WO2006012918A1

WO2006012918A1 - Shelter structure having a color illuminating roof

Info

Publication number: WO2006012918A1
Application number: PCT/EP2004/009467
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emmanuel Zeferino
Original assignee: Jcdecaux S.A.
Priority date: 2004-08-05
Filing date: 2004-08-05
Publication date: 2006-02-09

Abstract

A shelter structure (1) comprising: a roof (19), an illumination system (24) including lamps (25a-d) mounted in the roof (19) and a diffuser panel (23) mounted under the lamps (25a-d), wherein the illumination system (24) comprises several adjacent modules (26) each comprising a group of three lamps (25a, 25b, 25c) of different colors, e.g. red, green and blue, each group of three lamps (25a, 25b, 25c) being disposed horizontally under a common concave reflector (27), a power supply unit (29) to which each lamp (25a, 25b, 25c) is electrically connected, and a controller (30) for separately controlling the amount of power provided by the power supply unit (29) to each lamp (25a, 25b, 25c) of the same group.

Description

Shelter structure having a color illuminating roof

Field of the invention

The invention relates to urban shelter structures, such as bus shelters.

Background of the invention

An urban shelter structure generally comprises a roof, and at least two side walls, some of which may be provided with advertising panels. In order to illuminate the bus shelter at night, it is known to provide the side panels with inner lamps, which incidentally illuminate the advertising panel. Such an urban shelter structure is known from US patent No. 5,107,637, which discloses a photovoltaically illuminated shelter structure, some photovoltaic modules being provided in the roof thereof.

French patent application No. FR-2 715 714 discloses an urban shelter provided with an optical fiber roof illuminating system.

The inventor has _. found that there is a need for alternative solutions in urban shelter illumination. Summary of the invention

It is an object of the invention to provide a shelter structure having a more user-friendly illumination system.

The shelter structure according to the invention comprises:

- a roof,

- an illumination system including lamps mounted in the roof and

- a diffuser panel mounted under the lamps, wherein the illumination system comprises

- several adjacent modules each comprising a group of three lamps of different colors, e.g. red, green and blue, each group of three lamps being disposed horizontally under a common concave reflector, - a power supply unit to which each lamp is electrically connected, and

- a controller for separately controlling the amount of power provided by the power supply unit to each lamp of the same group or to all lamps of a same group.

The illumination system may also comprise white lamps each disposed between two adjacent modules and connected to the power supply unit, in order to increase the global illumination power of the roof. The roof comprises e.g. a support frame and the diffuser panel is hingedly connected to the roof support frame, so as to allow access to the lamps.

In addition, the controller may comprise a programmable central processing unit downloadable with illumination programs controlling automatic variation of power provided by the power supply unit to each lamp individually or by groups .

The controller may also comprise a remote control receptor, so as to download illumination programs from external memory supports.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Brief description of the drawings

Figures 1 and 2 are perspective views of an urban shelter structure according to the invention.

Figure 3 is an elevational cut view of the shelter structure of figure 2, taken on plane III-III. Figure 4 is an elevational cut view of the shelter structure of figure 2, taken on plane IV-IV.

Figure 5 is a schematic view showing the illumination system equipping a shelter structure according to the invention. Detailed description A shelter structure according to the invention is indicated generally by reference number 1 in the drawings.

The shelter structure 1 - here a bus shelter - is suitable for being installed on a sidewalk 2 represented in dashed lines on figures 1 and 2.

The shelter structure 1 comprises a metallic frame 3 including support posts 4, 5, 6, 7 the ends of which are provided with anchoring devices 8 embedded in a concrete pad 9 lying under the sidewalk 2, thereby providing the shelter structure 1 with foundations.

The shelter structure 1 comprises side walls 10, 11 comprising panels 12, 13 mounted on the posts 4, 5, 6, 7. One side wall 10 at least may include an internal illuminating^' advertising device 14 comprising vertical adjacent white tube lamps 15. The panels 12, 13 may be advertising panels, which are therefore incidentally illuminated at night.

As depicted on figure 2, the shelter structure 1 comprises a back wall 16 formed of glass panels mounted on posts 5, 6, thereby limiting, together with the side walls 10, 11, a waiting room 17.

A bench 18 may be mounted on one post 6 against one side wall 11 and/or the back wall 16 or directly fixed to the ground, thereby allowing persons waiting e.g. for the bus to sit and rest.

The shelter structure 1 also includes a hollow roof 19 comprising a rectangular metallic support frame 20 formed of assembled extruded aluminum sections 21, said roof 19 including an upper panel 22 and a lower panel 23 mounted onto the frame 20.

The shelter structure 1 further comprises a roof illumination system 24 including lamps 25a-d mounted in the roof 19 between the upper and lower panels 22, 23.

The lower panel 23 is formed of translucent acrylic, so as to diffuse the light emitted by the lamps 25a-d towards the waiting room 17. As depicted on figures 2 and 4, the lower panel 23 is hingedly connected to the roof frame 20 in order to allow a technician to access the lamps 25a-d. As depicted on figures 1 (in dashed lines) and 3, the illumination system 24 comprises several adjacent illumination modules 26 each comprising a group of three tube lamps 25a, 25b, 25c of different respective colors, e.g. red, green and blue. Each module 26 comprises a concave reflector 27 under which the three lamps 25a, 25b, 25c of the corresponding group are commonly disposed.

Each lamp 25a, 25b, 25c is mounted on a horizontal .support 28 attached, tp_ the upper panel 22 and extending transversally with respect of the shelter structure 1, i.e. perpendicular to the back wall 16. In an alternative embodiment, the lamps may extend longitudinally, i.e. parallel to the back wall 16.

The number of modules 26 depends upon the length of the shelter structure 1 and the space provided between two adjacent modules 26. The skilled person may decide which is most convenient given the amount of light it is desired to provide.

The illumination system 24 comprises a common power supply unit 29 to which each lamp 25a, 25b, 25c is electrically connected through a corresponding ballast 30 and a controller 31 for separately controlling the amount of power provided by the power supply unit 29 to each lamp 25a, 25b, 25c of the same group, so as to vary the color of the global light emitted by this group.

The modules 26 may be separately controlled, or all lamps 25a (or 25b or 25c) of the same color may be supplied with the same amount of electric power. In the first case, it is possible to locally vary the color of the light, e.g. in order to form colored light waves along the roof 19, whereas in the second case it is possible to have the same uniform given color all along the roof 19.

In order to make it possible to choose the desired illumination, the controller 31 comprises a programmable central processing unit 32 wherein illumination programs may be either manually inputted, or initially installed in an internal memory and thereafter manually selected, or downloaded from external memory supports (such as CDROMs, floppy disks, etc) . In this case, the controller may comprise a remote control receptor 33, e.g. a blue tooth or a wi-fi receptor, suitable for distant downloading of illumination programs from an external communicating memory support 34. Such programs may control automatic variation of electric power provided by the power supply unit 29 to each lamp 25a, 25b, 25c of the same group. For instance, the illumination may be blue for several seconds, and then continuously turn to purple, and then to orange, etc.

Colored illumination may not provide sufficient light, for example when a dark color is provided. Therefore, the illumination system 24 may further comprise white lamps 25d, each of which is disposed between two adjacent modules 26 and connected to the power supply unit 29, so as to enrich the global illumination with pure white light.

As depicted on figure 3, each white lamp 25d is disposed parallel to the colored ones 25a, 25b, 25c under a separate concave reflector 35.

The lamps 25a-d may be of the fluorescent type or any other known type. The ballasts 30 are of the dimmer type for variably energizing the fluorescent lamps 25a-d. The colored lamps 25a, 25b, 25c may be obtained by ordinary white lamps the external surface of which is provided with a colored transparent coating. It is thereby provided a more user-friendly shelter structure, the color of the illumination of which may correspond to the current season, or to the color of the current bus line, or to one or several colors of the neighborhood, or to a current event, like a national day (for instance, during Independence Day, the colors may be blue, white and red) , or even to the main color or trademark of an advertising panel provided on the side wall .

Claims

1. A shelter structure (1) comprising

- a roof (19) , - an illumination system (24) including lamps (25a-d) mounted in the roof (19) and

- a diffuser panel (23) mounted under the lamps (25a- d), wherein the illumination system (24) comprises - several adjacent modules (26) each comprising a group of three lamps (25a, 25b, 25c) of different colors, e.g. red, green and blue, each group of three lamps (25a, 25b, 25c) being disposed horizontally under a common concave reflector (27), - a power supply unit (29) to which each lamp (25a, 25b, 25c) is electrically connected, and

- a controller (30) for separately controlling the amount of power provided by the power supply unit (29) to each lamp (25a, 25b, 25c) of the same group.

2. A shelter structure (1) according to claim 1, wherein the illumination system (24) comprises white lamps

(25d) each disposed between two adjacent modules (26) and connected to the power supply unit (29) .

3. A shelter structure (1) according to claim 1, wherein the roof (19) comprises a support frame (20) and wherein the diffuser panel (23) is hingedly connected to the roof support frame (20) .

4. A shelter structure (1) according to claim 1, wherein the controller (30) comprises a programmable central processing unit (32) downloadable with illumination programs controlling automatic variation of power provided by the power supply unit (29) to each lamp (25a, 25b, 25c) of the same group.

5. A shelter structure (10) according to claim 4, wherein the controller (30) comprises a remote control receptor (33) .