FR3053000A1 - CUSTOMIZABLE DEVICE USING A LASER TO PRODUCE A COLOR IMAGE - Google Patents

Abstract

Device (1), of the type adapted to be personalized by means of a laser (2) for producing a color image, comprising a color layer (4) comprising linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) each comprising a single color, wherein at least one linear element (7Y) is intersecting with the other linear elements (7C, 7M).

Description

The present invention relates to a device customizable by means of a laser for producing a color image.

Such a device is described, for example, in the document FR 2958777.

For the record, such a device, adapted to be personalized by means of a laser to produce a color image, comprises a color layer (or printing layer) deposited on a substrate. This color layer comprises an array of elements, each element being of a single color, the elements being distributed in a succession of subgroups of identical elements, the color layer being superimposed with at least one selectively concealable, sensitive transparent layer. laser. Said laser-sensitive layer is typically a transparent plastic layer loaded with a laser-reactive material, the laser providing at least partial occlusion of the color layer by carbonization. Said occulting layer may be disposed below or / and below the color layer. Alternatively, the color of the elements is laserolabile (destroyed by the laser) or thermolabile (destroyed by heat) and the occultable layer merges with the color layer, the occultation being carried out, not by masking, but by direct destruction of the colors . The color image to be obtained is decomposed into pixels each having a hue. The hue of a pixel is reproduced from a subgroup of elements to which selective occultations / destructions are applied so as to obtain, by composition of the remaining colors, a hue as close as possible to the hue of the pixel. .

A method of (re) producing a color image performs, by means of a laser beam, a proportional intensity concealment, usually staged over 256 levels of different intensities, and spatially selective, to the right of the parts of said elements of which we want to hide the color, in order to express the remaining unmasked colors.

A color image thus produced by personalization is advantageously used for a security document, such as an identity document or a travel document, for example to make a photo ID of the bearer of said security document.

In the usual way, the elements comprising the colors are continuous lines parallel to each other.

This has the effect of creating a detrimental visual effect in that said lines remain very apparent in the final color image. These lines are more or less visible depending on the observation distance of the device.

The present invention overcomes this disadvantage. The subject of the invention is a device of the type capable of being personalized by means of a laser to produce a color image, comprising a color layer comprising linear elements each comprising a single color, where at least one linear element is intersecting with other linear elements.

According to another characteristic, the color layer comprises a color printing carried out on a transparent layer.

According to another feature, the device further comprises at least one laser-sensitive layer disposed above and / or below the color layer.

According to another characteristic, two linear elements of different colors are intersecting.

According to another characteristic, two linear elements of the same color are parallel.

According to another characteristic, all the linear elements are arranged in two intersecting directions.

According to another characteristic, the two directions are perpendicular.

According to another characteristic, for at least one color, all the linear elements of said at least one color are arranged in only one of the two directions.

According to another characteristic, for at least one color, linear elements of said at least one color are arranged in both directions, preferably for all colors.

According to another characteristic, for at least one color, the linear elements of said at least one color are arranged periodically, preferably for all the colors.

According to another characteristic, the colors of the intersecting elements are miscible so as to form at least one new color in the zone of secance.

According to another characteristic, at least one separating linear element, preferably without color, is interposed between two adjacent parallel linear elements, preferably periodically.

According to another characteristic, the color layer forms an array of linear elements distributed in a succession of identical subgroups of elements. The invention also relates to a plastic card comprising such a device. The invention also relates to a security document comprising such a device. The invention further relates to a method of customizing such a device by means of a laser to produce a color image, wherein the method is adapted to the modified arrangement of the linear elements.

According to another characteristic of the method, the color layer forms an array of linear elements distributed in a succession of identical subgroups of elements and the method consists in breaking down the color image into a set of points, for each sub-group. selectively obscuring by lasering the laser-sensitive layer to obtain, by composition of the remaining colors of the subgroup, a hue as close as possible to that of a point of the color image to be obtained. Other features, details and advantages of the invention will emerge more clearly from the detailed description given below as an indication in connection with drawings in which: FIG. 1 shows a device that can be personalized by means of a laser to produce a color image according to the prior art: the elements of the color layer are linear and all parallel to each other; - FIG. 2 shows the device of FIG. 1 in view cut along AA, FIG. 3 presents a device capable of to be personalized by means of a laser to produce a color image according to a first embodiment of the invention, - Figure 4 shows the device of Figure 3 in sectional view along BB, - Figures 5-7 show a device adapted to be personalized by means of a laser to produce a color image according to other embodiments of the invention; FIG. 8 shows a detail of the area of the interspace between linear elements; FIG. 9 presents a security document comprising such a device.

The present invention relates to a device 1 customizable by means of a laser 2 for producing a color image. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate, respectively in front view and in profile view, a possible embodiment of such a device 1. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the device 1 comprises a color layer 4 comprising elements , generically denoted 7, each of a single color. In the figures, the colors are represented by patterns, the same pattern representing the same color and a different pattern representing a different color. The figures are given with three colors, an element 7 being specified by a letter among C, M, Y referencing its color, for example Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (Yellow): 7C, 7M, 7Y. The color layer 4 is stacked with a laser-sensitive layer 5, for example here less than the color layer 4. The color layer 4 can still be stacked with a transparent top protective layer 6. The whole is advantageously arranged above a substrate or support 3.

According to a possible embodiment, the color layer 4 is formed by color printing on the upper surface of the lower layer, white or preferably transparent, or on the lower surface of the upper layer 6, advantageously transparent.

The device 1 may also comprise at least one laser-sensitive layer 5, arranged below the color layer 4, and / or at least one protective layer 6, which may be laser-sensitive or not, arranged above the 4. In this case, the transparent layer 5, 6 receiving the impression forming the color layer 4, merges with the laser-sensitive layer 5 and / or with the protective layer 6. In this case the substrate 3 is transparent.

It should be noted that the thicknesses of the layers in the figures are not indicative, the thickness of the color layer 4 being markedly exaggerated to improve comprehension.

The elements 7C, 7M, 7Y may be of any shape. They are generally distributed and arranged in the plane of the color layer 4 in such a way as to spatially distribute the different colors C, M, Y so that, in the immediate vicinity of any point of the color layer 4, a plurality of colors are present. colours.

A dot (or pixel) of a color image to (re) produce on said device 1, defines a hue. This hue is colorimetrically decomposed on the colors of the elements present in the color layer 4 in the vicinity of a point of the device 1 homologous to the point of the image. Thus, for each color is determined a colorimetric component. The additive composition of the colors each assigned their colorimetric component substantially reproducing the color of the point. At this homologous point, each color is then obscured, by laser firing 2, at the right of said point, in the laser sensitive layer 5, according to an intensity function of said colorimetric component.

According to an illustrated embodiment, the blackout layer 5 is a transparent plastic layer loaded with a laser sensitive material. The laser 2 performs an occultation by carbonization 9 more or less opaque. The higher the intensity of the laser firing 2, the greater the carbonization 9 is important, and the color opposite is obscured, and therefore less this color is expressed. By performing inverse proportional occultations of the colorimetric components on the different colors present in the vicinity of the point of the device 1, this homologous point substantially reproduces the hue of the point of the image. The repetition of this operation for all the points thus reproduces the image in color.

The elements 7C, 7M, 7Y may be of any shape. However, in order to simplify the production of the color layer, typically carried out by offset printing, while ensuring a regular distribution of colors, a conventionally used arrangement consists in producing linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y, periodically reproduced, as illustrated. in Figure 1.

However, such an arrangement is detrimental in that the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y show lines that persist in the final color image and cause a visual hashing of the color image. The invention aims to reduce or eliminate this damaging effect.

For this, according to the invention, an embodiment of which is illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4, at least one linear element 7Y is arranged secant to the other linear elements 7C, 7M. It goes without saying that the line effect is all the more attenuated as the number of secant linear elements 7 increases.

With respect to a prior art arrangement, as illustrated in FIG. 1, said at least one secant linear element 7Y may be "added", or may be "moved", in that an element 7Y 'is deleted for each securing element 7Y.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, a color layer 4 is typically made by printing the elements 7C, 7M, 7Y on a surface of one of the layers 5, 6. As shown in FIG. 2, the elements 7C, 7M, 7Y can be printed on the upper face of the blackout layer 5. Alternatively, the elements 7C, 7M, 7Y can be printed on the underside of the layer 6. This is exploited, as illustrated in Figure 4, according to the invention: the secant linear element 7Y is printed on the underside of the protective layer 6, while the other linear elements 7C, 7M are printed on the upper face of the blackout layer 5. Other embodiments are still possible. It is possible to print in several superimposed passes the linear elements 7 of different directions. It is still possible to insert other transparent layers to separate different planes comprising linear elements 7 printed. A certain difference in depth, of the order of ΙΟΟμιη, is quite acceptable between the different linear elements 7.

The distribution of linear elements 7 in different planes or layers is advantageous in that it makes more complex counterfeiting. This is particularly advantageous for a device 1 conventionally used to produce a safety device.

Numerous embodiments, varying the orientations, their number, and the colors of the linear elements 7, are possible.

According to a first embodiment, two linear elements 7 of different colors can not be parallel and are necessarily intersecting. This leads to a layout requiring at least as many different non-parallel directions as colors. An example of such an arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 5. For three colors C, M, Y, the linear elements 7 are arranged in at least three directions. Assuming, as here, that all the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y of the same color are arranged parallel to each other, exactly three directions are necessary. The directions, here in number of three are arbitrary. An angular equilibrium distribution modulo 60 °, as illustrated, allows to maintain a regular disposition, while effectively suppressing the detrimental line effect.

During the implementation of the personalization process, it is necessary, in order to produce the color image, to carry out a metrological registration or registration registration operation for each direction used by at least one element 7. Also, in order to simplify customization, it is advantageous to reduce the number of these directions. According to one characteristic, further illustrated in FIG. 5, two linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y of the same color are arranged in parallel. This reduces the number of directions to the number of colors, here three.

According to another embodiment, in order to further reduce the number of different directions, all the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y are arranged in two intersecting directions D1, D2. Figures 6.7 give two illustrations of this embodiment, among a multitude of possibilities. The angle between the two directions D1, D2 can be arbitrary. According to an advantageous possibility, the two directions D1, D2 are perpendicular. This is further illustrated in FIGS.

On these bases, many configurations are possible. With reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, two characteristics of particular configurations are described.

According to a first characteristic, for at least one color, for example the color Y in FIG. 6, all the linear elements 7Y of said at least one color are arranged in only one of the two directions, ie in the direction D2 only, at the Here, this characteristic is further verified by the color C, for which all the elements 7C are arranged only in the direction DI. Similarly for the color M, for which all the elements 7M are arranged only in the direction DI.

Alternatively, according to an opposite characteristic, for at least one color, for example the color Y in FIG. 7, linear elements 7Yh of said at least one color are arranged in the first direction DI and linear elements 7Yv of this same color are arranged in the second direction D2. In order to regularly distribute the colors on the surface of the color layer 4, this characteristic is advantageously applied to all the colors C, M, Y.

Without this feature being mandatory, for at least one color, the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y of said at least one color are arranged periodically, preferably for all the colors. This is the case for all the embodiments illustrated in the figures. Such a feature is advantageous in that it simplifies the firing card used by the laser 2 during customization. Advantageously, the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y are distributed in a succession of identical subgroups of elements to form a network.

A known constraint of a device 1 capable of being personalized by means of a laser 2 and of an associated personalization method is that the very principle of customization, by carbonization 9 can produce a high black optical density, darkening 1 color image produced. Also a device 1 advantageously comprises white, or at least a light color, at least initially, this white can be hidden if necessary.

One embodiment for obtaining this white is to insert at least one separating element 8, for example linear, between two parallel linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y adjacent. Such a separating element 8 may be inserted between two lines, or more generally all the n lines, with advantageously n equal to the number of colors. This insertion is advantageously periodic. According to an advantageous embodiment, the separating element 8 is colorless, and corresponds to a lack of printing. Thus, it reveals the color, preferably white, of the underlying support 3.

According to the invention, it is necessary to maintain a minimal area of white. This white can take the form of linear elements 8 according to one and / or the other arbitrary direction D1, D2. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 7, whites 8h in the direction DI can be interposed between elements 7Ch, 7Mh, 7Yh and / or whites 8v in the direction D2 can be interposed between elements 7Cv, 7Mv, 7Yv.

This characteristic implies a suitable spacing of the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y. Thus, in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the low density linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y have a relatively small spacing: 7 vertical lines along the width. In contrast, in the embodiment of Figure 7, where the linear elements 7Cv, 7Mv, 7Yv are denser, a relatively higher spacing is retained: 3 vertical lines across the width.

Referring to Figure 8 is now described an advantage of the invention. FIG. 8 shows a detail view of the zone of intersection (or intersection) between two linear elements 7C, 7Y.

According to a first embodiment, the colors of the secant elements are not able to mix. As a result, in a zone of secance, only the color above remains visible.

According to another embodiment, insofar as the inks used for the colors are mixed, it appears at the crossing between two elements 7C, 7Y of respective colors C, Y an XX-colored zone 7X, resulting from the mixing colors C and Y. The color X is different from the color C, different from the color Y and in the general case, different from the color M. This area of 7X color X interspection can advantageously be used in the composition of the shades of the color image produced by selective and proportional occultation. This results in several advantages. A first advantage is that the initial color palette C, M, Y is enriched with as many new X colors as there are zones of secance between the initial colors C, M, Y, thus increasing the possibilities of production of hues for the color image. Another advantage is that these new X-colors advantageously complicate the colorimetric projection and image composition algorithm used to calculate the shots of the laser 2. Thus, the color image produced is even more difficult to produce and therefore reproduce or reproduce. The device 1 according to the invention is particularly suitable for producing a plastic card or a security device. Such a device 1 thus advantageously secures an image, such as a photo ID, affixed to a plastic card or a security document 10. The invention also relates to a plastic card, such as an identity card, a bank card or other equivalent, comprising such a blank device 1 or such a device 1 in which is personalized a color image by means of a laser 2. The invention also relates to a security document 10, such as an identity card, a passport, a driver's license, a social insurance card, a bank card or other equivalent, as illustrated in FIG. 9, comprising such a blank device 1 or such a device 1 in which a color image is personalized by means of a laser 2. The security document 10 may, if necessary, be supplemented by other elements 11, textual, graphic or other.

The personalization method of such a device 1 according to the invention must be adapted according to the modified arrangement of the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y. Thus obviously, the map of the shots of the laser 2, must be adapted, on the one hand spatially to take into account the elements 7 which have changed position and on the other hand colorimetrically to take into account the possible new X colors created by the zones of secance. The invention also relates to such a method.

When the linear elements 7C, 7M, 7Y form a network and are divided into a succession of identical subgroups of elements and the method consists of breaking down the color image into a set of points, performing for each subgroup a darkening selective by lasering the laser-sensitive layer 5 to obtain, by composition of the remaining colors of the subgroup, a hue as close as possible to that of a point of the color image to be obtained, the latter operation being repeated and the adapted shot for each subgroup.

Claims (16)

1. Device (1), of the type adapted to be personalized by means of a laser (2) for producing a color image, comprising a color layer (4) comprising linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) each comprising a single color, characterized in that at least one linear element (7Y) intersects the other linear elements (7C, 7M). 2. Device (1) according to claim 1, wherein the color layer (4) comprises a color printing performed on a transparent layer (5). 3. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 or 2, further comprising at least one laser-sensitive layer (5) disposed above and / or below the color layer (4). 4. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein two linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) of different colors are intersecting. 5. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein two linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) of the same color are parallel. 6. Device (1) according to claim 1, wherein all the linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) are arranged in two directions (D1, D2) intersecting. 7. Device (1) according to claim 6, wherein the two directions (D1, D2) are perpendicular. 8. Device (1) according to any one of claims 6 or 7, wherein for at least one color, all the linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) of said at least one color are arranged in only one of the two directions (D1, D2). 9. Device (1) according to any one of claims 6 or 7, wherein, for at least one color, linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) of said at least one color are arranged in both directions (D1, D2), preferably for all colors. 10. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein for at least one color, the linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) of said at least one color are arranged periodically, preferably for all. colors. 11. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein at least one linear element separator (8), preferably without color, is interposed between two linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) adjacent parallel, preferably periodically . 12. Device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the colors of the intersecting elements (7Y, 7C) are miscible so as to form at least one new color (X) in the zone of precance (7X) . 13. Device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the color layer (4) forms an array of linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) distributed in a succession of identical subgroups of elements. 14. Security document (10) characterized in that it comprises a device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 13. 15. A method of personalizing a device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 13 by means of a laser (2) for producing a color image characterized in that the method is adapted to the modified arrangement of the elements. linear (7C, 7M, 7Y). 16. Personalization method according to claim 15, characterized in that: the color layer (4) forms an array of linear elements (7C, 7M, 7Y) distributed in a succession of identical subgroups of elements and the method consists of - Decomposing the color image into a set of points, - performing for each subgroup a selective obfuscation by lasering the laser sensitive layer (5) to obtain, by composition of the remaining colors of the subgroup, a tint the as close as possible to that of a point in the color image to be obtained.