Embodiments of the present invention relate to eyewear. More particularly the embodiments relate to eyewear including an adjustable fit system.
Eyewear including prescription and other corrective eyeglasses, sunglasses, and the like is an essential part of daily life for many people. People's faces come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, such that it has historically been difficult to provide eyewear that readily fits those different faces. The width and curvature across a person's face, the size (including depth and width) of the bridge of a person's nose, relative placement of a person's eyes and ears, overall head size, and prominence of a person's brow and cheeks all affect the look and fit of eyewear. Many different shapes and styles of eyewear frames have been used over the years. In the last 20-30 year, performance sports eyewear has become increasingly popular and demanded. Many models of performance sports eyewear designed for active sports such as cycling, climbing, mountain biking, warm and cold weather extreme sports, running, and other activities utilize plastic or other polymers for the frames upon which lenses (that may be clear or tinted, prescription/corrective or plano) are mounted.
Desirable fit includes adjustment that fits to a wearer's nose bridge. For example, some people have a broad, shallow nose bridge, while others have a prominent, narrow nose bridge, or some other shape. As a matter of human anatomy, these features often correspond to one's ethnic/racial background, and certain minority populations with a particular nose bridge shape may find it difficult to obtain eyewear that fits well. Often a desirable fit includes a pantoscopic angle (between the lenses and face) that prevents unwanted contact of the lenses and or frame with one's cheeks and brow, while positioning the eyewear in a position that does not interfere with one's field of vision.
Unlike metal frames, these plastic frames typically are not easily customizable to a wearer (e.g., nose bridge, ears). In some circumstances, a desirable fit may only be achieved by custom design, or customization of an existing frame (e.g., by heating the frame until it is malleable). However, post-manufacture customization often is difficult with the nose bridge of such eyewear. Some models of eyewear mount nose pads on malleable wires attached to the bridge of the eyewear. This provides user-adjustable fit.
However, for performance sports like cycling, climbing, skiing, mountain biking, skating, or other sports where a person may fall or otherwise suffer a facial impact, the presence of metal wires in close proximity to the nose and eyes is not desirable. The possibility of injury in the event that the wire becomes broken or dislodged from the frame and/or nose pad may be greater than in frames that have only plastic or other polymer construction. Other designs that have attempted to address this have provided only an incremental (e.g., two-stage) adjustment mechanism that may not provide a wearer with a customizable fit, replacement nose pads of different sizes that may be lost, and/or other designs that may not be adjustable to someone with an asymmetrical face or other particular custom fit needs.
It may therefore be desirable to provide an adjustable nose bridge and/or nose pad system with eyewear that will allow a wearer to adjust a desired fit to his or her face (nose bridge fit, pantoscopic angle, etc.).
In one aspect, embodiments of the present invention may include a frame and nose pad configured to allow slidably adjustable movement of the nose pad relative to the frame, with a frictional engagement therebetween. In another aspect, embodiments of the present invention may include eyewear that includes a nose bridge feature that further includes one or more nose pads slidably engaged thereto.
Embodiments are described with reference to the drawings in which like elements are generally referred to by like numerals. The relationship and functioning of the various elements of the embodiments may better be understood by reference to the following detailed description. However, embodiments are not limited to those illustrated in the drawings. It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale, and in certain instances details may have been omitted that are not necessary for an understanding of embodiments, such as—for example—conventional fabrication and assembly. It is understood that the exemplary embodiments illustrated herein may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and it will fully convey the scope to those skilled in the art. As used in this specification and the claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Any reference to the “present invention,” “invention,” or the like includes any and all embodiments covered by the claims.
An adjustable fit eyewear system is described with reference to
As illustrated in
The nose bridge element 106, which is integral with the bridge connecting the lenses, may be configured to include an elongate loop, the rear portion of which is configured as an engagement portion 106a that may include an open section. A nose pad element 110 is mounted slidably on the engagement portion 106a of the elongate loop formed as part of in the nose bridge 106. The nose pad element is described below in greater detail with reference to
The nose pads 110 are configured to frictionally engage the nose bridge engagement portion 106a in a manner that allows them to slide up and down relative thereto. Each of the nose pads 110 preferably will be independently adjustable up and down, and rotatably about a long axis of the nose bridge engagement portion 106a on which it is mounted. This positional adjustment feature of nose pads 110 is configured to allow a wearer to achieve a customized fit that is much more adaptable to different nose bridge shapes than currently-available eyewear, including but not limited to, sport sunglasses, without the use of a bendable wire element that may be undesirable in sports sunglasses. Independent adjustability provides for a wearer to adapt fit to an ideal comfort level for the wearer's nose, relative ear and/or eye placement, or general desire for a fit that the wearer considers most comfortable and/or appealing. This may provide particular advantages for individuals with different body symmetry than is often accounted for in non-custom eyewear. Adjustment of the nose pads can also provide adjustability of the pantoscopic angle by up to at least one degree as illustrated in
It should also be appreciated that the glasses may alternatively be embodied as “frameless,” with the temples attached directly to the outer sides of lenses, and the nose bridge 106 connecting the inner sides of the lenses. A frameless configuration is well-known in the art, and those having skill in the art will readily appreciate that frameless and other glasses embodiments are enabled herein and may be practiced within the scope of the claimed embodiments.
One embodiment of the nose pad element 110 is described here with reference to
As shown in
Those of skill in the art will appreciate that embodiments not expressly illustrated herein may be practiced within the scope of the claims, including that features described herein for different embodiments may be combined with each other and/or with currently-known or future-developed technologies while remaining within the scope of the claims presented here. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting. And, it should be understood that the following claims, including all equivalents, are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention. Furthermore, the advantages described above are not necessarily the only advantages of the invention, and it is not necessarily expected that all of the described advantages will be achieved with every embodiment of the invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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1393152 | Miller | Oct 1921 | A |
2660924 | Stegeman | Dec 1953 | A |
4500179 | Schonhut | Feb 1985 | A |
4896957 | Speer | Jan 1990 | A |
6045223 | Kawabata | Apr 2000 | A |
6582074 | Chen | Jun 2003 | B1 |
7753518 | Lam et al. | Jul 2010 | B2 |
Entry |
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3s-Sunglasses, Adidas Eyewear Shop, www.3s-sunglasses.com, © 2011, Miller Optik GmbH, Austria, 2 pages. |
Ambition, Product Information, adidas.com/eyewear, Silhouette International Schmied AG, 1 page. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20120300169 A1 | Nov 2012 | US |