Patent Application
20140304932
The present invention relates to a toothbrush and, more particularly, to a process for applying diamonds, or diamond-like objects, on a toothbrush.
Users of various devices, such as mobile phones, often purchase accessories for their devices. One such accessory is a cover for the device. The device cover may include shiny elements, such as imitation diamonds, to give a shiny appearance. These shiny elements are generally glued onto the device and have a tendency to fall off over the use of the cover. For this reason, toothbrushes lack such a cover. Thus, an improved way to attach the shiny elements to the cover of the device, such as a toothbrush, may be beneficial.
Certain embodiments of the present invention may provide solutions to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully identified, appreciated, or solved by current device covers.
In one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an elongated member having a head with bristles. The apparatus also includes a body having a cover with a plurality of slots. Each of the plurality of slots is configured to contain a diamond-like element.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an elongated member comprising a head with bristles, and a body having a cover with a plurality of slots. Each of the plurality of slots is configured to contain an ultrasonically sealed diamond-like element.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a process for applying diamond-like elements is provided. The process includes creating, by a molding machine, a cover comprising a plurality of slots. The process also includes ultrasonically sealing, by an ultrasonic machine, a plurality of diamond-like elements into the plurality of slots.
In order that the advantages of certain embodiments of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. While it should be understood that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be 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:
Some embodiments of the present invention pertain to a toothbrush. In one embodiment, the toothbrush includes a cover with a plurality of slots. Each of the slots includes an ultrasonically sealed diamond-like element. It should be appreciated that the embodiments are not limited to diamond-like elements, but may include any type of element, such as another gem-like element, a gold-like element, etc.
Toothbrush 100 also includes a body 120. Body 120 includes a cover 125 having a plurality of diamond-like elements 130 and a gripping portion 135. Cover 125 may be removable to allow a user of toothbrush 100 to customize his or her toothbrush 100. Cover 125 may include a plurality of slots. Each of the plurality of slots is either the same in size or different in size, depending on the size(s) of diamond-like element(s) 130, as well as the design of toothbrush. Gripping portion 135 allows a user of toothbrush 100 to place his or her thumb on gripping portion 135 to firmly hold toothbrush 100.
As shown in
It should also be appreciated that toothbrush 100 also includes a stand 150 configured to maintain toothbrush 100 in an upright manner. This prevents toothbrush 100 from contacting a surface, such as a bathroom countertop, reducing the overall number of microbes traversing the surface of bristles 115. On the opposite side of bristles 115, a tongue cleaner 140 is provided. Tongue cleaner 140 allows a user to clean his or her tongue, cheek, or both, while brushing his or her teeth. In certain embodiments, tongue cleaner 140 may be composed of plastic material that may be part of the mold of toothbrush 100. In other embodiments, tongue cleaner 140 may be any material, such as rubber, that would be appreciated by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
First and second grip portions 235, 245 are configured to allow a user to firmly grip toothbrush 200 in an ergonomic manner. In this embodiment, second grip portion 245 includes an index finger indentation 245a configured to allow a user to grip toothbrush 200 with his or her index finger, a central finger indentation 245b configured to allow the user to grip toothbrush 200 with his or her middle finger and ring finger, and a pinky finger indentation 245c configured to allow the user to grip toothbrush 200 with his or her pinky finger.
In this embodiment, toothbrush 200 includes a button 255 configured to cause toothbrush 200 to play music and in some embodiments, light up to provide an illuminating/crystallized effect. In order for the user of toothbrush 200 to view the illuminating effect, toothbrush 200 or cover 225 may be transparent. By having a transparent cover, when the light emitting devices (LEDs, not shown) illuminate through diamond-like elements 230, a crystallized effect is realized, and light is refracted through the diamond-like elements.
In some embodiments, the LEDs are configured to light up for a predefined period of time where no music is played. In other embodiments, where music is played by toothbrush 200, the LEDs may illuminate for the duration during which the music is played. In certain embodiments, the LEDs may illuminate in accordance with the beat of the music, providing the user of toothbrush 200 with more entertainment.
It should be appreciated that base 255 may include a plurality of slots 260 (see
The computer readable medium may be any available media that can be accessed by at least one processor 410. The computer readable medium may include both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media, and communication media. The communication media may include computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data and may include any information delivery media.
At least one processor 410 can also be coupled via bus 405 to at least one button 445. At least one button 445, together with the at least one processor 410, when pressed by a user, may cause music module 430 to play music that can be heard via speaker 450. At least one button 445 with the at least one processor 410 may also activate LED lights 440, causing illumination to occur according to the beats of the music.
According to one embodiment, memory 420 may store software modules that may provide functionality when executed by at least one processor 410. The modules can include an operating system 425 and a music module 430, as well as other functional modules 435. Operating system 425 may provide operating system functionality for computing system 400. Because computing system 400 may be part of a larger system, computing system 400 may include one or more additional functional modules 435 to include the additional functionality.
It should be noted that some of the system features described in this specification have been presented as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or the like.
A module may also be at least partially implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified unit of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may be stored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a hard disk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any other such medium used to store data.
Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.
In another embodiment, an element may have rivets, allowing the locking mechanism to securely lock the element.
It will be readily understood that the components of the invention, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.
The features, structures, or characteristics of the invention described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of “certain embodiments,” “some embodiments,” or other similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in certain embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” “in other embodiments,” or other similar language, throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment or group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that the invention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although the invention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore, reference should be made to the appended claims.
