to appended claim 1.

Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective illustration of a mirror unit and a charging stand embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the mirror unit and charging stand;

Figure 3 is a front view of the mirror unit and charging stand;

Figure 4 is a rear view of the mirror unit;

Figure 5 is a rear view of the charging stand;

Figure 6 is an exploded view of the mirror unit;

Figure 7 is a section through the combination of the mirror unit and the charging stand in a vertical plane; and

Figure 8 is an exploded view of the charging stand.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises a mirror unit 10 which is small in size and easily hand held. It can be used for example as a shaving mirror, a vanity mirror, a portable bathroom mirror, travel mirror etc. The mirror unit 10 incorporates a heater to resist fogging, making it especially well-suited to use in a bathroom and enabling it to be used for example whilst shaving in the shower or bath. The mirror unit 10 can be hung on a wall or carried in the hand but it is provided with a stand 12 through which it can be supported in an upright orientation on a level surface such as a shelf or the top of a washstand or table. The stand 12 of the present embodiment also serves to charge a battery 14 of the mirror unit 10, so that merely by placing the mirror unit 10 on its stand 12 the user can ensure that the mirror unit is charged up and ready for use when needed.

The mirror unit 10 comprises a mirror 16 which forms the front face of the unit and which is carried upon a housing 18. In the present embodiment the housing takes the form of a shallow tray formed by a perimeter wall 20 and a rear panel 22 (see Figure 6 in particular). The mirror 16 in the present embodiment comprises a mirrored plastics sheet, found to be effective in its transmission of heat to the outer mirror surface on which condensation is to be resisted. The sheet may be transparent acrylic with a mirror coating on its rear face. The mirror 16 covers substantially the entire area of the front of the housing 18, to maximise usable mirror area, although it could for example have an opaque border in other embodiments. The mirror unit 10 is configured to be easily hung on a wall or door. In the present embodiment it comprises for this purpose a through-going hole 24 to receive a wall-mounted hook or peg. The hole also makes it easy to hold the mirror in one hand somewhat in the manner that a painter holds a palette, with the thumb inserted through the hole 24 and the fingers resting on the rear of the unit.

Other features could alternatively be provided to facilitate hanging and/or holding of the mirror unit 10, such as a hanger on the rear panel 22.

Referring to Figure 6 in particular, components disposed within the housing 18 form a heating arrangement which serves to heat the mirror 16 and so to resist fogging. These components comprise an electrically driven heating element 26. In the present embodiment this is a resistive component which generates heat ohmically. That is, passage of an electric current causes the element to emit heat. The heating element 26 takes the form of a flat panel extending over much of the surface area of the mirror 16. Specifically, this panel is formed of wire mesh. For the sake of efficient thermal transfer the heating element 16 is arranged parallel, and immediately juxtaposed, to the inside face of the mirror 16. Desirably the element 26 heats the mirror 16 sufficiently to reach a temperature of 37 degrees Centigrade at its outer surface, which is found to be effective in resisting fogging.

The heating element 26 is driven from a rechargeable electric battery 28. In the present embodiment this is of lithium-ion type, and more specifically is a battery designed for use in a mobile telephone, having the advantages of high energy capacity, moderate mass and a shallow shape easily accommodated in the shallow housing 18. Other batteries may however be used. A battery mounting wall 30 upstanding from the inner face of the rear panel 22 serves to locate the battery 28 within the housing 18.

In the present embodiment the user controls the mirror unit 10 by means of a pair of push buttons 32, 34 mounted to and accessible through an opening in the rear panel 22. The push buttons 32, 34 are carried on a button circuit board 36 which is screwed to bosses 38 upstanding from the inner face of the rear panel 22. A flexible elastomeric cover 37, shaped to provide two domed regions to respectively accommodate the two push buttons, forms a seal against ingress of moisture while enabling the buttons 32, 34 to be pushed due to its flexibility. The push buttons serve to switch the heating element 26 on and off, and to control brightness of light emitters 40, which will be described below. In the present embodiment, starting from the unit's "off" condition, pressing button 32 switches the heating element 26 on and switches the light emitters 40 on at a low brightness. Repeated depression of the same button 32 increases brightness of the light emitters 40. Pressing the other button 34 reduces their brightness until the light emitters 40 and the heating element 26 are both turned off.

The light emitters 40 are formed as light emitting diodes in the present embodiment, which are advantageous in their high efficiency and long lifetime, although other forms of light emitter could be used. The light emitters may help to illuminate the user and so improve their image in the mirror, and provide visual decoration as well as an indication of when the heating element 26 is active. In the illustrated example they are arranged to emit light through the mirror 16. A row of light emitters 40 is mounted on a lighting circuit board 42 located in the housing 18 by a light mounting wall 44 integrally formed with the perimeter wall 20.

Provision is made for charging the battery 28. In the present embodiment this is done wirelessly-that is, without any conductive electrical connection from the charger to the battery. More specifically, charging is carried out through an inductive coupling. An inductive energy receiver is disposed in the housing 18 and comprises a receiver circuit board 46 carrying a conductive track in the form e.g. of a coil. The receiver circuit board 46 is located in a shallow complementarily shaped recess 47 in the front face of the rear panel 22. Electrical energy thus received is conducted to a charging and battery management circuit on a charging circuit board 48 which provides a controlled electrical supply to charge the battery 28.

The housing 18 and the mirror 16 carried upon it form a unit which is sealed against ingress of moisture and so usable in a wet environment such as a shower. The use of wireless battery charging makes it unnecessary to provide any exposed electrical contacts or connectors which might be vulnerable to water damage and/or provide a route for unwanted moisture ingress.

The mirror unit 10 is able to be straightforwardly engaged with and disengaged from the stand 12. In the present embodiment the stand 12 is provided for this purpose with an upwardly directed recess 50 which serves to receive a lower edge of the mirror unit 10. Simply by placing the mirror unit 10 in the recess, the unit is mounted on the stand and supported in a generally upright orientation. An upstand 52 adjacent the recess 50 provides additional support for the mirror 10 by engaging with its rear face.

In the present embodiment the stand 12 comprises a stand housing formed by an upper housing part 54a and a lower housing part 54b which together form a shape which is generally cylindrical, save for the upstand 52 and the recess 50 which are each formed by the upper housing part 54a. A leg 56 projects rearwardly from the housing 54a,b to rest upon the supporting surface and define the angle which the mirror 10 makes to the vertical. The leg 56 is cantilevered from a round hub 58 which is mounted in an end wall 60 of the housing 54a,b. The end wall is partly formed on the upper housing part 54a and partly on the lower housing part 54b, each having a part-circular cut-away 62. In the assembled stand these cut-aways form a circular opening which embraces and mounts the hub 58. The hub 58 and the leg 56 which it carries are able to rotate relative to the housing 54a,b but there is sufficient frictional engagement between the hub 58 and a friction face 64 forming the perimeter of the said circular opening to keep the leg/hub assembly in position despite the weight of the supported mirror unit 10. Hence the user is able easily to adjust the angle of the mirror to the vertical simply by turning the leg/hub assembly, and friction then retains it in the set position.

Within the stand 12 are the electrics necessary to inductively transmit to the mirror unit 10 the energy required to charge the battery 14. These comprise a transformer 66 which steps down the voltage of the electrical supply received form a connection to the mains electricity. The transformer 66 is connected to a mains electrical lead terminating in a plug, although these parts are omitted from the drawings. A reduced voltage is thus applied by the transformer 66 to a transmitter circuit board 68 which in turn supplies an AC signal of suitable frequency (various standards for inductive transmission of electrical power are known and the details are familiar to the skilled person and so need not be discussed herein) to an inductive transmitter coil 70 which is positioned adjacent the recess 50 of the stand 12, in order to be in close proximity to the receiver circuit board 46 when the mirror unit 10 is in the stand 12, maximising efficiency of energy transfer.

The present invention provides a small hand held portable mirror unit which resists fogging and can be easily charged merely by placing it in its stand, but which can also be taken into the shower or bath and used for operations such as shaving. The enclosure containing the electrics used to heat the mirror can be sealed against entry of water and water vapour, and due to the use of wireless charging technology it needs no external electrical connectors which - in the context of a device to be used in a wet environment - would potentially be vulnerable to wetting (which might cause an electrical short during charging), to water damage, and to possible ingress of water.

Claims

1. A portable mirror unit comprising a housing, a mirror carried by the housing, and a heating arrangement disposed in the housing, the heating arrangement comprising a battery and a heating element driveable by the battery and arranged to heat the mirror and so resist fogging of the mirror.

2. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 1 in which the battery is rechargeable.

3. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 2 in which the heating arrangement further comprises a wireless energy receiver for receiving energy to charge the battery.

4. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 3 in which the housing and the mirror form an enclosure for the heating arrangement which is sealed against ingress of water.

5. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4 which has no electrical contacts external to the said sealed enclosure.

6. A portable mirror as claimed in any preceding claim which is mountable in a charging stand.

7. A portable mirror unit as claimed in any preceding claim in which the housing comprises a shallow tray having a rear panel and an upstanding perimeter wall, the mirror's periphery being in sealing engagement with the perimeter wall.

8. A portable mirror unit as claimed in any preceding claim which comprises at least one light emitter disposed inside the housing and driveable from the battery.

9. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 8 in which the light emitter is arranged to emit light through the mirror.

10. A portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 3 or in any of claims 4 to 9 when dependent on claim 3 in which the wireless energy receiver is an inductive receiver.

11. An apparatus comprising a portable mirror unit as claimed in claim 3 or in any of claims 4 to 10 when dependent on claim 3 and a stand configured to receive the portable mirror unit and to support it in a generally upright orientation, and to release the portable mirror unit so that it is able to be used separately from the stand.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 in which the stand comprises a wireless energy transmitter for transmitting energy to the wireless energy receiver of the portable mirror unit while the portable mirror unit is supported by the stand, to charge the battery.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 or claim 12 in which the charging stand comprises an upwardly open recess for receiving and engaging a lower portion of the portable mirror unit and thereby to support it in the said generally upright orientation.

14. An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 11 to 13 in which the charging stand comprises a stand housing and a leg rotatably coupled to the stand housing and configured to rest upon a supporting surface, to that by turning the leg a user is able to adjust an angle between the mirror and the vertical.

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 14 in which the leg is coupled to the stand housing through a captive hub which permits rotation of the leg.

16. A portable mirror unit substantially as herein described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

17. An apparatus comprising a portable mirror unit and a stand, substantially as herein described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.