WO2023028977A1

WO2023028977A1 - Electronic candle

Info

Publication number: WO2023028977A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/116372
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hesong Huang; Federico GARCIA ALBARIDO
Original assignee: Ikea Supply Ag
Priority date: 2021-09-03
Filing date: 2021-09-03
Publication date: 2023-03-09

Abstract

An electronic candle (1), having a recess (9) is formed with an opening in the top end so as to resemble a pillar candle that has burnt for a considerable time. The recess defines inner recess walls (11) and an inner recess bottom surface (13). An electric light source such as a LED (15) is arranged in the recess bottom surface (13). A contactless control arrangement is provided, controlling the electric light source (15), comprising a transmitter (17), transmitting electromagnetic or acoustic waves, and a receiver (19), receiving reflected waves. The transmitter (17) and the receiver (19) are located in the recess bottom surface (13), such that waves reflected from an object located directly above the recess opening are received.

Description

ELECTRONIC CANDLE

Technical field

The present disclosure relates to an electronic candle, comprising a body having a bottom surface, a top end, and at least one sidewall extending from the bottom surface to the top end, wherein a recess is formed with an opening in the top end so as to resemble a pillar candle that has burnt for a considerable time. The recess defines inner recess walls and an inner recess bottom surface, and an electric light source is arranged in the recess bottom surface to emit light at least through the recess opening and the recess side walls, and a control arrangement is provided to provide control of the electric light source.

Background

Such electronic candles typically called pillar or block candles have widespread use as they provide a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to natural pillar or block candles. With a standard battery, a light source, typically in the form of a light emitting diode, LED, can provide light during several hours using a few standard batteries such as AA or AAA batteries, and the candle can be produced at low cost. The candle can be switched on or off or between different other modes using a switch, typically hidden under the bottom surface, but it has been proposed to allow contactless control of the candle using a remote control or motion detectors, for instance. This means that the candle can be switched on or off, for instance, even without touching the candle. A general problem with such is to provide efficient and reliable control of the electronic candle.

Summary

One object of the present disclosure is therefore to provide an electronic candle with an efficient and reliable contactless control function. This object is achieved by means of an electronic candle as defined in claim 1. More particularly, an electronic candle of the initially mentioned kind comprises a control arrangement having a transmitter, transmitting electromagnetic and/or acoustic waves, and a receiver, receiving reflected waves from an object located above the recess opening, wherein the transmitter and the receiver are located at the recess bottom surface. This means that there may be provided a control space above, e.g. straight vertically above, the candle in which the candle can be controlled, for instance by a hand movement. This eliminates or reduces the risk that an arbitrary movement close to the candle involuntarily switches the light on or off, for instance. The controlling of the candle can thereby be made more efficient.

The transmitter may be separated from the receiver such that there is no direct line of sight therebetween. This avoids false registration of reflections and may be accomp-lished by separating the transmitter and receiver by means of a wall. As an alter-native or in combination therewith, the transmitter and receiver may be separated by at least one of them being withdrawn in a respective well in the bottom surface.

The receiver may be configured to react only upon objects within a distance of 30 cm from the top surface to provide a small control space, or more preferred within a distance of 10 cm from the top surface.

The light source may be a light emitting diode, LED.

The transmitter may be arranged for transmitting infrared, IR, light, and the receiver may be arranged for detecting reflection of the same.

The candle may comprise a communication interface for transmitting detected control commands to other paired nearby candles. Thereby, a hand movement made above one candle may induce also other candles in communication with the first-mentioned candle to receive and carry out the same command.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig 1 shows a perspective view of an electronic candle according to the present disclosure.

Fig 2 shows a planar view of the electronic candle of fig 1 as seen from above.

Fig 3 shows the bottom of the recess of fig 1 exposed by a cut-out in a side wall.

Fig 4 illustrates the activation space above an electronic candle according to the present disclosure.

Detailed description

The present disclosure relates to electric candles such as block/pillar candles. Fig 1 shows a perspective and fig 2 a top view of an electronic pillar candle 1 comprising a typically plastic material body made from, e.g., Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or any similar plastic material. It may however even be considered to produce at least parts of the body in actual candle wax. The candle body extends from a bottom surface 3 to a top end 5. A side wall 7 extends from the bottom surface 3 to the top end 5. In the illustrated case, the side wall 7 is cylindrical, and therefore only one continuous wall 7 is provided, however, other shapes such as a polygonal cross section is also possible, in which case it would be accurate to refer to a plurality of side walls.

A recess 9 is formed with an opening in the top end 5, such that the candle resemb-les a pillar candle that has burnt for a considerable time, e.g. one hour or more. The top end 5 thus is a ring-shaped rim. The recess 9 may have different depths. depending on the desired visual appearance, resembling a candle that has burnt for a shorter or longer time.

The recess 9 defines inner recess walls 11 and an inner recess bottom surface 13.

The recess walls 11 and the side wall 7 need not have the perfectly cylindrical shape illustrated. Rather, these walls may be somewhat irregular to resemble softened stearin or paraffin wax that has been deformed to some extent from the heat of a burning wick.

An electric light source 15 is arranged in the recess bottom surface 13. Typically, this light source 15 is a light emitting diode LED, which is powered by batteries (not shown) hidden in the base of the candle, under the recess bottom surface 13. Batteries may be rechargeable via an electric connector in the candle bottom surface, for instance, and/or may be replaceable.

However, it would be possible to power the candle also directly from an USB cable or the like.

The light source 15 emits light at least through the recess 9 opening in the top end 5 and through the recess side walls 11 to resemble a candle. It is possible to elec-tronically vary the light emission so as to make the light resemble the flickering of a real flame.

The electronic pillar candle 1 is further provided with a contactless control arrange-

ment

17, 19 allowing remote control of the electric light source, as best illustrated in fig 3 where a part of the side wall 11 is removed to expose the recess bottom surface 13.The contactless control arrangement includes a transmitter 17 and a receiver 19 arranged in or at the bottom surface 13. The transmitter 17 may be arranged to transmit waves of different kinds including acoustic waves and electromagnetic waves such as light, such as IR-light, or radio waves. The receiver 19 is adapted to detect reflections of the transmitted waves from an object localized a few centimeters to a few decimeters from the transmitter 17. The light source 15 may be controlled based on signals from the receiver 19.

The transmitter 17 may be separated from the receiver 19 such that there is no direct line of sight therebetween so that false registrations of strong reflections can be avoided that in reality is a transfer of energy directly from the transmitter 17 to the receiver 19. As illustrated in fig 3, this can be accomplished by means of a wall 25 separating the transmitter 17 from the receiver 19.

As an alternative to the wall 25 or in combination therewith the separation between the transmitter 17 and the receiver 19 can be accomplished by either or both being withdrawn in a respective well in the bottom surface 13, thus not projecting from that surface.

By placing the receiver 19 and the transmitter 17 at the bottom surface 13, the side walls 11 will concentrate the transmitted energy to a sector 21 above the candle by screening, as illustrated in fig 4. The sector 21 is cone-shaped and located straight vertically above the candle. This means that the risk of activating or deactivating the electronic candle 1 involuntarily can be, more or less, eliminated.

Furthermore, the transmitter 17 may be arranged to have a short transmission length, meaning that waves transmitted by the transmitter 17 reach only just above the top end 5. One advantage of this is that only objects, such as the hand 23 of a human, being very close to the top end 5 will reflect waves that can be detected by the receiver 19. This substantially reduces the risk of unwanted activation or deactivation of the candle caused by movements that are not intended to activate or deactivate the candle. A further advantage is that a short transmission length of the transmitter 17 results in a low energy consumption. Preferably, reflections are detectable at a maximum of 30 cm, more preferably 10 cm, above the top end 5. Any movement above this level, e.g. a human hand 23 moving 50 cm above the top end, will not lead to any waves reflected that can be detected by the receiver 19, or that the detected reflection does not exceed a threshold and is discarded. Hence no activation or deactivation of the candle, for instance, takes place if there is no movement in the close proximity of the candle top end 5.

Typical control actions are turn off, turn on, dim up, dim down, begin flicker, end flicker. It is possible to distinguish between different control actions for instance depending on the time duration during which a reflection is detected or by providing multiple detections during a short time interval.

It is possible to pair two or more candles such that controlling one of them controls the others in parallel, e.g. turning on/off, adding flicker or dimming. Then, the candles can communicate using any type of near-field communication such as Bluetooth, for instance. In general, the candle then comprises a communication interface 27 for transmitting detected control commands to other similar or identical, paired nearby candles 29.

The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described may be varied and altered in different ways within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

An electronic candle (1) comprising a body having a bottom surface (3) , a top end (5) , and at least one sidewall (7) extending from the bottom surface to the top end, wherein a recess (9) is formed with an opening in the top end (5) so as to resemble a pillar candle that has burnt for a considerable time, the recess (9) defining inner recess walls (11) and an inner recess bottom surface (13) , wherein an electric light source (15) is arranged in the recess bottom surface (13) to emit light at least through the recess opening and the recess side walls (11) , and wherein a control arrangement (17, 19) is provided to provide control of the electric light source, characterized by the control arrangement being contactless, comprising a trans-mitter (17) , transmitting electromagnetic and/or acoustic waves, and a receiver (19) , receiving reflected waves from an object located above the recess opening, wherein the transmitter and the receiver are located in the recess bottom surface (13) .
Electronic candle according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter (17) is separated from the receiver (19) such that there is no direct line of sight there-between.
Electronic candle according to claim 2, wherein the transmitter (17) and receiver (19) are separated by means of a wall (25) , preferably the wall (25) being arranged at the recess bottom surface (13) .
Electronic candle according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the transmitter (17) and receiver (19) are separated by at least one thereof being withdrawn in a respective well in the bottom surface (13) .
Electronic candle according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the receiver is configured to react only upon objects within a distance of 30 cm from the top surface (5) .
Electronic candle according to claim 5, wherein the receiver is con-figured to react only upon objects within a distance of 10 cm from the top surface (5) .
Electronic candle according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the light source (15) is a light emitting diode, LED, and/or wherein the transmitter being arranged for transmitting IR light.
Electronic candle according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the candle comprises a communication interface for transmitting detected control commands to other, paired nearby candles.
Electronic candle according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the receiver (19) , is configured to receive reflected waves from an object located substantially vertically above the recess opening.