Description PICTURE FRAME WITH LIGHT SOURCE

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a frame for displaying a photograph, and more particularly to, a frame with a light source, in which an LED or an LCD is mounted in the center of the frame at a position corresponding to the center of a photograph so that light emitted from the LED or the LCD is diffused to the entire surface of the photograph. Background Art

[2] In general, a frame serves just to display a photograph and it is impossible to distinguish the photograph with the naked eye in the dark night time.

[3] Therefore, there has been disclosed a decoration article (frame) to distinguish a photograph fitted into a frame without turning on the light of a room in Utility Model Publication No. 1999-04172.

[4] Fig. 1 is an elevational sectional view showing a prior art frame. In Fig 1, a frame 1 is mounted with a transparent front plate 2 at a front part and the transparent front plate 2 is opened or closed at a side of the front part of the frame 1. A photograph 3 is incorporated in an internal space defined between a rear part of the transparent front plate 2 and a front part of the frame 1. An EL lamp 4 for emitting light and a circuit part 5 for driving the EL lamp are provided behind the photograph 3, wherein a battery 6 supplies power to the circuit part 5.

[5] Therefore, as the circuit part 5 is driven to blink the EL lamp 4 whilte the photograph 3 is fitted into the frame 1 as shown in Fig. 1, the light emitted from the EL lamp lights the photograph 3 from the rear part of the photograph 3, so that the photograph 3 may be distinguished even in the night time via the transparent front plate 2.

[6] The priort art frame described above still has, however, disadvantages.

[7] First, the EL lamp which emits light is too expensive so that the manufacturing cost of the frame becomes increased. Therefore, the frame cannot be spread at a low cost and put into practical use until now.

[8] Second, the battery has to be exchanged frequently since the power consumption of the EL lamp is too high.

[9] Third, the front plate is mounted to a front part of the frame, so that the photograph has to be fitted into the frame in the shape of plate type sheet and this becomes bored easily.

[10] Fourth, such the frame is purchased from frame selling shops so that there is

limitation in various selling strategy. Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[11] Therefore, the present invention is derived to resolve the above and any other disadvantages of the prior art.

[12] According to the present invention, there is an object to provide a frame in which an

LED or an LCD of a low price is mounted in the center of the frame instead of an expensive EL lamp and a light reflection film is mounted to a front surface or a rear surface of the frame to diffuse light emitted from the LED or the LCD uniformly in every direction. Therefore, the frame may be distributed at a relatively low price.

[13] According to the present invention, there is another object to provide a frame, in which clarity of a photograph fitted into the frame is kept high by diffusing light emitted from a LED or an LCD to the entire surface of the photograph uniformly even though the light emitted from the LED or the LCD is weak.

[14] There is still another object of the present invention to provide an automatic bending machine having a photograph taking function, so that a user may carry out imaging work for a taken photograph and withdraw a frame together with the image- processed photograph so as to fit the photograph into the frame in various shape and place the frame receiving the photograph on exhibition. Technical Solution

[15] According to one aspect of the present invention, a frame includes a plate type frame, an LED or an LCD exposed via a hole formed in the center of the frame, a power supply for driving the LED or the LCD, a power switch mounted at a side of the power supply for turning on or off the power supply, a light reflecting film attached to a front surface or a rear surface of the frame for diffusing light emitted from the LED or the LED to the entire suface of the frame, a photograph protecting film mounted between an upepr surface and a bottom surface of the frame curvedly in such a manner that lines extended from supporting points to the center are curved by a predetermined inclination angle in the range of l5°-35° and an inner surface of the photograph protecting film contacts with a photograph, and fixing pins for supporting the photograph and the photograph protecting film to the frame.

Advantageous Effects

[16] The present invention has various advantages as mentioned below.

[17] First, an LED or an LCD of low price emits light and the light is diffused by a light reflection film toward a photograph fitted to a front surface part of the frame, so that a manufacturing cost of the frame is reduced considerably and the frame may be distributed at a low cost.

[18] Second, the LED or the LCD serving as a light source consumes a relatively low amount of energy, thereby expanding the lifespan of a battery.

[19] Third, a photograph is fitted to the front surface part of the frame curvedly and light reflected by the light reflection film is diffused to the entire surface of the photograph with a uniform intensity, so that the photograph may be clearly distinguished.

[20] Fourth, such a frame may be directly sold from an automatic bending machine.

Further, component parts of such a frame may be incorporated in the automatic bending machine having a photograph taking function, so that the component parts of the frame may be withdrawn together with a photograph from the automatic bending machine after imaging work carried out by a user. Therefore, various selling strategies for the frame may be realized. Brief Description of the Drawings

[21] The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[22] Fig. 1 is an elevational sectional view showing a prior art frame;

[23] Fig. 2 is a disassembled perspective view showing a structure of a frame according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[24] Fig. 3 is a partially taken elevational sectional view showing the frame of Fig. 2; and

[25] Fig. 4 is a view for explaining light diffusion toward a curvedly mounted image photograph by a light reflection film. Mode for the Invention

[26] Now the preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[27] Fig. 2 is a disassembled perspective view showing a structure of a frame according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a partially taken elevational sectional view showing the frame of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a view for explaining light diffusion toward a curvedly mounted photograph by a light reflection film. Referring to Fig. 2 to Fig. 4, a plate type frame 11 is formed with a hole 1 Ia in the center thereof and a light source formed of an LED or an LCD 12 at a low cost is exposed via the hole 11a.

[28] A power supply 13 such as a battery is mounted behind the LED or the LCD 12, that is, at a rear part of the frame 11, and a power switch 14 is mounted at a side of the power supply for turning on or off the power supply, so that power applied from the battery to the LED or the LCD 12 is turned on or off by the manipulation of the power switch 14.

[29] A light reflection film 15 is attached to an entire front or rear surface of the frame

11 for diffusing light emitted from the LED or the LCD 12 through the entire surface of the frame 11. A photograph protecting film 16 is mounted to an upper surface and a lower surface of the frame 11 by fixing elements in such a manner that lines extended from supporting points a to the center b of the photograph protecting film 16 are curved by an angle in the range from 15° to 35°, wherein a photograph 17 contacts an inner surface of the photograph protecting film 16 and is supported and mounted to the frame 11 together with the photograph protecting film 16 by the fixing elements.

[30] The light reflection film 15 may be attached to the rear surface of the frame 11 and reflects light emitted from the LED or the LCD 12 toward the front surface of the frame 11 uniformly when the frame 11 is formed of a transparent material. To the contrary, if the frame 11 is formed of an opaque material, the light reflection film 15 has to be attached to the front surface of the frame 11 in order to diffuse the light emitted from the LED or the LCD 12 toward the front surface of the frame uniformly.

[31] If the lines extended from the supporting points a to the center b are inclined less than 15°, the light emitted from the light source, the LED or the LCD 12 is concentrated to the center and clarity in edge parts of the photograph becomes decreased. To the contrary, if the light extended from the supporting points a to the center b are inclined more than 35°, a curvature of the photograph 17 becomes too high and an intensity of light emitted from the LED or the LCD 12, which is positioned in the center of the photograph, becomes weak. Therefore, the clarity of the photograph becomes decreased and the light emitted from the LED or the LCD 12 dispersed weakly, resulting in the decrease of visibility of the photograph 17.

[32] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fixing elements for supporting and mounting the photograph protecting film 16 to the frame 11 while the photograph protecting film 16 contacts the photograph 17, are holes 1 Ib formed at corners of the frame 11 and fixing pins 18 fitted into the holes 1 Ib, wherein the fixing pins 18 penetrate through-holes 17a and 16a, which are formed at corners of the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16.

[33] As for the fixing elements, the fixing pins 18 may be directly fixed to the frame 11, and the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 are formed with elongated holes in the shape of key holes complementarily with each other, so that the photograph and the photograph protecting film may be mounted and supported on the frame 11 by elasticity.

[34] Now, the operations of the frame according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanied drawings.

[35] Even though the frame may be sold at frame seller shops, the frame may be incorporated in an automatic bending machine having a photograph taking function for

inducing curiosity from consumers to sell the frames when the consumers take photographs, thereby promoting the selling of the frames.

[36] Therefore, the user injects coins for a predetermined amount to take photographs via a camera of the automatic bending machine, which incoporates the frames equipped with all component parts except photographs. After taking the photographs, the user may carry out imaging work to obtain desired images while watching a screen on which photographed images are displayed.

[37] If the user presses a discharge button for a photograph 17 after the imaging work is finished for the photographed images, the photograph 17 is discharged and simultaneously the frame 11 of the present invention, which is incorporated in the automatic bending machine, is discharged.

[38] If the photograph 17 and the frame 11 are discharged, the photograph 17 is attached with the photograph protecting film 16 and mounted to a front surface of the frame 11 by using the fixing elements. First, one of the fixing pins 18 is fitted into one of the holes 1 Ib of the frame 11 after matching the one hole 1 Ib of the frame 11 with one of upper or lower parts of the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16, which have the complementarily arranged through-holes 17a and 16a. Then, the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 are curved, as shown in Fig. 2, to mount the other parts of the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 to the frame 11. The photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 have a vertical length longer than that of the frame 11, so that the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 overlapped with each other may be curved naturally. Therefore, the through-holes 17a and 16a formed at the other parts of the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16 are arranged complementarily with the other holes 1 Ib of the frame 11. As the other fixing pins 18 are fitted into the holes 1 Ib for completing the fixing of the photograph 17 and the photograph protecting film 16, the assembling work of the frame 11 becomes finished.

[39] As the power switch 14 mounted at the rear part of the frame 11 is turned on while the photograph 17 is fitted into the frame 11 as described above, the LED or the LCD 12 which is exposed via the hole 11a toward the front part of the frame 11 is applied with power and emits light. The light is diffused to the entire front or rear surface of the frame 11 by the light reflection film 15 attached to the front or rear surface of the frame 11.

[40] Even though the light is emitted from the LED or the LCD 12 and diffused by the light reflection film 15 as above, a center portion of the frame 11 is bright and the light becomes weak toward edge parts of the frame 11. According to the present invention, the photograph 17 is mounted between the upper part and the lower part of the frame 11 with the inclination in the range from 15° to 35° at the lines extended from the

supporting points a to the center b in the vertical direction, so that the intensity of light is kept almost uniformly through the entire surface of the photograph 17. Therefore, the entire surface of the photograph may be displayed clearly.

[41] Although the foregoing description has been made with reference to the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that changes and modifications of the present invention may be made by the ordinary skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and appended claims.