Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Coated or structually defined flake – particle – cell – strand,... – Rod – strand – filament or fiber
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-07
2004-10-19
Dixon, Merrick (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Coated or structually defined flake, particle, cell, strand,...
Rod, strand, filament or fiber
C428S913000, C428S207000, C428S180000, C428S190000, C428S310500, C428S919000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06805957
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a camouflage pattern, and techniques that can be used to create a camouflage pattern. More particularly, the invention relates to a camouflage pattern used on fabric based structures that in combination with certain dyes, fabrics, and materials as well as certain printing techniques, provides improved concealment for military personnel, vehicles, and other equipment in a range of tactical environments. Also, the invention pertains to a camouflage system used on non-fabric equipment. In addition, the camouflage pattern is useful in the civilian sector for fashion, as well as sportsman. This invention combines principles of human perception, natural camouflage, and psychophysics to create two pattern elements of a macro-pattern and a micro-pattern combined into a single configuration: one to disrupt the features of the subject target, the other to match the subject target to the characteristics of the background. The combinations of this invention provide counter surveillance from visual and near-infrared detection for combat utility uniforms and equipment.
2. Related Applications
Design patent application Ser. No 29/143,340 titled “united states marine corps combat utility uniform” filed Jun. 13, 2001.
Design patent application Ser. No. 29/143,683 titled “camouflage pattern for sheet material and uniforms” filed 19 Jun. 22, 2001.
Provisional patent application No. 60/312,743 titled the same as above, filed Aug. 17, 2001 from which filing date benefit is claimed.
3. Description of the Prior Art
Camouflage is an art in the process of becoming a science. Camouflage, also called protective concealment, is a means to disguise a subject, whether animate or inanimate, in plain sight so as to conceal the subject from something or someone. Beginning with Abbott and Gerald Thayer in the late 1800's and Pycraft in the 1920's, camouflage evolved from a study of naturalistic observations of organisms in their complex environments to designs that purposely effect perception. The basic canon of natural camouflage includes “evolved tactics” such as mimicry (contrived similarity to background features, like the walking stick bug), countershading (lightened ventral surfaces to combat the contrast of shadow), and disruption (Thayer's “ruption”), the breakup of boundary features or internal structures.
Thayer noticed that the coloring of many animals graduated from dark, on their backs, to almost white on their bellies. The gradation from dark to light breaks up the surface of an object and makes it harder to see the object as one thing. The object loses its three-dimensional qualities and appears flat. The ratio of dark coloration to light coloration can mean the difference between success and failure of a design. Thayer called this ‘ruption’—the development of patches of light and dark covering that served to break up the outline of the animal.
However, strategies based on natural observations often fall short of military requirements. There are two reasons for departing from the “natural” approach. First, animal coloration is often idiosyncratic and keyed to narrow co-evolution histories of predator and prey in a specific econiche—that is, the zebra's stripes tell us more about the visual system of the lion than about usable principles of military camouflage. Second, organisms are limited in the strategies (patterns) they can “employ.” The coloration patterns of animals reflect survival probabilities over a long period of time passed on genetic advantage. However, animals do not “design” their appearance; the process is passive and represents genetic exploitation of random mutations. In addition, the processes by which natural patterns develop are constrained by biology.
Murray (1992) describes, for example, the process by which local interaction between two populations of color producing cells (melanophores) create different categories of patterns (stripes, spots, blotches, etc.) reminiscent of standing waves of different frequencies in metal sheets. It is significant requirement for this invention that a particular frequency or local melanophore interaction may produce a pattern that interrupts internal symmetry axes. Biological entities have the disadvantage of not being able to produce an animal with both spots and stripes, or with complex patterns of certain types.
Deliberate military camouflage as well as sportsman and fashion patterns does not suffer from these limitations. It is useful as well to remember that animals choose to inhabit certain fairly narrow econiches which in turn allows camouflage “strategies” very specific to particular places and backgrounds. Military forces do not have this luxury, and must adopt strategies more generally effective across a range of terrain and environmental conditions to which they may be deployed.
Brassey's Book of Camouflage by Tim Newark traces some of the history of camouflage. In 1812, some of the first experimentation done with camouflage found that the color that blended in the best in the wild was gray. In 1857, one of the first true uses of camouflage occurred when British soldiers dyed their white tunics and belts tan, or khaki (which means literally “dusty” colored), to blend in with the environment in India. The first section de camouflage in military history was established in 1915 by the French, under the command of an artist. Thereafter, comparable units were used by the British and Americans, and, to lesser extent, by the Germans, Italians, and Russians. These units were largely made up of camoufluerss who in civilian life had been artists of one kind or another, including fine artists, designers, and architects. As a result, participants on all sides of the conflicts used hundreds of artists during both World Wars. These artists acted as military or civil defense camouflage experts. Included in this group were such familiar names as Jacques Villon, Franz Marc, Arshile Gorky, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Oskar Schlemmer.
Artificial camouflage patterns of some sophistication appeared in the 1914-1918 time frame propelled by advances in weapons and tactics that accompanied the First World War. Thayer designed some of these patterns. Others were designed by a variety of daring and empirical innovators. The designers tended to rely on bold disruption, deception techniques (e.g. painting a large bow wave on a slow vessel to deceive submarine observers as to their actual velocity and direction), as well as traditional blotch and splinter (sharp-edged, polygonal patterns) approaches.
While the wartime use of camouflage is by no means a modern invention, its importance became magnified during World War I because of the use of airplanes and aerial photography. The Korean War saw the introduction of night vision devices, which added the need to disrupt the human form not only in the visible but also in the near infrared range of the spectrum. Humans see a wide color spectrum called the visible range, and when aided by night vision devices, humans can also see into the near infrared range. The problem of disrupting the human form in both the near-infrared and visible ranges is only a military problem that has no parallel in the natural world. Adding to the complexity is that dry and wet conditions change reflectivity of surfaces changing the “hiding” characteristics of most patterns under different light conditions.
Interest in camouflage declined through the 1950s because of advances in fire control and target acquisition technology. Also, experience showed that most camouflage measures simply did not work very well. The visual system simply overpowered most measures.
In the late 1960's and 1970's, there was a resurgence of interest in camouflage. In the area of camouflaging combat vehicles, Sweden adopted a “splinter” pattern keyed to the colors predominant in Scandinavia. Germany experimented with novel boundary disrupting measures. Many countries simply applied camouflage as a matter of pride or dec
Dugas Anabela
Lomba Rosemary Ann
O'Neill Timothy R.
Patricio Gabriel R.
Quinn Barbara J.
Harris Charles H.
Spevack A. David
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of
United States Marine Corps
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