Laundry treatment apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9976244-B2
Application number	US-201514691757-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2015
Priority date	Apr 21, 2014
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

A laundry treatment apparatus is described. The laundry treatment apparatus includes a rotary control. The laundry treatment apparatus further includes a lighting surface that includes a plurality of first parts that have a first translucence, where a first set of the first parts that are located at lower positions of the circumference have shorter arc lengths than a second set of the first parts that are located at upper positions of the circumference.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treatment apparatus comprising:
a rotary control;
a lighting surface that includes a plurality of first parts that have a first translucence;
a control panel that includes the lighting surface;
a plurality of light sources that are located along a circumference around the rotary control and that are configured to blink the first parts in response to a rotation of the rotary control; and
a light guide that is located inside the control panel, that defines a light source receiving space around a circumference of the light guide, and that includes a plurality of division walls that divide the light source receiving space into a plurality of receiving units that are each configured to receive at least one of the plurality of light sources,
wherein a first set of the first parts are located within a visual angle increase section of the circumference, the visual angle increase section comprising a section of the circumference in which visual angles to arc segments on the circumference and having a same length increase as the arc segments are more distant from a predetermined view point in an acute angle with the lighting surface, based on viewing the visual angle increase section from the predetermined view point,
wherein arc lengths of the first set of the first parts decrease as the first parts are more distant from the predetermined view point, and the arc lengths of the first set of the first parts appear to be substantially identical based on being viewed from the predetermined view point,
wherein a first set of the receiving units that are located within the visual angle increase section of the circumference and that correspond to a first set of bright parts have shorter arc lengths as the receiving units are more distant from the predetermined view point, and
wherein a first set of the plurality of division walls that divide the first set of the receiving units have longer arc lengths as the division walls are more distant from the predetermined view point.

2. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a window that includes an incident surface, upon which light emitted from the plurality of light sources is incident, and a light path that is configured to guide the incident light to the lighting surface,
wherein the window includes light transmission regions that each correspond to a respective receiving unit and light shielding regions each located between respective light transmission regions, the light transmission regions each being configured to transmit light emitted from a respective light source to a respective first part, the light shielding regions each being configured to transmit light emitted from the respective light source to a respective second part of the lighting surface that has a second translucence that is lower than the first translucence.

3. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein some of the light shielding regions located in the visual angle increase section have gradually increasing arc lengths as the light shielding regions have lower positions of the circumference.

4. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein some of the light transmission regions located in the visual angle increase section have gradually decreasing arc lengths as the light transmission regions have lower positions of the circumference.

5. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the rotary control is configured to select menus on the control panel,
the lighting surface comprises an indication region that is configured to indicate, using the first parts, a selected menu and a non-indication region that is different from the indication region, and
the first set of the first parts are located in the indication region.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Yang Jinho
• Cho Bokyung

Classifications

• F21V33/0044

  Household appliances, e.g. washing machines or vacuum cleaners · CPC title

• H01H19/025

  Light-emitting indicators · CPC title

• D06F39/005 Primary

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2216/00

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F34/22 Primary

  Condition of the washing liquid, e.g. turbidity · CPC title