Patent Application
20070257435
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention relates to a passive learning system utilizing a deck of cards for learning U.S. navy meanings or international means of international code flags or signaling flags.
Even in these days of radio and satellite communication, ships still rely on visual signals to communicate with other ships and to communicate with shore based base stations. One advantage of communicating via visual signals instead of electronic communications is that such visual signals are not reliant upon electricity or other technology. As such, ships are able to communicate with other ships and base stations even if there is a power shortage on the ship or at the shore based base station. Moreover, in military applications, Navy ships may communicate with other Navy ships or the shore based base station while maintaining electronic silence to avoid detection by the enemy.
The visual signals are transmitted between ships or the shore based base station via hoisting a flag or series of flags on a halyard. For naval applications, navy ships may have a set of U.S. navy signal flags. Each U.S. navy signal flag may have a unique shape, color or pattern, name, U.S. Navy meaning, and international meaning. The navy ship may raise and lower one or more U.S. navy signal flags to communicate with other navy ships or the shore based base station. For non military applications, ships may have a set of U.S. international signaling flags. Similar to the U.S. navy signal flags, each U.S. international signaling flag may have a unique shape, color or pattern, name and meaning. The ship may raise and lower one or more flags to communicate with other ships or the shore based base station.
Unfortunately, most ships do not regularly use signaling flags to communicate with other ships. As such, most ship personnel have not memorized all of the flag designations and must refer to a flag book when communicating with other ships or shore based base station via the signaling flags. This may be too slow in cases of emergency. Also, if the flag book is lost, then the ship may be incapable of communicating with other ships or the shore based base station except via radio communication.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method of learning to recognize the flags and their meanings.
The passive learning system disclosed herein addresses the needs identified above, below and those that are known in the art.
The passive learning system may include a deck of cards. In each deck of cards, there may be fifty two (52) cards plus two jokers. Each card may define a front surface and a back surface. A common indicia may be printed on the back surface such that while a participant plays a card game with the deck of cards, other players are not able to determine which card (e.g., ace of spade, queen of hearts, etc.) the participant is holding. The front surface of the card may have a unique card identifier (e.g., ace of spade, queen of hearts, etc.), a flag indicia and a corresponding flag descriptor indicia printed or applied thereto. The unique card identifier may be applied to the upper left and lower right hand portions of the front surface of the card. The flag indicia and corresponding flag descriptor indicia may be placed or applied to a central portion of the front surface. A rectangular border may circumscribe the flag indicia and flag descriptor indicia to focus the user's attention on the flag indicia and the flag descriptor indicia and also to clearly demarcate between the unique card identifier from the flag indicia and corresponding flag descriptor indicia. The front surface may have at least one flag indicia and corresponding flag descriptor indicis. Preferably, the front surface has at least two flag indices and corresponding flag descriptor indices.
The deck of cards described above may be used to play a card game such as poker or blackjack, etc. The card game may use all fifty two cards plus two jokers or any portion thereof. As the participant plays the card game, the participant may view the unique card identifier (e.g., ace of spades, queen of hearts, etc.) to play the card game, but also, simultaneously, the participant may view the flag indicia and corresponding flag description indicia to learn to recognize the signaling flags and recall their meanings. In this manner, the participant learns the meaning of the signaling flags while playing a fun card game.
These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
Referring now to the drawings which are for the purpose of illustrating preferred embodiments of the passive learning system and not for the purpose of limiting the same,
Each card of the deck 10 may define a front surface 16 (see
The international code flags or signaling flags are used for communication between two ships or between a ship and a shore based base station, as discussed in the background. Each of the signaling flags may have different colors, shapes or markings. Also, the signaling flags may be used individually or in combination with each other and have different pre-defined meanings, as shown in
The front surface 16 of each of the cards 12 may have the unique card identifier 14, a flag indicia 20, and a flag descriptor indicia 22, as shown in
The flag indicia 20 and the flag descriptor indicia 22 may be applied to a central portion of the front surface 16 of each card 12. The flag indicia 20 may be indicia representative of the flags shown in
The flag indicia 20 and flag descriptor indicia 22 may be circumscribed by a rectangular border 32 (see
The deck of cards 10 described above may be used to learn to recognize the signaling flags and their associated U.S. navy meanings and international meanings. By way of example and not limitation, various games may be played with the deck of cards 10 and as the user is playing the game, the participant may memorize the flag indicia 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indicia 22. In particular, the participant may play poker, blackjack, gin, etc. with the deck of cards 10. When playing blackjack, the participant may be initially dealt two random cards 12 from the deck of cards 10. The participant may view the unique card identifiers 14 of the two random cards 12 by flexing a corner of the dealt cards 12 to determine whether to “hit” or “stand.” Simultaneously, the participant may view the flag indicia 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indicia 22 within the border 32. In this manner, the participant may memorize the flag indicia 20 and the corresponding flag descriptor indicia 22 as the participant plays the card game. Moreover, as the participant continues to play the card game, the participant is presented with additional random cards 12 with different flag indices 20 and flag descriptor indices 22. For example, if the participant “hits”, then the participant will be dealt a third random card 12. The participant may view the unique card identifier 14 and also the flag indicia 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indicia 22. Over a period of time, the participant will have repeatedly viewed all of the cards 12 within the deck 10 and thus all of the flag indices 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indices 22. Eventually, with repeated use (e.g., game play, etc.) of the deck of cards 10, the participant may learn all of the flag indices 20 and corresponding meanings (i.e., international meaning and/or U.S. Navy meaning). The deck of cards 10 described herein permits the participant to learn the international meanings and/or the U.S. navy meaning of the signaling flags in a fun low stress manner.
As shown in
The card game may also incorporate the flag indices 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indices 22. By way of example and not limitation, the card game may designate additional joker cards or wild cards by naming the signal flags. For example, instead of designating the “suicide king” or the “two of spades” as the joker card, the card with the “alfa” flag indicia may be designated as the joker card, wild card, ace card, etc. In this manner, the participant would not only look at the unique card identifier 14 while playing the card game but would also have to review the flag indicia 20 and the flag descriptor indicia 22 applied on the card 12 dealt to the participant to determine whether he or she is holding the designated joker card.
In a method of learning to recognize the signal flags and recall their meanings, the method may comprise the step of providing 100 a deck of cards defining a back surface 18 and a front surface 16. The back surfaces 18 of the playing cards 12 may have a common indicia, the front surfaces 16 of the playing cards 12 may have a unique card identifier 14, flag indicia 20 and corresponding flag descriptor indicia 22. The method may also comprise the step of playing 104 a card game with the deck of playing cards 10. The method may further comprise the step of designating 102 a wild card or joker card in terms of one of the signal flags.
The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation. Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devise variations that are within the scope and spirit of the invention disclosed herein. Further, the various features of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone, or in varying combinations with each other and are not intended to be limited to the specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope of the claims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments.
