Patent Application
20150008661
The present disclosure generally relates to an apparatus for holding and displaying pages of reading material, including for example pages, books, catalogs, manuals, magazines, or the like.
Books and/or other reading articles, such as for example wholesale, retail and/or industry ordering catalogs, user manuals, etc., are oftentimes heavily used by customers and customer service representatives alike. As such articles may be limited in their production frequency, over time such articles may become easily damaged and worn, especially if the books are large and/or voluminous. Moreover, large books are often unwieldy, difficult to manipulate, and/or difficult to share with others. For example, to share a particular passage of a book with a second user standing in a different position the first user must manually lift, slide, and/or rotate the book. While sliding and/or rolling a large item may be well intended, a typical book cover and/or book support system will likely cause damage to the support surface.
There have been various attempts in the prior art to improve book and/or catalog readability. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,728,431 describes a book support that includes a detachable book-supporting device. The supporting device includes relatively foldable elements capable of lying in compact relation against the back of the book cover when not in use as a support for the book.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,623 generally describes a telephone book holder having replaceable covers for book of varying thickness. Specifically, a telephone book holder is described which consists of a spine with two groups of parallel channels in its rear surface. Edges of front and rear covers are dimensioned to be slid into respective channels of each group, the edges being connected to the covers by living hinges. Book retaining wires are pivotally connected at the top end of the spine and can be press fitted to the other end to retain a telephone book in position. Top and bottom caps are securable to the ends of the spine to retain the covers and the wires on the spine. The covers can be replaced without requiring removal of the book or complete detachment of the end caps and the thickness of the book to be held is adjustable by sliding the covers into appropriate channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,806 generally describes a book cover for reliably holding a book in an open position. The holder includes a back plate with tabs thereon for capturing the front and back covers of an open book. A pair of page holders are hingedly mounted on an upper region of the back plate, which are spring-biased into contact with the exposed left and right hand pages of the open book. The page holders are made of transparent material and have smooth surfaces in contact with the book pages so that the latter are easily slid beneath the holders.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,621 is directed to a book holder that may be used as a book carrier and may be positionable with an adjustable book holder. In particular, The described book holder essentially comprises a pair of spaced-apart planar book support elements joined by a hinged spine support element that accommodates the book spine. A pair of book holder slope support elements are each joined by a hinge to the top edge of a respective book support element. A closed cord loop element co-operates with the lower extremes of each book support element and each slope support element to vary the reclining slope of the planar book support elements during reading use.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,887 relates generally to a book holder that, when open, supports the book for reading and when closed, protects the book. Particularly, a book holder for supporting and protecting an article of reading material is provided. The book holder includes a spine, a pair of cover panels, each of the cover panels is hingedly coupled to the spine to permit the pair of cover panels to be rotated into an open position and to be rotated into a closed position. A page holder assembly is provided to hold the book open and for marking a page.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,731,147 describes a universal bookholder that allows a book to be carried and read in a number of locations. The universal bookholder includes a pair of cover members forming an inner space to receive a book therein. A supporting unit is combined between the pair of cover members so as to be folded with the cover members. A string installed in the supporting unit is configured to traverse papers of the book for fixing the received book, and at least one guide member is mounted in the pair of cover members. A clamp is movably combined to the guide member for fixing a paper of the received book.
Finally, U.S. Application Publication No. 2007/0252376 describes a toy book having a center chassis and wheels for displaying the book in an upright fashion. Specifically, the publication describes a vehicle-shaped book of foam-based pages includes a center chassis page and at least one body page, each page being constructed of a panel of a semi-flexible foam material. The center chassis page and the body pages are bound to adjacent pages thereof in a book format. Front and rear ground-engaging wheels are rotatably mounted on the center chassis page whereby the vehicle-shaped book is rollable on the front and rear ground-engaging wheels.
While the above identified references generally work for their intended purposes of covering and/or displaying a book, the present disclosure, among other things, provides a structure for protecting a reading article, allows for the display and use of the article, provides a carrying device, and allows for the opened article to be easily shared between readers. The disclosed structure may also protect the book, increasing its shelf-life and provide an attractive means of displaying a book in an open or closed position, which is suitable for decorative and/or promotional purposes.
The following description of example methods and apparatus is not intended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form or forms detailed herein. Instead the following description is intended to be illustrative so that others may follow its teachings.
Generally, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for holding and displaying pages of reading material including a book, catalog, manual, magazine, directory, or other similar items having a book-like or page-like structure. While in the present disclosure, the term “book” is often used to describe such objects, it will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the described “book” may be any suitable article. For example, in the present disclosure, a book is releasably coupled to a hinged connected book-holding device, which helps to protect and display the book in a closed and/or open arrangement. The device includes a plurality of wheels and/or roller bearings disposed along the outer surface of the device to support the device and book when in the open position and allow the device and book to be moved, rolled, and/or otherwise slid across a support surface.
Referring now to the figures, an example adjustable apparatus for holding and displaying reading materials is disclosed. In particular, an example apparatus 10, such as a page and/or book holding device is generally described with reference to
The example apparatus 10 generally includes a front cover 14, a back cover 16, and a spine 18. The front cover 14 and the back cover 16 are operably coupled to the spine 18 to allow the apparatus 10 to be opened and closed as desired. In some examples, the spine 18 may be reduced and/or effectively eliminated such that only the front cover is directly coupled to the back cover. In this example, however, the covers 14, 16 are coupled to the spine 18 via a piano hinge 19, although any suitable hinge-type arrangement may be utilized. Additionally, in this example, the front cover 14, back cover 16, and spine 18 open such that the apparatus 10 is generally coplanar when in the completely opened position. Accordingly, in this instance, it will be understood that the covers 14, 16, and spine 18, are generally rigid and/or semi-rigid, although each of the covers 14, 16, and the spine 18 may be suitably flexible as desired.
As will be disclosed in further detail below, the example apparatus 10 further includes a plurality of roller elements 100 that are mounted to an outer surface and within an outer perimeter of at least one of the front cover 14, the back cover 16, or the spine 18. The roller elements are placed within the perimeter of the respective cover 14, 16, or spine 18 to allow the container to roll and/or slide across a surface when the apparatus 10 is placed flat on the surface. In this manner, the apparatus 10, and the pages contained therein may be easily shared across a surface, such as a tables, desk, etc., as desired.
In the illustrated example, the apparatus 10 is configured to retain a plurality of pages, such as for instance a book, catalog, etc. In this example, the book 12 is releasably attached to the device 10, and more particularly to the spine 18 via a pair of opposed page element holders 20, which take the form of an upper flange 20a and lower flange 20b integrally formed with the spine 18 and/or attached thereto and configured to retain the book 12 therebetween. The example page element holders 20 include, for example, at least one rod 24 extending between the two holders 20 (see
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the book 12 may be coupled to the apparatus 10 by any suitable structure. For example, in the present device 10, the upper and/or lower flange 20a, 20b, may be adjustably mounted to the device 10, and more particularly to the spine 18 such that books of various heights may be selectively retained by the device 10. Still further, the rod(s) 24 may be lengthened, shortened, and/or relocated as desired to accommodate various book heights and/or thicknesses. In addition, the rod(s) 24 may be retained in the apparatus 10 may any appropriate means such as, for example, threading the rod(s) onto the flanges, pivot lock, magnetics, or the like. Finally, when utilized, the plate 30 may similarly use various mechanical means to attach to the device 10, including, for example, a clamping mechanism, screw, friction fit, magnetic attachment, adhesive, hook-and-loop fastener, snap-on feature, quick-release assembly, and/or any other appropriate attachment means.
Still further, in the illustrated example, page element holders 20 attach to the apparatus 10 at the spine 18. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the element holders 20 may alternatively and/or additionally attach to the apparatus 10 by either the front cover 14, the back cover 16, and/or any other appropriate location. Additionally, in still further examples, the apparatus 10 may provide a permanent, semi-permanent, rigid or semi-rigid cover that attaches to the book 12.
As noted above, and as best illustrated in
As shown in
In yet another example, the apparatus 10 may include at least one handle 60, such as a pivotal and/or otherwise retractable handle to carry the apparatus 10. In this example, the spine 18 includes a recess 62 (e.g., a channel) that allows the pivotal handle 60 to be stored flush with the outer surface of the spine 18.
While various concepts have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example, it will be appreciated that the apparatus 10 may include identifying markings (e.g., title, volume number, date, owner's name, promotional name, etc.) on various locations, including for example, on the covers 14, 16, or the spine 18, and/or any other appropriate location. Further still, the apparatus 10 may include bookmarks, placeholders, locks, closing mechanisms, etc.
Although certain example methods and apparatus have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/731,602, entitled “Apparatus for Holding and Displaying Articles,” filed Dec. 31, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
