WO2001020540A2

WO2001020540A2 - Data carriers and storage arrangements therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2001020540A2
Application number: PCT/GB2000/003493
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Joseph Brown
Original assignee: Seriouscard Ltd; David Joseph Brown
Priority date: 1999-09-10
Filing date: 2000-09-11
Publication date: 2001-03-22
Also published as: GB9921473D0; AU7028800A; WO2001020540A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a data carrier (1) bearing digitally recorded data relating primarily to one member of a group or team; the carrier being one of a set which in total bear information about various members of said group or team.

Description

DATA CARRIERS AND STORAGE ARRANGEMENTS THEREFOR

This invention relates to data carriers, and to storage arrangements for such carriers. The carriers according to the invention may typically comprise, for example, collectable items bearing pre-recorded information relating to individual sporting personalities

In this respect, it is known to provide extremely limited amounts of such information on known sports personality paper cards which are intended to be stuck into albums or placed in pouches arranged on pages of a book-like file. Where the sporting personalities are players of team sports, such as soccer for example, the objective of a collector may be to collect a card for each player in each of several teams.

As has been said, the nature of such known paper cards and the fact that the information they carry has to be eye-readable, severely limits the amount of information that they can convey. Furthermore, the general appearance of such cards is not particularly attractive, even when new, and they rapidly become dog-eared and creased when handled. They can also de- laminate. Attempts have been made to improve the appearance and longevity of such cards by the use of plasticising processes, for example, but the basic problems of limited information storage capacity and "low-tech" image severely restricts their attractiveness as collectables in the present day environment.

It is accordingly one object of this invention to provide a desirable and collectable compact data carrier that utilises state of the art digital recording technology to permit the storage of considerable amounts of information and which can additionally be attractively printed with visual images.

According to the invention from one aspect, therefore, there is provided a data carrier bearing digitally recorded data relating primarily to one member of a group or team; the carrier being one of a set which in total bear information about various members of said group or team.

Preferably, the data carrier is of substantially rectangular shape but capable of being played by equipment for playing conventional compact discs ("CDs") and CD-ROMs. This permits the carriers to conform to card-like shapes and allows them to be readily stored in rectangular wallets of plastics material that are cheap to produce yet of attractive appearance. The data carriers may be alternative shapes, for example for special editions, such alternative shapes being preferably other than conventional CD shaped. For example, the carrier may be rugby ball shaped or may have a configuration making it like a soccer ball.

It is further preferred that, where rectangular carriers are used, they have dimensions similar to those typical of business cards, for example 80mm x 5βmm. In this form, the carrier can store 22MB+ of information, is compact and yet still provides a surface area of adequate size to support attractive and meaningful graphics. Clearly such memory capacity will increase with advances in technology.

Preferably, such graphics include or consist of a photograph of the member to whom the digitally recorded content of the carrier primarily relates. This enhances the collectability of individual carriers and the series of carriers relating to the team or group. O 01/20540

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Preferably further, the digital information contains prompts and cues which can be displayed to a user of the carrier, enabling the carrier to be used interactively.

In a particularly preferred example of the invention, the information recorded on each carrier of a set of carriers relates primarily to respective members of a soccer team.

The carrier may include a writable/rewritable section so that a user can, for example, augment the information already on the carrier, to personalise it and/or keep it up to date.

It is another object of this invention to provide an arrangement for storing the carriers.

According to another aspect of the invention, therefore, there is provided a storage arrangement for carriers in accordance with any of the preceding examples of the invention; the arrangement being shaped and configured in visual sympathy with a characteristic or attribute of the group or team, or of an activity which they perform.

Thus, in the event that the information content of a set of carriers relates to a soccer team, for example, the storage arrangement could conform to the shape of a football. Likewise, if the characteristic of the carriers is that they contain information relating to US (Grid-iron) football, then the storage arrangement could conform to the ovoid shape of the ball used in that sport.

It may be desired for the various carriers to contain individual elements of a code which, when combined in a particular way, perhaps in accordance with instructions and/or further coding available separately or on the storage arrangement, permits access to information previously unaccessible on one or more of the carriers, or upon a separate carrier forming a final element of the series. The further coding may for example be provided on a web site or via a telephone line.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, one embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figures 1 and 2 show a carrier in accordance with one example of the invention, together with an individual pouch or sleeve in which the carrier may be sold or supplied;

Figure 3 shows a readable side of the carrier of Figure 1;

Figure 4 shows a cross-sectional view through the carrier of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 shows on example of a storage arrangement for carriers according to the invention.

Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown a carrier 1 bearing digitally recorded data about a soccer star. The carrier 1 is pre-recorded with the digital data such that the data recorded thereon can be recognised and reproduced by standard CD/CD-ROM playing equipment, and thus can be played back on unmodified equipment, despite its rectangular shape. The information recorded on the carrier comprises both visual information, such as video footage of the soccer star in action and various information panels which can be selectively read by a user, and audio information, such as interviews, commentary, crowd noise and music.

The information recorded on the carrier 1 can also include a web link to the web site of the producer and/or distributor of the carriers and to merchandising web sites for advertisers sponsoring or featured on the carriers.

It will be appreciated that the principal impact of the information is intended to be visual, and in that respect it is primarily intended that the carrier be played on a CD-ROM drive connected to a computer. Clearly with advances in technology the media available for playing the carriers may change accordingly. CD players linked to TV equipment can be used instead, however, if preferred, although the degree of interactivity available to the user may be restricted, or even unavailable in this mode, depending upon the equipment available and the coding used for the interactive prompts and cues. In this connection, it is envisaged that the coding may permit interactive operation using selected keys of certain remote-control handsets.

The carrier 1 in this example has a storage capacity of 22MB and is of dimensions 80mm x 5βmm. Being equivalent to a CD, it has a non-read side, corresponding to the label side on a conventional CD, which can be printed or otherwise furnished with attractive visual information. In this example, it is envisaged that this non-read surface 2 bears a representation, such as a photograph, of the soccer star, and possibly also the badge, crest or logo of the team for which he plays. If the badge crest or logo is included, this can advantageously be placed in a common location on the carriers for all members of that team, so as to create a pleasing consistency of presentation. Examples of other graphic representations that can be used to provide a visual link between the carriers for players of a given team are a trophy that the team has famously won or a view of the stadium in which the team plays or a real picture or caricature of the team manager, for example.

The 22MB+ of digital information available in the format described above results in variable running times, depending on content and the compression technology used. 100MB carriers are available, but these are a few millimetres larger than the dimensions quoted above. As mentioned above, the carriers will preferably develop for use with the latest technology available, such as to include for example DVD technology.

As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the readable side of the carrier comprises a raised area 30, which generally contains the readable data of the carrier. This raised area can fit into the CD singles tray of a standard CD tray. The corners 31 may be removed or the carrier may be formed not to have such corners so that the top and bottom carrier edges of the carrier 35, 36 have a rounded shape. The corners 31 may indeed match the radial extent of the raised data carrying area 30 so that the top and bottom carrier edges are at or adjacent the data carrying area 30.

If the carrier is moulded, the edges of the data carrying area 30 can be encapsulated within the plastics material of the carrier substrate. Where the carriers are formed by cutting, the data carrying area 30 is more vunerable to degradation at the side edges of the carrier and also at the top and bottom, where this is close to the outer periphery of the data carrying area.

A raised ring 32 is provided towards the centre of the carrier and provides for comfortable seating of the carrier within the standard tray, or over a raisd spindle as found in a laptop or notepad computer, for example.

The carriers are intended to be supplied in plastics wallets or other suitable material, such as reference 3 of Figure 2, which can be transparent, translucent or opaque and may be coloured, for example in team colours, if desired, and which may or may not bear printing or other visual information.

If not otherwise clear, the wallet 3 may be left clear in a position corresponding to that occupied on the face 2 of the carrier 1 by the characteristic team symbol (badge, logo, trophy etc.) so that the link between carriers relating to different team members can be readily seen. Alternatively, or in addition, the wallet 3 may be left clear in the region overlying the part of the carrier surface 2 occupied by the face of the featured team member.

In the event that certain personalities featured on the carriers are members of more than one team, for example, in the case of footballers, a club side and an international side, suitable links may be provided to overlapping and complementary data relevant to the two team sets.

The objective of a collector will be to collect all of the carriers relating to one or more teams and then to store them in a storage arrangement that preferably has some visual synergy with the sport (or other celebrated activity) in question. In this example, and referring to Figure 5, there is provided a football-shaped holder 4. The holder 4 consists of a major portion 5 that is formed with a flat base 6, or an alternative stable platform, and a removable lid 7 which can be topped if desired with a feature 8 forming a handle that allows the lid to be readily picked up. The feature 8 may for example comprise a smaller football-shaped item, a footballer statue or any other suitable device.

The major portion 5 constitutes the principal storage element, and contains a number of individual slots 9 into which the individual carriers such as 1, preferably in their wallets such as 3, can be inserted so as to be firmly and securely, but of course removably, retained; all of the carriers being intended to stand vertically. The carriers for individual team members may have assigned places in the storage arrangement, in which case a suitable pre-printed layout guide may be supplied for attachment to the underside of the lid to form an index. If the positions are not pre-assigned, a blank layout guide may be provided for the user to f ll in and attach to the lid.

It may be preferred that the slots conform to a particular playing formation adopted by the team, such as 1-4-2-4 or 1-4- 3-3. Slots for team members assigned as substitutes might be provided all together or distributed around the arrangement. Depending on the designer's choice.

It will be understood that an individual carrier is withdrawn from its slot in the arrangement 4, and then from its wallet 3, and inserted into the CD-ROM drive of a computer when it is desired to study some or all of the information recorded thereon. In this respect, it is not necessary for the computer to be particularly powerful, and the computing element associated with certain machines primarily intended for the playing of games will in most cases be adequate.

If the team concerned plays a sport other than soccer, then clearly a differently shaped storage arrangement might be more appropriate. In this connection, it is envisaged that an ovoid container might be used for the sports of rugby and American football. A diamond shaped container might be used for baseball, for example, and a rectangular shaped container, representing the wicket strip, bat or ball for cricket.

In the event that it is not desired to use a three-dimensional storage arrangement, a two-dimensional arrangement can be used, but the foregoing criteria regarding synergistic shaping of the display arrangement to a characteristic of the sport or activity concerned and conformance to typical team layouts are preferably still met.

If two-dimensional storage arrangements are used, it is preferred that they take advantage of modern technology used, for example, in the advertising industry, to enhance or simulate perspective, thereby giving a pseudo third dimension to the display

The invention is not of course limited in its application to sports personalities in general or to soccer players in particular. Other areas of application comprise entertainment/show business, for example the members of musical groups and/or a particular musical genre, such as rock legends and the like. Another area of application in show business is in relation to the cast members, directors, producers, etc. of shows, such as Chicago, soap operas such as Eastenders (Trade Mark) or films such as Star Wars (Trade Mark) . Indeed, the members of the group or team on the cards need not be human, and can for example be futuristic or mythical characters, perhaps aliens.

The card may be formed into the desired shape using conventional moulding techniques, such as used with conventional CDs, but may also be formed by cutting the edges from a conventional round CD shape.

Whilst a rectangular card shape is described above, in certain embodiments the carrier may be shaped to meet a particular theme. For example, heart shapes, triangular shapes, square shapes, star shapes and hexangonal shapes have been found to exhibit suitable characteristics. The carrier may be moulded or cut into such shapes.

In further preferred embodiments, the carrier is formed without a raised portion or a raised ring on the readable side and is in contrast generally flat. In this connection for certain applications, e.g. those not requiring a tray mechanism, it has been found that a flat readable surface exhibits enhanced performance.

The carriers may moreover be writable/rewritable, so that a user can, for example, augment the information already on the carrier, to personalise it and/or keep it up to date. For example, where the carrier contains details of a soccer player, it may have a statistics section allowing a user to record on the carrier the statistics of that player for the season as it develops.

Additionally or alternatively a writable section of the carrier may be used to personlise the carrier, for example if it is to be offered as a gift. Hence, the user could personlise the carrier with a birthday greeting.

The carriers may contain individual elements of a code which, when combined in a particular way, perhaps in accordance with instructions and/or further coding available separately or on the storage arrangement, permits access to information previously unaccessible on one or more of the carriers, or upon a separate carrier forming a final element of the series. The further coding may for example be provided on a web site or via a telephone line.

These individual elements, such as a unique or significant number on each carrier may be stored within the encoded data on the carrier, or may be incorporated within a hologram or other indicia affixed to the carrier or its sleeve. The user may collect several carriers, each with a number that when entered together into for example a form on the Internet afford that user access/entry to further information or another prize/priviledge, unique to that combination of numbers .

Claims

CLAIMS : -

1. A data carrier bearing digitally recorded data relating primarily to one member of a group or team; the carrier being one of a set which in total bear information about various members of said group or team.

2. A data carrier, according to claim 1, of substantially rectangular shape but capable of being played by equipment capable of playing conventional compact discs ("CDs"), CD-ROMs and DVDs .

3. A data carrier according to claim 2 of dimensions similar to those typical of business cards, for example 80mm x 56mm.

4. A data carrier according to any preceding claim bearing, on a surface thereof, graphics including or consisting of a photograph of the member to whom the digitally recorded content of the carrier primarily relates.

5. A data carrier according to any preceding claim wherein the digital information contains prompts and cues which can be displayed to a user of the carrier, enabling the carrier to be used interactively.

6. A data carrier according to any preceding claim wherein the carrier includes a writable/rewritable section.

7. A data carrier according to any preceding claim wherein the carrier has a raised seating area on its readable side.

8. A data carrier according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the carrier has a flat readable side.

9. Data carriers according to any preceding claim provided in a set, wherein the information recorded on each carrier of the set relates primarily to a respective different member of a sports team.

10. A storage arrangement for a plurality of carriers in accordance with any preceding claim; the arrangement being shaped and configured in visual sympathy with a characteristic or attribute of the group or team, or of an activity which they perform.

11. An arrangement according to claim 9 intended to store a set of carriers relating to a soccer team; the arrangement conforming to the shape of a football.

12. An arrangement according to claim 11 wherein said football shape is three dimensional and includes a removable or openable lid to permit data carriers to be inserted into and withdrawn from the arrangement.

13. An arrangement according to claim 12 incorporating an array of slots/holders into which individual data carriers can be inserted for storage.

14. An arrangement according to claim 13 wherein said array includes slots in a layout conforming to a standard team lineup.

15. An arrangement according to claim 10 or claim 11 comprising a two-dimensional display for said carriers.

16. An arrangement according to claim 15 wherein a pseudo- three dimensional treatment is applied to said display.

17. A plurality of carriers according to any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the information recorded thereon contains individual elements of a code which, when combined in a particular way, in accordance with instructions and/or further coding available separately or on a storage arrangement according to any of claims 9 to 15, permits access to information previously unaccessible on one or more of the carriers, or upon a separate carrier forming a final element of the series.

18. A data carrier substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

19. A storage arrangement substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings.