Claims
- 1. A viewer for viewing and decoding an encoded image, said viewer comprising:a substrate having a first surface bearing an encoded image, wherein said encoded image comprises plural encoded image portions; a body having opposing first and second surfaces and a receptacle for receiving or retaining said substrate; plural slidable decoding lenses disposed along a plane and superposed said substrate for decoding respective ones of said encoded image portions on said substrate; and a first retainer in the body that slidably retains said slidable decoding lenses in slidable engagement with said body.
- 2. The viewer of claim 1 wherein said first retainer is integral with or attached to said body.
- 3. The viewer of claim 2 wherein a major portion of said first retainer superposes portions of said decoding lenses.
- 4. The viewer of claim 2 wherein said first retainer superposes edge portions of said decoding lenses and comprises plural edges defining one or more openings to permit a user of said viewer to contact said decoding lenses.
- 5. The viewer of claim 1 wherein said first retainer is adjacent said first surface of said body, said first surface of said substrate is adjacent a second surface of said body and said slidable decoding lenses interpose said first retainer and said substrate.
- 6. The viewer of claim 1 wherein said substrate is replaceable and removable from said viewer.
- 7. The viewer of claim 1 further comprising a second retainer that retains said decoding lenses with said body.
- 8. The viewer of claim 7 wherein said second retainer is substantially surrounded by said plural decoding lenses.
- 9. The viewer of claim 8 further comprising a decoding lens bypass for temporarily retaining one or more of said decoding lenses.
- 10. The viewer of claim 9 wherein said decoding lens bypass is adjacent said second retainer.
- 11. The viewer of claim 9 wherein said decoding lens bypass is attached to or integral with said body.
- 12. The viewer of claim 1 wherein said first retainer is integral with or attached to said slidable decoding lenses.
- 13. The viewer of claim 12 further comprising a second retainer that is integral with or attached to said body.
- 14. The viewer of claim 13 wherein said first retainer employs a tongue-and-groove joint.
- 15. The viewer of claim 13 wherein said substrate is replaceable and removable from said decoder.
- 16. The viewer of claim 13 further comprising a decoding lens bypass for temporarily retaining one or more of said decoding lenses.
- 17. The viewer of claim 16 wherein said decoding lens bypass is attached to or integral with said body.
- 18. The viewer of claim 16 further comprising a third retainer that is connected to said body or substrate, wherein said decoding lens bypass is adjacent said third retainer.
- 19. The viewer of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of said body is shaped as a cube, pyramid, rhombohedron, tetrahedron, orthorhombohedron, tetragon, diamond, triclinical-hedron, square, triangle, rectangle, parallelogram, hexagon, pentagon, polygon form having seven or more sides, circle, ellipse, sphere, hemisphere, regular form, irregular form, asymmetric form, symmetric form, cube, cylinder, frustoconical polygon, cone, rod, animal, person, thing, logo, extruded 2-dimensional form, multipointed star, caricature, fanciful figure and combinations thereof.
- 20. The puzzle of claim 1 wherein said puzzle further comprises one or more puzzle pieces retained by said retainer, wherein at least one of said puzzle pieces bears at least one of an encoded image, an unencoded image, a holographic image, an image-bearing member, a disc-shaped member, a hidden image, and combinations thereof.
- 21. The viewer of claim 1 wherein at least one of said decoding lenses further comprises an unencoded image portion which can be assembled with another unencoded image portion or with a decoded image to form another image.
- 22. An improved slide puzzle comprising a body slidably retaining plural sliding pieces in a plane in slidable relation to one another and the body and a retainer that slidably retains the sliding pieces with the body, the improvement comprising including decoding lenses as sliding pieces and including plural encoded image portions interposed a surface of the body and the sliding pieces wherein a decoded image is formed when the decoding lenses superpose the encoded image portions.
- 23. The improved slide puzzle of claim 22, wherein said slide puzzle is shaped as a plane, cube, sphere, egg, pyramid, polyhedron, cylinder, or polygonal structure.
- 24. The improved slide puzzle of claim 23, wherein at least two surfaces of the slide puzzle bear at least one decoding lens and one encoded image portion which is superposable by the decoding lens.
- 25. The improved slide puzzle of claim 23, wherein said slide puzzle comprises at least two slide puzzles that cooperate or operate independently of one another.
- 26. The improved slide puzzle of claim 25, wherein said at least two slide puzzles are disposed in a back-to-back relationship.
- 27. A viewer for viewing an encoded image comprising:a body having a first surface; an encoded image comprising plural encoded image portions and superposing said first surface of said body; plural slidable decoding lenses superposing said encoded image; and a retainer in said body for retaining said decoding lenses with and in slidable relation to said body and for retaining said decoding lenses along a plane; wherein at least one decoded image is formed when said slidable decoding lenses superpose respective ones of said encoded image portions.
- 28. The viewer of claim 27 wherein said plane is curved and said body comprises at least one substantially cylindrical portion superposed by said encoded image over which said decoding lens can slide radially or longitudinally.
- 29. The viewer of claim 27 wherein said body comprises at least two longitudinally adjacent substantially cylindrical portions, at least one of which is superposed by said encoded image, and over which at least two decoding lenses can slide radially or longitudinally, wherein said cylindrical portions are radially rotatable, are substantially coaxial and have approximately the same circumference.
- 30. The viewer of claim 29 wherein said retainer comprises two or more longitudinally spaced members at least one of which encircles adjacent sections of said at least two longitudinally adjacent substantially cylindrical portions.
- 31. The viewer of claim 29 wherein said retainer comprises two or more radially spaced members disposed longitudinally parallel to an axis common to said at least two longitudinally adjacent substantially cylindrical portions.
- 32. The viewer of claim 29 wherein said body comprises two longitudinally spaced and opposing end portions.
- 33. The viewer of claim 29 wherein said at least two longitudinally adjacent substantially cylindrical portions are held together by at least one connecting member.
- 34. The viewer of claim 33 wherein said at least one connecting member independently comprises at least one male connector and at least one female connector, wherein said male and female connectors are dimensioned to form a mating connection.
- 35. The viewer of claim 33 wherein the connecting member comprises one or more of a pressure fitting, threaded joint, snap-together joint, j-slot, adhesive, bearing, threaded slot, a rod and combinations thereof.
- 36. The viewer according to claim 27 wherein said retainer superposes portions of said decoding lenses.
- 37. The viewer of claim 27 wherein said encoded image is borne by at least one of said first surface of said body, a substrate interposed said decoding lenses and said first surface of said body, and combinations thereof.
- 38. The viewer of claim 27 wherein said encoded image is borne by a replaceable substrate interposed said decoding lenses and said first surface of said body.
- 39. A slide puzzle comprising:a body; a retainer attached to the body; plural slidable decoding lenses in a first plane and in slidable engagement with the retainer such that the slidable decoding lenses are slidable in relation to the body, wherein the lenses are slidable with respect to one another and the first plane comprises an open area into which a decoding lens can slide; an encoded image comprising plural encoded image portions in a second plane, wherein the first plane superposes the second plane; wherein a decoded image is formed when the plural encoded image portions are viewed through respective ones of the slidable decoding lenses.
- 40. The slide puzzle of claim 39, wherein the body further comprises a first surface defined by a third plane, and the second plane superposes the third plane.
- 41. The slide puzzle of claim 40 further comprising a receptacle adapted to receive or retain a substrate bearing the encoded image.
- 42. The slide puzzle of claim 40, wherein the encoded image is borne by the first surface.
- 43. The slide puzzle of claim 39, wherein the decoding lenses comprise at least a first lenticular lens and a second lenticular lens and wherein the lenticules of the first lenticular lens have a different orientation than the lenticules of the second lenticular lens.
- 44. The slide puzzle of claim 39, wherein the number of slidable decoding lenses approximates the number of encoded image portions.
- 45. The slider puzzle of claim 39 wherein an encoded image portion is decodable with one or more than one slidable decoding lens.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO EARLIER FILED APPLICATION
The present application claims the benefit of priority of earlier filed provisional U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/088,138 which was filed on Jun. 5, 1998, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
US Referenced Citations (11)
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60/088138 |
Jun 1998 |
US |