Patent Application
20120315423
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to heat shields applied directly to uncovered skin, in particular the face, hands, and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso.
2. Overview
There is a need for hunters and soldiers to completely camouflage themselves to avoid detection. Both hunters and soldiers have successfully used camouflaged clothing and hats to camouflage most of their bodies and their equipment; however, for various reasons it is not practical to cover the face, which contains the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, or sometimes the hands, arms, legs, and torso. The lack of comfortable, practical camouflage for the uncovered skin such as the face, ears, hands, and so forth results in unwanted detection by prey or enemies.
There is a need for hunters, soldiers, actors, sports fanatics, and costume wearers to apply one of many predetermined color patterns to their skin, in particular, their face, hands and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso. There is also a need for makers of camouflage patterns to create market awareness for their particular patterns.
There is a need for soldiers, firemen, glass blowers, metal workers, and others in occupations that are at high risk of fire, bombs and other high heat issues to wear heat protective clothing. Soldiers, for example, must wear special heat protective clothing while in the field outside of the safe areas because they are exposed to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as roadside bombs that can reach temperatures of up to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Development of camouflage patterns, especially in the hunting market has become a relatively large and competitive business. Various brands of camouflage designs such as Mossy Oak, Real Tree, and Predator, compete to have their camouflage patterns adopted for use in hunting clothing and equipment.
Different methods and devices have been developed in an attempt to camouflage uncovered skin. These include the use of face paint, or makeup, and fabric masks, or netting.
Face paint may come in the form of small bottles, tubes, or sticks. Makeup kits with multiple partitions and two sided sticks are commonly used to provide two or more camouflage colors. However the design must be drawn from scratch by hand, usually by the wearer on the wearer's own face. Face paint and makeup have several disadvantages, including being odorous, greasy, heavy, hot, sticky, messy, imprecise, time-consuming to apply and remove, and difficult to remove. When hunting, scent is a major concern because prey can detect the odor from the face paint. Face paint and makeup is messy and can damage expensive clothing or equipment. Because it is greasy, heavy, hot and sticky it is uncomfortable to wear. It is difficult to apply and imprecise in its results.
Face concealment devices include various fabric masks, buffs, neck sleeves, and camouflaged netting designed to hang from a hat or wrap around the head. Conventional face concealment devices have several disadvantages, including being heavy, hot, obstructive, disruptive, and expensive. A fabric mask for example may block a hunter's vision, catch on branches, or disrupt the movement of a bow string. A thick fabric covering the ears distorts the hearing of the wearer.
More recently, some have attempted to apply camouflage to various portions of the face with pieces of vinyl with reusable adhesive. These have several disadvantages including being uncomfortable, non-breathable, hot, obstructive and disruptive.
Although they have not been used previously as skin camouflage, temporary tattoos are used in a different field for other purposes. Temporary tattoos typically contain small images such as a miniature flag or a small butterfly. A temporary tattoo is made by printing one or more small images on a special backing paper or film that is processed with multiple layers of coating. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,169. Typically, the first layer applied to the backing is a sizing agent, the second layer is a non-stick silicon release coating, and the third layer is a transfer film composed of gelatin or other polymeric material. The pigments are printed on the transfer film. With a decal-style temporary tattoo, the paper is moistened to release the transfer film, which may be applied to the skin.
Temporary tattoos are conventionally applied to relatively flat, small areas on the cheeks, arms, legs, or back, but have not been used to cover large, uneven surfaces of the body such as the entire face or hands and fingers.
More recently waterless tattoos have been developed which place the pigment in a translucent adhesive substrate. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,276. The adhesive substrate has peel off paper on one side which when removed allows the adhesive side to be attached to the skin. The backing can be plastic film that is removed after the adhesive substrate has been pressed on the skin.
What is needed is a means of applying one of many predetermined camouflaged patterns to uncovered skin, in particular the face, hands, and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso, without being, odorous, greasy, heavy, hot, sticky, messy, imprecise, time-consuming to apply and remove, difficult to remove, obstructive, disruptive, or expensive.
What is needed is a means of applying skin heat protection that is flexible, breathable, sweat-through, and comfortable to uncovered skin, in particular the face, hands, and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso, without being, odorous, greasy, heavy, hot, sticky, messy, imprecise, time-consuming to apply and remove, difficult to remove, obstructive, disruptive, or expensive.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a new use of temporary tattoo devices and process to apply one of many predetermined camouflaged patterns to uncovered skin, in particular the face, hands, and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso.
Accordingly, beside the objects and advantages described above, some additional objects and advantages of the present invention are:
In the drawings, closely related figures have the same number but different alphabetic suffixes.
face—human surface tissue between the ears and between the hairline, and the bottom of the jaw, including the eyelids, nose, and lips.
applicator—a device for applying a predetermined pattern of pigments to human skin.
The present invention comprises a plurality of applicators that collectively apply a predetermined pattern to a relative large area of uncovered skin, such as the face, hands, and other body parts that may not be clothed such as arms, legs, or torso.
In a preferred embodiment, the applicators apply a predetermined pattern of pigments to human skin. The predetermined pattern may be any one of a plurality of camouflage patterns. A number of patterns are available with high resolution printing.
If the user 100 is a hunter or soldier, uncovered portions of the body, such as the face 110, neck 114, ears (130, 140), and hands 302 (
FIGS. 2A through 2D—Skin Camouflage Applicators
The eyelid tabs (202, 204) allow the user to more accurately apply the pattern to the eyelids (102, 104, respectively). The eyelid tabs (202, 204) also allow the user to see through the applicator when using a mirror to self apply the pattern.
The nose cutout 206 allows the rest of the face applicator 200 to pass over the nose and lie more smoothly along the skin. The nose cutout 206 also helps the user align the pattern to the face 110 using the nose 106 as a central anchor point. The lip cutout 208 allows the pattern to be applied to the lips. Both the nose cutout 206 and the lip cutout 208 allow the user to breath while applying the sheet to the face 110.
The chin darts (212,214) allow the face applicator 200 to fold under around the chin 112 and along the jaw. The darts (212, 214) allow the face applicator 200 to form a 3-dimensional shape (see
The ear applicators (230, 240) each comprises ear tabs (232a through 232f, and 242a through 242f, respectively), which allow the ear applicators (230, 240) to apply the pattern to the top and back of the ears (130, 140) and allow the ear applicators (230, 240) to fit different size ears.
Another aspect of the invention is that the pigment and transfer substrate can contain UV sunburn protection. The nose 106 and tops of the ears (130, 140) are typically more susceptible to sunburn.
The ear applicators (230, 240) are next aligned to the face pattern and applied to the respective ears (not shown in
FIGS. 3B through 3D—Skin Camouflage Applied to the Hand and Arm
Preferable the various applicators in a pattern set 800 are comprised of standard sized sheets, such as, for example, 8½×11 inch sheets.
There are many different camouflage patterns. For example, for the hunting pattern 400, one company Mossy Oak, for example, has Break-Up®, Treestand®, Duck Blind®, Brush®, and Obsession®. Other companies provide other patterns. The military pattern 410 could be the tradition military camouflage, the new Universal Camouflage Pattern used by the U.S. Army, or military camouflage for snow, desert, or night operations.
An aspect of the current invention is having a set 800 of applicators for each different camouflage pattern.
FIGS. 6A through 6I—Skin Camouflage Applied to the Portions of the Face and Neck
If desired, the user could apply pigment over facial hair.
In this embodiment, the camouflage pattern is comprised of different elements, for example, green leaves, golden brown leaves, light branches, dark branches, brush, and so forth. Each of the elements is provided as separate applicators.
This invention anticipates that effect camouflage can be created without covering every square inch of skin, but by breaking up the lighter colors of the face with darker strips or elements.
FIGS. 10A through 10F—Structural Views of Wet and Dry Applicators
A dry applicator is used by optionally cutting the applicator to the desired size and shape; removing the peel off layer 1012, applying the remaining layers with the adhesive layer 1010 toward the skin, pressing the remaining layers against the skin, and then removing the dry release layer 1004.
A wet applicator is used by optionally cutting the applicator to the desired size and shape; removing the peel off layer 1012, applying the remaining layers with the adhesive layer 1010 toward the skin, pressing the remaining layers against the skin, and then removing the wet release layer 1014 by dissolving the solute layer 1016 with water.
While the descriptions of the various embodiments have been made in reference to hunting and military uses, the present invention could also be used for other activities such as makeup for stage and video actors, costume wearers, sport fanatics, or groups of people who want a uniform appearance.
In the example of a long running stage production, multiple predetermined patterns are applied to multiple actors each day, each pattern could be embodied in a set of applicators and mass produced. Use the methods disclosed above, the pattern could be applied to each respective actor and touched up as needed with makeup. This would significantly reduce the time and cost associated with applying the daily stage makeup. The mass produced applicators could be licensed to traveling versions of the show, local theater groups, and high schools along with the scripts and scores.
In the example of a feature film, video is shot over a period of many days or months; however it is important the appearance of the actors have continuity. For example, if a character is cut in a fight, a scar needs to appear in the same place in all the scenes that appear after the fight chronologically, and should not appear in any scenes that appear before the fight. However, because of different set locations and the use of sound stages, scenes are not shot on the same day and are not shot in chronological order. Some scenes require multiple days of shooting video from different angles. This invention can be used to create predetermined patterns which are applied to multiple actors each day. This would significantly reduce the time and cost associated with applying the daily film makeup and would insure continuity of the precise features, e.g. of a scar, and placement, e.g. the same place.
In the example of costume wearers, there is a large market for certain Halloween, Marti Gras, Carnival, or other costumes. For example, Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean is a very popular Halloween costume. A design having the Captain Jack's entire face could be mass produced and sold along with beard, jewelry, and clothing.
In the example of sport fanatics, conventionally some fans paint their face or chest and may apply small decals with the sports logo. With one aspect of the current invention, a precise, high quality team logo could be applied across the entire face, or across the chests of a series of fans with high quality letters and accurate colors.
In the examples of groups of people who want a uniform appearance, people in a protest could all have a flag of a suppressed group applied to their faces; people in a St. Patrick's Day parade could have shamrocks on their faces; people walking to raise money for a cause could each have a pink ribbon on their face and arms and continuing on a t-shirt.
In the example, of a camouflage pattern licensor, top professional hunters and tradeshow models could be dressed apparel in the latest pattern with any uncovered skin continuously applied with the same, matching pattern. The professional hunters could stand in front of a wall or blind made in the same pattern. The models could have a large percentage of their body covered in skin camouflage prepared specifically for the tradeshow demonstration impact. The models could walk around the tradeshow floor or work in the both. Complimentary applicators could be given away as promotional items.
In the case where a military unit is involved in an activity for a specific period of time, every member of the unit could be given a particular set of applicators, so that members of the unit can recognize each other by unique features of the pattern. The pattern could be switched at certain times.
The applicators of the present invention could be implemented in with various processes. For some use the conventional water release decal-type temporary tattoo could be used to apply the pigment. For other uses the new waterless temporary tattoo would be preferred. Other devices and processes are also anticipated. For example, the predetermined pattern of pigment could be infused into a plastic film or substrate that could be used to repeatedly apply the pigment (similar to a self inking stamp).
The present invention is simple to make and use. The present invention significantly reduces the time to put on.
The present invention is easy to use.
Unlike conventional method of face and hand concealment, the present invention is comfortable to wear, and can be worn for long periods of times.
The present invention allows the skin to breath.
The applicators and methods of the present invention are effective.
The use of the present invention is efficient. A predetermined pattern can be quickly applied with high quality appearance and effect.
The applicators and methods of the present invention result in a high quality, precisely detailed and placed pattern of pigment that is not achieved with conventional face paint or makeup kits.
The present invention is highly marketable as products for field use and also has exciting implications for tradeshows and promotions.
Because of the vision and movement of the user is not blocked or disturbed by this means of face or hand concealment, the user will be safer. The hunter will be less likely to trip and fall, or get branches or equipment caught. The child in a Halloween costume will be safer (and more comfortable) that wearing traditional masks that can obscure vision.
The pigments or adhesives used are cleared by the FDA and comply with FDA regulations.
The present invention allows a hunter or soldier to move through the brush more quietly by avoiding stepping on branches or leaves, and by reducing snags on branches.
The present invention can be quickly applied and removed.
Unlike the greasy mess and damage cause by conventional face paint or makeup, the present invention is relatively clean.
Unlike face paint or makeup, the invention has relatively little odor or scent.
Conventional methods result in an inconsistent, less pleasing appearance.
Because the applicators, sets, and books can be made relatively inexpensively, the present invention is cost effective. They can be applied by the user, without having to have an “artist” take the time to create the pattern upon each application.
The applicators of the present invention are easy to store and should have a long shelf life.
The pigment and transfer substrate can provide long lasting (multi-day) sunburn protection for the uncovered skin of the user.
The ceramic bubbles can provide heat protection for the uncovered skin of the user.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an easy to use, simple, safe, comfortable, efficient, and effective means for concealing the face or hands of a user.
While the above descriptions contain several specifics these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as examples of some of the preferred embodiments thereof. Many other variations are possible. For example, the pattern can be broken up and applied by applicators or various sizes and shapes. Additionally, the applicators could be made of different materials or have additional features, or be used in different activities, without departing from the scope and spirit of the novel features of the present invention.
Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the illustrated embodiments, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/381,630. This application claims priority on U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/381,630, which claims priority on U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/069,214, filed Mar. 12, 2008, entitled “Face, Hand, and Skin Camouflage”.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61069214 | Mar 2008 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12381630 | Mar 2009 | US |
| Child | 13541438 | US |
