Patent Application
20100245419
The present invention relates generally to a hand held digital airbrush pen having an inkjet print cartridge as the supply of ink.
Airbrushes commonly refer to a hand-held device for spraying liquid with an air stream. These devices find use in various fields such as touch-up painting, drawing shading and other applications where it is useful to apply a liquid spray in a controlled manner. Airbrushes currently in use incorporate many complex and expensive mechanical parts that are typically manufactured from brass or stainless steel. Typical airbrushes have several problems in addition to their expense and complexity. The operator is required to have a source of gas flow, such as a compressor or can of compressed nitrogen, that must be connected to the air brush by an awkward hose that limits the operator's freedom of movement. In addition, airbrushes require the skill of an artist to draw or color. The use of an airbrush by a child or a person with limited artistic skill is not widely done. It would therefore be advantageous to provide an airbrush that could draw shapes or other objects without a highly developed artistic skill, making the airbrush enjoyable for kids and children.
One embodiment of the present invention is to provide a hand-held spray device of simple and inexpensive design that provides functional advantages over the aforedescribed airbrush. This one embodiment is achieved by incorporating the use of drop-on-demand ink jet technology in a hand-held spray device. The device would be constructed for use with insertable ink jet print/cartridges to produce ink droplet streams. The device would further include a memory capable of storing at least one image pattern; an ink jet print/cartridge of the type having a self-contained ink supply, a plurality of orifices and a plurality of discrete jets energizable respectively for ejection of ink droplets through such orifices; a plurality of discrete drivers electrically coupled to the plurality of discrete print/cartridge jets, with the drivers being selectively actuatable for providing ink jetting electrical energy pulses; a selector switch for electively choosing one of the at least one image patterns stored on the memory; and a spray switch for selectively actuating the discrete drivers to provide electrical energy pulses to energize their respective jets in order to spray ink from the self-contained ink supply in the shape of the selected image pattern.
In other embodiments the device may include a memory capable of storing at least two image patterns. In addition, one of the selected image patterns could include multiple component images, such that the activation and deactivation of the spray switch is capable of rendering different component images of the selected image pattern. In yet other embodiment, the device may include a visual indicator light positioned on a front surface of the device adjacent or near the plurality of orifices. The visual indicator light would be capable of casting a fixed focal light point on a surface to indicate the area the ink will spray.
And in yet other embodiments, the device may include a pressure sensor positioned on a front surface of the device adjacent or near the plurality of orifices to measure an ink pressure applied to a surface. The pressure sensor would be in communication with a microcontroller to control the width or weight of the ink line in response to the pressure applied to a surface. Alternatively, a pressure sensor can be directly in communication with the spray button, such that the pressure on the spray button will dictate the weight of the line of ink jetting from the orifice. Furthermore, the device may include a motion feedback sensor capable of monitoring the movement of the front surface of the device adjacent or near the plurality of orifices across a surface. The motion feedback sensor would be in communication with a microcontroller to control a timing of the activation of the jets in response to the movement of the device.
The incorporation of drop-on-demand ink jet technology in a hand-held spray device overcomes the aforementioned limitations of the conventional airbrush. The spray device may contain its own power source eliminating the necessity of a hose connection and colors may be changed easily by changing the insertable print/cartridge.
A fuller understanding of the foregoing may be had by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
While the invention is susceptible to embodiments in many different forms, there are shown in the drawings and will described herein, in detail, the preferred embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the spirit or scope of the invention and the embodiments illustrated.
Referring now to
In order to operate the device 10, a replaceable ink jet print/cartridge 20 is placed in the housing 12. Such a print/cartridge is shown in more detail in
To help with the targeting of the ink a laser or LED 30 through a simple lens with a fixed focal point could illuminate a dot on the surface where the ink will be sprayed. The dot would also change size depending on the distance from the surface. So as the device 10 is pulled back from the surface its print area grows as well as the dot size, to indicate the area the spray will cover.
A battery pack or power supply 37 is provided within the housing 12 to provide power to the microcontroller 34. A removable end cap (not shown) is provided on housing 12 to facilitate replacement of the battery 37. If desired, a permanent rechargeable battery may be employed for battery 37. In some applications, it may be desirable to use an external power source instead of battery 37 although this would limit the mobility of the operator to some extent, compared to the
As currently illustrated in
Further shown in
An internal data link such as the USB port can be used to communicate to a computer 47 and link to the Internet 48 (either through the computer or directly thereto) such that patterns can be generated, downloaded and then stored on the device, illustrated in
The present invention airbrush can hold many preprogrammed designs and air brush spray patterns in an internal memory. The number of patterns is dictated only by the memory utilized in its electronic controls. The patterns could be selectable by the pattern selector switch(s) 16 on the outside of the device 10 or sequentially selected by a mode button, or by other interface means. After the pattern is selected, the spray button 14 is pressed and the inkjet starts to spray the pattern. It may be up to the user to control the distance and rate of movement of the airbrush to attain the desired effect. However, spray control could be attained by incorporating a pressure sensor 50 on the face of the inject device that sprays the ink. The pressure sensor 50 senses the pressure applied to control the width of the ink line and or the weight of the ink line's darkness. In another embodiment, a motion feedback system 52 is implemented so the electronic controls can monitor the movement of the device 10. The spacing between ink drops could be automatically adjusted to keep the patterns in perfect aspect no mater how much the user changes the speed of movement while spraying. This feedback system would use optical sensors or mechanical sensors much like a computer mouse, or could use accelerometers or gyros and the likes to monitor movement.
The device could be implemented with a multicolor ink cartridge. Multicolor ink cartridges use 3 or more columns of inkjets each spraying its own color which the electronics control the amount of ink and pattern for each color simultaneously digitally mixing the color to get virtually any color. Another implementation would use food safe food coloring for printing on food. This would have great uses in decorating foods, plates, ice, etc. Another implementation could use water based glue in place of the ink. Then you could spray a glue image and cover in glitter to create glitter images.
The styling of the housing of the device could take many forms including but not limited to a large pen shape, a spray paint can shape, a paint brush shape, or any other hand held ergonomic shape. The device can be used for many applications in many different markets. It can be used on almost every surface, and further it is not limited to flat surfaces. It is useful in all applications where custom labeling, decorating, painting, stamping, or “stickering” is desired on any material surface of any shape contour and size.
Beyond its artistic use as a digitally controlled airbrush for use on canvas or paper, it can be used simply as a pen or marker, or like spray paint. It can be used to label anything. It can be used as an alternative to rubber stamping. It could be used to non-permanently tattoo skin, decorate fingernails. It could be used to apply mailing addresses to envelopes or packages. It could be used to time date stamp perishable items in the restaurant industry. It could be used to spray food coloring on cookies, cakes, and other food items. It could be used to spray a water soluble adhesive to adhere glitter to make glitter images. This could replace the use of stickers, by teachers and children alike. It could be used as a calligraphy pen. It could be used to mark fabrics, and other textiles.
The device could also be programmed to print various images based on the activation of a spray button. For example, in
In one example, the device works with an inexpensive off the shelf ink cartridge such as a 51604A inkjet cartridge. This cartridge has 12 jets and its paint swath is ⅛″ tall when very close to the paper. The jets also print in a single column. The inkjet squirts ink by applying a 24V pulse of 5 μs to any one of the 12 jets. The jets can only be fired 2 at a time in a specific order 1 and 7, 2 and 8, 3 and 9, 4 and 10, 5 and 11, 6 and 12. After a whole column has been printed there needs to be a 500 μs delay then the next column can be printed. An 8-bit microcontroller with 16 I/O is capable of driving the cartridge. It will need to run at 8 MHZ or better and need something like 8K of ROM and a few bytes of RAM. The driver transistors need to be able to supply 300 ma for 5 μs pulses. These drive transistors can be discreet transistors or could be replaced by transistor array chips like the ULN2803A. If the airbrush uses an USB data link version a microcontroller chip that supports USB directly or one that has a UART serial port would be connected to a USB converter chip like the FTD232R.
For example purposes only, a preprogrammed Spin tag (such as shown in
Referring now to
The below are software operating functionality code for a device in accordance to one or more of the embodiments outlined herein;
The below are software operating functionality code for a device in accordance to one or more of the embodiments outlined herein;
The below is software printing functionality code for a device in accordance to one or more of the embodiments outlined herein;
From the foregoing and as mentioned above, it will be observed that numerous variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concept of the invention. It is to be understood that no limitation with respect to the specific methods and apparatus illustrated herein is intended or should be inferred. It is, of course, intended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the scope of the claims.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Patent 61/163,709 filed Mar. 26, 2009.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61163709 | Mar 2009 | US |
