Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Changing exhibitor – Alphanumeric device
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-06
2003-11-25
Green, Brian K. (Department: 3611)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Changing exhibitor
Alphanumeric device
C040S442000, C362S035000, C362S806000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06651365
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to articles which contain illuminated sequenced motion displays and, more particularly, to the appropriately sequenced illuminated segments of a plurality of segments of an entire display to simulate motion, or display animation. The preferred environment for the carrying or mounting of the animated illuminated displays are articles of clothing and rigid display boards which may be used in advertising point of sale goods.
There have been many prior attempts at providing sequential motion or animation to an illuminated display, some of those have been found to utilize articles of clothing. One manner of providing illumination to an article of clothing is by using light emitting diodes connected to an underlying rigid printed circuit board mounted either to the interior of the clothing article, or between the inner and outer surfaces of the clothing article, with the light emitting end of the diode projecting through the garment to the outside surface to be viewed when illuminated. The various U.S. Patents which fall into this category are U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,008 [Miller, et al.], U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,290 [Wells], U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,206 [Deutsch] and U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,191 [Davila].
Another type of illumination of an article of clothing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,878 [Bailey] which discloses the use of bundles of optical fibers secured to selected outer portions of a garment. Individual fiber ends are turned outwardly from the bundles and project through the garment surrounding the bundle and are illuminated by a light source to create a changing color in a fixed pattern.
A light emitting fabric is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,907 [Daniel] which describes the use of optical fibers woven into and forming a portion of the fabric replacing some of the threaded fibers in the fabric. The goal of the optical fibers in Daniel is to uniformly illuminate the fabric of useful clothing articles, such as costumes, high visibility safety clothing, etc. The description of the illumination method is similar to that described above in connection with other articles of clothing with the exception that in this case the fairly long lengths of optical fibers are scratched or abraded along their outer surfaces so that light is emitted along the length of the fiber and not only at its end.
Another article of clothing containing light conducting fibers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,603 [Howard] which describes the decoration of the outer surface of the article of clothing where segments of light conducting fibers are stitched onto the outer surface of the clothing forming a decorative pattern. The light conducting fibers are then modified by heating the ends of the fiber segment to produce an enlarged bead or bulbous head and by abrading the longitudinal surface of the lengths of fiber to form regular or random pattern recesses which will emit light along the entire length of the fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,818 [Hempsey] discloses the illumination of a flag or pennant using optical fibers to form an illuminated message. U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,259 [Konta, et al.] discloses a toy doll or animal with simulated hair having at least some of the hair fibers formed of optical fiber for illumination of those fibers by a light source within the doll.
More recent disclosures concerning articles of clothing which are illuminated are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,812 [DeMars] and 5,128,843 [Guritz]. The DeMars patent discloses an elongated light tube which can be illuminated for mounting within a groove formed in the wearing apparel and snugly retained in the groove to be illuminated to display a particular fixed shape. The patent to Guritz discloses an optical display device mounted within an article of clothing to enhance body motion, such as the upper body limbs, to enhance the optical display through the motion of the body for ornamental purposes, or for the purpose of providing greater safety to the wearer. The Guritz device uses flexible strip circuit boards, rather than rigid circuit boards, which are used to illuminate a series of incandescent lamps.
Additionally, and particularly with regard to more rigid display apparatus, a moving pattern simulator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,872 [Way]. A display board is provided with a series of perforations at pre-determined locations to receive the ends of a plurality of light conducting fibers. The opposite ends of the individual fibers are bundled within a support member to be arranged in a particular pre-determined spatial relationship so that upon illumination the desired movement of the light pattern appears on the face of the board. A light source spaced apart from the support member is utilized to illuminate the optical fibers by passing light through an opaque disk having a plurality of particularly sized and shaped openings in the disk. As the opaque disk rotates the openings provide a conductive path for the radiated light between the light source and the ends of the optical fibers to sequentially illuminate the viewed ends of the optical fiber bundle in a sequentially pre-selected pattern.
European patent application Publication 01 551 578A2 [French] discloses a decorative floor covering, such as a carpet, which has threaded through it a number of optical fibers which extend to the same height as the carpet fibers. The optical fibers extend in bundles to a light source which, through the means of various colored filters, provide different colored light to the optical fibers, which light is displayed on the surface of the carpet.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,144 [Wainwright], an earlier patent of the same inventor as the present invention, discloses a fabric (preferably formed into an article of clothing) having an illuminated changing display utilizing optical fibers to provide illumination to segments of a changing display. The optical fibers extend along the inner surface of the fabric, are gathered into several pre-selected groupings or bundles, each of which bundle having a connection to a light source which is controlled for illumination of the segments of the design of the display in a select ed sequence.
Although some of the previously disclosed illumination of garments and fixed displays utilize optical fibers, light emitting diodes, incandescent lamps, etc., which protrude through the fabric, generally provide only a fixed display when illuminated. The exception to these illuminated fixed displays are the inventions disclosed in the patents to Way, Wells, Davila and Wainwright. However, all of these patents suffer from the limitation of providing for sequential illumination of periodic but separate displays which, when taken in combination, depict disjointed motion. In the case of Wainwright, the sequenced illumination of the segments of the optical fiber bundles depict an enlarging growth pattern of a flowering plant, but without a continuity of motion which creates an animated illuminated pattern. Further, most of the earlier devices utilize rigid circuit boards or mounting methods which create an unwanted bulkiness and rigidity to at least a portion of the article of clothing which is entirely undesirable especially when using lightweight fabrics and totally undesirable for display panels with limited depth dimensions. Also, optical fibers which are woven into a fabric and which are dependent upon abrasions in their outer surfaces for illumination are impractical for the reason that they create random lighting patterns rather than the desired pattern for producing the-sequenced motion for continuous animation.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide continuously animated pin-point illuminated displays for wearing apparel and display articles.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide such enhanced illuminated continuous animation to be equally observable in either daylight or brightly lighted
ANI-Motion, Inc.
Green Brian K.
Piltch Sanford J
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