System for applying a design on at least one nail surface

{
  "publication_number": "US9889692B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "System for applying a design on at least one nail surface",
  "abstract": "A system including apparatus for applying a design to a nail surface, including an optical device scanning the anatomy of the nail surface and acquiring an image of said nail surface; - a print head; - a motor displacing the print head; - a control unit including connection to communicate with the optical device, and a computer application including instructions for controlling the motor to direct the print head. At least one remote server includes a database recording digital data corresponding to designs. The control unit communicates with the remote server and downloads digital data corresponding to the design to be applied on the nail surface. The control unit's computer application includes instructions to - analyze the anatomy of the nail surface scanned by the optical device; - and scale the design to be applied to adjust it to the nail surface scanned.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a touchscreen tablet cause the touchscreen tablet to carry out a method that controls a printer to print images on fingernail surfaces of people, the method comprising: displaying, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the people; receiving, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, selected designs to print on fingernail surfaces of a person; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, a camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person before the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person and while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside an opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the printer to print the selected designs on the fingernail surfaces of the person while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside the opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person after the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person; and transmitting, by the touchscreen tablet and to a server, the image of the fingernail surfaces of the person after the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person so the server can store, in a memory zone associated with the person, the image of the fingernail surfaces of the person after the selected designs are printed.",
    "2. The computer program of claim 1 in which the method further comprises: analyzing, by the touchscreen tablet, the image of the fingernail surfaces of the person before the selected designs are printed; and scaling, by the touchscreen tablet and based on the analyzing, the selected designs to fit the fingernail surfaces of the person.",
    "3. The computer program of claim 1 in which the method further comprises: transmitting, to a server and by the touchscreen tablet after the selected designs are printed on the fingernail surfaces of the person, a number of the selected designs printed on the fingernail surfaces of the person so the server can account for and generate an invoice based on the number of designs printed by the printer.",
    "4. The computer program of claim 1 in which the method further comprises: storing, in a memory zone of a server, the selected designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the person; accessing, by the touchscreen tablet, the memory zone of the server via a network connection between the touchscreen tablet and the server; and downloading, to the touchscreen tablet and from the server, the selected designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the person.",
    "5. A computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a touchscreen tablet cause the touchscreen tablet to carry out a method that controls a printer to print images on fingernail surfaces of people, the method comprising: displaying, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the people; receiving, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, selected designs to print on fingernail surfaces of a person; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, a camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person before the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person and while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside an opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the printer to print the selected designs on the fingernail surfaces of the person while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside the opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person after the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person; downloading, to the touchscreen tablet and from a server, the designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the people; and transmitting, from the touchscreen tablet and to the server, a unique identifier of the touchscreen tablet so the server can account for a number of the designs downloaded by the touchscreen tablet and printed by the printer.",
    "6. A computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a touchscreen tablet cause the touchscreen tablet to carry out a method that controls a printer to print images on fingernail surfaces of people, the method comprising: displaying, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, designs for printing on the fingernail surfaces of the people; receiving, on a display of the touchscreen tablet, selected designs to print on fingernail surfaces of a person; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, a camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person before the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person and while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside an opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the printer to print the selected designs on the fingernail surfaces of the person while the fingernail surfaces of the person are positioned inside the opening in the printer; controlling, by the touchscreen tablet, the camera in the printer to acquire an image of the fingernail surfaces of the person after the selected designs are printed to the fingernail surfaces of the person; generating, by a server, an electronic invoice based on a number of the selected designs printed on the fingernail surfaces of the person during a time interval; and transmitting, by the server, the electronic invoice to the touchscreen tablet."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The invention relates to a system and a printing method for applying a design on at least one nail surface.\n\nThe invention relates to the technical field of manicure, and more particularly manicure apparatuses, of the printer type, making it possible to apply complex, customized, detailed, multicolored designs on nails.\n\nPatent documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,996 (WEBER), US 2013/019799 (BITHO) and EP 1.204.340 (PEARL TECHNOLOGY) describe apparatuses making it possible to apply a design on at least one nail surface.\n\nThis type of apparatus comprises a guide making it possible to position at least one nail surface on a print head generally mounted on a rail and able to be displaced. An optical device of the camera type makes it possible to acquire an image of the nail surface. When the user has selected a design, a control unit controls the displacement of the print head according to the image of the nail surface acquired and according to said design, in such a way that said head applies said design on the nail surface.\n\nThis type of apparatus is in general satisfactory, in particular because it makes it possible to apply on the surface of the nail, a design in a very precise manner. The user can therefore adorn her nails with original, multishape and multicolored designs, which it is not possible to consider obtaining manually. However, the number of designs made available to the user is generally restricted, as they are part of a database (or “library”) of which the content is limited and controlled.",
  "cpc": [
    "B41J 29/393",
    "A45D 2029/005",
    "A45D 29/00",
    "B41J 11/008",
    "B41J 11/0095",
    "B41J 29/38",
    "B41J 3/407",
    "B41J 3/46",
    "G06F 3/1285",
    "G06K 15/021",
    "H04N 1/00265"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B41J 29/393",
    "B41J 3/407",
    "B41J 11/00",
    "B41J 3/46",
    "G06K 15/02"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "NAILAE TECHNOLOGY Ltd"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Alexandre LEGALLAIS"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2016-09-28",
  "publication_date": "2018-02-13",
  "grant_date": "2018-02-13",
  "priority_date": "2013-08-07",
  "application_number": "US-201615278866-A",
  "family_id": "49780041",
  "cited_by_count": 12,
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}