In addition, the Company has two pending patents for Portable Lighting Devices and Multi-Mode Illumination
presently filed as United States patent applications.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/784,119 entitled APPARATUS, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MULTI-MODE ILLUMINATION, which was filed Mar. 20, 2006; the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for providing illumination and, more particularly, to an apparatus, method and system for providing multi-mode illumination.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Military assets such as aircraft, for example, are often stationed at forward deployed bases. Many such forward deployed bases are austere and remotely located airfields with insufficient lighting and security systems. Accordingly, it is often desirable to transport lighting systems to the forward deployed bases. Conventional lighting systems may be very heavy and difficult to transport to remote locations. The generally require too much energy and are not equipped to provide a defined boundary between an illuminated “watch area” and a non-illuminated “secure area”, where the presence of light would only highlight the object that is to be secured.
Conventional lighting systems often employ halogen, fluorescent, or incandescent lighting, which introduce numerous disadvantages into security applications. Incandescent lighting consumes relatively large amounts of energy and requires frequency replacement of lighting elements. Halogen lighting also consumes relatively large amounts of energy and has a high thermal load, which can be a disadvantage in environments where covertness is desired. Finally, fluorescent lighting produces relatively large amounts of electromagnetic interference and generally includes mercury, which is a pollutant that has high disposal costs.
It would be desirable then to produce a mobile, light-weight, lighting system that is adapted to illuminate a selected area while consuming a relatively reduced amount of energy as compared to halogen, fluorescent, or incandescent light sources. It would be further desirable to produce a lighting system that is adapted to define a formal boundary between an illuminated and a non-illuminated area.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In light of the foregoing background, exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide an improved apparatus, method and system for providing multi-mode illumination. Specifically, exemplary embodiments of the present invention include a lighting apparatus capable of multiple modes of illumination (e.g., infrared illumination mode, visible light illumination mode, spot-light mode, flood-light mode, blended spot and flood light modes, etc.) and battery powered operation. The lighting apparatus further includes a fuel gage module capable of communicating an expected battery lift based on a current operating mode of the lighting apparatus and a current state of charge of the battery. Lighting devices structured in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention may be light-weight and portable to improve ease of transport and deployment. Such lighting devices may also include a stable and yet retractable mounting device. In this regard, such lighting devices may be transported to remote locations and for providing a reliable light source.
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