The trend towards increasing the glazed area in automobiles has reduced the potential locations for mounting cabin lighting. This is especially true for vehicles having large panoramic glazing. Attempts to utilize integrated light sources within the glazing have had mixed results. Embedded LEDs in the laminate tend to be too bright for night driving. Edge feed illumination with light dispersing elements on the glass to date have only been able to provide low intensity levels. Both approaches tend to reduce visibility and aesthetics in the off state. The current invention provides a means and a method to produce a laminate which provides bright cabin lighting without compromising the function of the glazing to serve as a window, by creating a light dispersing layer that is substantially invisible when in the off state and very bright in the on state.

A wide-area solid-state illumination system employing a waveguide with two-sided segmented light emission and one or more compact solid-state light sources, such as LEDs, coupled to an edge of the waveguide. The waveguide is made of a thin sheet of optically transmissive material with a uniform thickness and has a plurality of light extraction areas distributed over the waveguide's area according to a two-dimensional pattern. The light extraction areas are separated from one another by separation areas and have different densities of light extraction surface structures. The surface structures are configured to distribute light from both sides of the waveguide. At least some of the light extraction surface structures are formed by discrete surface microstructures spaced apart from one another by distances which are greater than sizes of the individual discrete surface microstructures and at least five times less than a width of the separation areas.

An edgelit multifunctional lighting assembly is configured as a cross tee within a suspended ceiling system and supports at least one ceiling panel and is configurable to produce symmetric and asymmetric targeted light distributions for narrow and wide angle illumination applications.

Materials and lightguides formed thereof that are suitable for use in lighting units to impart a color filtering effect to visible light. At least a portion of such a lightguide (16) is formed of a composite material comprising a polymeric matrix material and an inorganic particulate material that contributes a color filtering effect to visible light passing through the composite material, and the particulate material comprises a neodymium compound containing Nd.sup.3+ ions.

The present invention provides a backlight and a display apparatus. The backlight comprises a substrate and at least one light source. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface along a thickness direction of the substrate. The first surface and the second surface are both continuous. The first surface has at least one light incident surface in the edge area. A light source is opposed to or in contact with the light incident surface to provide the substrate with light through the light incident surface.

An electronic device includes: a non-collimated backlight module; a transparent backlight module disposed on the non-collimated backlight module, wherein the transparent backlight module includes a direct-lit backlight module or an edge-lit backlight module; and a display cell disposed on the transparent backlight module; wherein when in a narrow mode, the non-collimated backlight module is in an off-state, and the transparent backlight module is in an on-state, wherein when in a wide mode, the non-collimated backlight module is in an on-state.

Techniques for creating, configuring, and employing diffusion light devices are presented. Such light device(s) can comprise or be associated with a light management component (LMC) that can employ sensors to monitor environmental conditions in a defined area of people or vehicles, and a diffusion component that can diffuse or otherwise process light. At a least a portion of the diffusion component and/or a light component can be formed of a fabric that can emit light and/or diffuse light. LMC can enhance function of the light device to manage diffusion of light or perform other tasks to enhance user experience and safety and security of people or vehicles. Based on results of analyzing sensor data relating to the conditions, LMC can determine and facilitate implementing an adjustment(s) to a parameter(s) of the diffusion component or light component to achieve desired emission or diffusion of light.

A composite transparent lighting device is described. The device has a transparent substrate, an uniform distribution of low concentration dielectric particles, reflective perimeter and perimetral discrete light sources, of improved appearance both in the inoperative state of the device, and at the same time capable of providing good quality lighting when the device is active, i.e. when the discrete light sources on the perimeter of the device are turned on.

Apparatus can comprise a light source and a light guide plate. The light guide plate can comprise a plurality of features within an interior of the light guide plate. A feature of the plurality of features can comprise a first refractive index that is different from a refractive index of the light guide plate. A spacing between a pair of adjacent features of the plurality of features can be from about 20 micrometers to about 200 micrometers. The apparatus can be used to direct light out of the light guide plate with a peak radiance oriented from 0° to 30° from a direction normal to the first major surface of the light guide plate. Methods of making the apparatus can comprise emitting a burst of pulses from a laser. Methods can comprise focusing the burst of pulses into a line focus within the light guide plate.

The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a small optical integrator for increasing color mixing property and homogeneity. An optical integrator is provided with a light entrance surface and exit surface (002, 003), and side surfaces (004, 005, 006, 007) that connect the entrance surface and the exit surface, and is internally filled with a light guide material having a refractive index. The light guide material contains scattering particles for scattering light that have a refractive index different from the refractive index of the light guide material. The light that has entered via the entrance surface propagates from the entrance surface side toward the exit surface while being scattered by the scattering particles in the light guide material, wherein part of the scattered light is guided to the exit surface by propagating while being confined, by internal reflection on the side surfaces, in the light detector.