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(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to playing cards, of the familiar generally rectangular type, each card of the pack having generally identical sizes and rear faces, and front faces denoting values, deuce through ace, of the different suits.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Packs of playing cards usually comprise fifty-two cards, each denoting a different value of one of four common suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. In a normal deck of cards, such as is used in the more common games of bridge and poker and consisting of four suits (i.e. Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs) and having thirteen cards in each suit, each card has two sides—a decorative side and a playing side. On the playing side are shown in the upper left-hand corner (and the lower right opposing one) the value icon and suit icon of each card. Card manufacturers have experimented with the sizes of each of these icons in an effort to improve their readability.
To aid in the identification of suits, the Spades and Clubs are always printed in black, whereas Hearts and Diamonds are always printed in red, and this constitutes a bimodal split of these four suits based upon color. These are the four and only suits, and their respective colors are always adhered to religiously in printing the numbers and symbols for the different suits on the card faces. Approximately in the center of each card is the suit/value icon showing both the rank and the suit of the card. Most of the time, it can be seen only when the card has been played in the center of the table. The Spades and Hearts are always referred to as the Major suits whereas the Diamonds and Clubs are called the Minors. This division is important in the game of Bridge because tricks in the Spade or Heart suits are assigned a value of thirty points, whereas those in the Club or Diamond suits have a value of only twenty points.
After picking up his thirteen playing cards, a player usually places them in his left hand and “fans-them-out” so that he might sort them by suit and value. In such an extended position, the icon of the card to the left is quite often overlapped by the card to its right. Much of the time that the cards are held in a player's hand, most of these icons are concealed by adjacent overlapping cards. The relative positions of the two cards within the fanfold must often be adjusted (widened) in order to read the suit icon of the underlying card. It is somewhat awkward to hold all of the cards in an extended fanfold. When the hand is actually played, after the bidding, the fanfold is usually held in a more compressed manner. This adversely affects the exposure of the underlying suit and value icons even more. That concealed portion of each icon hidden by an overlying card is usually increased. Often the positions of the cards in the fanfold must be periodically adjusted in order to identify some of the suit icons. Manual dexterity is a blessing at this point. This is particularity so for those elderly players who have lost different degrees of such dexterity. Among them are those players who have resorted to slotted wooden cardholders in which they place their cards on the table in front of themselves. It is critical to have the suit symbols as small as possible in order to have them fit in the small amount of space available at the respective corners—but they must also be large enough to be recognizable. Those restrictions create a real problem in the icons' current position in the upper left corner of the card face.
Before the card is actually played there must be no problem with the identification of a suit. The player must be completely aware, mentally, of the suit identification of the card which he is about to play before he actually does it. Obviously, this entire identification process must come before the card is played—afterwards is too late. Current suit identification is based upon four patterns appearing on each card. Not infrequently, many cards have them hidden by overlap.
When the hand is actually played, the card fanfold is usually held in a more compressed manner than it is while sorting the cards. This adversely affects the exposure of the underlying card even more. As each card is played, it often comes to rest four to six feet or more from the eyes of at least three of the players. Under these conditions, poor eyesight can be a definite handicap. Exposing an individual card on the table is the point in play at which suit misidentifications are almost always recognized. By then, it is too late to correct the mistake, for a penalty is now imposed in the game of Bridge. Even with larger symbols, such mistakes are still made in suit identification by those with impaired eyesight. Not infrequently, it includes a few players with normal eyesight—but not so good glasses.
In the popular game of bridge among senior citizens with impaired or failing eyesight, the misidentification of a card suit is embarrassing—the penalty which can follow is painful. Not all opponents follow the friendly adage of, “Forget it. I'm trying to beat you because I'm a better player than you are—not because I can see better than you can.” If the game is poker, much more than just friendships and a few pennies can be involved. Help in suit identification for this large group of visually impaired people is long overdue. A more prominent symbol is required which cannot be overlooked before the card is exposed or displayed to all of the players. Additionally, the elimination of the often repeated step of fanning the cards in one's hand would be no small boon to those players who have lost any of their manual dexterity. It would be convenient to be able to reduce the number of times that such fanning is necessary by adopting a suit symbol that is visible at all times.
Patents for various designs of playing cards include the following, none of which have solved these viewing problems.
Canadian Pat. No. 261,488, issued Jun. 8, 1926, to McCarroll, shows a pack of cards in which each card has on its front face an inner portion representing one card value, and a perimetric outer portion representing a different card value.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,693,525, issued Aug. 23, 1928, to Niederlitz, shows a deck of cards which appear to be similar to those in Canadian Patent 261,488 above, with inner and outer zones representing different values. This patent shows the use of eight different suits in a fifty-two card pack.
U.S. Pat. No. D230,617, issued Mar. 5, 1974, to Ekstrand, shows a design for a playing card, in which the playing side has large numbers, but this design patent does not show to which suit the card belongs.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,798,672, issued Oct. 9, 1979, to Hancock, discloses a pack of playing cards having forty eight split-value cards, the front face of each of which is divided into two visually distinctive zones by means of a diagonal dividing line.
None of these patents disclose using both large value numbers and large suit icons to help the visually impaired card players.
A pack of playing cards comprising at least fifty-two cards, each of the fifty-two cards being of generally the same rectangular configuration and standard size, and having visually similar rear faces, each of the fifty-two cards further comprising:
In another aspect of the invention, at least one of the third and fourth outer zones is colored black for all cards in the Spade suit, is colored red for all cards in the Heart suit, is a checkerboard pattern of black and white coloring for all cards in the Club suit, and is a checkerboard pattern of red and white coloring for all cards in the Diamond suit.
In another aspect of the invention, both of the third and fourth outer zones are colored black for all cards in the Spade suit, both of the third and fourth outer zones are colored red for all cards in the Heart suit, both of the third and fourth outer zones are a checkerboard pattern of black and white coloring for all cards in the Club suit, and both of the third and fourth outer zones are a checkerboard pattern of red and white coloring for all cards in the Diamond suit.
In another aspect of the invention, the fifth outer zone is colored black for all cards in the Spade suit, is colored red for all cards in the Heart suit, is an evenly spaced sequence of black and white coloring for all cards in the Club suit, and is an evenly spaced sequence of red and white coloring for all cards in the Diamond suit.
In another aspect of the invention, a part of the fifth outer zone is black for all cards in the Spade suit, is red for all cards in the Heart suit, is an evenly spaced sequence of black and white coloring for all cards in the Club suit, and is an evenly spaced sequence of red and white coloring for all cards in the Diamond suit.
A card 10 shown in
The zones can be any sizes, but in the preferred embodiment the zone 20 is the thinnest, the size of the inner zone 11 in square inches is approximately equal to the sum of the sizes of the zones 16 and 18 in square inches, and the sum of the sizes of the zones 10, 16, and 18 in square inches is approximately equal to the sum of the sizes of the zones 12 and 14 in square inches.
The card 10 contains a standard playing card value indicator 22 and a standard playing card suit indicator 24 in the upper left corner, and in the lower right corner. The standard playing card value indicator 22 and the standard playing card suit indicator 24 can be any size, but in the preferred embodiment the combined size of the standard playing card value indicator 22 and the standard playing card suit indicator 24 occupies approximately one third the area of each of the outer zones 12 and 14. As indicated by the solid black coloring, the outer zones 16, 18, and 20, the standard playing card value indicator 22, and the standard playing card suit indicator 24 are all colored black for all cards in the suit of Spades. However, in an alternate embodiment, the color black is replaced with any dark color, such as midnight blue.
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As indicated by the solid black coloring, the standard playing card value indicator 105 and the standard playing card suit indicator 106-S are both colored solid black for all cards in the suit of Spades. Because Spades is a major suit, the outer zones 116-S, 126-S and 131-S are in solid black to distinguish the cards in the major Spades suit from the minor suit of Clubs. In another alternate embodiment, the outer zones 116-S, 126-S and 131-S do not completely enclose the standard playing card value indicator 105 and the standard playing card suit indicator 106-S.
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In yet another alternate embodiment, the outer zones 131-S, 132-H, 133-D, and 134-C do not completely circumscribe their respective playing cards 52, 53, 54, and 55.