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  Touch screen saverUSPTO Application #: 20070019300Title: Touch screen saver Abstract: A stack of laminated transparent lenses consists of two alternating optically clear materials in intimate contact. The materials are a plastic lens and clear adhesive. The adhesive is uninterrupted. The lens and the adhesive have refraction mismatch of less than 0.2. A tab portion is part of each lens acts as an aid in peeling away the outermost lens after contamination of the lens layer during racing conditions. The lens stack can be mounted to the posts on the face shield or laminated directly to a windshield. (end of abstract)
Agent: Stetina Brunda Garred & Brucker - Aliso Viejo, CA, US Inventors: Bart Wilson, Seth Wilson, Stephen S. Wilson USPTO Applicaton #: 20070019300 - Class: 359642000 (USPTO) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070019300. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/974,372, filed Oct. 27, 2004, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/845,228, filed May 13, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,492, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/050,366, filed Jan. 16, 2002, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/449,318, filed Nov. 24, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,813, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention pertains to the following areas of technology: Apparel-Guards and Protectors; for wearer's head and face; eye shields such as goggles having a lens-cover plate; and windshield covers. [0004] 2. Description of the Prior Art [0005] Face shields are employed in environments where contamination of the eyes may occur. It is well known in the art that flexible transparent lenses affixed by numerous methods are overlaid on the face shield for protection. The lenses are easily removed and discarded when visibility is reduced from the accumulation of dirt or other contaminants. In motor sports for instance, multiple layers of transparent lenses are overlaid on the face shield, each being sequentially removed as they become contaminated, because they reduce the visibility of the operator. The drawback of the lenses in the prior art is that each transparent lens applied over the face shield is itself a hindrance to good visibility due to its optical index of refraction. Most common materials used as plastics have optical indexes of refraction ranging from 1.47 to 1.498. The index mismatch between the removable lens and air (air has an optical index of 1.00) causes a reflection of 4% of the light that would normally come to the operator's eyes. This reflection effect is additive for each additional surface to air interface. Then for each removable lens having two surfaces, the reflections are 8%. Thus a stack of seven lenses would reflect 42% of the light away from the operator thereby reducing the brightness of the objects viewed. A second optical phenomenon occurs simultaneously that also reduces visibility. The reflections are bi-directional and thus make the lens stack appear as a semi-permeable mirror to the operator. This mirror effect further reduces visibility, because the light that passes through the lens stack reflects off of the operator's face and then reflects off of the lens stack into the operator's eyes. The effect to the operator is that he sees his own image on the inside of the stack nearly as brightly as the objects viewed on the outside. This significantly reduces visibility. [0006] Another drawback to this stacking arrangement is that moisture exhaled by the operator's breath can cloud or fog-up the lenses also reducing visibility. The air spaces between each lens allows the moisture to enter this area. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] An object of the present invention is to provide a series of easily removable optically clear lens stacks that do not cause reflection to the operator's eyes. The prior art discloses reflective lens stacks that do cause reflections to the operator's eyes. An example of this type of prior art of reflective lens stacks is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,698 issued on Jan. 14, 1997 to Woods. [0008] Refraction is the change in the direction in which waves travel when they pass from one kind of matter into another. Waves are refracted (bent) when they pass at an angle from one medium 9 into another in which the velocity of light is different. The amount that a ray of a certain wavelength bends in passing from one medium to another is indicated by the index of refraction between the two mediums for that wavelength. The index of refraction indicates the amount that a light ray bends as it passes out of one substance and into another. When light passes from air to a denser substance, such as Mylar film, it slows down. If the light ray enters the Mylar film at any angle except a right angle, the slowing down causes the light ray to bend at the point of entry. This bending is called refraction. The ratio of the speed of light in air to its speed in the Mylar film is the Mylar film's index of refraction. [0009] The present invention includes a series of alternating optically clear films whose indexes of refraction are matched to within 0.2 and which will nearly eliminate all reflections to the operator's eyes. The layers of film are adhesively laminated to one another and are compliant so there is no air between the layers. The film layers can be large and generally rectangular in shape with a tab extending from each of the film layers. The tabs can be staggered so that the user can remove the top most layer and then the next succeeding layer. This embodiment of the present invention can be applied to race car windshields, windows, visors or direct view displays such as ATM machines that are subject to contaminating environments. Accordingly, the present invention is an adhesively laminated multi-layered clear film adapted to be used on a racer's face shield, or on the windshield of a race car to keep the viewing area clean during the course of a race. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an off-road wearer's helmet showing one embodiment of the present invention affixed to the face shield of the helmet. [0011] FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the helmet shown in FIG. 1 showing the tab portion without any adhesive for allowing the wearer of the helmet to easily grasp the tab and peel-off the soiled top layer of the present invention. [0012] FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view taken along line 3--3 in FIG. 2. This view shows the tension post extending outwardly from the face shield with the left-side end tab portion of the present 9 invention. [0013] FIG. 4 is a front elevational view illustrating the present invention before it is affixed to the face shield of the helmet. [0014] FIG. 5. is a top view of the stackable lenses illustrating seven layers of lens held together by an adhesive applied between each lens with the thicknesses of the layers of each lens and applied adhesive highly exaggerated to clearly show the relationship between the lenses and the adhesive and also to show the end portions that do not have any adhesive between each lens layer for forming the removable tab portions at both ends of the present invention. [0015] FIG. 6 illustrates a 60'' wide roll of film, which will be used to cut out the optical stacks that are illustrated in FIG. 4. The gray stripes illustrate the clear adhesive, and the clear stripes illustrate the clear film without adhesive. It is to be understood that the gray stripes are for illustration purposes only, because the adhesive is clear. [0016] FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view illustrating seven sheets of film layer and seven layers of clear adhesive interposed between each sheet of film layer. This embodiment is used for windshields, windows and the like. [0017] FIG. 8 is a view of the laminated sheets illustrated in FIG. 7 having a rectangular shape with a series of six tabs for removing each top layer of the lenses successively as the uppermost exposed lens layer becomes soiled or otherwise contaminated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0018] The present invention will now be discussed in detail. As stated above, FIG. 4 is a front elevational view illustrating the present invention 10 before it is affixed to the face shield of the helmet. The top view in FIG. 5 illustrates 7 layers of lenses 15 adhesively affixed to each successive lenses. The adhesive layer is numbered 20. The material used to form the lenses is preferably a clear polyester. The lens layers are fabricated from sheets of plastic film sold under the registered trademark Mylar owned by the DuPont Company. The several trademark registrations for the mark Mylar list several types of products sold under that mark, and include polyester film. The type of Mylar used in the present invention is made from the clear polymer polyethylene 4 terephalate, commonly referred to as PET, which is the most important polyester. PET is thermoplastic--that is, it softens and melts at high temperatures. Uses of PET film include magnetic tapes and shrink wrap. The adhesive 20 used to laminate the lenses together sequentially is a clear optical low tack material. The thickness of each lens will range from 0.5 mil to 7 mil (1 mil is 0.001''). The preferred thickness will be 2 mil. Even after the adhesive material is applied to a 2 mil thickness lens, the thickness of the 2 mil thickness lenses will still be 2 mil. The adhesive has nominal thickness. As illustrated in FIG. 5, after the seven layers of film and the six layers of adhesive are laminated together, the overall thickness of the end product is 15 mils. The term "wetting" can be used to describe the relationship between the laminated film layers. When viewing through the laminated layers, it appears to be one single piece of plastic film. No reflections are evident. The end tab portions without the adhesive exhibit reflections are not a hindrance to the user, because these end portions are folded back over the posts as illustrated in FIG. 3, and do not affect the visibility of the user. [0019] The adhesive material 20 will be a water-based acrylic optically clear adhesive or an oil based clear adhesive, with the water based adhesive being the preferred embodiment. After the seven layers are laminated or otherwise bonded together with the adhesive layers, the thickness of each adhesive layer is negligible even though the adhesive layers are illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 as distinct layers. FIG. 5. is a top view of the stackable lenses illustrating seven layers of lens held together by an adhesive applied between each lens with the thicknesses of the layers of lenses and applied adhesive highly exaggerated to clearly show the relationship between the lenses and the adhesive and also to show the end portions that do not have any adhesive between each lens layer for forming the removable tab portions 25 at both ends of the present invention. Continue reading... Full patent description for Touch screen saver Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Touch screen saver patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Touch screen saver or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Dichroic prism, and prism unit and image projection apparatus employing same Next Patent Application: Very-high aperture projection objective Industry Class: Optical: systems and elements ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Touch screen saver patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.04775 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Medical: Surgery , Surgery(2) , Surgery(3) , Drug , Drug(2) , Prosthesis , Dentistry |
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