WO2018005654A1

WO2018005654A1 - Print active drawings on any surface

Info

Publication number: WO2018005654A1
Application number: PCT/US2017/039767
Authority: WO
Inventors: Huanchen Li; Wendy Wang
Original assignee: Huanchen Li; Wendy Wang
Priority date: 2016-06-30
Filing date: 2017-06-28
Publication date: 2018-01-04

Abstract

This is about showing an action in a picture, like a man waving his hand or a bird blinking it eyelids. The picture can be printed on anything, such as on a T-shirt, gourmet, a piece of paper, or the surface of a toy, package, bottles, cell phone, advertisement panels and etc. First, different patterns that are related to an action can be drawn by different thermochromics that will show up or disappear one after another in the sequence of the action when temperature increases or decreases. Second, just put a smear of thermochromics on a paper, by varying the temperature of different areas in a timely manner, people will see movies. Third, we can separate the surface of the paper into many units, each containing thermochromics. Upon changing the temperature of the units, we can show an action. Stored digital movie information can be transformed into different heating temperatures so to play back the movie on a piece of paper. To make a man invisible by a viewer at a distance, we may have the man wear a cloth that can show movies, and the movies will fit exactly the background behind the man.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Coatings or thermochromics are temperature sensitive paints. Different temperatures will cause the coatings or thermochromics to show up or disappear or showing different colors. We can use thOse thermochromics to draw different patterns of a action in a picture, so that those patterns may show up or disappear one after another, so to show a movement or action. Two or more related patterns can be drawn on a cup, card, drawings, gourmets, uniforms or any other objects, and they are shown at different temperatures in a consecutive manner. One pattern is related to the other pattern, so that when different pattern is shown up one after another, some kind of action or movement is seen. Such action or movement including, but not limited to, tree shaking, people move their arms, water flowing, etc.

When one pattern is showing up, other pattern(s) should be invisible or covered up by the showing pattern. The background color may play a role in this. We can make the background color fit exactly the color of the other pattern(s), so that, at that temperature, other pattern(s) are invisible. We may need to select a background color at the time when the pictures are drawn.

We have seen some pictures that show different patterns of pictures, but their patterns are not related to one movement or action, different patterns are not drawn in a systematic manner, coating pictures are passively heated, the varying of the temperature is not controlled, and different regions of the picture are heated to the same degree, these are some of the reasons that prior art cannot show movies.

Second, we can play back recorded movies by changing the temperature of a coated or thermochromic paper of other objects.

Third, we can make an object invisible by changing its surface to show a picture that fits exactly with what behind it. SMARY OF THE INVENTION

First. One or more patterns that are related to a movement or action will be drawn in a picture. Each pattern will be drawn or printed with one or more coatings, thermochromics, and/or any other paints and materials that will appear or disappear at a specific temperature. A heater and / or a cooler will be used to vary the temperature to cause different patterns to appear and disappear one after another. That will make people see the picture like a movie. Other factors, such as room or environmental temperature changes can also heat or cool the picture, which will also be utilized to cause the different movements to appear or disappear. Any object, such as a bulb, bulb cover, cell phone, T- shirt or other cloth etc, can get heated or cooled either by our body or by themselves, so to heat or cool the picture. We can print pictures on the surface of these objects, so to use the temperature change causing the picture do movements. So, our heating means and cooling means include the environment temperature change and the surface temperature change of different objects.

Second. Patterns are drawn by same thermomics that shows up of disappear at a specific temperature but in different regions of a picture, so that when we heat or cool the regions one after another to the specific temperature, patterns will show up one after another. This will also make object move.

The third way is the combination of the above two methods.

Fourth, we can put many different units on a surface of a object, and then we put one or more thermochromics inside each units, and each thermochromics can show up or disappear at a same or different temperatures. We can then heat or cool the units to specific temperatures, so to let the termochromics to show up or disappear in a way that, when the units are combined, we see different patterns of action show up or disappear one after another. We need to develop some software program as well as heating and cooling methods for such inventions. We have found a lot of different uses of this invention. The followings are just a few. We are going to use this invention for cards such as birthday cards. Upon opening the cards, the power is turned on so to heat the thermochromic pictures, users will see flowers in the cards blossoming, water flowing, dogs running, people waving hands, etc. Pictures on the wall in a home or office may also take advantage of this invention to make the picture looks more real such as to make the sun in the picture really rise. Also, the earth in a world map can be made to turn according to the time of the day. Applications of our invention are not limited to the above uses.

To make an object invisible, we will record the background information and analyze the information from different angles. We will have some software to transfer the information into different temperatures at specific regions of the surface in a timely manner, so to make the object surface fit exactly its background behind it.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

This invention uses coatings, paints, thermochromic (colour-changing) chemicals, liquid crystals, leuco dyes, photochromic, permanent change ink, wax melt microencapsulation, and any and all other materials that can change color, appear or disappear when temperature changes.

One of the purposes of this invention is to make objects in a picture to do movement and to let people see different word(s) at different moment. The first embodiment of this invention is the varying of temperature of a systematic picture as shown in Fig. l, where, 31 different patterns of a movement are drawn, each by a specific coating or thermochromic, such as pattern (1) is drawn by a coating that can be seen at 30 degree centigrade, but can not be seen at higher or lower than 30 degree centigrade, pattern (2) by a coating that can be seen at 30.1 degree centigrade , but cannot be seen at higher or lower temperature, and pattern (3) at 30.2 degree centigrade, etc , and pattern 31 at

33.2 degree centigrade. If this picture is gradually heated from 30 degree centigrade to 33.2 degree centigrade, people will see the person in this picture doing that movement. Because in this case, only one pattern will be seen at each moment and patterns will appear and disappear one after another in a timely manner when the temperature of the picture is gradually increased. It is obvious that the same result will be obtained if we gradually cool this picture from 33.2 degree centigrade to 30 degree centigrade. The above invention will need a heater to be put at the back of the drawing, and possibly a thermostat.

Room temperatures are constantly changing although narrowly, we should also use such changes to cause the different patterns to show up and disappear. We can draw a few consistent patterns repeatedly, such as, in case of only two patterns that cause the head of a tiger moves left then right, we can draw the body use non-temperature-sensitive painting, then the left head with coating that shows up only at a temperature such as 15.1 °C, then right head with coating that shows up only at a higher temperature such as at 15.2 °C, then the same left head with coating that shows up only at a even higher temperature such as 15.3 °C, then the same right head with coating that shows up only at even higher temperature such as 15.4 °C, then the same left head with coating that shows up only at a even higher temperature such as 15.5 °C, then the same right head with coating that shows up only at a even higher temperature such as 15.6 °C, then, continues in the same way„„„, and then the same left head with coating that shows up only at a even higher temperature such as 39.3 °C, then the same right head with coating that shows up only at a even higher temperature such as 39.4 °C, then all the way to much higher temperatures. When such a tiger is drawn on a paper or other sheet, and the paper or the sheet is put on the wall of a room, because the temperature of the room constantly changes, the tiger moves its head left then right constantly. When such a tiger is drawn on a gourmet, the people who wear the gourmet may walk around; causing the temperature of the gourmet changes then the tiger moves its head left then right as long as the temperature changes, no matter what room temperature the people is in.

To make a serious actions, such as a lady dance, we may draw many drawings that with many patterns that each pattern is related to the previous one, with different thermochromic materials that show up or disappear at different temperatures, each earlier thermochromic pattern is covered but the latter thermochromic pattern in a way that when temperature changes, the top ones disappear to reveal the covered ones one after another, so to reveal the covered patterns one after another. Because each covered pattern is related to the earlier patter, so to make people see the picture is doing some activities like a lady dancing.

The second embodiment will be that all the 31 patterns of this systematic picture is drawn by one same temperature coatings or thermochromics, such as by the ones that can be seen only at 38 degree centigrade. This time, the pattern that shows up is subject to the heating pattern. The first heating pattern is heated or cooled to 38 degree centigrade first so that the first picture pattern is heated to 38 degree first, the second be heated or cooled to 38 degree centigrade second, the third, and so on. At each time, only one pattern is at 38 degree centigrade, and showing up. This will get us a same result as that of the first embodiment. This invention needs a heater, a thermostat, and a regulator that gives the information which region of the drawing is to be heated in a specific time.

It would be obvious to combine the above two embodiments to make the person in this picture do the movement. Cooling and heating can also be applied to this picture at the same time. Heating means such as microwave, electric heater, and infrared radiation and so on can be used. Cooling means such as use a fen to blow cold air to the picture use an electronic cooler, use dry ice or liquid nitrogen, and so on can be used. It would be obvious to draw the picture directly on a heater or cooler so to make it more efficient to heat or cool the picture. The picture can also be put inside the heater or cooler if the heater or cooler is transparent. We may use an assembly circuit or even a computers as the program means if this means is necessary to be included for controlling the heating or cooling of the picture.

A third embodiment: just put a smear of different coatings or thermochromics on a paper or a object. By controlling the heating pattern, time, area and so on, like a TV controlling the electronic beams, we show out pictures and play the movies. Recorded movies, like those taken by a digital camera can be played back through a chip and, possibly, a software program, to transform the movie information into heating information. We may separate the surface into small unit or pixels. Each unit may contain one or 255 different colored coatings or thermochromic. The themochromics may overlap each other, separately located from each other, or both, Each such coatings or thermochromics will show out, or disappear, at a specific temperatures. Each unit will show different color when it is heated or cooled to a specific temperature. By managing the temperatures of all of the units in a timely manner, we will see movies. These will require software programs or chips that changing the movie information into heating information, and heaters or coolers that heat or cool each unit, thermostat that control the units temperatures and many other means as needed.

From the above, it would be obvious that in a lot of conditions, the moving of the object in the picture is the moving of patterns of temperatures of the picture. It is also obvious that good background colors for this kind of picture is important. These background colors should be able to hide colors of coatings or thermochromics at higher or lower than the showing-out temperatures.

With a storage means, such as a memory card used in a digital camera, to store the digital movie information and/or any other necessary information, the above inventions is sufficient to make a Movie Card as shown in Fig. 2.

To make a man or an object invisible from someone in a distance, the man may wear invisible cloth. The invisible cloth is such that its surface contains thermochromics that can show movie pictures in the way as the above embodiment described. It can show the shaking tree or tree leaves behind it, etc. It should have a means such as a digital camera recorder, either on the object or far away from the object, to capture the things behind the man. The captured background information will be sent to a receiver, like the antenna, then be transformed into heating information to make the surface of the cloth to show movies that fit the background, even when the man is walking or running. From a distance, and in the front, that man cannot be seen by our eyes. This technology will help to save lives, tanks, warships and warplanes in the battlefield since many of them were killed or destroyed by terrorists with ordinary guns.

A more advanced analyzer may be employed to analyze the background so that the cloth can show different movies to different viewers at different direction. There are many existing tectonics to do this, I have a new one that is to separate the surface into narrow curved panels like what shown on Fig. 3. Many patterns of movies will be show at a same time to different viewers come from different angles.

Further more, at the top of a ship, we may show movies that fit its surrounding water situations.

For a moving object not to be seen, we may have a analyzer which can be a software. The analyzer should take the speed and other moving conditions into consideration so to make the movies fit their future background when the object comes to that position.

As another embodiment, on a cloth such as a T-shirt, we may draw a picture of a lady- face using normal colored dyes, but one of the eye-lids using a thermochromic that shows up its color below 29 degree C so to cover up the eyeball behind it, then when the temperature goes beyond 29 degree C, the color of the thermochromic disappear, allowing the eyeball behind the eyelid to show up. The normal dyes that is used for drawing the eyeball may have a similar color to the thermochromic dye so that the latter can totally cover up the eyeball. As the cloth touches the warm skin, color will begin to change or disappear so that the eye-lid disappears, revealing the eyeball. As it gets off the skin and cools, it changes back so that the eye lid re-appears, covering up the eyeball. The cycle repeats itself indefinitely, making the eye-lid appears then disappear like blinks. The eyeball may be drawn by normal dyes, so that when the eye-lid appears, the eyeball is blocked, and when the color-eye-lid disappears, the eyeball shows up again. The eyeball can also be drawn by such kind of thermochromic dyes that at a temperature when the eye-lid appears, the eyeball disappears, and at a color when the eye-lid disappears, the eye-ball comes back. Other than the above mentioned specific temperature of 29 degree C, we may use any other specific temperature, and other heating or cooling means.

Other than human eyes, we can also draw animal eyes, such as dog eyes, cat eyes, bird eyes, fish eyes, or the eyes of any other living organisms. Other than eyes, we can do the same with mouths, arms, legs, bellies, or any other body parts. They can have the blink eye lids or do any other activities.

We may also use Chromazone which is a range of temperature sensitive Thermochromic Pigments and Inks that change from color to colorless as the temperature changes. The color reappears when the temperature is reduced again. Color changing effects can be varied infinitely by applying Chromazone Pigments over colored inks and coatings or thermochromics or blending with other transparent colorants.

All temperature sensitive material that change color can be used, such as Heat Sensitive Pigment, ceramic varnish, thermal pigment, thermal powder, and thermochromic paint/pigments/ink

Photochromic inks, pigments, paints, and coatings can also be used for the above applications, with similar mechanisms as described above. We may install a UV light that may be focused to the drawings. By turning on and off the UV light, we make the photochromic dyes to show up their colors then disappear, so to activate the pictures. The showing up and disappear can be repeated by managing the UV lights.

Such as in the same way as we do with the thermochromics, to make a serious actions, such as a lady dance, we may draw many drawings that with many patterns that each pattern is related to the previous one, with different photochromic materials that show up or disappear when receiving different strength of UV lights, each earlier photochromic pattern is covered but the latter photochromic pattern in a way that when UV light strength changes, the top ones disappear to reveal each covered ones one after another, so to reveal the covered patterns one after another. Because each covered pattern is related to the earlier patter, so to make people see the picture is doing some activities like a lady dancing.

In a varied embodiment to the above ones, we will put into consideration of that the top photochromic material blocks the UV light, so that the UV cannot reach the covered patterns. Only after the top photochromic disappears, the covered pattern reveals, this happens one after another to make an action happen. In this case, we may use same photochromic materials to draw each pattern, and cover the earlier related pattern, so that when the UV make the top pattern disappear, the covered pattern receive the UV and appears, then the UV make the appeared pattern disappear, in such a way we can reveal the covered patterns one after another, to make people see the picture is doing some activities like a lady dancing.

Current thermochromics or phtochromics materials on the market are not perfect for creating movie pictures. Their temperature range is too wide, and response to the temperature change is too slow. We will isolate and purify those materials, to make them good for this purpose. Our isolated and purified materials will change color or appear or disappear within 0.5 degree F, 0.2 degree F, 0.1 degree F or even narrower temperatures, and changes in response to the temperature within 1 second, 0.5 second, 0.2 second, 0.1 second, 0.05 second, 0.01 second or even shorter times.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that modifications can be made to the above mentioned methods without departing from the teaching of the present invention. Accordingly, it is distinctly understood that the invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment but may be embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

We claim:

1. A picture such as a painting, drawing, picture or figure that can show a movement or an action upon temperature changing comprising:

a region being printed or drawn with one or more thermochromics in a way that when temperature varies, said picture can show a action.

2. A picture according to claim 1 further comprising:

two of more patterns relating to an action, but only one pattern showing up.

a region in at least one of the patterns being printed or drawn with one or more thermochromics that shows up their color or disappear at a specific temperature, so that when getting heated or cooled to said specific temperature, one pattern will be replaced by another.

3. A picture according to claim 2 further comprising:

a heating means for heating said picture to desired temperatures

4. A picture according to claim 3 further comprising:

a cooling means for cooling said picture to desired temperatures

5. A picture according to claim 4 further comprising:

a power source means for providing enough energy.

a circuit for connecting said power source means with said heating means, said heating means being put in front and/or behind said picture, said circuit includes a program means for controlling heating of said picture at different moment.

6. A picture according to claim 5 wherein said circuit includes a thermostatic means for sensing the temperature of said picture and for controlling heating of said picture to exact temperatures.

7. A picture according to claim 6 further comprising a software controlling means for controlling the heating means and the cooling means for heating or cooling the picture to a desired temperature.

8. A picture according to claim 1 further comprising:

some separate units in one or more areas,

each unit further containing one or more thermochromics that can show up their color or disappear at a specific temperature or at different temperatures,

said units can be heated or cooled to a temperature to show a pattern of an action.

9. A picture according to claim 8 further comprising:

a heating means for heating said picture to desired temperatures

10. A picture according to claim 9 further comprising:

a cooling means for cooling said picture to desired temperatures

11. A picture according to claim 10 further comprising:

a power source means for providing enough energy.

12. A picture according to claim 11 wherein said circuit includes a thermostatic means for sensing the temperature of said picture and for controlling heating of said picture to exact temperatures.

13. A picture according to claim 12 further comprising a software controlling means for controlling the heating means and the cooling means for heating or cooling the picture to a desired temperature.