| 摘要 |
The present invention includes a combination of various designs for a writing implement with an illumination source and a rechargeable battery, and various designs for a docking station/battery charger combination for those writing implements to recharge the battery within the writing implement when the writing implement is in the docking station. The battery charger system of the present invention can be any of a variety of battery chargers that are currently available and can utilize many of the features that are available in such battery charger designs. A variety of battery chargers are available and any of them could be used with the various embodiments of the writing implements of the present invention. The simplest charger is one that is manually activated by the user when it is noticed that the light from the writing implement is growing dim. Another might be a charger that monitors the voltage level of the rechargeable battery and initiates a charging cycle when that voltage drops below a pre-set threshold. The charger could also be a so called 'smart charger' which can determine when the battery in the writing implement is not rechargeable and therefore not attempt to charge it. Such a 'smart charger' could also have the ability to automatically discharge and recharge the battery at a preselected interval, say every 60 days, to obtain the maximum life if it is a NiCad rechargeable battery, or to be able to distinguish between alkaline and NiCad batteries and to recharge them accordingly.
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