Cabinet allowing object to be viewed from multiple angles
OwnerDouglas J. Robinsoninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a display cabinet for displaying an object from a plurality of views, in which the observer's own image is not reflected. According to the present invention, at least one reflective surface such as mirrors are provided within a cabinet. The mirrors define an internal display chamber within the cabinet, with one of the faces of the display chamber constituting a viewing window having a special coating which allows some of the interior light to escape the display chamber. The lighting in the display chamber is controlled so as to ensure that more light exits the viewing window than enters from outside the display cabinet, thus ensuring that the observer's image is not reflected.
Claims14
A display cabinet for the display of an object contained therein, the display cabinet comprising:
- a) display chamber means for containing the object, the display chamber means being substantially defined by:
- 1) a plurality of internal reflective surfaces;
- and
- 2) a surface having a semi-reflective coating constituting:
- i) means for making the object visible to one or more observers through the surface;
- and
- ii) means for preventing formation of a visible reflection of the one or more observers in the surface having the semi-reflective coating or in the plurality of reflective surfaces;
- wherein:
- the reflective surfaces are arranged at angles with respect to each other and in physical relation to the surface having the semi-reflective coating to define the display chamber means so that:
- 1) the object may be simultaneously viewed from different angles through the surface with the semi-reflective coating, as if the object were free-standing and not enclosed;
- and
- 2) an amount of floor space required for thus viewing the object from the different angles through the surface with the semi-reflective coating, is substantially less than that floor space which would be required if the object were free-standing and directly viewed from the different angles.
A display cabinet for the display of an object contained therein, the display cabinet comprising:
- a) at least one internal reflective surface;
- b) a viewing window having a semi-reflective coating, the viewing window being large enough to allow plural observers to view the object simultaneously, the at least one internal reflective surface and the viewing window having the semi-reflective coating substantially forming a display chamber means for containing the object;
- and
- c) at least one lighting means, disposed outside the display chamber means, for illuminating the object to be displayed, wherein the lighting means is constructed such that:
- 1) when fully turned on, the lighting means provides light in the chamber of an intensity greater than light outside the cabinet so as to illuminate the object to make it visible to the observers through the viewing window while preventing the outside observers' images from being reflected back to the observers by the viewing window;
- and
- 2) when the lighting means is fully turned off, the arrangement of the at least one internal reflective surface and the viewing window causes the display chamber means and the object contained therein to be substantially blocked from the observers' view by the viewing window's semi-reflective coating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.