Patent Application
20210397131
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The Applicant has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Further, no references to third party patents or articles made herein is to be construed as an admission that the present invention is not entitled to antedate such material by virtue of prior invention.
The invention relates to decorative objects.
Most decorative objects have a permanent shape and decoration.
What is needed is a new way to make decorative objects more alive by allowing their appearance to change.
A system and method/apparatus is provided which provides means to create an apparently living appearance for decorative objects, personal accessories, jewelry, timepieces and/or watches or the like. The system is a decorative object, which includes at least one decorative element animated in at least one liquid by at least one invisible actuation mechanism. At least one liquid shares a substantially similar refraction index as at least a part of an animation mechanism.
An object of the invention is to animate decorative objects.
Another object of the invention is to provide an indication on decorative objects, such as time-related indication.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an invisible animation mechanism in decorative objects and thus provide a magical effect.
The attached drawings represent, by way of example, different embodiments of the subject of the invention.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the Figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, dimensions may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of the invention and its embodiments. Furthermore, when the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, and the like are used herein, their use is intended for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. Moreover, relative terms like ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, and the like in the Description and/or in the claims are not necessarily used for describing exclusive relative position. Those skilled in the art will therefore understand that such terms may be interchangeable with other terms, and that the embodiments described herein are capable of operating in other orientations than those explicitly illustrated or otherwise described.
The following description is not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way as it is exemplary in nature, serving to describe the best mode of the invention known to the inventors as of the filing date hereof. Consequently, changes may be made in the arrangement and/or function of any of the elements described in the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The system 100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 800 according to this invention includes at least one decorative element 104, 224, 304, 344, 802 activated so as to move in at least one liquid 106, 206, 306, 506, 606, 830 by a displacement mechanism 110, 112, 114, 116, 316, 326, 510, 514, 516, to 610, 614, 616, 804, 806, 820, 822. The liquid 106, 206, 306, 506, 606, 830 shares a substantially similar refraction index as the displacement mechanism or part of the displacement mechanism.
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In the above, the description of a chain 116, 316, 516, 616 is given as example. Other embodiments of the same function may be made with fibers, in particular polymer or glass fibers, in particular optical fibers may be found with a refraction index corresponding to substantially transparent liquids. Chain links connected to one another with magnets may also be used.
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Some mobile decorative elements 344, 802 may be hidden in non-visible areas 346 of the system 100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 800, and appear when the animation is triggered.
Some mobile elements 344, 802 may hide each other in certain positions within the system 100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 800, and the hidden mobile element 344, 802 would then suddenly appear as an image when the animation is triggered.
Some decoration elements 344, 802 may change color when they are on top of each other, for example a semi-transparent yellow part on top of a semi-transparent blue part would appear green.
In an advantage, the system 100, 300, 500, 600, 800 animates decorative objects, personal accessories, jewelry , timepieces and/or watches.
In another advantage, the invention 200, 300, 800 provides an indication on decorative objects, such as time-related indications.
In still another advantage, the invention 100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 800 provides an invisible displacement mechanism 110, 112, 114, 116, 316, 326, 510, 514, 516, 610, 614, 616, 804, 806, 820, 822 in decorative objects and thus provides a magical effect.
In a further advantage, the system 100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 800 creates an apparently living decoration for personal accessories.
In another advantage, the invention changes its appearance when moved.
The invention can be summarized by the following feature sets.
Other characteristics and modes of execution of the invention are described in the appended claims.
It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and herein described are representative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.
As will be appreciated by skilled artisans, the present invention may be embodied as a system, a device, or a method.
Moreover, the system contemplates the use, sale and/or distribution of any goods, services or information having similar functionality described herein.
The specification and figures should be considered in an illustrative manner, rather than a restrictive manner, and all modifications described herein are intended to be included within the scope of the invention claimed. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims (as they currently exist or as later amended or added, and their legal equivalents) rather than by merely the examples described above. Steps recited in any method or process claims, unless otherwise expressly stated, may be executed in any order and are not limited to the specific order presented in any claim. Further, the elements and/or components recited in apparatus claims may be assembled or otherwise functionally configured in a variety of permutations to produce substantially the same result as the present invention. Consequently, the invention should not be interpreted as being limited to the specific configuration recited in the claims.
Benefits, other advantages and solutions mentioned herein are not to be construed as critical, required or essential features or components of any or all the claims.
As used herein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or variations thereat are intended to refer to a non-exclusive listing of elements, such that any apparatus, process, method, article, or composition of the invention that comprises a list of elements, that does not include only those elements recited, but may also include other elements such as those described in the instant specification. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the use of the term “consisting” or “consisting of” or “consisting essentially of” is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the enumerated elements named thereafter, unless otherwise indicated. Other combinations and/or modifications of the above-described elements, materials or structures used in the practice of the present invention may be varied or adapted by the skilled artisan to other designs without departing from the general principles of the invention.
The patents and articles mentioned above are hereby incorporated by reference herein, unless otherwise noted, to the extent that the same are not inconsistent with this disclosure.
Materials used for the realization of the present invention are chosen to be suitable and in compliance to the operating temperature range of the invention. Such materials are e.g. metals, polymers or glass, and in particular sapphire glass. Equally for structures used for the realization of the present invention, such structures, as e.g. bellows, chips, or intrinsic membranes, are configured to be suitable and in compliance to the operating temperature range of the invention.
The system may include a thermal compensation system, the system comprising a mechanism accommodating thermal expansion and/or contraction of the liquid, avoiding the generation of unacceptably high pressure which could result in liquid leaking out of the system in case of temperature rise, or the generation of unattractive gas bubbles in the liquid in case of low temperature. Such thermal compensation may be made partially or completely invisible to the user. Such systems are disclosed in PCT Application No. PCT/IB2015/000448 of the same applicant, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ABSORPTION/EXPANSION/CONTRACTION/MOVEMENT OF A LIQUID IN A TRANSPARENT CAVITY, filed on the 7th of April, 2015, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto and relied upon.
Furthermore, the present invention may accommodate and employ a miniature, user-powered portable device (not shown) for triggering the operation of an electric power consuming element (such as shown in schematic form as reference numeral 134, 326), which is preferably wearable, employs mechanical energy storage and incorporates miniature special effect elements 104, 224, 342, 344, 802 which are activated on-demand for a limited duration for backlighting, illumination, or other special effect purposes without the need for a battery or other electro-chemical storage device. The device comprises a manual spring loading mechanism , a spiral spring, a manual trigger mechanism, a transmission for increasing the rotational speed, a miniature generator, and at least one electric power consuming element such as a transmitter or a light source, preferably a light emitting diode. Such a device is disclosed in PCT Application No, PCT/IB2016/000249 of the same applicant, entitled MINIATURE USER-POWERED LIGHTING DEVICE, SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING SAME, filed on the 7th of March, 2016, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto and relied upon. Such device may also be used to generate electricity to power the actuation mechanism 134, 326.
Further, the invention should be considered as comprising all possible combinations of every feature described in the instant specification, appended claims, and/or drawing figures that may be considered new, inventive and industrially applicable.
Copyright may be owned by the Applicant(s) or their assignee and, with respect to express Licensees to third parties of the rights defined in one or more claims herein, no implied license is granted herein to use the invention as defined in the remaining claims. Further, vis-á-vis the public or third parties, no express or implied license is granted to prepare derivative works based on this patent specification, inclusive of the appendix hereto and any computer program comprised therein.
Additional features and functionality of the invention are described in the claims appended hereto and/or in the abstract. Such claims and/or abstract are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference thereto in this specification and should be considered as part of the application as filed.
Multiple variations and modifications are possible in the embodiments of the invention described here. Although certain illustrative embodiments of the invention have been shown and described here, a wide range of changes, modifications, and substitutions is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure. While the above description contains many specific details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather exemplify one or another preferred embodiment thereof. In some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of the other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the foregoing description be construed broadly and understood as being illustrative only, the spirit and scope of the invention being limited only by the claims that ultimately issue in this application.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/740,251, filed Oct. 2, 2018 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/835,038, filed Apr. 17, 2019 the content of the entirety of which is explicitly incorporated herein by reference and relied upon to define features tier which protection may be sought hereby as it is believed that the entirety thereof contributes to solving the technical problem underlying the invention, some features that may be mentioned hereunder being of particular importance.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2019/058381 | 10/2/2019 | WO | 00 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62740251 | Oct 2018 | US | |
| 62835038 | Apr 2019 | US |
