Patent Publication Number: US-2007111171-A1

Title: Lenticular teaching and greeting card apparatus

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a device to facilitate communication by sign language.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
     Description of the Prior Art  
      Sign language is a well-developed multi-sensory form of communication immensely important to the deaf and hard of hearing population. A well-known form of sign language is the American Sign Language (ASL) and includes hand, arm, face and body gestures which are indicative of various letters of the English alphabet and even syllables and words themselves. ASL is the third most used language in the United States of America and, for the deaf and hard of hearing, is the first. Sign languages are known in many different languages and are a natural, rich, visual-gestural-spatial language developed over many centuries and relied on by many for daily communication. A communicator may sign with his or her mouth, arm, facial gestures or body language to communicate individual letters or entire thoughts.  
      Many languages, including English, have two forms—a spoken form and a written form. The spoken, audible word is momentary and audible to the ear. On the other hand, the written form of the language is relatively exact, static and permanent. Sign languages do not typically have a written form. Rather, they rely on picture drawings with arrows seeking to show movements to make the particular signs. Videos are helpful but do not completely parallel the written form. Like a spoken word sign language is momentary and when the movement of the hand or facial impression stops the visual image is gone. Thus, there exists a need for sign languages to be displayed in understandable multi-dimensional form similar to that of the written form of spoken languages along with that language in written form. It is this need to which the present invention is directed.  
      I have discovered that graphic gestures of sign language may be selectively transmitted through a lenticular screen in coordination with the affiliated written word to visually communicate both the gesture and the written word to thereby facilitate teaching of sign language or communication thereof.  
      Motion or image products are old and well-known. In some mediums, they employ a technology called lenticular printing that typically prints a group of lines or line segments which cooperate to define a graphic in alternating strips of each graphic on the back or behind a plastic sheet or screen. The plastic sheet incorporates a series of curved ridges called lenticules or lenticular lenses. When light is projected through the plastic sheet from their front side it will be reflected from a white or light colored surface on the backside thereof and about the printed graphic strips to refract the returning light a specific angles and to magnify the image. The printed image strips are aligned accurately so the strips for a particular graphic are refracted to project an image of the graphic to the same point for viewing by a viewer. The refraction and magnification causes the viewer to receive the projected image as a single composite image and, by shifting to different angles, such viewer will view the different images depending on the particular angle of viewing.  
      The production of lenticular lenses and is well-known and described in detail in various U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,032 to Bravenec et al. Generally, the process includes selecting segments from visual graphics to create a desired visual effect and interlacing the segments in accordance with the desired graphics. Lenticular lenses or lens sheets are then mapped to the interlaced segments or sets of graphic strips or the lenticular lenses fabricated according to this mapping.  
      The lenticular lenses produced are often employed in devices intended to display animated images. Examples include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,239 to Finker; U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,593 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,195 to Braunhut as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,592 to Cahn.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention includes a method employing a lenticular lens disposed over multiple graphic gestures corresponding with sign language gestures and to be selectively projected as images through the lens, depending on the angle of orientation, to display such images concurrent with the display of words syllables or phrases corresponding with the respective gestures. The invention also includes a display device including such a lens over the respective images and oriented as described along with a display panel for display of the text of the thought communicated by the gesture.  
      Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the features of the invention. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a sign language display device incorporating the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a vertical sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along the lines  2 - 2  thereof;  
       FIG. 3  is detail sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken from the circle  3  in  FIG. 2 ;  
       FIG. 4  is a front view, in enlarged scale, of the device shown in  FIG. 1  and depicting a symbolic view of a graphic to be projected from a card device;  
       FIG. 5  is front view similar to  FIG. 4  but symbolic of a graphic to project a second image;  
       FIG. 6  is a front view of a second embodiment of the sign language instructional device of the present invention; and  
       FIG. 7  is a front view similar to  FIG. 6  but depicting the device at a different angle relative the viewer. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
      In the effective communication with sign language, many communicators express themselves with somewhat shorthand gestures involving dynamics where the communicator makes hand gestures or the like involving shifting the fingers, hands and/or arms through a series of positions indicative of a syllable of a word, or word phrases to be perceived by a viewer as a whole expressing a complete thought. While moving pictures, video images and the like may present certain benefits in replicating the gestures indicative of sign language words or phrases, such devices are relatively cumbersome to use, are not and are not acceptable for communicating reading messages or the like. Thus, it is important that the communicator have a facility which compactly packages multiple images for sequential display thereof to depict to the viewer images of a sequence of actions, preferably displayed in conjunction with printed or written words also expressing the meaning of the gestures. My present invention is directed to this solution.  
      The preferred embodiment of my invention includes, generally, a card device  21  which may include paper stock  23  mounting a lenticular lens screen  33  carrying segmentations of individual graphics  27  and  29  of a person which, when displayed in sequence, exhibit the impression of, for instance, a hand movement from over the mouth as shown in  FIG. 4  to a position extending outwardly and forward of the body shown in  FIG. 5 . A phrase, such as the words “Thank You”  30  may be printed on the face of the card  21  at a border location  31  for viewing concurrent with the image of the hand gestures depicted in  FIGS. 4 and 5 . The graphics  27  and  29  are covered by the lenticular screen  33  ( FIG. 3 ) which includes lenticules operative to, when viewed from different angles  35 ,  37  and  39 , display to the viewer a sequence of composite images of the graphics  27  shown in  FIG. 4  to the graphic  29  shown in  FIG. 5  thus presenting the viewer with the impression the hand is moving in progressive fashion from the location over the mouth to the extended position shown in  FIG. 5 . The viewer will then perceive the sequence of images as being a dynamic animation representative of the gesture in American Sign Language affiliated with the words “Thank You”. This when associated with the text “Thank You” introduces the viewer to a mental affiliation of the word with the animated gesture to thereby educate and, upon repeated viewing commit the meaning of the sign language to memory.  
      As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, sign language involves a number of different formats. First, ASL convention involves hand signs associated with the various letters of the alphabet, such as a closed fist with the thumb touching the outer surface of the index finger for the letter “A” open palm with crossed thumb for the letter “B” and cup-shaped fingers and thumb for the letter “C”. ASL has developed to the point where short hand dynamic gestures are employed to indicate entire syllables or even entire words or phrases. These gestures normally involve movement and/or expressions to allow the viewer to observe the progression of the gesture which may involve shifting the hand and fore arm from one position through intermediate positions to a second position, all of which may be comprehended in the entirety, much as students learn read by observing the entire word, rather than sounding out the word letter by letter.  
      By placing multiple graphics depicting the gestures  27  and  29  ( FIG. 4  and  5 ) and depicting the beginning and end of gesture and one or more intermediate graphics with the speakers at an intermediate position(s) between the position over the mouth as shown in  FIG. 4  and the fully extended position shown in  FIG. 29 , and designing and positioning the lenticular lens  33  to display images of those graphics in sequence, the viewer will perceive movement. In the exemplary embodiment, the lenticules cooperate to display those graphics in sequence upon angling of the face of the card  21  for viewing first from an angle of about a - 45 ° along the viewing axis  39  shown in  FIG. 3  then straight through the viewing axis  37  and finally at a plus  45 ° angle for the viewing axis  35 , so the human eye is exposed to a sequence of images which, in real time, appear to depict an animated continuous gesture with the hand moving from a position over the mouth as shown in  FIG. 4  to the extended position shown in  FIG. 5  thereby conveying to the viewer familiar with the sign language the expression “Thank You”. By simultaneously displaying the text  31  depicting the letter spelling “Thank You” a viewer even unfamiliar with ASL, will recognize that the animated gesture observed with inclination of the card as described above constitutes an expression meaning just that “Thank You”.  
      As noted above in the background section above, the construction of lenticular animation devices is well known in the art. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the device of the present invention may take many different forms, such as instructional boards or even books to display a sequence of gestures associated with various selected meanings or messages. In this regard, the construction may include a backing paper  23  over lied by a card stock  51  ( FIG. 3 ) and secured thereto by a layer of adhesive  53  to support thereon a panel of lightweight stiffening foam  55 . The front surface of the panel is of a white reflective finish for reflecting incoming light back through the lenticules of the lenticular screen. The back side of the screen  33  will be formed with interlaced graphics  27  and  29  on possibly more and broken into segments such that when viewed from the various angles will result in the viewer perceiving the graphic of the character making the gesture as having one, two, three or even more distinctive positions but, when so viewed, will be perceived as a more or less continuous motion thus suggesting dynamics and closely imitating a speaker expressing him or herself through ASL. As will be recognized, such graphics may be printed directly on the back of the screen, on the reflective screen or on a carrier sheet interposed therebetween, it being important only that such graphics be in the path of the reflected light so as to be projected to the viewer as an accurate image of the graphic. The graphic may be of any desired sign language such as an English, Spanish, German, Japanese or any other well recognized sign languages. The particular gestures shown in the exemplary embodiment are taken from American Sign Language but, of course could be from any other desirable sign language.  
      It should be understood that the term lenticular lens or lenticular screen is intended to encompass any lens mechanism to provide for sequential display of individual images whether presently known or to be developed in the future, including such screens to display high definition video, whether two or three dimensional.  
      The second embodiment of the sign language instructional device of the present invention is shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7  includes, generally, a backing card  91  having a lenticular lens screen  93  disposed thereover with a plurality of graphics  95  and  97  printed on the back side thereof to depict, for instance, a plurality of gestures and viewed in progression convey a sign language message such as “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Hanukkah” or the like. Also, displayed behind the lenticular screen  93  are printed words, such as for instance, the word Merry  101  as shown in  FIG. 6  and word Christmas  103  as shown in  FIG. 7 . The graphics  95  and  97  are of the characters such as Santa Claus depict the communicator in a first position as shown in  FIG. 6  with the right hand generally depicted with the thumb folded in and the fingers clasped thereover as is characteristic of a sign for the letter “M” but when displayed in a sequence, sometimes with other gestures will cooperate to mean, for instance, “Merry” used in the phrase “Merry Christmas”. In this regard, the gesture depicted by the graphic  97  in  FIG. 7  shows the Santa Claus character with the fore arm upright to his side and the thumb and fingers curved in a gesture typically corresponding with the sign for the letter “C” but which, when viewed in combination cooperate in conveying the message “Merry Christmas”. In this regard, there may be two, three or even more static graphics comparable to graphics  95  and  97  which depict intermediate static positions of a gesturing character and which, when viewed in progressive sequence communicate a composite message. Here, the graphics  95  and  97  and the text words  101  and  103  are so positioned and configured that the lenticular lens  93  functions, when the backing  91  is in one angular position relative to the viewer, project the image of the graphic  95  and of the text  101  and when in a second angular position, project an image of the graphic  97  and text  103  so that the viewer will be viewing only the selected images of the graphics and text concurrently thereby allowing the viewer to, as the backing  91  is shifted from the angle shown on  FIG. 6  to the angle shown in  FIG. 7 , comprehend the movement of the hand of the Santa Claus character from the position shown in  FIG. 6  to the position shown in  FIG. 7  thus affording a visual impression of a sign language message and the associated text message.  
      As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the backing  91  may take many different forms, including that of a greeting card, instructional display plate, page of a book or the like whereby a viewer could even read a few pages of a book in which the book itself could be manipulated through an arc to thus result in the respective lenticularly screened pages shifting through multiple positions to display multiple different images  95  and  97  conveying sign language in a progressive and continuous manner.  
      From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the instructional sign language of the present invention and the method of its use provides a creative, convenient and inexpensive means for teaching or communication through sign language.