Patent Application
20110065530
The present disclosure relates generally to indicia on a golf ball used as an alignment guide. More specifically, the present disclosure relates generally to two-line printing, where the first line is an alignment guide and the second line appears to fade when viewed from a pre-selected angle or group of angles.
Many golf balls include indicia. These indicia are often identifying words and/or graphics that assist a golfer in identifying the ball as her ball during play. Additionally, the indicia may also indicate the type of ball, such as the manufacturer's name, logo, or other identifying mark. The indicia may also indicate the specific brand name of the ball so that a golfer can readily select a desired ball from a group of balls.
Some balls use the indicia for the additional purpose of providing an alignment guide for the golfer when the golfer is able to rotate the ball. The alignment guide is typically printed words or graphics with arrows at the ends of the line. The printed words/graphics form a line so that the golfer's eye is drawn to the arrows to assist the golfer in aligning the golfer's shot.
The printed words/graphics are often the brand name of the ball and/or ball manufacturer so that a golfer can identify the golfer's ball throughout the round of golf. Many ball brand names are short enough to fit well on one line of printing. A single line of printing provides a clean basis for the “arrow” of the alignment guide, as the golfer's eye is not distracted from the alignment arrow. However, some ball brand names are longer and require two or more lines of printing. When two or more lines of printing are positioned proximate the alignment arrows, the golfer's eye may be distracted by the second line of printing, making the alignment guide less useful to the golfer or even unusable, depending upon the sensitivities of the golfer.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an improved alignment guide that uses multiple lines of printing.
In one aspect, the invention provides a golf ball comprising an indicia having a first line and a second line. The first line includes a graphic formed from a first color medium having a first color. The second line includes a second graphic formed from a second color medium having a second color, wherein the first color and the second color are different. The second color is selected so that the second line is legible when the indicia is oriented to the incident light at a first angle and appears to fade when the indicia is oriented to the incident light at a first angle.
In another aspect, the invention provides a golf ball having an alignment guide comprising an indicia having a first line and a second line, the indicia formed on a surface having a background color. The first line comprises a graphic formed from a first color medium having a first color, wherein the first line is the alignment guide. The second line comprises a second graphic formed from a second color medium having a second color, wherein the first color and the second color are different. The background color and the second color have low contrast, and the background color and the first color have high contrast.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.
The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.
A golf ball includes an indicia with multiple lines of printing, where only one of the lines of printing is used as an alignment guide. The alignment guide is provided by arrows positioned at either end of only one line of the printing. The other line(s) of printing are printed with an ink that appears to fade or disappear when viewed by the golfer at a select angle or set of angles. This effect is an optical illusion that allows a golfer to ignore the lines of printing that are not part of the alignment guide so that the golfer can focus on the alignment guide without being distracted by other lines of printing proximate the alignment guide.
Surface 118 may be any type of outer or outermost surface for a golf ball known in the art. Surface 118 may include the surface of the cover of golf ball 100, which cover may be made of a rubber, polymer, or plastic material. Surface 118 may also include any coating layers applied to the surface of the cover of golf ball 100. For example, the coating layer may include a paint layer, a sealing layer, or other type of coating. The cover of golf ball 100 may be any type of golf ball cover known in the art, such as a rubber, ionomer material, or a polyurethane material.
Surface 118 has a color visible to a golfer. The color of surface 118 may be considered to be the background color for indicia 110. For many golf balls, surface 118 has a white color. The precise shade of white of surface 118 may be selected from any shade of white. In other embodiments, surface 118 may have another color. Other common colors for golf balls include green, orange, and yellow, though any color may be used.
The color of surface 118 may be achieved by any means known in the art. For example, in some embodiments, the color of surface 118 may be provided by a paint layer, typically paint solids suspended in a polymer. The color of the paint layer is provided by the color of the paint solids or a mixture of colors provided by paint solids of multiple colors. In other embodiments, the color of surface 118 may be provided by particles mixed into the material of the cover layer of golf ball 100, such as titanium dioxide. In other embodiments, the color of surface 118 may be provided by a dye imparted to the cover layer of golf ball 100 using any method known in the art, such as sublimation or infusion dying techniques. In other embodiments, the perceived color of surface 118 by the golfer may be a combination of these and other colored outer layers of the ball. For example, the cover material may include titanium dioxide and a coating layer may include silvered metallic particles. The combination of these colored layers may impart a bright sparkling white color appearance to surface 118.
Indicia 110 may be marked on surface 118 or a coating disposed on surface 118 using any method known in the art, such as printing, dying, pad printing, stamping, ink jet printing, masking, screen printing, painting, adhered as a label, or the like. In some embodiments, indicia 110 may be locally integrated with surface 118 by a dying process such as sublimation dying or infusion dying. For clarity, in this discussion “printing” may be used to refer to any of the methods that may be used for depositing indicia 110, parts of indicia 110, and/or components of indicia 110 regardless of the actual method used. For example, a “line of printing” may denote a series of printed characters, dyed characters, etc.
Indicia 110 may be formed from any type color medium known in the art, such as dye, paint, and ink. In some embodiments, more than one type of color medium may be used. Any subpart or component of indicia 110 may be monochromatic or include multiple colors, though it is contemplated that multiple colors will be used in different parts of indicia 110. For clarity, “color medium” will be used in this discussion to mean any type of color medium, such as ink, dye, paint, color particles, and combinations thereof, regardless of which type of color medium. Specific examples may discuss specific color medium materials.
Indicia 110 may be any type of marking made on the ball. Indicia 110 may include any type of graphic, such as alphanumeric characters, pictures, symbols, or combinations thereof. Indicia 110 may be an identifier so that the golfer may more readily identify a ball as the golfer's ball during play. For example, indicia 110 may include the ball manufacturer's name, trade name and/or logo, the ball name, trade name, brand name, and/or logo, a ball number, a custom graphic, and combinations thereof. For the purposes of clarity in this discussion, “character” may be used to denote any type of marking that is part of the indicia, regardless of the particular type of marking.
Many golf balls include an alignment guide to assist the golfer in lining up a shot. Alignment guides are particularly useful when on the green, as the golfer is permitted to rotate the golf ball as long as the ball's distance and vector to the hole is not changed. Alignment guides may take many forms, but are typically a line with arrows at either end of the line with the points of the arrows pointing away from each other. While a solid line may be provided, some indicia include alignment guides that utilize a line of printed graphics with arrows positioned at the ends of the line of printing. Such an alignment guide is shown in
However, in many cases, the desired indicia may utilize multiple lines of printing. Indicia 110, as shown in
When indicia 110 includes multiple lines of printing or areas of coverage, the lines of printing not intended to serve as the alignment guide may distract the golfer's eye from the alignment guide. Therefore, indicia 110 provides a first color medium having a first color in the first printed line 112 and a second color medium having a second color in the second printed line 116. In some embodiments, the first color medium is the same as the second color medium, but the first color is different from the second color. In other embodiments, the first color medium is different from the second color medium, and the first color is different from the second color.
The color and/or color media of the additional lines of indicia 110 are selected so that the additional lines of indicia 110 appear to fade or disappear when the indicia is oriented at a selected angle or group of angles with respect to the incident light and/or the viewing angle of the golfer. However, when viewed at any other angle, the additional lines of indicia 110 are clearly legible. The color and/or color media of the alignment guide line of indicia 110, however, is selected to be clearly legible at all viewing angles.
While not being bound by any particular theory for why second printed line 116 appears to fade or disappear, the optical illusion of the fading print is likely linked to the color selection for second printed line 116 and/or the combination of the color selection of second printed line 116 and surface 118. The color may be measured or described using any method, such as CIELAB, CIE XYZ, Pantone color chips and names, or the like. A high contrast color with surface 118 will tend to be visible and stay legible at most or all angles, while a low contrast color will tend to be legible at some angles and appear to fade or disappear at other angles. For example, if golf ball 100 is white, a lighter color (a gray, metallic silver, pale yellow, pink or the like) is a low contrast color that will tend to appear to fade or disappear at certain angles. A darker color (black, dark reds, dark blues, dark greens or the like) is a high contrast color that will tend to be visible and stay legible at all or nearly all angles.
In some embodiments, for example, second printed line 116 has a color selected to be similar to the color of surface 118 of golf ball 100 while the color of first printed line 112 is a highly contrasting color to that color of surface 118. The color differential is sufficiently large so that second printed line 116 is legible and noticeable when viewed at some angles, but when the incident light hits second printed line 116 at a selected angle or group of angles, the difference in color between second printed line 116 and surface 118 is minimized so that second printed line 116 appears to blend in with the color of surface 118. Because of the high contrast between the color of first printed line 112 and the color of surface 118, first printed line remains highly visible and legible against the background of surface 118. For example, for a typically white surface 118, the color of first printed line may be black or a similarly dark hue while the color of second printed line 116 may be gray or silver.
One reason why the color of second printed line 116 appears to face into the color of surface 118 may be that the angle of the incident light may change the proportion of the diffuse and specular reflection of light from the surface of golf ball 100 or the intensity of the specular reflection component in the reflected light. In diffuse reflection, the reflected light is somewhat randomly scattered by imperfections in the surface(s) of golf ball 100. A high proportion of diffuse reflection is familiarly known as a matte surface. In specular reflection, the reflected light is reflected in a single direction. A high proportion of specular reflection is familiarly known as a glossy surface. A very high proportion of specular reflection is a mirror or mirrored surface. This altering of the proportion of diffuse and specular reflection or the intensity of the specular reflection is particularly likely if reflective particles are used in the color medium for second printed line 116 or any of the additional lines of indicia 110 or if the color medium of second printed line 116 or any covering coatings has gloss or high gloss finish.
Reflective particles 122 may be randomly oriented within base material 124, as shown in
This dazzling effect is shown in
Further, not every surface of reflective particles 122 may be highly reflective. For example, if reflective particles 122 are crystals, some facets of the crystal may have high luster and a metallic sheen while other facets of the crystal may have a more matte finish. Therefore, the reflective particles 122 may be more specifically oriented so that a high degree of reflection is only achieved when indicia 110 on golf ball 100 is oriented at a specific angle or a narrow range of angles with respect to the incident light. Additionally, the golf ball may include a coating with particles that can enhance this reflective effect, working in concert with the printing of second printed line 116.
Having the glare of reflected light impede the eye's ability to perceive details such as printing is familiar to anyone who has attempted to read a surface in bright sunlight. For example, when the sun shines directly onto the surface, the words on the surface are difficult or impossible to see. The characters on the surface are not clearly visible or legible. However, if the surface is oriented slightly differently, where the surface is not necessarily shaded but the angle of the sun incident to the surface is altered, such as when the observer moves with respect to the angle of the sun, the characters on the surface with higher contrast to the background of the screen become visible before the entire surface becomes legible. This effect is particularly common with backlit computer screens/displays.
Because the color of second printed line 116 is relatively similar to the color of surface 118, i.e, the color of second printed line 116 has a low contrast with the background color, the details of second printed line 116 become difficult to perceive when golf ball 100 is oriented so that a threshold level of glare is exceeded. However, because the color of the first printed line has a high contrast to the color of surface 118, first printed line 112 remains visible. This effect can be enhanced by the tendency of the eye to ignore low contrast objects when other objects in the field of view are much more high contrast. Thus, the alignment guide provided by first printed line 112 dominates the eye while the additional lines, such as second printed line 116 are effectively disregarded by the eye.
Thus, the golfer can readily read all lines of indicia 110 when golf ball is oriented to the incident light at angles that do not induce a high level of reflectivity and/or a high proportion of specular to diffuse reflectivity. Similarly, when golf ball 100 is oriented to the incident light at the relatively small range of angles or a specific angle that does induce a high level of reflectivity and/or a low proportion of specular to diffuse reflectivity, the additional lines of indicia 110 appear to fade or blend into the color of surface 118 of golf ball 110. This leaves only first printed line 112, the alignment guide, visible and legible to the golfer. This effect facilitates the golfer's ability to effectively utilize the alignment guide and not be distracted or disturbed in that use by the additional lines.
Table 1 provides CIELAB (formally, CIE 1976 L*, a*, b* color space) color space values for various shades that are effectively disregarded by the eye when positioned on a curved white background and viewed as a selected angle or range of angles. Table 1 also provides the CIELAB value for the white shade. As is well-known in the art, CIELAB is a three-dimensional mathematical expression of color based upon the CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram. In CIELAB, L* denotes the lightness of the color (0 indicating black and 100 indicating white), a* denotes the position between red/magenta and green (negative values indicating green and positive values indicating magenta), and b* denotes the position between yellow and blue (negative values indicating blue and positive values indicating yellow.) Table 1 is provided as an example only; Table 1 is not intended to be a comprehensive table of values for which the optical illusion of disregarding additional lines of printing is effective. Many other colors and color combinations are contemplated by the various embodiments of the invention.
Using the example values as a guide, the relative perceptual differences (ΔE*ab) between White and the other colors was approximated by taking the Euclidean distance between them using the color difference equation Eq. 1 shown in
As is shown in Table 1, the ΔE*ab values for Light Gray, Metallic Silver, and Dark Gray range from about 3.79 to about 5.62, all values within about 4 units of the JND. Therefore, in some embodiments, it is anticipated that the ΔE*ab for two colors that are effective for the optical illusion of having the eye disregard the additional lines of printing will be between about 2.3 and about 7. In other embodiments, this range may be narrower or larger, for example between about 2.3 and about 15. Of note is that the ΔE*ab will, in most embodiments, be equal to or greater than the JND so that the print of the additional line is legible at some angles. Also, notably, the Metallic Silver color has the smallest ΔE*ab with respect to White, suggesting that inclusion of metallic particles will assist in the optical illusion of having the additional lines appear to fade so that they can be disregarded by the eye when viewed at some angles.
A solid golf ball is manufactured with a cover made of an ionomer resin. A white paint layer is applied to the cover. Two indicia are provided on the cover, where the indicia is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The indicia include an alignment guide which is provided in a black color. The alignment guide comprises a partial brand name for the ball with arrow graphics at the beginning and end of the partial brand name. Additional lines of the indicia are provided in a first indicia in Cool Gray 10 (a metallic gray tone with bluish undertones), NB 9522. In a second indicia on the opposite side of the ball, the additional lines are provided in PMS 877 Silver. The ball was then coated with a clear polyurethane coating.
The finished ball was observed with the light source positioned directly overhead by holding the ball so that the first indicia was facing the observer. Both lines of printing of the first indicia were visible and legible, though the additional line of printing was observed to be somewhat difficult to read. The finished ball was then rotated so that the first indicia faced upward, so that the first indicia faced the light source while the position of the observer did not change. The alignment guide was visible while the additional line appeared to fade and was no longer legible.
The ball was again rotated so that the second indicia faced the observer with the light source positioned directly overhead. Both lines of printing of the second indicia were visible and legible. The additional line of printing was observed to the easier to read than the first indicia additional line of printing. The finished ball was then rotated so that the second indicia faced upward, so that the second indicia faced the light source. The alignment guide was visible while the additional line appeared to fade and was no longer legible.
While various embodiments of the invention have been described, the description is intended to be exemplary, rather than limiting and it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible that are within the scope of the invention. For example, if surface 118 is provided with a color other than white, the color of the additional lines may be selected to have a similar color space value, such as having similar “a” and “b” values for CIELAB, but with a higher “L” value. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents. Also, various modifications and changes may be made within the scope of the attached claims.
