Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system in a specific environment – Chemical analysis
Reexamination Certificate
1996-06-07
2001-11-06
Wachsman, Hal (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system in a specific environment
Chemical analysis
C702S001000, C702S028000, C356S402000, C356S421000, C356S425000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314372
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for the categorizing of hair color and hair color treatment agents for their interrelationship, and more particularly to a process and instrument for measuring three color characteristics of hair color and categorizing it and determining the effect of a wide variety of hair coloring agents thereon.
Hair coloring agent choices are often made by a consumer based on relatively vague indications of the color to be expected as a result of the use of the agent on an individual person's hair. This approach does not take into consideration the color of the hair that is to be treated and how interaction of that particular individual's hair color with the coloring agent will affect the resultant color.
No reliable source of information has been available to a private consumer regarding what the actual color of her or his hair is and what hair coloring agent will provide the hair color alteration that consumer seeks.
Consequently it can be seen there exists a need for procedures and apparatus that will accurately characterize an individual's hair color to enable selection of appropriate coloring agents for a desired color result. Likewise there exists a need for a reliable process and instrumentation to permit the use of the accurate color-characterization of an individual's hair color in the selection of hair coloring agents to effect hair color alterations of a type desired by the individual.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to this invention there is provided a method and apparatus for accurately characterizing the hair color of individuals to enable identification of the hair color and products suitable to achieve a desired change in hair color. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring color factors in an individual's hair color to assign that hair color to a classification previously determined to interact with identified hair coloring agents to bring about predictable color changes.
Through experimentation over a prolonged period, the applicants were able to compile a vast amount of information relating to coloration of virtually every imaginable hair color. Thousands of individual hair samples were treated with many various coloring agents. The hair color before and after such treatment was accurately, scientifically measured and characterized using known, reliable color measurement. Hair color was then assembled into a large number of categories based on ranges of the measured color factors. A database was assembled comprising the desired changes available through various hair coloring agents and the particular agents that would effect those changes in human hair to the various categories.
Instrumentation was implemented to measure from an individual's hair the color factors that operate to place the hair color in one of the numerous hair color classifications and to identify that classification to the individual or the individual's hair specialist. In addition, the instrumentation was arranged to allow for selection of a desired alteration in hair color, and on the basis of the gathered empirical data, hair coloring agents capable of effecting the desired change were located from within a database.
In an embodiment of the invention, the process for hair color analysis is carried out by measuring with a measuring instrument the value of a number of color factors in the color of an individual's hair at various sites, and then providing an indicator or table having a large number of hair color classifications defining ranges of those same color factors, and finally comparing the color factors of the indicator or table to the measured color factors to arrive at a classification of the individual's hair color.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention just described the color factors were Hunter L, a and b.
In an instrumentation implementing the process just described, a calorimeter was used to measure the color factors. The indicator or table having a large number of color classifications was retained in computer memory, and the comparison was made electronically between the memoryretained classifications and the measured color factors.
To use the process just described a list or menu of possible choices for varying hair color was presented. Upon selection of that choice, along with the hair color classification as previously determined, is used together with a database of hair color classifications and associated product identifications empirically determined to effect the presented choices of color changes to locate in that database previously tested hair coloring agents capable of effecting the chosen action.
In one further embodiment of the process described, the color factors measured in an individual's hair color were Hunter L, a and b. Classifications of hair color provided in the indicator or table were percentages of grey in the hair of the individual. This embodiment enables the coloring of grey hair or partially grey hair to obtain an individual's natural hair coloring or another preferred hair color. This procedure required the selection of one of a number of categories of hair colors such as “light brown,” “darkest blond,” “light red,” etc. The indicator or table that identified various hair color classifications was divided among broad hair color families or groups of categories, and for an individual the particular hair family division of the indicator associated with that individual's broad family of hair color was found. The ranges of color factors in that division were then compared with the factors measured in the individual's hair to arrive at a classification.
In another embodiment of the invention, to arrive at a hair color treatment agent, a database of hair color treatment agents and classifications of color characteristics of individuals was compiled and an individual's color characteristics were determined by measurement of color factors, followed by comparison of those color factors with ranges contained in the database. In one embodiment the color characteristic of the individual that provided the basis for comparison was skin color.
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Billmeyer, Jr. Fred W.
Macfarlane Darby Simpson
Macfarlane David Kenneth
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Chromatics Color Sciences International Inc.
Wachsman Hal
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