Apparatus and method for determining a color for use in a fashion design

Claim 1

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a light emitting visual color display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, and means for capturing light emitted from the portion of said display screen corresponding to said part of said image and for measuring the color of said captured light to provide a set of values describing said color of said part of said image and which values can be subsequently used to specify the color for the corresponding part of an actual article patterned on said fashion design image.

Claim 2

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a light emitting visual color display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, and means for capturing light emitted from the portion of said display screen corresponding to said part of said image and for measuring the color of said captured light to provide a set of values describing said color of said part of said image and which values can be subsequently used to specify the color for the corresponding part of an actual article patterned on said fashion design image.

Claim 3

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a visual display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least a part of said image, and means for measuring the color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing said color, said visual display screen being the screen of a cathode ray tube, and said means for measuring the color of said part of said image being a measuring instrument wherein light emitted from said part of said image is passed separately though a plurality of color filters and wherein the amount of light passing though each of said filters is sensed to provide a related one of said values of said set, said measuring instrument including a manually positionable probe which may be moved to any part of said screen to pick up a color for measurement by the remainder of said instrument, and a light conductor comprised of a bundle of optic fibers connected with said probe, said light conductor having an output section divided into a plurality of sub-bundles of optic fibers each of which sub-bundles emits light conducted by it onto a respective one of said filters.

Claim 4

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a visual display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least a part of said image, and means for measuring the color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing said color, said visual display screen being the screen of a cathode ray tube, and said means for measuring the color of said part of said image being a measuring instrument wherein light emitted from said part of said image is passed separately though a plurality of color filters and wherein the amount of light passing though each of said filters is sensed to provide a related one of said values of said set, said measuring instrument including a manually positionable probe which may be moved to any part of said screen to pick up a color for measurement by the remainder of said instrument, and a light conductor comprised of a bundle of optic fibers connected with said probe, said light conductor having an output section divided into a plurality of sub-bundles of optic fibers each of which sub-bundles emits light conducted by it onto a respective one of said filters.

Claim 5

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a visual display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least a part of said image, means for measuring the color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing said color, and means responsive to said set of values describing said color for providing a specification of dyes to be used for reproducing said measured color of said part of said image on a fabric dyed in accordance with said specification of dyes.

Claim 6

An apparatus for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said apparatus comprising: a visual display screen, means for creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, means for varying the color of at least a part of said image, means for measuring the color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing said color, and means responsive to said set of values describing said color for providing a specification of dyes to be used for reproducing said measured color of said part of said image on a fabric dyed in accordance with said specification of dyes.

Claim 8

A method for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said method comprising the steps of: providing a computer aided fashion design system including a light emitting visual display screen, creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, varying the color of at least a part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, and measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing it, said step of measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image being carried out by using an instrument for measuring said acceptable color directly from said screen.

Claim 9

A method for determining a color for use in a fashion design, said method comprising the steps of: providing a computer aided fashion design system including a light emitting visual display screen, creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, varying the color of at least a part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, and measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing it, said step of measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image being carried out by using an instrument for measuring said acceptable color directly from said screen.

Claim 10

A method for determining a color for use in a fashion design said method comprising the steps of: providing a computer aided fashion design system including a visual light emitting screen, creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, varying the color of at least a part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing it, and subsequently using said set of values to determine the color of the corresponding part of an actual article patterned on said fashion design image, said computer aided fashion design system including a plurality of manually adjustable control elements each of which elements adjusts an associated component of the color of said part of said image and which manually adjustable control elements are used to vary said color in said step of varying the color of at least a part of said image and said step of measuring said acceptable color being carried out by assigning a value to each of said color components in accordance with the position of the associated one of said manually adjustable control elements.

Claim 11

A method for determining a color for use in a fashion design said method comprising the steps of: providing a computer aided fashion design system including a visual light emitting screen, creating a colored image of a fashion design on said screen, varying the color of at least a part of said image until an acceptable color for said part is attained, measuring said acceptable color of said part of said image to provide a set of values describing it, and subsequently using said set of values to determine the color of the corresponding part of an actual article patterned on said fashion design image, said computer aided fashion design system including a plurality of manually adjustable control elements each of which elements adjusts an associated component of the color of said part of said image and which manually adjustable control elements are used to vary said color in said step of varying the color of at least a part of said image and said step of measuring said acceptable color being carried out by assigning a value to each of said color components in accordance with the position of the associated one of said manually adjustable control elements.