Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Display with special effects – Selective or intermittent illumination
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-06
2001-04-10
Melius, Terry Lee (Department: 3628)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Display with special effects
Selective or intermittent illumination
C040S442000, C040S615000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212805
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to panels and more particularly light permeable panels that are partially imaged with at least one design that is also light permeable.
The term “light permeable” as used herein includes transparent materials, translucent materials and perforated materials. Transparent materials may have two parallel, plane surfaces or otherwise allow clarity of vision through the panel material, enabling the eye to focus on objects on the other side of the material and provide an undistorted image or may have at least one surface of the transparent material not plane and/or not parallel with another surface, such as to give a distorted image effect. Perforated materials have perforation holes which allow light permeability.
Partially imaged light permeable panels are already known in several fields and are typically used to control visibility of the panel, visibility of any image on one side of the panel, such as a graphic design, and visibility through the panel from one side to the other side, and vice versa.
The incorporation of an opaque pattern on or into particular types of light permeable panels, in order to create unidirectional vision, is already known, for example in the construction of transparent walled squash courts. These panels typically include a continuum opaque pattern applied in a single color, or with the pattern appearing one color from one side of the panel but another color from the other side, to enhance the one-way vision effect when one side of the panel is illuminated more than the other side. A single color pattern is normally white or a light color and a two color pattern is normally arranged to be white or light color on the one side of the panel and black or dark color on the other side of the panel, superimposed with exact or near exact registration, an arrangement which enhances the clarity of vision from the other side to the one side. Such materials can be used to enable spectators or television cameras to see through a squash court wall from the other side while players on the one side can see the wall and cannot see clearly through the wall to the other side. The pattern in such panels is normally one of small dots such that, the eye of a spectator in the audience who is at a distance from the panel cannot discern the individual elements of the pattern, the elements being too small for the eye to resolve.
A simple unidirectional vision panel comprises an opaque pattern of dots 1 mm diameter at 1.4 mm centers on a square grid appearing white from one side and black from the other side, the other side being less illuminated that the one side. Light incident on the white dots is reflected and scattered, which has the effect of obscuring visibility from the one side into the other side. However, a substantially clear view is obtained from the other side through the panel into the one side, albeit the intensity of light of the image is reduced by virtue of the degree of opacity, giving a “toned down” effect to the image, not dissimilar to tinted transparent panels. Such products are described in GB Patent No. 2118096.
Light permeable panels having an opaque “silhouette pattern” and a design which is superimposed on or forms part of a “silhouette pattern” on one or both sides of the panel are also known, as described in GB. Patent No. 2165292 (sometimes referred to hereinafter as “the '292 invention”). Such panels are used for a variety of purposes, such as advertisements on the windows of retail windows, buses and taxis. Typically, a design of an advertisement is visible from outside the window while, from the inside, the design is not visible and an observer has a substantially unobstructed view out. In GB Pat. No. 2165292, the “silhouette pattern” is defined to mean any arrangement of opaque material which sub-divides the panel into a plurality of opaque areas and/or a plurality of transparent or translucent areas.
For advertisements, the silhouette pattern covers a sufficient percentage of the panel area, typically between 35% to 80%, and the design comprises sufficiently bright and varied colors, that the eye is attracted to the design and not the objects on the other side of the panel, thus providing an impactful advertisement from outside. The silhouette pattern on the inside is typically colored black, which provides a tinted view from the inside to the outside.
However, it is a feature of the invention of GB Pat. No. 2165292 that “the design becomes decreasingly perceptible from the side of the panel from which the design is normally visible as the level of illumination from the other side increases”, which may be referred to as the “decreasingly perceptible” feature.
FIG. 32 of GB Pat. No. 2165292 discloses 36 distinct vision control options enabled by the '292 invention. Columns 5 and 6 of FIG. 32 illustrate another feature of the '292 invention, that “the design and/or silhouette pattern is substantially imperceptible from the side of the panel from which said design and/or silhouette pattern is normally visible when the level of illumination transmitted through the panel from the other side of the panel substantially exceeds the light reflected from the said one side of the panel”. This feature may be referred to as the “substantially imperceptible” feature.
A further feature of panels according to GB Pat. No. 2165292 is that “a principal perceived image when viewing a panel changes from the design to a space on the other side when the illumination is altered from relative light on the one side and relative dark on the other side to relative light on the other side and relative dark on the one side.” The principal perceived image in the space on the other side is intended to include sources of illumination or objects or surfaces in the space on the other side. This feature may be referred to as the “principle perceived image” feature.
These features, of the design becoming less perceptible and eventually becoming imperceptible, as the level of illumination on the other side of the panel is raised increasingly higher relative to the level of illumination on the side from which the design is being observed, have been a problem to the exploitation of the '292 invention in certain situations. For example, if an advertisement of the '292 invention is placed on a retail window, the design will typically be visible in the hours of daylight. However, if there is not relatively high artificial illumination outside the retail premises during the hours of darkness, or the level of internal illumination of the retail premises is particularly high during the hours of daylight, such advertisements may be substantially imperceptible or not have sufficient visual impact for commercial purposes, the principal perceived image being the inside of the retail premises and not the design. It is typically desirable in such applications to have optional vision of the advertisement and the view inside, for security reasons. The brain can concentrate on the design or the view through the panel, as required. In some parts of the world, where night-time robberies are relatively commonplace, it can be regarded as an advantage for the principal perceived image to change from the design on the advertisement in the hours of daylight, to the interior space in the hours of darkness. However, in situations where the advertiser wishes to have an easily seen advertisement at all times, under all pertaining lighting conditions, the feature of the design being decreasingly perceptible with increasing relative illumination on the other side is a significant problem and limits the exploitation of the '292 invention.
Also well known are “backlit” signs, which typically consist of a transparent and/or translucent design on a front panel and an enclosed sign box. A typical sign box contains an internal illumination device of one or more sources of illumination, typically an array of fluorescent light tubes, which illuminate the front panel from behind. Other “slimline” backlit signs typically rely on the edge illumin
Contra Vision Limited
Hewitt James M
Melius Terry Lee
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP
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