The present invention generally relates to pillows having acoustically transparent characteristics, for use with furniture systems, e.g., furniture seating systems including built-in speakers.
Speaker systems are widely used for home, business, social activities, entertainment and for practical, commercial, and household uses. Unfortunately, speaker systems take up a great deal of space in a home, office, or business environment, and even if small, they are often unsightly. Moreover, wiring and cabling associated with such systems is also unsightly and cumbersome.
Furniture also tends to take up a great deal of space in a home, office or business environment. When sitting on furniture, it is often desirable to listen to music, watch TV, or watch a movie in a home theater environment, or employ one or more electronic components. Recently, Applicant has developed improved furniture systems that include speakers embedded into furniture seating systems (e.g., chairs, sofas, etc.). With such innovation, there is a need for associated accessories that would improve the listening and seating experience.
An embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to an acoustically transparent pillow, e.g., for use with a furniture system, e.g., that provides seating to one or more users, where the furniture system includes one or more speakers embedded (e.g., hidden) in the components of the furniture system. For example, in an embodiment, the furniture system may include a speaker (e.g., a front channel speaker) within an armrest of the furniture system. The provided acoustically transparent pillow may be a decorative or comfortable pillow for use with the furniture system, e.g., positionable over where sound is emitted from the embedded speaker, in a way that minimizes any negative muffling or dampening of the audible frequency sound waves emitted from the speaker, even when the pillow is positioned over such speaker.
Such an acoustically transparent pillow may include a fabric envelope, wherein at least a portion of the fabric envelope is acoustically transparent, and a fill material contained within the fabric envelope, wherein at least a portion of the fill material is acoustically transparent. While at least a portion of the fabric envelope may be formed from an acoustically transparent fabric material, it will be appreciated that in another embodiment, the fabric material may be the same or similar upholstery fabrics such as those used to upholster the furniture system, that are not acoustically transparent. Examples of such are described in one or more of Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,212,519; 10,979,241; 11,172,301; 10,972,838; 11,178,846; and pending application Ser. No. 17/348,088, each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. For example, any attenuation through a non-acoustically transparent fabric cover (and/or the fabric fill) could be accommodated for in a similar manner as described in the above referenced patents and applications.
In an embodiment, when the fabric envelope is filled with the fill material, the fabric envelope includes two major general planar faces connected to one another (e.g., either directly or indirectly) around a periphery of the pillow, wherein the acoustically transparent portions of the fabric envelope and fill material are aligned with one another, to provide an acoustically transparent pathway through the pillow, from where sound is emitted from the furniture system (e.g., in the inside face of the armrest), through the first major planar face of the pillow, through the fill material of the pillow, and out the second major planar face of the pillow.
Another embodiment is directed to an acoustically transparent pillow for use in a furniture seating system that includes a speaker embedded (e.g., in an armrest) of the furniture system (e.g., a furniture seating system), the pillow comprising a fabric envelope, where at least a portion of the fabric envelope can be acoustically transparent, and a fill material contained within the fabric envelope, wherein at least a portion of the fill material is acoustically transparent. The pillow is such that when the fabric envelope is filled with the fill material, the fabric envelope includes two major general planar faces connected to one another around a periphery of the pillow, wherein the acoustically transparent portion of the envelope and the fill material are aligned with one another, to provide an acoustically transparent pathway through the pillow, from the speaker (e.g., embedded in the armrest) of the furniture system, through the first major face of the envelope, and out the second major face of the envelope of the pillow, allowing sound from the embedded speaker to pass through the pillow in an acoustically transparent manner.
In an embodiment, the fill material may include an acoustically transparent reticulated foam.
In an embodiment, the fill material (e.g., reticulated foam) may have a porosity value of 100 pores per inch (ppi) or less, 80 ppi or less, 50 ppi or less, 30 ppi or less, 20 ppi or less, or 10 ppi or less (e.g., from 10 ppi to 90 ppi, or from 30 ppi to 70 ppi, from 40 ppi to 60 ppi, or from 10 ppi to 50 ppi).
In an embodiment, the fill material is foam that is provided as a plurality of pieces of foam (e.g., small pieces of reticulated low density foam), rather than as relatively large monolithic pieces. For example, such individual pieces may account for no more than 1%, or no more than 0.1% by volume of the cavity filled by the fill material.
In an embodiment, the foam fill material may be shredded or cut (e.g., shredded or cut reticulated foam).
In an embodiment, the acoustically transparent portion of the fill material is aligned with a central portion of the pillow.
In an embodiment, the acoustically transparent portion of the fabric envelope is provided on the major faces of the pillow.
In an embodiment, the pillow can further include a non-acoustically transparent fill material, and a fabric, foam, fiber, or other separator secured to an interior of the fabric envelope for defining a central compartment in which the acoustically transparent fill material is housed, and one or more peripheral compartments, in which the non-acoustically transparent fill material is housed.
It will be apparent that in an embodiment, the pillow does not include any rigid skeleton or other rigid components, but is soft and conformable throughout.
Additional features and advantages of exemplary implementations of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of such exemplary implementations. The features and advantages of such implementations may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims or may be learned by the practice of such exemplary implementations as set forth hereinafter.
To further clarify the above and other advantages and features of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only illustrated embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, some features of an actual embodiment may be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, as in any engineering or design project, numerous embodiment-specific decisions will be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one embodiment to another. It should further be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may generally relate to an acoustically transparent pillow, e.g., for use with a furniture system that provides seating to one or more users, where the furniture system includes one or more speakers embedded (e.g., hidden) in the components of the furniture system. For example, in an embodiment, the furniture system may include a speaker (e.g., a front channel speaker) within an armrest of the furniture system. The provided acoustically transparent pillow may be a decorative or comfortable pillow for use with the furniture system, e.g., positionable over where sound is emitted from the embedded speaker, in a way that minimizes any negative muffling or dampening of the audible frequency sound waves emitted from the speaker, even when the pillow is positioned over such speaker. For example, by “acoustically transparent”, the sound waves at any given audible frequency or band of such frequencies may be dampened by no more than 10 dB, no more than 6 dB, no more than 3 dB, no more than 2 dB, or no more than 1 dB.
Such an acoustically transparent pillow may include a fabric envelope, wherein at least a portion of the fabric envelope is acoustically transparent, and a fill material is contained within the fabric envelope, wherein at least a portion of the fill material is acoustically transparent. While at least a portion of the fabric envelope may be formed from an acoustically transparent fabric material, it will be appreciated that in another embodiment, the fabric material may be the same or similar upholstery fabrics such as those used to upholster the furniture system, that are not acoustically transparent and any attenuation through such a non-acoustically transparent fabric cover (and/or the fabric fill) could be accommodated for in a similar manner as described in Applicant's patents and applications describing “tuning through upholstery fabric”, already incorporated herein by reference.
While the present disclosure will describe particular implementations of apparatus, systems, and methods for enhancing a user's experience with seating furniture systems, it should be understood that the apparatus, systems, and methods described herein may be applicable to other uses as well. Additionally, elements described in relation to any embodiments depicted and/or described herein may be combinable with elements described in relation to any other embodiment depicted and/or described herein.
Generally, now referring to the drawings in detail wherein like reference numerals are used to designate like elements, structures, or components, there is shown one or more embodiments of the present disclosure that provides apparatus, systems, and methods providing a pillow with acoustically transparent characteristics for at least a portion of the components of such pillow. The apparatus, systems, and methods permit a user of the furniture system to use such a pillow, even where it may cover a speaker that is embedded in the furniture system, while minimizing any negative effects that placement of such pillow over the speaker may otherwise have.
For example,
As shown in
The present invention provides pillow 26 with improved acoustic transparency, so as to allow the user to position the pillow as shown, e.g., even leaning thereon, while minimizing any negative affects associated with such pillow 26 being positioned over speaker 22.
As shown in
In an embodiment, the entire fabric envelope 28 may be formed from such an acoustically transparent fabric material. In another embodiment (see
The fill material 30 shown in
In an embodiment, the fill material 30 is foam that is provided as a plurality of pieces of foam (e.g., small pieces of reticulated low density, high void fraction foam), rather than as relatively large monolithic pieces. For example, individual pieces of foam within the cavity defined by the fabric envelope and filled by the fill material may account for no more than 0.01%, no more than 0.1%, or no more than 1%, by volume of the cavity filled by the fill material. Stated another way, the pillow may be filled with at least hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of such very small pieces of acoustically transparent foam material. In an embodiment, individual pieces of foam may measure no more than about 2 cm, no more than about 1.5 cm, no more than about 1 cm, or no more than about 0.5 cm on a longest side or dimension. In an embodiment, the foam fill material 30 may be shredded or cut (e.g., shredded or cut reticulated foam).
Many reticulated foams may have a relatively “stiff” feel to them, as compared to other types of foams (e.g., higher density foams). Various steps can be taken to minimize the stiff feel of such a foam material, if needed. For example, providing such a reticulated foam in very small pieces can help with minimizing the stiff feel. Another way to minimize the stiffness may be to fill the cavity within the pillow with a blend of reticulated or other types of foam materials (e.g., one or more of a lower porosity) and one or more with a higher porosity). The percentage of such foams in such a blend may range from 5% to 95%, such as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95% by volume. Ranges for any of such materials may be defined between any such percentages (e.g., 5-95%, or 20-80%, etc.). Where the blend includes both an acoustically transparent foam material, and a foam material that is not acoustically transparent (i.e., it provides a dB attenuation of greater than a threshold value, such as 3 dB at a given sound level, such as 80 dB, in a given audible frequency band, such as 1 kHz to 16 kHz, or any other testing values as described herein), the blend may be such that the acoustically transparent foam material is included in the blend in an amount of at least 50%, at least 55%, at least 60%, at least 65%, or at least 75% by volume of the blend, or cavity being filled. In an embodiment, stiffness may be minimized by providing the foam fill material in a variety of sizes (e.g., the foam fill material need not be all of a uniform size, but may be provided by blending together a variety of different sizes of foam pieces. In an embodiment, stiffness may be minimized by simply selecting a foam material that provides both high porosity (high void fraction), while also providing a very soft feel, where such materials are available.
While such different fill materials are shown as provided within separate cavities in
In an embodiment such as that shown in
It will be apparent that in the various disclosed embodiments, the pillow does not include any rigid skeleton or other rigid components, but is soft and conformable throughout, so as to function and appear as any other decorative pillow typically used on a chair or couch.
While the present invention is described principally in the context of an acoustically transparent pillow for use with a couch or similar furniture having embedded speakers, it will be apparent that the invention is not limited to such, but extends to other articles, that would similarly be soft and conformable, where such article covers one or more speakers, but is acoustically transparent, so as to not provide any substantial impedance to the sound transmitted from a hidden, embedded speaker (e.g., whether in a chair, couch or other piece of furniture, such as frameless furniture (e.g., Applicant's SAC), a bed, mattress, or the like.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant work.
The articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements in the preceding descriptions. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Numbers, percentages, ratios, or other values stated herein are intended to include that value, and also other values that are “about” or “approximately” the stated value, as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art encompassed by embodiments of the present disclosure. A stated value should therefore be interpreted broadly enough to encompass values that are at least close enough to the stated value to perform a desired function or achieve a desired result. The stated values include at least the variation to be expected in a suitable manufacturing or production process, and may include values that are within 10%, within 5%, within 1%, within 0.1%, or within 0.01% of a stated value. As used herein, the term “between” includes any referenced endpoints. For example, “between 2 and 10” includes both 2 and 10.
A user having ordinary skill in the art should realize in view of the present disclosure that equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that various changes, substitutions, and alterations may be made to embodiments disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Equivalent constructions, including functional “means-plus-function” clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function, including both structural equivalents that operate in the same manner, and equivalent structures that provide the same function. It is the express intention of the applicant not to invoke means-plus-function or other functional claiming for any claim except for those in which the words ‘means for’ appear together with an associated function. Each addition, deletion, and modification to the embodiments that falls within the meaning and scope of the claims is to be embraced by the claims.
The terms “approximately,” “about,” and “substantially” as used herein represent an amount close to the stated amount that still performs a desired function or achieves a desired result. For example, the terms “approximately,” “about,” and “substantially” may refer to an amount that is within 10% of, within 5% of, within 1% of, within 0.1% of, and within 0.01% of a stated amount. Further, it should be understood that any directions or reference frames in the preceding description are merely relative directions or movements. For example, any references to “up” and “down” or “above” or “below” are merely descriptive of the relative position or movement of the related elements, when in a given orientation.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/357,830 filed Jul. 1, 2022, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
63357830 | Jul 2022 | US |