Method and means for reflecting light to produce soft indirect illumination while avoiding scattering enclosures

Abstract

A HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror for luminaries intended to illuminate a room, where the luminaries may send direct bright light towards directions that are inconvenient. Similarly to its space telescope device, the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror redirects the emitted light to other directions that are more advantageous for illumination, particularly to avoid direct bright light onto the eyes of humans in the space.

Claims

1. A multi-faceted first reflecting surface for acting in conjunction with a luminary for redirecting a light energy in a room with a ceiling above the room and walls surrounding the room providing directional lighting and configured for electromechanical mechanical connection between to a first tube socket and a second tube socket of a supporting structure lampholder supporting a luminary, mounted in fixed position with respect to the ceiling, the electric light multi-faceted first reflecting surface comprising: a first surface S_total composed of a plurality of at least one subsurface S_i in fixed position with respect to the luminary, wherein, in the installed configuration, the first reflecting surface is positioned adjacent to the luminary and so oriented with respect to the luminary and in fixed position with respect to the luminary, such that the first reflecting surface is so oriented with respect to the luminary that reflects at least 25% the light energy originating from the luminary and reflected by the reflecting surface, propagates toward the upper 90% of the walls surrounding the reflecting surface and the room and toward the ceiling. a light body having a first surface and a second surface, the first surface differing in orientation from the second surface; an elongated support spanning between the first tube socket and the second tube socket of the lampholder when in an installed configuration, the elongated supporting the light body through a cable; and a plurality of light emitting diodes mounted on the first surface; wherein, in the installed configuration, the lampholder is coupled with the elongated support for supporting the light body suspended below the elongated support, such that the first surface with the light emitting diode is oriented toward the lampholder for providing lighting toward the ceiling.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the supporting structure also supports the luminary.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the luminary also supports the first reflecting surface in fixed position with respect to the ceiling.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein at least 90% of the light energy originating from the luminary and reflected by the first reflecting surface propagates toward the upper 90% of th walls surrounding the room and toward the ceiling.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein at least 90% of the light energy originating from the luminary and reflected by the first reflecting surface propagates toward the upper 50% of the walls surrounding the room and toward the ceiling.

6. The device of claim 1 with an extra second reflecting surface that is so positioned in the vicinity of the luminary and at such orientation with respect to the luminary and to the first reflecting surface that the light energy emitted by the luminary toward the second reflecting surface is partly redirected to the first reflecting surface.

7. The electric light device of claim 1 wherein a louver extends beyond from the light body beneath the first reflecting surface light emitting diodes to further direct light toward the ceiling above the room and the walls surrounding the room.

8. A method to redirect a light energy from its original direction, the light energy emanating from a luminary, toward points located at upper parts of walls surrounding a room and toward a ceiling above the room, the method comprising: placing a multi-faceted first reflecting surface for acting in conjunction with the luminary for redirecting the light energy in the room with the walls surrounding the room and the ceiling above the room providing directional lighting and configured for electromechanical mechanical connection between to a first tube socket and a second tube socket of a supporting structure lampholder supporting a luminary, mounted in fixed position with respect to the ceiling, the electric light multi-faceted first reflecting surface comprising: a surface S_total composed of a plurality of at least one subsurface S_i in fixed position with respect to the luminary, wherein, in the installed configuration, the first reflecting surface is positioned adjacent to the luminary and so oriented with respect to the luminary and in fixed position with respect to the luminary, such that the reflecting surface is so oriented with respect to the luminary that reflects at least 25% the light energy originating from the luminary and reflected by the reflecting surface, propagates toward the upper 90% of the walls surrounding the reflecting surface and the room and toward the ceiling.

9. The method of claim 8 where the first reflecting surface reflects at least 75% of the light energy originating from the luminary toward the upper 90% of the walls surrounding the room and toward the ceiling.

10. The method of claim 8 where the first reflecting surface reflects at least 25% of the light energy originating from the luminary toward the upper 30% of the walls surrounding the room and toward the ceiling.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0040] FIG. 1. Old art incandescent luminary.

[0041] FIG. 2. Example of forward emitting incandescent substitute E27 LED luminary.

[0042] FIG. 3. The reader will see that a single louver (Lover2) at the bottom of the luminary has to protrude further out of the luminary than louvers just next to each LED chip (Louver1) if it is intended to catch the same “light rays”, say, at 30 degrees angular aperture as shown.

[0043] FIG. 4. Example of insertable Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror to frustrate light into undesirable directions. The invention is insertable into existing corn-style LEDs made to substitute old incandescent E27 luminary.

[0044] FIG. 5. Corn-style E27 substitute already including the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer device of our invention. In this case the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer device is part of the new luminary, as opposed to FIG. 4, which is to correct already existing corn-style luminaries.

[0045] FIG. 6. Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention under existing incandescent E27 luminary.

[0046] FIG. 7. The reader will see that a single mirror (Mirror2) at the bottom of the luminary has to protrude further out of the luminary than mirrors just next to each LED chip (Mirror1) if it is intended to catch the same “light rays”, say, at 30 degrees angular aperture as shown.

[0047] FIG. 8. Alternative supporting structure for the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention. In this case the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror is supported by the luminary, instead of supported by the structure attached at the ceiling.

[0048] FIG. 9. Example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror.

[0049] FIG. 10. Another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention.

[0050] FIG. 11. Still another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention.

[0051] FIG. 12. Another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention.

[0052] FIG. 13. Another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention with supporting cables.

[0053] FIG. 14. Another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention with an LED luminary.

[0054] FIG. 15. Still another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention.

[0055] FIG. 16. A blown out version of the insertable Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror designed for use with a corn-style LED substitute for the E27 incandescent bulb. At top left is a side view of the insertable device, at top right is a perspective view of the same, and at the bottom is a corn-style luminary that is insertable into the invention as shown by arrow.

[0056] FIG. 17. Still another example of Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention, with supporting cables and a new LED forward emitting LED luminary.

[0057] FIG. 18. A version of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror for the tubular fluorescent luminary commonly used in school, businesses and industrial facilities.

[0058] FIG. 19. Same as FIG. 18 including supporting cables.

[0059] FIG. 20. Same as FIG. 18, this time including an extra Hubble-Perkin-Elmer reflecting mirror at the top to collect light emitted upwards.

[0060] FIG. 21. Several variation of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror of our invention.

DRAWINGS

List of Reference Numerals

[0061] Refl_Surf1=First reflecting surface.

[0062] Refl_Surf2=Second reflecting surface/louver.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0063] The main embodiment of our invention is a device consisting of a reflecting surface (as a mirror) attached by convenient means (described in the sequel) in the vicinity of either an old-style luminary or to some of their LED-substitutes, as the dinosaur-type E27 incandescent bulb or some of its LED-substitutes, such that it is vertically mounted at the ceiling of a room, which makes that the luminary is vertically oriented pointing down to the floor, which is a common arrangement in homes. Variations of the supporting structure make the detailed description, which is for a ceiling mounted E27 style socket and electrical connection, to also work with other mountings.

[0064] We start the description of the main embodiment of our invention with the description of the existing device the our invention modifies. FIG. 1 shows an incandescent E27-type existing device, with a frosted glass enclosure insertable from underneath the E27 incandescent bulb upwards so as to completely surround the E27 incandescent bulb—this is old stuff, known in attorney's lingo as “old-art”, depicted here only to show the change our invention makes on the existing devices. FIG. 6 shows the main embodiment of our invention. Our invention gets away with the frosted glass enclosure Frost_Gla, adding instead of the frosty enclosure a hanging Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror HPE_Mirror. We call the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror in memory of the Hubble telescope blunder that none of the engineers and techs detected while still on the ground at the American high-tech company Perkin Elmer, in Connecticut. The main mirror was incorrectly polished at Perkin Elmer, so the images were no better than the images from an amateur telescope at the ground. After a scary period of consternation within the astronomer's community, it was suggested to add a correcting mirror to the telescope, which was so polished as to undue the errors on the incompetently polished main mirror. The Hubble telescope was then corrected with an additional mirror, and the improperly designed luminary can likewise be corrected with an additional mirror, in this luminary case not to correct a blurred image but to make the device more energy efficient, in the sense of providing more visible light energy (photons) in the space, for a given amount of electrical energy spent on the luminary.

[0065] Again referring to FIG. 6, it is seen the main embodiment of our invention. In it one can see the supporting structure Supp that is used by existing luminaries (old art in patent lawyers jargon), which is attached to the ceiling, which is designed to support a frosty glass or plastic enclosure that surrounds the E-27 incandescent bulb inside it. The type shown in this figure is one of the most common at the ceilings of home, though not the only one, and the three screws hold the frosty enclosure as they are tightened under the flip at the top opening of the frosty enclosure. In this figure one can also see an incandescent bulb, which is screwed onto a female receptacle (not shown) vertically mounted at the ceiling. The incandescent bulb emits light towards all directions with the proviso that light that is emitted straight backwards, toward the incandescent's base socket is generally absorbed by the structure, but this is a minuscule fraction of the light energy and it is not considered here. Part of the light emitted by the incandescent luminary is emitted generally speaking upwards, towards the ceiling, from where it is diffusely reflected into the room below, contributing to a pleasing evenly distributed light. Likewise for the part of the light emitted horizontally or just below the horizontal direction, which hits the upper walls of the room, from where it is diffusely reflected into the room below, also contributing to a pleasing evenly distributed light. The remaining light, which is approximately less than 50% of the light energy, is emitted down into the room, forming a too bright source that inconvenience the humans below, which is the reason for the frosty covers of the past, the covers that are being substituted by our invention. Our invention is the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror (HPE_Mirror), which, for this embodiment, is positioned just below the luminary, as close as possible to it, as seen at FIG. 6. As the reader can see from the figure, all the light propagating within a cone with an apex angle of approximately 140 degrees is bound to disturb people below because the source generally has too large a luminous emittance (too bright light in common parlance). Light emitted outside (above) such a cone is likely to hit the higher part of the walls, outside the path into people's eyes below, from where it reflects diffusely and does not disturb people in the room. Our invention is our amazingly cleaver Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror (HPE_Mirror), located under the luminary. As the reader can see, the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror redirects the light from a path that would inconvenience people below, towards a direction that is close to or above the horizontal and, because of the position of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror, will propagate toward the upper part of the wall surrounding the luminary. The amount of light energy that is reflected by our Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror depends on the distance between the mirror and the luminary; in general light is reflected that is propagating outward from the luminary within the angle subtended between the light emission point (roughly the luminary itself) and the outer edge of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror. Therefore, given that it is more advantageous to redirect as much of the light energy as feasible, the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror should be placed as near as possible to the luminary above it in the main embodiment. FIG. 7 shows this dependence between the size of the correcting mirror (or its diameter) and the distance between the correcting mirror and the LED or other light source. Observation of FIG. 7 should convince the reader that the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror should be placed as close as possible to the luminary.

[0066] Most of the walls are painted with off-white (or totally white), with a reflectivity of around 90% (that is, with a 10% loss to absorption), and the painting is usually a diffuse reflector, so all the reflected light that reaches the walls and the ceiling is reflected again, this time with a loss of 10% (typical value) to all directions into the room. This last characteristic is important for the invention too, because the consequence of it is that any and every point in the room receives light that has been scattered by a large surface area (the higher walls and the ceiling), which means that the illumination is soft and devoid of sharp shadows. It follows that no point at the wall is too bright, since the original light is spread over a large surface at the upper part of the walls and the ceiling, and also that the light that then propagates into the room has suffered an attenuation of just 10% (typical value), as opposed to an attenuation of 25% due do the absorption of the old-style, dinosaur-type glass or plastic enclosure the ridiculously energy inefficient type of incandescent bulbs.

[0067] In anticipation of some reader's observation that there are multiple reflections within our invention, which is true, each causing an approximately 10% absorption, we reply that this indeed occur, but it does occur for both the frosty enclosure (old art) and the HPE_mirror: both cases involve multiple reflections at the walls, so this is no worse for our invention than it is for the frosty enclosures. It only means that the actual available light energy is somewhat less than 25% and 10% loss, but it is less by the same amount, say 25%−x % and 10%−x %, so the difference is always still 15% in our favor. Again, in anticipation of criticism, the 25% and 10% values that we are using here for analysis are typical values, which are different in each case.

[0068] For the main embodiment the additional mirror HPE_mirror is kept in fixed position under the luminary, as shown, preferably just below the luminary, say, with its tip at 1 mm below the bottom of the luminary. The distance to the luminary is important, as said above and as it will be explained below, though this distance suggested here is not mandatory, not the only possibility for the invention, other distances being also possible, depending on the circumstances. The correcting mirror for the main embodiment has a shape that reminds a Vietnamese hat, but this is not the only possible shape, other shapes being equally acceptable that redirect the light to the higher walls and to the ceiling.

[0069] The correcting mirror is, for this main embodiment, a cone followed by a truncated cone, but this combination is not necessary, a single cone being also a possible main embodiment of the invention, or a cone followed by two truncated cones, one after the other (not shown), etc. The reflecting mirror HPE_mirror is kept in place under the luminary by three cables (or strings, or rods, or wires, etc.), labeled “cable” in the figure, each cable terminating on a ring at its upper extremity, further away from the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror, labeled Supp_Ring in the figure, which is of such a size as to be insertable in the fastening screws Fast_Scr that in the traditional luminary are used to held the frost cover in place, as shown in the figure. This particular hanging method is not the only one, any other mechanical support being equally acceptable. In the main embodiment the correcting mirrors are kept in place by three supporting cables spaced 120 degrees apart around the conical mirrors, which are attached at the usual three screws that traditionally support the milky (or scattering, of frosty) surfaces that surround the traditional E27 luminary at the ceiling of many household rooms, but more cables or less cables are possible, still not changing the invention. For example, it is possible to suspend the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror directly from the ceiling, instead of three cables attached to the three screws intended to hold the traditional frosty enclosure around the incandescent bulb, and this is an obvious modification intended to be protected by our disclosure. Or it is also possible that the HPE correcting mirror may be supported from a ring which is placed around the E27 neck, just below the E27 screw, as shown at FIG. 8. Such a ring could not fall through the incandescent bulb (or its equivalent substitutes) because the cylinder of the LED substitute (or the body of the incandescent) is wider than the screw intended to penetrate the female receptacle above it. In this figure one sees a ring (Lamp Ring) which is inserted from the E27 screw side of the luminary, which has a smaller diameter than the bulb itself, and which, in the vertical ceiling configuration used for the main embodiment, is kept in place by gravity, which is the supporting structure for the three (or more) cables labeled Cable at the figure, which finally support the Hubble Perkin Elmer mirror of our invention. There are an infinite number of other possibilities to keep the correcting mirror in place, and the particular one chosen is included in our invention.

[0070] For example, it is possible to suspend the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror directly from the ceiling, instead of three cables attached to the three screws intended to hold the traditional frosty enclosure around the incandescent bulb, and this is an obvious modification intended to be protected by our disclosure.

[0071] FIGS. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 show several views and variations of the main embodiment that are so similar as to be the same invention. In particular, the correcting mirrors need not be a cone followed by a truncated cone, but may equally be one cone only, with larger or with smaller apex angles (which means wider bases or narrower bases), or some other shape, geometric shape or not, a shape describable by one simple equation in analytic geometry or not easily describable by an equation in analytic geometry. The cones may be mirrors or may be simple polished glass surfaces. If these later, they would still be very good reflectors because the angle of incidence would be close to 90 degrees, which, by Fresnel equations, guarantee large reflecting coefficients, in which case a small fraction of the light would be transmitted directly down, not too much as to be annoying to the eye (the reader is here reminded that in optics all angles are measured with respect to the normal, or perpendicular to the surface, which means that 90 degrees is a grazing angle of incidence, as the sun setting over the horizon). The cones may also be unpolished surfaces, in which cases they act as partly or totally diffuse reflectors. The cones may be made of polished metal or any other material, including plastics, to decrease the cost and weight.

[0072] Also, the luminary may be a forward emitting LED substitute for the incandescent bulb, as shown in FIG. 15 and other figures with variations cited above. Or the luminary may be a corn-style LED substitute for an E27 incandescent bulb, in which case the conical reflector, or Vietnamese hat of the main embodiment, may represent only part of what is required to prevent light into the eyes of people in the room, with additional reflecting surfaces near the LEDs located at the sides of the corn-style luminary, as seen at FIG. 16. This figure shows a series of reflecting mirrors labeled Mirror_MR, one under each set of LEDs around the perimeter at the same axial position on the cylinder, together with a system to adapt the structure to different sizes of corn-style LED luminaries. Each two ring shaped mirror Mirror_MR is separated by a spacer labeled SP, which has a length such that each mirror MR is just below a series of LED around the perimeter of the cylinder. The whole set of spacers SP are kept in place by a smaller rod that runs inside them all, and through holes conveniently drilled on the mirrors MR, and the whole structure is kept fixed by nuts NT screwed onto the tapped ends of the supporting rod SR (not shown).

[0073] In fact, an infinite number of modifications are possible, varying the shape and size of the reflecting surface near the luminary, or the method to keep the reflecting surface fixed in space, or changing the material of the reflecting surface, or changing the surface structure of the reflecting surface and more, which are variations that are intended to be included in the invention.

[0074] It is preferable that the correcting mirror be situated just below the luminary, say, with its tip at 1 mm below the bottom of the luminary, or more, as 1 cm below the bottom of the luminary, or perhaps a little lower, as its tip 5 cm below, or even more, 10 cm below, or even more, the actual distance from the bottom of the luminary to the top of the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror not changing the spirit of the invention. The distance below the luminary matters, as shown at FIG. 7, where the reader can see that the farther the reflecting mirror is from the light source, the larger it has to be if it is to cover the same angular aperture around the light source. For this reason the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer mirrors are drawn close to the incandescent light bulb in FIG. 1, though this closeness is not necessary, but only an advantage to make the mirror smaller in size.

[0075] This is the physical arrangement shown at FIG. 17 which happens to depict an LED-type substitute for an incandescent bulb, but it could be an incandescent bulb as well. We will use the E27 example (E26 in USA), with the ubiquitous 3-screw holder for the larger frosty enclosure that often surrounds the incandescent bulb inside it, but obvious modifications for other luminaries are intended to be included in our invention. Or the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror may hang from a ring surrounding the upper part of the incandescent bulb, or an LED-substitute of it, just below the E27 screw, as seen at FIG. 8. We also explicitly show variations of the main embodiment for the tubular fluorescent lamps that dominate the commercial and instructional facilities, for the corn-style substitute of the E27 incandescent and for a few other luminaries and/or attachment variation.

Operation of Invention

[0076] The objective of artificial illumination is, in the majority of cases, to spread the light in such a way that the full room is diffused with an even illumination reaching everywhere in equal intensity from all directions. Museum rooms, display cases, educational shows, and others are exceptions that may not be included in our analysis. Our invention operates on the fact that the LED light emitting elements of the LED light substitutes for all the existing technologies are all small in size (a few square mm) and all emit on a narrow cone of light (though not as narrow as a laser diode!). The operation of our invention is then to locate the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors in such positions and along such orientations that they point toward a nearby white surface (higher reflectivity and small absorptivity and transmissivity), from which light is scattered at all angles towards the space which is to receive illumination. A second operational goal of the invention is to avoid direct light from the luminaries into the eyes of the humans in the environment, for any and all cases when the luminaries are characterized by a too high luminous emittance (too bright in normal language).

[0077] The operation of our invention is the redirection of the light energy from an undesirable propagation direction to another direction that is more desirable. Most often, but not necessarily exclusively, an undesirable direction exists when a bright light source emits light (or part of its light energy) along such a direction that it can be seen directly by humans in the environment. This direct exposure to the light is undesirable when the light is too bright, the maximum amount being a subjective, yet valuable measure if agreed upon by a large number of people. The method of operation of our invention is to add reflecting surfaces, the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors, which are positioned along the undesirable directions, so as to block light propagation along these directions, and oriented along such directions that the reflected light propagates toward surfaces that are characterized by a reflectance of at least 50%, or better, a reflectance of at least 75%, or even better, a reflectance of at least 90%, which are also diffuse reflectors. These conditions are easily met by the paintings on most walls, which are diffuse reflectors in the almost totality of cases, and which are, on purpose and always, as high reflectance as reasonably possible to make, usually 90% reflectance and more. If then the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors are so oriented as to reflect the light out of the initial path that would annoy people due to high luminous emittance (too bright in laymen's words) onto directions such that the new propagation directions is unlikely to intercept the eyes of most human beings in the room and if also this reflected light spreads over a diffuse reflecting surface that is also a good reflector, then the room would be illuminated by a pleasing soft light which comes from many directions, an illumination that would also be devoid of shadows, which is another advantage of the invention.

[0078] One common situation is that the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror is added below a ceiling luminary and is so oriented as to reflect the light toward the upper portions of the walls and to the ceiling of the room. In most of the cases the large reflective surface is the higher part of the walls and the ceiling of the rooms, which are generally light colored, with a reflectivity of 0.9 or larger. By higher part of the wall, we mean the 1% higher part of the wall, or the 10% higher part of the wall, or the 30% higher part of the wall, or the 50% higher part of the wall, or even 90% higher part of the wall, depending on the height of the room.

Description and Operation of Alternative Embodiments

[0079] We used the A-series (Edison screw base) filament light bulb as the main embodiment, but the inventive method of directing the emitted light toward highly reflective surfaces, as the ceiling and higher sections of the walls, with view of not allowing the light beam to pass through paths which may cross the eyes of people, is perfectly transferable to other luminaries. It is quite possible to use the inventive method with other standards different than the A-series, adapting the hardware to each case, mostly a different configuration for the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors. The adaptation to each case is to keep the method of directing the light emitted by the luminaries towards surfaces with high diffuse reflectivity (preferably) and at such light paths that human eyes are not expected to be in the light path.

[0080] An example of another mounting standard and technology is the long, cylindrical fluorescent lamps used in business, the lamps known by the numbers of the form F##T##, where “F” stands for fluorescent, followed by two digits that indicate either the electrical power or the length in inches, then the letter “T” indicating that it is a tubular shape, then two digits indicating the tube diameter in ⅛ inch units. We include the substitutions for such lamps with an adapted distribution of LEDs on a tubular support that has the same dimensions as the fluorescents, to be physically compatible with them. Generally the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors for the tubular case depends on they being single or multiple tubes and depending on they being recessed into the ceiling (the most common case in businesses) or being hanging down from the ceiling, a generally older practice less used nowadays. In all cases the objective is to have light emitted towards the walls surrounding the room or to the ceiling, if they are white or off-white, and reflective enough, or towards other reflective surfaces near the lamps, if required by the case. FIGS. 18 and 19 are two views of such a Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror for this case of long tubular luminaries. Note that the correcting mirror has a cylindrical symmetry, as required by the luminary symmetry. For the case of a fluorescent luminary installed in a bay above the level of a faux-ceiling, which emits light in all directions around the tube, an extra mirror at least may, and probably should, be placed redirecting to the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror the light emitted upwards, as shown at FIG. 20. In this figure one can see a second reflecting surface Refl_Surf2, above the fluorescent, which has internal reflecting surface (that is, toward the fluorescent tube), which reflects down all the light emitted by the fluorescent tube that misses the Hubble Perkin Elmer correcting mirror below the fluorescent. Such a Refl_Surf2 is only necessary for the newer embedded fluorescents, that are above a faux-ceiling. The older types, much in use after WW II and through the 50s, which sported hanging fluorescents (below the ceiling), perhaps with a frosty glass under it, would not need this second reflecting surface above the fluorescent, because the light emitted upwards would already be directed to the ceiling, from where it reflects to the room below. The second surface Refl_Surf2 may be spherical, semi-spherical, or some other concave shape, though in some cases convex shapes may be useful too.

[0081] Other variation is the recessed, indirect light, in which case the light element, either the incandescent filament bulb or tubular fluorescent or any other, is behind a generally light opaque obstruction, near the ceiling, blocking the direct view to the luminary from anywhere in the room. This light opaque obstruction generally has opening upwards and with the lighting elements behind this opaque obstruction which may carry some ornament for decoration and with the light elements sending light in all directions around them. The Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror for this type of indirect light around the edges between the ceiling and the upper walls is a set of mirrors with such a curvature as to reflect the light to the ceiling, from where the light suffers a second reflection toward the room, this time an isotropic reflection that causes a pleasing, soft, shadowless illumination.

[0082] Another variation of the main embodiment of our invention is to add the possibility of choice of the directions, or orientations, of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror, which, in turn, change the direction of the reflected light. This variation is useful to avoid reflecting light towards a window or even toward some direction where there exists a dark furniture, or a dark wall, or any other non-desirable direction.

CONCLUSION, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE OF INVENTION

[0083] There are several other variations and additions to the main embodiment. For example, in the cases of LED substitutes for any of the luminaries, it is possible to put lenses at the front of the LEDs to increase the beam divergence, which ultimately increases the illumination evenness. Such lenses may be either circular or cylindrical, the latter case more adapted to the LED replacement to the tubular fluorescent lamps but works also for even a single LED because it may be the case the it is useful to increase divergence along one direction only, which requires a cylindrical lens. These lenses may be made from plastic molded into the LED case or they may be common lenses added to the device. These lenses may be individual, one for each LED or they may be for more than one LED, or for all the LEDs. These lenses may also be non-isotropic, even if this is a most unusual feature. In this case the anisotropy would be to cause beam divergence for the part of the light that happens to be propagating upwards (where there would be a cylindrical curvature), all the while causing no beam divergence on the part of the light that propagates downwards (where there would be no curvature and therefore no beam spreading). The non-isotropy would be a good feature because it would be advantageous to spread the light beam that is propagating upwards, as long as it is not so spread as to be diverted down, towards possible human eyes, while it would be disadvantageous to spread the light beam that is propagating downwards, because this would redirect some light further downwards, towards human eyes who would be inconvenienced by the bright light. Another possibility would be an even more unusual cylindrical lens one which is so curved as to cause beam divergence on its upper part, causing beam divergence for the upwards propagating light, while its lower part would be so curved as to redirect the incoming light towards the ceiling, to avoid direct bright light into human eyes.

[0084] Three cables support Cab the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror of our invention, which, for the main embodiment is made of a cone Refl_Cone continued by a truncated cone Refl_Louver, which may be considered a louver. A third and a fourth, etc. truncated cones may exist, and these may be slanted outward from the main vertical axis defined by the E27 female receptacle at the top of the structure (or the E27 inserting screw at the luminary), as seen in the figure, or these may be slanted toward the main vertical axis defined by the E27 luminary support and electrical connector (that is, the surface may slant downward or it may slant upward). The objective of the correcting mirrors is to intercept most of the bright light that would otherwise propagate toward the eyes of people below the luminary, then reflect the bright light toward the upper parts of the walls surrounding the room or to the ceiling above the room, from where the bright light is diffusely reflected to the room, after which no point of origination of light is too bright to cause discomfort on the people in the room. It is worth to repeat here that most light paints used in rooms have a reflectivity of the order of 0.9, so there is a 10% light energy loss in this process, which is an advantage to the former frosty enclosure, which typically has a transmissivity of the order of 0.75 or less, with a 25% or more light energy loss—much larger that the loss associated with the use of the HubblePerkinElmer correcting mirror of our invention.

[0085] It is also possible to have fins, or louvers, or shutters below the luminaries and below the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirrors, which are positioned in such a manner as to block the light propagation downwards along directions and at such angles with the horizontal to prevent human eyes receiving the direct light beam causing discomfort on them. These louvers should preferentially be mirror-like, redirecting as much as technically possible of the light towards the ceiling or some other reflecting surface, therefore contributing for the total illumination of the room.

[0086] It is also possible to have the louvers below the luminaries made from glass without mirroring their first surface (say, not coating the first surface with a metal coating). Such first surfaces would still be good reflectors due to the surface reflectivity as a function of the incidence angle as given by the Fresnel equations. For cases when the incidence angle is close to 90 degrees (grazing angle of incidence) the reflectivity would still be close to 100%, with only a small fraction of the light energy being transmitted through the glass then out of the glass at the second, or lower, surface. This would allow for some light downwards, yet not so bright as to inconvenience people in the room, because most of the light energy would be reflected upwards, toward the upper walls and ceiling, as explained by the Fresnel equations.

[0087] Still it is quite possible to have the louvers made from glass with a first surface so treated as to be rough, which spreads both the reflected light and the transmitted light as well. For such a louver with a rough first surface, instead of a reflecting surface, from which light would reflect along many directions upwards and also down along many directions. These louvers may be flat, or they may also be curved of faceted. The louvers may also have a corrugated surface which would reflect the light towards different directions, increasing the evenness of the light distribution in the room. The louvers themselves may be of many shapes, as straight or curved. The louvers may be at the lowest LED, as seen in the figures, but they may be underneath each LED too. Our figures show the louvers at the lowest position only for simplicity but we do not intend to say that this is the only option.

[0088] It is also possible to have small swiveling mirrors in front of each LED, or in front of a subset of the LEDs, or in front of part of a legacy luminary (incandescent, fluorescent, etc.), which are capable of redirecting the emitted light into a range of new directions, out from the initial propagation direction. Several possibilities exist, for example, what may be the best option is to have the swiveling mirror occupying the position of a louver below the LED with the swiveling axis at one of the edges of the mirror. This option has the mirror in such a position that in its neutral position the mirror acts as a louver as described above. As the mirror is tilted, it will block more and more of the emitted light, at the same time that it reflects it to larger and larger angles, until finally the mirror is so tilted that it completely blocks the initial light, reflecting all of it to another direction. This other direction may be just a few degrees, if the mirror is long enough, or may be 45 degrees, if the length of the mirror is only equal to sqrt(2)/2 times the beam's diameter d (that is, 0.707*d), in which case beam will block the beam when it is at 45 dgs. It is possible to use smaller mirrors but though this is possible this is not advisable because if the beam is smaller than 0.707*d then the beam would have to go at an angle larger than 45 dgs. and would start redirecting the light backwards, though it is still possible to use such smaller mirrors. The swiveling mirrors also work with old style luminaries, as the E27 incandescent bulbs or with the tubular fluorescents.

[0089] Among the several possible variations of the main embodiment are variations of the shape of the Hubble-Perkin-Elmer correcting mirror, three of which are shown at FIG. 21. It is the intention of the inventors to include all shapes as part of the invention, because they are within the same principle of correcting the propagation direction of the light from the luminary to the upper walls or to the ceiling or to some other convenient location as the case requires.