Abstract:
A container includes a container body and an image presentation arrangement. The container body includes a solid base and a surrounding wall, wherein the solid base has a refraction face at a bottom face of the solid base and a viewing face at an outer surrounding face of the solid base to define a refraction angle between the refraction face and the viewing face. The image presentation arrangement includes one or more characters integrally formed at the refraction face of the solid base, wherein the virtual images of the characters are projected on the viewing surface by means of refraction for enhancing a decorative aesthetic appearance of the container body.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This is a non-provisional application of a provisional application having an application No. 61/216,797 and a filing date of May 20, 2009. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a container, and more particularly to a transparent container with image presented. 
         [0004]    2. Description of Related Arts 
         [0005]    Many liquid or solid containers are decorated by patterns and images on the walls thereof for aesthetic appearance or for indication. For example, water class and wine class are having patterns curved on the outer walls; marks have characters or sentences printed on the outer wall. 
         [0006]    All these methods have to work on the wall of the container. Most possibly, the wall is the thinnest and weakest portion of a container. Therefore, any painting, curving, wearing, or other work on the wall cost the risk to break the wall and damage the container. Some treatments can not be performed over the wall, for example, deep curving. And for some treatments, there are many limitations such as the pattern&#39;s area and features. Some times, the thickness of the wall has to be increased, or the material of the wall has to be changed. These will introduce high cost, and incontinence of using. 
         [0007]    Also, some containers are highly concerned about the aesthetic appearance, such as crystal glass, perfume container, artistic vase, etc. Any marks or labels one the wall will damage the integral appearance. 
         [0008]    Compare to the wall, the bottom is always the thickest porting of a container, and consequently, it is much more robust. It can afford different kinds of treatment to achieve a larger range of effects. Also, any marks or labels on the bottom will not be disturbing in appearance. But for conventional containers, the pattern on the bottom is invisible and most of the time is only used for less important indication, such as model number or fabricator. It is a kind of waste that can not utilize the bottom portion to present valuable image and patterns. 
       SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
       [0009]    The main object of the present invention is to provide a container which can present images on the wall. 
         [0010]    Another object of the present invention is to improve the aesthetic appearance of a container. 
         [0011]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a container which has the images prepared on the bottom thereof. 
         [0012]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a container which can afford different kinds of treatment to prepare the image. 
         [0013]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a container which doesn&#39;t affect the physical condition of the wall when prepare and present the image. 
         [0014]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a container which is easy and cost saving to present image. 
         [0015]    In order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a container, comprising: 
         [0016]    a container body having a solid base having a predetermined thickness, and a surrounding wall upwardly extended from the base to define a container cavity, wherein the base comprises a bottom concave face extending upwardly to define a refraction angle between the surrounding wall and the bottom concave face; and 
         [0017]    an image presentation arrangement which comprises a refraction surface on the peripheral of the bottom concave face, a viewing surface of the outer wall of the base, and one or more characters formed on the refraction surface and configured in an inversed manner, wherein the virtual images of the characters are projected on the viewing surface by means of refraction for enhancing a decorative aesthetic appearance of the container body. 
         [0018]    These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0019]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the container of the present invention illustrating the bottom of the container. 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention illustrating the image presentation. 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0022]      FIG. 4  is a sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 5  is a bottom view of an embodiment of the present invention illustrating the characters form on the bottom of the container. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0024]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 to 3  of the drawings, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the container comprises a container body  10  and an image presentation arrangement  20 . The container body  10  further comprises a solid base  11  and a surrounding wall  12 . The surrounding wall  12  is extending upwardly from the peripheral of the solid base  11  to define a container cavity  13 . This cavity provides the containing function of the container. 
         [0025]    The solid base  11  of the container is made of transparent material, for example, glass, crystal, plastic, acryl, etc. Preferably, the surrounding wall  12  is made of the same material, but alternatively, the upper portion of the surrounding wall  12  can be made of different material, including opaque material. 
         [0026]    The solid base  11  further comprises a bottom concave face  111 , a top face  112 , and a surrounding face  113 . The top face  112  is on the top of the base  11 . The bottom concave face  111  is on the bottom of the base  11 . The surrounding face  113  is on the out surface of the base  11  and is continuously extending to the surrounding wall  12 . The bottom concave face  111  is not a flat plane and is concaved upwardly from the peripheral of the solid base  11 . Referring to  FIGS. 2 to 4 , the peripheral portion of the bottom concave face  111  is inclined upwardly towards the top face  112  and forms the refraction surface  22  of the image presentation arrangement  20 . The surrounding face  113  also provides a viewing face  23  thereon. The refraction face  22  and the viewing face  23  define a refraction angle  15 . It is easy to see the refraction angle  15  is less than the angle between the surrounding face  113  and the ground level where the container stands. Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the contour of the bottom concave face  111  may be different. For example, it could be a curve, or a trapezoid. The contour of the refraction face  22  can be linear, and also can be curved. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the bottom face  111  of the solid base  11  has a trapezoid shape defining a top flat surface and an inclined flat surface, wherein the image presentation arrangement  20  is formed the inclined flat surface of the bottom face  111  of the solid base  11 . The refraction angle  15  is also different for different embodiment. The refraction face  22  and the viewing face  23  can be parallel which means the refraction angle is 0. Compare with a container having a flat bottom, the embodiment of the present invention has a smaller angle between the bottom face and the surrounding face  113  at the edge, and the refraction face  22  on the bottom concave face  111  is closer to the viewing face  23 . It is worth mentioning, the top face  112  of the solid base  11  can have different contour, such as flat or curved surface. But the solid base  11  needs to maintain a certain thickness at the peripheral thereof to provide enough area for the viewing face  23 . 
         [0027]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 to 4 , the container of the present invention also comprises an image presentation arrangement  20 . The image presentation arrangement  20  comprises one or more characters  21  formed on the bottom concave face  111  of the solid base  11 , a refraction face  22  formed on the bottom concave face  111 , and a viewing face  23  formed on the surrounding face of the solid base  10 . Preferably, these image characters  21  are formed on the refraction face  22 . The image characters  21  can be formed on the solid base  11  by different methods. For example, the image characters  21  can be formed by embossment, engraving, or enchasing. In a preferred embodiment, the image characters  21  are formed by embossment. The features of the characters  21  are protruded from the solid base. The cross section of the features is rectangular, therefore the refraction and reflection effects of light ray cooperated with the particular material of the container provide a special effect to high light the characters  21 . Alternatively, the cross section of the features is triangle, curve, or other shape. In an alternative embodiment, the image characters  21  are painted on the refraction face  22 . Different colors are provided. 
         [0028]    In order to have a required presentation, the image characters  21  need to be formed in an inversed manner on the refraction face  22 . As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the left and right of a character are reversed. The sequence of a serial of characters  21  is also left and right reversed. Because the material of the solid base  11  of the container is transparent, the image characters  21  on the refraction face  22  can be seen through the surround wall of the container. 
         [0029]    The purpose to have the bottom face concaved and to provide a refraction face  22  is because of the refraction effect. When wave passes from one medium into another of different density, the direction of the wave will change. Because typically the material of the container has a higher density than air, when light ray passes from the material of the container to the air, it will bend away from the normal of the interface. In another word, the light ray in the material of the container is closer to the normal than the ray in the air. As a result, if the bottom of the container is flat, when a user is looking at the bottom of the container from a higher level which happens at most of the time, he will see the image far away from the edge because of the refraction, and the image characters  21  will be squeezed and distorted. The longer distance also reduces the transparency. If the user looks at the bottom of the container at a low level, he can not see any image characters  21  on the bottom. In this situation, because of refraction, the image characters  21  on the peripheral of the bottom can only be seen from a limited range of directions. Look at the container from the most possible directions, the image characters  21  presented on the surrounding face  113  will be distorted and unclear. 
         [0030]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , in the present invention, the refraction face  22  on the bottom concave face  111  lifts the image characters  21  on the bottom closer to the surrounding face  113  of the solid base  11 , and the refraction angle  15  is also decreased. Therefore, the image characters  21  on the peripheral portion are easy to be seen from the surrounding face  113 , the distortion is also limited. 
         [0031]    It is worth mentioning, the solid base  11  of the present invention needs to maintain a predetermined thickness. Therefore, the light ray can pass from the image characters  21  to the surrounding face  113 , preferably, to the viewing face  23  directly. If the solid base  11  is not thick enough, the light ray will pass through the solid base  11 , then enter into the container cavity  13 , then enter into the surrounding wall  12 . There will be two more interfaces which will distort and weak the image presentation largely. Because of the refraction face  22 , complex characters  21 , such as letters can be presented clearly on the viewing face  23 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3 . Alternatively, the thickness of the solid base is limited so the light ray will be refracted by multiple interfaces to get special effects. 
         [0032]    It is worth mentioning, the view face  23  of the image presentation arrangement  20  could be a portion of the surrounding face  113  of the solid base  11 . The surface of the surrounding face  113  is flat and continuous. The viewing face covers the effective area whereon users and easily see the image presentation from a normal angle. In another word, when a user looks at the container from a range of direction, for example, from 20° to 80° downwardly, the user can see the image presented on the viewing face by refraction. 
         [0033]    Alternatively, the viewing face  23  can have different contour from the surrounding face  113 . For example, the viewing face may concave or convex from the surrounding face  113  to provide a preferred refraction angle and a preferred image presentation. 
         [0034]    The bottom concave face  111  also provides a cavity at the bottom of the container. This cavity can retain a light source or other equipments or features for image presentation improvement. For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 4 , a plurality of LEDs  24  are provided in the cavity at the bottom of the container. The light ray generated by the LED will provide special effect of the image presentation. 
         [0035]    In summary, the present invention doesn&#39;t affect the features of the surround wall of the containers. To use the present invention, the shape and surface features of the container will not be changed. It uses the reflection and refraction effects of the light to provide a special effect of presenting designated image characters, such as trade mark, or manufacturer. The user may be attracted by the image presentation to remember the mark to achieve an advertisement result. The invention is low cost, and easy to realize. The selection of available methods to prepare the image characters on the solid base is large. The presentation of the image is flexible and effective. 
         [0036]    One skilled in the art will understand that the embodiment of the present invention as shown in the drawings and described above is exemplary only and not intended to be limiting. 
         [0037]    It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. It embodiments have been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the functional and structural principles of the present invention and is subject to change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.