Color harmony scale

A color harmony scale used for color planning in any field comprises a color plate, a middle plate and a top plate, which are rotatably placed on top of each other. The middle plate and the top plate are provided with windows in accordance with the known color harmony principle. During rotation of the color harmony scale, colors which harmonize with each other can be seen through windows on the middle and the top plates.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an improved color harmony scale which is 
used for obtaining a desired color harmony to be applied to designing of 
ladies' wear, interior decorating or other type of decorating and for 
obtaining a color scheme from a range of different colors. 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
Heretofore, several designs have already been proposed for constructing a 
color harmony scale. Such known color harmony scale can comprise, for 
example, a color plate with a plurality of color chips disposed thereupon 
in a circular arrangement and a revolving plate placed on top of the color 
plate, the revolving plate is provided with a plurality of windows spaced 
equiangularly around the center thereof. Both plates are rotatably pivoted 
with each other or their centers. 
However, when a base window, which can be any one of the 
equiangularly-spaced windows, is proved to correspond to a suitable color 
chip on the color plate, such as that of a base color, other color chips 
on the color plate, which are undesired to be seen as the harmonized 
colors, can be seen through the remaining windows. In order to obtain a 
standard three-color harmony of the color chips, for example, it is 
necessary to search for the windows which are angularly spaced at 
120.degree. from the base window, and to confirm the correctness of the 
angle by means of a graduator. For such reaons, the conventional color 
harmony scale is disadvantageous due to its difficult handling which may 
cause confusion and errors during attempts to obtain the desired color 
harmony. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to obviate the 
aforementioned disadvantage by providing an improved color harmony scale. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved color 
harmony scale comprising a color plate having a pluraity of colored 
members disposed in the circumferential direction thereof in accordance 
with the color order system, a middle plate which is placed on top of the 
color plate, and which has a plurality of windows, through which a 
plurality of harmonized colors on the color plate can be seen, and a top 
plate which is placed on top of the middle plate and which has a plurality 
of windows including a base window and windows angularly spaced with 
respect to the base window, through which windows a plurality of 
harmonized colors can also be seen. Accordingly, when the middle plate and 
the top plane are rotatably moved about their centers, the desired set of 
harmonized colors can be seen only through the windows of the top plate 
and the middle plate. 
Other objects of the present invention will become obvious from the 
embodiment described hereinafter and from the embodiments indicated in the 
appended claims. Furthermore, various advantages not referred to herein 
will certainly become apparent when the present invention is carried out 
by one skilled in the art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to the drawings and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, a 
circular-shaped color plate 1 made of a thick paper material, a plastic 
plate or the like is divided on the surface thereof, for example, by means 
of forty lines originating from the center of the color plate along the 
radial direction into forty narrow sectors. Such narrow sectors are also 
divided by means of concentric lines having different diameters into 
shorter sectors. Upon these divided outer sectors, color chips (2a,2a . . 
. ) in different shades of yellow, green, blue and red, etc., in 
accordance with the Munsell color order system, are fixed onto the color 
plate 1 in a circular arrangement. Color chips (2b,2b . . . ) having the 
same hues and higher values than those of the color chips (2a,2a . . . ), 
and color chips (2c,2c . . . ) having the same hues and lower color values 
than those of the color chips (2a,2a . . . ) are positioned along the 
radial directions of the color plate 1. All of the chroma of these color 
chips (2b,2b . . . ; 2c,2c . . . ) are arranged in about the same chroma 
order. Name labels 3 are marked on the outermost peripheral portion of the 
color plate 1 to indicate the different hues of the color chips. 
A circular-shaped middle plate 4 having a diameter which is smaller than 
that of the color plate 1 by a radius corresponding to the area occupied 
by the name labels 3 is rotatably placed on the upper surface of the color 
plate 1. It is known that, according to the color harmony principle, 
colors which harmonize with each other have a geometrical relationship 
among the colors arranged in a circular order following the Munsell color 
order system. For example, the positions of the harmonized colors of a 
standard multicolor harmony scheme can form a standard polygon on the 
color plate 1. Harmonized colors of an isosceles type multicolor harmony 
scheme can form an isosceles triangle or a square having four equal sides. 
Harmonized colors of a geometrical-progression type multicolor harmony 
scheme can form a polygon having sides with dimensions in accordance with 
the geometrical-progression ratio. Also, harmonized colors of the 
Golden-section type color harmony scheme can form a polygon having sides 
with dimensions in accordance with the Golden-section ratio. Thus, the 
middle plate 4 is provided with a plurality of windows (or through-holes) 
through which harmonized colors of a standard multicolor harmony, an 
isosceles type multicolor harmony, a geometrical-progression type 
multicolor harmony, the Golden-section type multicolor harmony and the 
like can be seen on the color plate 1. Each window substantially has the 
same shape as that of each of the forty sectors on the color plate 1. For 
example, three windows (5a,5a,5a) are provided on the middle plate 4 at 
every 120.degree. for determining a standard three-color harmony. Four 
windows (5b,5b,5b,5b) are provided at every 90.degree. on the middle plate 
4 for determining a standard four-color harmony. In the same manner as 
mentioned above, three windows (5c,5c,5c) for determining an isosceles 
type three-color harmony, three windows (5d,5d,5d) for determining a 
geometrical-progression type three-color harmony and three windows 
(5e,5e,5e) for determining the Golden-section type three-color harmony are 
respectively provided on the middle plate 4. It should be noted that 
spaces should be left between adjacent windows (5a . . . 5e) to prevent 
the windows from interfering with each other. 
A projected portion or handle 6 is provided on the plate 4 at the outermost 
periphery for indentifying each particular set of windows (5a . . . 5e). 
Indicator labels (7,7 . . . ) showing the different kinds of color harmony 
which can be obtained, e.g., the standard three-color harmony, the 
standard four-color harmony or the like, as well as outwardly oriented 
half-circle symbols 8 ( marks) positioned on the peripheral region of the 
middle plate 4, are marked on the surface of the handles (6,6 . . . ). 
Also, other handles 6a with indicator labels 7a and half-circle symbols 8a 
are disposed at the outer periphery of the plate 4. The purpose of these 
lables 7a and symbols 8a is to provide guides for determining a particular 
color harmony, e.g., a geometrical-progression type four-color harmony, 
another isosceles type three-color harmony, another Golden-section 
three-color harmony or the like, which can all be obtained by selectively 
combining several of the windows (5a . . . 5e). 
A circular-shaped top plate 9, which has substantially the same diameter as 
that of the middle plate 4 and has a base window 10 at an optical location 
thereon is placed on the upper surface of the middle plate 4. The top 
plate 9 also has a plurality of windows (11a . . . 11e) which are 
angularly spaced with respect to the base window 10 in a circumferential 
direction. Through the window 10 and windows (11a . . . 11e) a particular 
multicolor harmony, e.g., the standard three-color harmony or the standard 
four-color harmony, etc., can be seen on the color plate 1. These windows 
(10,11a . . . 11e) are designed to have the exact same shapes as those of 
the windows (5a . . . 5e) and are also positioned so as not to interfere 
with each other. 
For obtaining a standard three-color harmony, two windows (11a,11a) in 
addition to the base window 10 are provided on the top plate 9 at every 
120.degree.. For obtaining a standard four-color harmony, three windows 
(11b,11b,11b) in addition to the base window 10 are provided at every 
90.degree.. Furthermore two windows (11c,11c) for determining an isosceles 
type three-color harmony, two windows (11d, 11d) for determining a 
geometrical-progression type three-color harmony and two windows (11e, 
11e) for determining a Golden section type three-color harmony in addition 
to the base window 10 are provided on the top plate 9. 
It should be noted that the windows (5a . . . 5e) are provided on the 
middle plate 4 according to the following predetermined relationship. That 
is to say, when the base window of the top plate 9 is aligned with any one 
of the windows of each particular windows (5a . . . 5e) on the middle 
plate 4 for indicating a desired color harmony scheme, only the set of 
obtained harmonized colors can be seen through the base window 10 and the 
corresponding windows (11a . . . 11e), which are angularly spaced with 
respect to the base window 10, while the remaining undesired windows on 
the middle plate 4 and colors on the color plate 1 are covered by the 
plate 9. An inwardly oriented matching half-circle symbol 12 (mark) is 
marked adjacent to the side of the base window 10 closest to the 
circumferential edge of the top plate 9. 
The aforementioned color plate 1, middle plate 4 and top plate 9 are placed 
on top of each other in that exact order, and are rotatably pivoted by 
means of a rivet 13 or the like to form the resultant color hamony scale 
according to the present invention. 
The use of a color harmony scale constructed according to the above 
description will be presented hereinafter with particular reference to 
FIGS. 3 and 4. 
In order to obtain colors which harmonize with a particular coor chip 2a on 
the color plate 1 in accordance with the standard three-color harmony 
scheme, the handle 6 of the middle plate 4 with the standard three-color 
harmony label marked thereon is first moved to be aligned with the color 
chip 2a, then the top plate 9 is rotated so that the half-circle symbol 12 
located at the outer periphery of the base window 10 on the plate 9 is 
aligned with the half-circle symbol 8 on the handle 6, as shown in FIG. 3. 
When the matching half-circle symbols 8 and 12 form a complete circle 
symbol, the base window 10 and the windows (11a,11a) are aligned with the 
windows (5a,5a,5a) of the middle plate 4, respectively. Consequently, 
harmonized colors on the color plate 1 corresponding to the standard 
three-color harmony scheme can be seen only through the base window 10 and 
windows (11a,11a) of the top plate 9, and the other remaining undesired 
colors cannot be seen through the top plate 9. Also, in order to obtain 
harmonized colors of the standard four-color harmony scheme or of other 
multicolor schemes, the half-circle symbol corresponding to the base 
window 10 on the top plate 9 is moved to be aligned with the half-circle 
symbol 8 of the appropriate handle 6 of the middle plate 4. As a result, 
the desired color harmony can be seen through the base window 10 and 
windows (11b,11c,11d or 11e) as shown in FIG. 4. As described above, the 
windows (11a . . . 11e) are positioned according to a predetermined 
angular relationship with respect to the base window 10. 
Although color chips 2a are fixed onto the color plate 1 of the embodiment 
described above, such color chips may also be formed by means of directly 
printing colors onto the color plate 1 or by other similar means. An 
arrangement of color chips similar to that on the surface of the color 
plate 1 can be provided on the reverse side thereof. In such a case, a 
circular plate may be rotatably pivoted on the reverse side of the color 
plate 1, which has a base window identified by a symbol and other windows 
disposed in a predetermined angular relationship with respect to the base 
window. Through the base window and the other angularly related windows, 
similar colors, contrasting colors or the like can be seen on this 
modified embodiment of the color plate according to the present invention. 
As stated above, according to the present invention, a color harmony scale 
comprises a color plate 1 having a plurality of colored members 2a 
disposed in the circumferential direction thereof in accordance with the 
known color harmony principle, a middle plate 4 placed on top of the color 
plate 1 and provided with windows (5a,5b . . . ) through which harmonized 
colors of the standard three-color harmony scheme the standard four-color 
harmony scheme or the like can be seen on the color plate 1, and a top 
plate 9 placed on top of the middle plate 4 and provided wth a single base 
window 10 and windows (11a, 11b . . . ), through which harmonized colors 
of the standard three-color harmony scheme, the standard four-color 
harmony scheme or the like can be seen, such windows (11a,11b . . . ) 
being provided in a predetermined angular relationship with respect to the 
single base window 10. The centers of the color plate 1, the middle plate 
4 and the top plate 9 are rotated together by means of a pivoting means 
13. 
Accordingly, when a certain color is selected as a base color, other colors 
which can harmonize with the base color can be obtained by a simple 
rotation of the top plate 9 and the middle plate 4. 
Furthermore, according to the present invention, the middle plate 4 is 
provided with windows (5a, . . . 5e) through which harmonized colors of 
the standard three-color harmony scheme on the standard four-color harmony 
scheme can be seen by rotating the middle plate 4. Furthermore, the top 
plate 9 is provided with a base window 10 and windows (11a, . . . 11e) 
angularly spaced with respect to the base window 10, through which windows 
(10,11a . . . ; or 10,11b . . . ; or 10,11c . . . ; or 10,11d . . . ; or 
10,11e . . . ) different schemes of harmonized colors can be seen. Thus, 
since only the desired harmonized colors can be seen through aligned 
windows of the top and bottom plates, while the other undesired colors on 
the color plate cannot be seen through those plates, thereby inaccurate 
selection of color harmony can be prevented from occurring. 
In addition to the above-described embodiment of the color harmony scale, 
modifications of the present invention are possible in the light of the 
above teaching.