Playing Cards With Transparent Holographic Optical Element
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Solution Overview
Problem
In televised poker games, incorporating additional information on playing cards, such as advertising, is challenging due to the need to maintain player recognition of card values without altering traditional ink markings, as existing solutions interfere with the players' ability to quickly identify cards.
Innovation Solution
A deck of playing cards featuring a substantially transparent holographic optical element that contains a holographic image, allowing the image to be visible to electronic image receptors like TV cameras while remaining invisible to players during critical game moments, using a base layer with indicia markings and an additional transparent holographic layer with specially configured undulations and refracting properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If additional information (advertising) is incorporated on the front surface of playing cards, then information transmission to viewers is improved, but player recognition of card values is interfered with
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions the additional information from the two-dimensional front surface plane to the third dimension by embedding it within a transparent holographic optical element. This allows the advertising information to be viewed at specific angles (typically from above) while remaining invisible to players viewing from the side, effectively using spatial dimensionality to separate the viewing perspectives of players and viewers.
Solution Approach 2:
The holographic optical element creates different optical properties at different locations and angles. The additional information is made visible only in specific viewing zones (from above at certain angles) while remaining invisible in other zones (from the side at player viewing angles). This local differentiation of visibility properties resolves the contradiction by providing information to viewers without distracting players.
2Loss of information
If traditional ink markings are altered to incorporate additional information, then advertising transmission is improved, but card value identification speed is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The card surface is segmented into two distinct functional layers: the base layer containing traditional ink markings for quick player identification, and the transparent holographic optical element containing additional advertising information. This segmentation allows both functions to coexist without interfering with each other, as players quickly identify card values from the base layer while viewers receive advertising information from the holographic element.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent holographic optical element acts as an intermediary layer that carries additional information without blocking or altering the underlying traditional ink markings. Players view through this intermediary to quickly identify card values, while the intermediary itself provides the advertising information to viewers when viewed from appropriate angles.
3Loss of information
If opaque holographic elements are used to display additional information, then advertising visibility is improved, but transparency and traditional appearance are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The holographic optical element uses controlled optical parameters including transparency, refractive index variations, and diffraction patterns to achieve angle-dependent visibility. By carefully adjusting these parameters, the element becomes visible and displays advertising information when viewed from above, but remains transparent and invisible when viewed from the side, thus maintaining the traditional appearance and transparency of the card.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the transmission of additional information, like advertising, to viewers without distracting players, ensuring uninterrupted recognition of card values and maintaining the traditional appearance of the cards.
Implementation Method 1
an additional layer that comprises a substantially transparent holographic optical element layer that comprises a holographic image
Implementation Method 2
a substantially planar holographic optical element that is operatively configured to form a holographic image
Data Source
AI summary
A deck of playing cards wherein at least one card comprises a base layer that bears a front surface and a back surface and a substantially planar holographic optical element that is operatively configured to form a holographic image, the holographic optical element disposed at or towards a surface that is selected from the front and back surfaces the at least one card characterized in that the holographic optical element is of a type that is substantially transparent and manufactured to substantially prevent said holographic image from being viewed in a first range of directions with respect to the selected surface and to substantially enable said holographic image to be viewed from a second range of directions that are outside of the first range.