Claims
- 1. A permanent and undistorted image in a transparent, polymeric structure, comprising:
- at least one image-forming substance forming the image within at least one location in the transparent structure;
- the image being formed by loading of the image-forming substance into a porous, polymeric receptive medium in at least one location to form the image and heating of the receptive medium at a temperature to fuse pores of the receptive medium and restructure the receptive medium into the transparent, polymeric structure, encapsulating the image in each location where the image was loaded wherein the polymeric structure has a porosity of from about 15 percent to about 99 percent.
- 2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the receptive medium before heating in a non-transparent membrane and after heating transparent, polymeric structure in a form of a film having the encapsulated film.
- 3. The image according to claim 1, wherein the porous, polymeric receptive medium is a hydrophobic porous material and the image-forming substance is an ink or dye in an organic-based liquid.
- 4. The image according to claim 1, wherein the porous, polymeric receptive medium is a hydrophilic porous material and the image-forming substance is an ink or dye in an organic-based liquid or in an aqueous-based liquid.
- 5. The image according to claim 1, further comprising a substrate supporting the receptive medium.
- 6. The image according to claim 4, wherein said porous polymeric structure is a polyolefin membrane having a complex geometric configuration of surfaces, said surfaces having a tactic, extremely thin, self-interlocking poly(vinyl alcohol) shell enveloping said surfaces while substantially retaining said complex geometric configuration.
- 7. The image according to claim 1, wherein the image is a tamper-resistance image in a document, map, sign or marker.
- 8. The image according to claim 1, wherein the image is an image in an overhead transparency.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/122,807 filed Sep. 16, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,727, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/775,969 filed Nov. 3, 1991, abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/605,834 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/605,754 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/605,948 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/605,921 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/605,828 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/605,757 filed Oct. 30, 1990, abandoned. All prior related applications are incorporated by reference herein.
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Divisions (1)
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122807 |
Sep 1993 |
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Continuations (1)
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775969 |
Nov 1991 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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605934 |
Oct 1990 |
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