Patent Application
20180044617
This invention relates to bar soap and especially decorative soap containing an image which can change or appear dimensional, depending on the angle from which a viewer sees it, and containing a lens which may be lenticular, or similar, integrated lens arrays, such as “fly's eye”, or hexagonal arrays.
Images on, and within soap are well known, as well as molding a logo into soap. Imbedding images in clear soap has been known as early as 1931 (Villain U.S. Pat. No. 1,827,549). More recently dissolving polymer material containing an image has been used (Wolfersberger U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,191 for Transparent Soap with Printed Logo). Many craft and hobby websites, such as Brambleberry.com give instructions how to imbed images on, and in soap, and sell clear soap base, for that purpose. Such sites also sell molds for casting soap in various shapes, and scents to relate to those shapes. Objects are also sometimes embedded in soap for advertising purposes or as an incentive for a child to use it. Food-safe printers and inks are also well known and used to print on water-soluble paper for soap and edible paper for images on cakes or cookies.
Decorative soap has long been used to advertise and reinforce not only its own brand, but others as well, such as in the hospitality industry, where small bars are given away in hotels with the logo of the hotel or hotel chain on the packaging or printed on, or molded into the soap itself. Decorative soaps are also used to create an incentive in children for using soap and enjoying their bath. An imbedded image can be made to last until the soap is used, or largely so, as in the aforementioned patents. Various soap-packaging arrangements offer lenticular images for soap, such as Wenzhou Chongkun Printing Co, Ltd., on mainland China, and ABC has held a “Super Soap Weekend”, in which a pin was released that features a TV with a lenticular image inside of it that changes to reveal the names of different soaps. Such efforts at printing lenticular images on, or including them in, soap packaging has shown itself to be an important aid in marketing soap. However, once the package is opened, the soap itself is not as effective as a marketing tool. Therefore it would be highly desirable to be able to achieve as eye-catching as possible a display on or in the soap itself.
The present invention seeks to create a display within the soap itself that changes depending on the angle from which it is seen by the user. Because of the nature of such images, the display may be made to look three-dimensional, or display any of the other effects commonly associated with lens array techniques, such as morph, zoom, and animation.
Preferred embodiments will be disclosed, but the invention is not limited to these embodiments.
A clear soap is formed into a lens array at whose focal-length is adhered, printed, or photographically projected onto a sensitized material, either through the lenses or not, a food-safe image which corresponds in pitch to the lens array, so as to create any of the types of images generally associated with lenticular or fly's eye arrays. Three-dimensional, motion, morph, and zoom, are common examples. The soap is preferably of clear or transparent material, but can be partially transparent or translucent, such that the material permits at least some light to pass through the material. The image can be made using non-toxic or food-safe ink on a non-toxic substrate.
In a preferred embodiment, the image is located on the flat back of the lens array, whose thickness is the same as its focal-length. Two such lens arrays with images may be placed back-to-back and surrounded with a larger bar of clear soap, leaving an air space between the outer surface of the lenses and the rest of the bar so that the images remain visible from the outside of the bar, but are not damaged by using the soap until the outer layer is completely used up or consumed by a user.
In another preferred embodiment, the lens array may be thicker than its focal length, but face lens-side inwards, with the image disposed at an air-spaced distance from the array equaling its focal-length. Two such thick arrays might form the two sides of a rectangular bar of soap, with a flat piece between them, having an image on either side. This would enable seeing the image from outside, but not damaging the relationship between lens and image until the thickness of the arrays is completely used up or consumed. Additionally, since it is untouched, the image itself would not be subject to bleeding or blurring, even if made from a water-based, or otherwise soluble substance.
The above embodiments could be made in rectangular, or other shapes, including but not limited to cubes, other solid polygons, spheres, cylinders, and other both recognizable or abstract shapes.
When the soap is made, there is sometimes shrinkage during the process, and the image should preferably be added to the soap at the correct pitch to match the lens array. Shrinkage is quite predictable however, so if the time between creation of the soap into a solid form is accounted for, one may predict at what pitch the image needs to be made. For example, if the soap is molded into a lenticular screen at a pitch of 30 lenses per inch, and one hour later it is 30.5 lenses per inch, the image would preferably be made to this pitch and printed on, or laminated to the soap at that time. Asymmetries in shrinkage may also be predicted, such as a slightly faster shrinkage rate toward the outer edges of a lens array, and the image may altered accordingly.
While embodiments of the invention are disclosed as examples of how to make and use the invention, the invention is not limited to these embodiments as variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The scope of the invention is defined by way of the claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US16/30873 | 5/5/2016 | WO | 00 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62157133 | May 2015 | US |
