Paint color matching and coordinating system
First Claim
1. A method of generating a display of complementary architectural paint color samples, comprising:
- receiving an input reference color having a reference hue;
selecting a first narrow range of hues from a plurality of known non-overlapping narrow ranges of hue that collectively span substantially all hue in a known color space, the first range of hues encompassing a first hue that is complementary to said reference hue;
displaying one or more separate and individually selectable color samples of architectural paint colors having hues within said first narrow range of hues on an output display comprising one of a display monitor and a hard-copy printout; and
monitoring for a selection of one or more of the color samples on the output display.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A paint color matching and coordinating system comprises an interface for receiving an input reference color, a processor capable of reading a memory, a memory including (1) instructions readable by the processor and (2) a database of architectural paint colors spanning all or most of the known color space, and a display generator. In use, the interface of the system receives an input reference color from a user. The processor selects a “reference paint color” from the database, the reference paint color being visually closer, with respect to color space, to the input reference color than any other paint color in the database. According to the invention, color space is divided into a plurality of fixed, generally equally sized, non-overlapping, contiguous portions, each color space portion being defined as the space of all colors within a band of hues within color space. The processor selects five sets of paint colors—one set from each of the color space portions that include the five hues that comprise the “five-way harmony” of the reference paint color. The processor may also select a sixth set of paint colors from the color space portion that includes the hue of the reference paint color. Finally, the processor directs the display generator to create a display of color samples of the reference paint color and of the first through sixth sets of paint colors.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method of generating a display of complementary architectural paint color samples, comprising:
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receiving an input reference color having a reference hue; selecting a first narrow range of hues from a plurality of known non-overlapping narrow ranges of hue that collectively span substantially all hue in a known color space, the first range of hues encompassing a first hue that is complementary to said reference hue; displaying one or more separate and individually selectable color samples of architectural paint colors having hues within said first narrow range of hues on an output display comprising one of a display monitor and a hard-copy printout; and monitoring for a selection of one or more of the color samples on the output display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An inventory selection system, comprising:
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color information identifying a palette of harmonious paint colors compatible with a customer'"'"'s needs and stored in a processor-accessible storage medium, wherein said harmonious color palette includes at least two colors and the colors have hues that are separated from one another approximately by a predetermined angle in a color space; a database of merchandise items, said database containing color information of said merchandise items; and a processor in communication with said storage medium to read said color information of said harmonious paint colors and with said database to read said color information of said merchandise items; wherein said processor is configured to select merchandise items from said database whose color information is within a predetermined tolerance of the color information of any of said harmonious paint colors. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An inventory selection system, comprising:
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an architectural paint color selection system configured to generate an output display of harmonious paint colors and to communicate color information of said paint colors to a processor, wherein said output display of harmonious paint colors includes at least two colors and the colors have hues that are separated from one another by a predetermined angle in a color space; a database of merchandise items, said database containing color information of said merchandise items; and a processor in communication with said paint color selection system to read said color information of said harmonious paint colors and with said database to read said color information of said merchandise items; wherein said processor is configured to select merchandise items from said database whose color information is within a predetermined tolerance of the color information of any of said harmonious paint colors. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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42. An inventory selection system, comprising:
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a storage of color information including four different palettes of harmonious paint colors, a selected one of said palettes being compatible with a customer'"'"'s needs, the colors of each said palette being substantially completely different than the colors of each of the other of said palettes; a database of merchandise items, the database containing color information of the merchandise items; and a processor in communication with the storage to read the color information of the harmonious paint colors of the selected palette and with the database to read the color information of the merchandise items; wherein the processor is configured to select merchandise items from the database whose color information is within a predetermined tolerance of the color information of the harmonious paint colors of the selected palette.
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Specification