Patent Application
20210353081
The present invention relates to a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow and, more particularly, to a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow capable of naturally moving the central axis of a cushion member by the movement of a user so that the user can maintain a comfortable and correct sleep posture.
In general, the basic posture of sleep is a posture in which a person lies with both shoulders on the floor and looking at the ceiling. It is known that there is not abnormality in sleep health even when a person can sleep only 50% of sleep time with the above posture.
Typically, when a person lying for sleep, the entire body of the person is affected by gravity, and an average of about 20 to 30 times of body turning occurs.
At this time, when a user using a general pillow turns the body, the central axis of the user is changed and the neck and the shoulder and twisted. Accordingly, force is applied to the neck or the shoulder to disturb comfortable sleep.
As a related art, a pillow for correcting sleep posture is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0469632.
The related art proposes the pillow, which has an upper wall extended upward from left and right sides of an upper surface of a body supporting the user's head, so that the user's head interferes with the upper wall so that the user is prevented from rolling sideways to prevent the user from turning sideways.
However, in the related art, a bottom surface of the body is formed in flat surface and the user's head interferes with the upper wall when the user turns sideways to hold the sleep position in a direction in which the face of the user faces upward. Therefore, it may be a strain on the cervical vertebral and the spine.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an objective of the present invention is to provide a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow capable of continuously maintaining a comfortable posture by maintaining the center of a user by the movement of a cushion member when the user turns the user's body during sleep.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow capable of maintaining the shoulder or the neck in a correct posture without twisting by allowing the movement of a cushion member to be moved in a longitudinal or a transverse direction thereof by the movement of the user.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow capable of using a cushion member in a fixed state while selectively restraining the movement of the cushion member.
In order to accomplish the above objectives, the present invention provides a bottom-fixed type rolling pillow. The bottom-fixed type rolling pillow may include: a base member providing a supporting force while being located on a floor, and having an arcuate-grooved receiving space formed on an upper surface thereof so as to receive a head of a user in the receiving space; a cushion member movably mounted in the receiving space of the base member and configured to support the head of the user; and a cushion moving member movably coupling the cushion member to the base member, and configured to allow the cushion member to be moved by movement of the user.
The cushion moving member may include: guide rails formed in at least one direction of a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction of an upper surface of the receiving space of the base member so as to provide a moving path of the cushion member; a slider movably coupled to the guide rails while being fixed to a lower surface of the cushion member and configured to be moved along the guide rails; and rollers mounted to the upper surface of the base member so as to be idle-rotated and configured to support the slider.
The guide rails may include transverse rails having groove shapes extended along the longitudinal direction of the base member, and the rollers may have guide wheels which may have wheel shapes and be configured to be rotated forward or rearward in directions corresponding to longitudinal directions of the transverse rails so as to move the slider along the transverse rails.
The guide rails may include: transverse rails having groove shapes extended along the longitudinal direction of the base member; and longitudinal rails having groove shapes extended along the transverse direction of the base member and arranged perpendicular to the transverse rails, and the rollers may have guide balls which have ball shapes and be configured to be rotated forward or rearward in directions corresponding to the transverse rails and the longitudinal rails so as to move the slider along the transverse rails and the longitudinal rails.
The cushion moving member may include roller brakes configured to selectively allow movement of the slider while selectively restraining rotation of the rollers.
The roller brakes may include pressing protrusions, which may be mounted to the base member and configured to be locked to portions of the rollers by pressure of the user to prevent the rollers from being arbitrarily rotated.
As described above, the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow according to the present invention is configured such that the cushion moving member allows the cushion member supporting the user's head to be moved by the movement of the user. Accordingly, when the user turns his/her body during sleep, the center of the user is maintained by the movement of the cushion member, so that the user can continuously maintain a comfortable and correct sleep position.
In detail, according to the present invention, the cushion member is moved along the guide rails together with the slider by the rollers, so that the cushion member can be efficiently moved by the movement of the user. Accordingly, the center of the user can be maintained even when the user moves, thereby allowing the sleep position to be maintained without twisting the shoulder or the neck.
In addition, according to the present invention, the guide wheel-type rollers can allow the cushion member to be moved in the longitudinal direction, and the guide ball-type rollers can allow the cushion member to be moved in both the longitudinal direction and transverse direction.
In addition, according to the present invention, the roller brakes may selectively restrain the rotation of the rollers. Accordingly, if necessary, the cushion member can be easily converted into a fixed type and used.
Effects obtainable in the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments disclosed from the following description belong.
Hereinbelow, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, it is to be noted that, the functions of conventional elements and the detailed description of elements related with the present invention will be omitted.
Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present invention, specific examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below, since the embodiments of the present invention can be variously modified in many different forms. While the present invention will be described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the present description is not intended to limit the present invention to those exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, the present invention is intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments that may be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “coupled” or “connected” to another element, it can be directly coupled or connected to the other element or intervening elements may be present therebetween. In contrast, it should be understood that when an element is referred to as being “directly coupled” or “directly connected” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other expressions that explain the relationship between elements, such as “between”, “directly between”, “adjacent to”, or “directly adjacent to”, should be construed in the same way.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise”, “include”, “have”, etc. when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or combinations of them but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or combinations thereof.
The bottom-fixed type rolling pillow according to the embodiment of the present invention severs as a pillow by supporting the head of a user when the user sleeps, and is configured to maintain a central axis of the user by moving the cushion member in response to movement of the user's head.
In detail, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow may include a base member 100, the cushion member 200, and the cushion moving member 300, as shown in
The base member 100 is an element constituting a body of the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow according to the embodiment and provides support force while being located on the floor.
In particular, the base member 100 is formed in a block shape and located on the floor, and has an arcuate-grooved receiving space 110 formed on an upper surface thereof so as to receive the head of the user, thereby receiving and supporting the head of the user by means of the cushion member 200 to be described later.
The receiving space 110 may be formed in a ‘C’-shaped section on the upper surface of the base member 100 so as to receive the head of the user.
The base member 100 has a non-slip pad 120 at a lower surface thereof so as to be prevented from slipping while the non-slip pad 120 supports the lower surface of the base member 100, as shown in
A plurality of non-slip pads 120 may be provided, and may be respectively provided at vertexes of the lower surface of the base member 100, and configured to be adjustable in length of each of the non-slip pads 120 so that a height or an angle of inclination of the base member 100 may be adjusted.
As an example, each of the non-slip pads 120 may have a multiple-stepped telescopic bar shape, and fixed while being stretched and contracted in length by a fastening ring tightening and fixing a connecting portion of the multiple-stepped telescopic bar.
The cushion member 200 is configured to directly support the head of the user.
The cushion member 200 may be formed in a shape supporting the head and the neck of the user and movably mounted in the receiving space 110 of the base member 100 by means of the cushion moving member 300.
The cushion member 200 may be formed in an arc shape corresponding to the receiving space 110 of the base member 100 and may be rotatably placed on an upper surface of the receiving space 110.
The cushion member 200 may be formed of fabric or fiber material and synthetic resin or leather material, and may have pressing protrusions (not shown) on a surface thereof so as to support the neck or head of the user by the pressing protrusions.
The cushion moving member 300 is configured to movably couple the cushion member 200 described above to the receiving space 110 of the base member 100. Whereby, the cushion member 200 may be moved when movement (turning) of the user is generated during the user's sleep, so that the central axis (center of weight) of the user may be balanced.
When the head or the neck of the user is moved during sleep, the cushion moving member 300 may move the cushion member 200 while the head or the neck of the user is in contact with the cushion member 200, so that the center of the shoulder or body of the user may be balanced without twisting.
The cushion moving member 300 may include guide rails 310, a slider 320, and rollers 330, as shown in
The guide rails 310 are configured to provide a moving path of the cushion member 200.
The guide rails 310 may be configured to be extended in at least one direction of a longitudinal direction or a transverse direction of the receiving space 110 on the upper surface of the receiving space 110 of the base member 100 and to provide the moving path of the cushion member 200.
The guide rails 310 may be formed in groove shapes on the upper surface of the base member 100 as shown in
In detail, the guide rails 310 may include grove-shaped transverse rails 311 extended along a longitudinal direction or a horizontal direction (row direction) of the base member 100, as shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
The transverse rails 311 may be configured such that a plurality of transverse rails is positioned next to each other as shown in
Furthermore, the longitudinal rails 312 may consist of a single longitudinal rail as shown in
The slider 320 is configured to be moved together with the cushion member 200. The slider 320 may be movably coupled to the guide rails 310 while being fixed to a lower surface of the cushion member 200 and moved along the guide rails 310 by movement of the user.
Specifically, the slider 320 may have a plate shape having a curvature corresponding to the receiving space 110 of the base member 100. As shown in
The coupling protrusions 321 and the guide rails 310 may be configured to prevent the slider 320 from being arbitrarily separated.
As an example, the coupling protrusions 321 and the guide rails 310 may have shapes in which the bottom is wide and the top is narrow. Unlike the above structure, separate separation prevention protrusions may protrude along longitudinal directions of the coupling protrusions 321 and separation prevention grooves may be formed along longitudinal directions of the guide rails 310 so that the separation prevention protrusions and the separation prevention grooves may be coupled to each other.
Furthermore, the guide rails 310 may have stoppers (not shown) configured to prevent excessive moving of the slider 320.
The rollers 330 are configured to movably support the slider 320.
More particular, as shown in
The rollers 330 may include guide wheels 331 having wheel shapes, as shown in
The guide wheels 331 may have conventional wheel shapes and are coupled to the base member 100 through shafts. The guide wheels 331 may move the slider 320 along the transverse rails 311 while being rotated forward or rearward in directions corresponding to the longitudinal directions of the transverse rails 311.
When the rollers 330 include only the guide wheels 331, the rollers 330 may support the slider 320 so as to be movable only in the horizontal direction of the base member.
Meanwhile, the rollers 330 may include guide balls 335 having ball shapes, as shown in
The guide balls 335 may be formed in spheres to be rotatably mounted to the base member 100 and rotated in various directions. Accordingly, the guide balls 335 may move the slider 320 while being rotated forward or rearward in directions corresponding to the transverse rails 311 and the longitudinal rails 312.
In other words, when the guide rails 310 include only the transverse rails 311, the rollers 330 may include the guide wheels 331. In addition, when the guide rails 310 include both the transverse rails 311 and the longitudinal rails 312, the rollers 330 may include the guide balls 335.
Meanwhile, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow may include roller brakes 350, as shown in
The roller brakes 350 are configured to selectively allow movement of the slider 320 while selectively restraining the rotation of the rollers 330 described above.
In other words, the roller brakes 350 are configured to restrain the movement of the slider 320 so that the cushion member 200 may be used as a fixed type.
The roller brakes 350 may include pressing protrusions 351 as shown in
The pressing protrusions 351 may have locking protrusions (not shown) so as to be locked while pressing the rollers 330, and have return springs (not shown) so as to be returned to initial positions during unlocking.
As described above, in the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow according to the embodiment of the present invention, the cushion member 200 is moved along the guide rails 310 together with the slider 320 by the rollers 330. Accordingly, the cushion member 200 may efficiently be moved by the movement of the user. Accordingly, the center of the user is maintained even by the user's movement, so that the sleep position may be maintained without twisting the shoulder or the body.
Hereinafter, the effects of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with the following experimental examples.
The presented examples are only specific examples of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
<Experimental Examples>
In order to analyze the effects induced by the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow having the structure as shown in
(1) User Selection
In order to analyze the effects of the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow on the change in the user's body, 16 men in their 30s who have no history of musculoskeletal disorders on the neck or back and in good health were selected as users and the body dynamics study was conducted. All users selected were right-handed in order to minimize the experiment error, and body measures of the users are shown in Table 1 below.
(2) Neck Posture Analysis
In order to analyze the effects induced when the users uses the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow, the change in the user's neck posture occurring during sleep was analyzed, and at this time, a commercially available general pillow and a memory foam pillow were used as controls.
In order to analyze the neck posture, all 16 users wore comfortable clothes, and reference points (point of ear bead, lateral point of shoulder, point of back of head, and point of back of neck) necessary for measuring the change in the neck posture were marked on the user's body, electrode attachment points on the user's body were prepared with alcohol, and surface electrodes of six channels were attached on the user's body.
With reference points required to measure the change in neck posture of the users, each user stood and pictures of them were taken. The user found the most comfortable posture while lying using the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows, the general pillow, or the memory foam pillow, and pictures of the lying neck posture were re-taken while the user maintains the most comfortable posture. In order to reduce errors in photographing, a camera was set to a tripod to eliminate the change in position.
As an example, an important factor in functions of the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow or a pillow is to maintain the same natural neck posture while the user stands. Maintaining the neck posture naturally means that 7 cervical vertebrae are correctly aligned in a straight line to form the cervical curvature. However, when the cervical vertebrae are not correctly aligned and deviates from the center line, shear force is generated in a direction opposite to a direction of departure, thereby losing the cervical curvature. At this time, shear force refers to a force acting in parallel along a specific surface so as to have the same size and opposite directions on the basis of the specific surface of an object. When a user uses an inappropriate pillow, the cervical curvature may be disturbed, and shear force is generated at a disturbed portion in a direction opposite to a distributed direction. When shear force is generated, the stability of the cervical vertebrae is broken. Therefore, the neck angle is close to 0°, the cervical vertebrae may be considered to be stable.
The user sleeps for 3 hours under the above conditions, and the amount of change in the user's neck angle in the user's correct lying posture was measured and average values were obtained, and the results are shown in Table 2 below.
As shown in Table 2, it is seen that a user who sleeps using the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow has the amount of the change in the neck angle significantly lower than the amount of the change in the neck angle of a user who sleeps using the general pillow or the memory foam pillow. In particular, the amount of the change in the neck angle of a user who sleeps using the second bottom-fixed type rolling pillow with the guide ball-type rollers is lower than other results. In this case, it is seen that the most natural posture may be maintained.
Even when the user's sleep position is changed during sleep using the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow of the present invention, the user's sleep position may be automatically aligned to maintain the correct lying posture, and the balance of the neck may be maintained to maintain the correct lying posture. Therefore, it is determined that the most natural sleep position may be maintained.
(3) Body Pressure Distribution Measurement
In order to measure the distribution of body pressure when the user lies using the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows, the general pillow, or the memory foam pillow, body pressure, which is the pressure applied to the head surface was measured using a pressure sensor. As the pressure measurement point, at total 8 points S1 to S8 including two points S1 and S2 meeting with a point of the back of the head, two points S3 and S4 located at upper and lower sides parallel to each other on the basis of a protruding point of the back of the head, semispinalis capitis S5 and S6, and two points located based on an imaginary line parallel to a point of the side head S7 and S8. In order to reduce the error in the measurement, body pressure was measured after a sensor was attached to the head surface of the user by using a thin cloth with negligible thickness without being directly attached to the head surface of the user.
As an example, the high body pressure in a specific point means that the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow or a pillow does not distribute the weight of head and the pressure is locally generated. When the local pressure is continuously maintained, there is possibility that is may cause pain at the pressure point.
In the analysis of the actively of the muscles, the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow or a pillow, and in order to find out the distribution of muscle activity in the correct lying posture, the body pressure of the head surface (g/cm 3) was measured, and the result will be described in Table 3.
As shown in Table 3, it may be seen that pressure is applied to the points of the back of the head S1 and S2 and the protruding points of the back of the head S3 and S4 on all of the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows, the general pillow, and the memory foam pillow. In the case of the memory foam pillow, due to the shape thereof, the pressure is concentrated on specific portions such as the point of the back of the head, so it may be seen that the body pressure is relatively higher on the memory foam pillow than the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows and the general pillow.
However, users who use the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows can maintain a balanced posture by distributing the pressure of the head surface evenly in comparison to a user who uses the general pillow or the memory foam pillow.
Furthermore, it may be seen that the users who use the first and second bottom-fixed type rolling pillows have evenly distributed body pressure since the pillows maintain appropriate form thereof to support the entire head portion when the user body is turned during sleep. On the other hand, for the user who uses the general pillow or the memory foam pillow, it may be frequently confirmed that the body pressure is concentrated on one portion.
Based on the above results, during using the bottom-fixed type rolling pillow according to the embodiments of the present invention, the cushion member is moved along the guide rails together with the slider by the rollers, thereby providing the structure in which the cushion member is efficiently moved by the movement of the user. Accordingly, it may be seen that the present invention assists the user to maintain the correct sleep posture without twisting the shoulder or the neck by the central axis of the cushion member maintained even by the movement of the user.
In particular, the second bottom-fixed type rolling pillow with the guide wheel-type rollers further assists the user to maintain the correct sleep posture as the cushion member may be moved both the longitudinal and transverse directions.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. Accordingly, it should be understood that the present description is not intended to limit the present invention to those exemplary embodiments. For example, each element described as a single type may be implemented in a distributed manner, and elements described as a distributed type may be implemented in a coupled manner.
The patent right of the present invention should be defined by the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. Accordingly, it should be understood that the present invention includes various modifications, additions and substitutions without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
100: base member 110: receiving space
120: non-slip pad 200: cushion member
300: cushion moving member 310: guide rails
311: transverse rails 312: longitudinal rails
320: slider 330: rollers
331: guide wheels 335: guide balls
350: roller brakes 351: pressing protrusions
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2018-0123499 | Oct 2018 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2019/013498 | 10/15/2019 | WO | 00 |
