Patent Application
20170332771
The present invention relates to holder for canes or walking sticks and more particularly the present invention relates to a holder for accommodating different types of canes, the holder is easily mountable on to a belt or a waistband of a garment.
Walking sticks or canes have been used by many people as mobility aids since ages to facilitate walking. Canes can also be used as a supporting device, fashion accessory, or an object of defense. Based on the purpose of utilization, these canes are handcrafted into different shapes and sizes. In general, a walking cane is designed with a curved top hook and a main shaft. The design of these walking canes are personalized based on user requirements with focus on providing enough comfort and convenience. Especially, the design of curved top hook in all the walking canes is tailor-made for style and comfort parameters.
In certain instances, aged users generally carry a cane in their hands as a walking aid to support and balance mobility. However, the user cannot hold the cane in their hand all the time, during certain instances they have to use their hand(s) to perform some other activities like washing or cleaning hands, shaking hands for greeting someone, opening a door, putting on a coat, getting a card or money out of their wallet or purse and the like. During such instances, the user has to drop the cane down or find a supporting object or a wall to rest the cane against a vertical surface or even passing the cane to someone for holding it until they complete their task. In addition, users need a simple but effective solution to temporarily hold these walking canes whenever it is not required to be held in one or both hands.
There have been numerous attempts to solve the above-mentioned problem associated with temporary holding of walking canes. Conventional supporting devices are used to secure the cane to counters. However, this design has limitations with respect to the usage and adaptability is minimal. The above design does not give ease and convenience to the user without proper holding means. Walking cane retention clips provide temporary placement support for the cane. However, the clip has only one arch-like clasping element, which actually reduces the holding capability and its stability, especially, when used with canes of different sizes and shapes.
Prior art reference US 20080083798 A1 discloses a mobility aid retention clip for temporary placement of the cane but it is adaptable to receive only one type of cane and its size. Therefore, if the user wants to hold a cane of smaller diameter, then it would slip out from the holder. Another prior art reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,190 A discloses a cane keeper secured to counters wherein the device is limited to using canes of specific size and shape.
Another limitation with existing cane support devices is a need for separate adhesive or securing means to attach the support device to the user garment or belt. These cane holders can temporarily store a mobility aid but requires a tether be attached to the mobility aid by way of a hook-and-loop fastener. This adds more complexity to the design and usage of the cane holder device.
In light of aforementioned problems of conventional and traditional cane holders, there exists a need for a lightweight, easy to use, portable and easily mountable cane holder to accommodate various types of walking canes.
The present invention relates to a lightweight, easy to use, portable and easily mountable cane holder to accommodate various types of walking canes with improved holding capability.
The cane holder comprises a unitary body having a cane-receiving portion and a mounting member behind the cane-receiving portion. The cane-receiving portion comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members for receiving at least a portion of a cane such as handle of the cane. The U-shaped hook members define an opening there between to receive a body portion of the cane. The U-shaped hook members are configured to receive the handle portion of the cane. In case of a T-shaped handle, the opening between the hook members receives the body of the cane. In case of a curved handle, both of the U-shaped hook members are adapted to receive the curved handle portion. The mounting member comprises a clip portion for removably attaching the cane holder to a waistband of a user garment or clip on to an accessory such as a belt. The cane holder holds the cane temporarily and allows a person to be hands free while performing their everyday tasks.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating specific embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
A description of embodiments of the present invention will now be given with reference to the Figures. It is expected that 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 that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
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The cane holder is manufactured from a rigid or semi-rigid plastic material wherein the plastic is selected from the group consisting of thermoplastic sheet, thermoformed polymers, thermoset polymers, fiber reinforced composites, epoxies or resins and this provides high strength, durability, resiliency, flexibility (semi-rigid), low-porosity, elastomeric memory, spring tension, and lubricious glide characteristics. The plastic material provides a lightweight clip assembly 100 to get fixed to the user garment 102 with improved holding capability, further, the cane holder 104 provides overall artistic appearance and more diversified stylish thereby making it as an essential support unit for canes. The finished thickness of the U-shaped members 108 may diverge from the 12.7 millimeters dimension and that of clip cane holder assembly 100 is 50.8 millimeters. It is contemplated that the height and width of the clip cane holder assembly 100 would be sufficient to provide adequate support for releasable retention of a cane. The cane holder 104 is universal according to the present invention, and is designed to accommodate canes of any size, but not limited to one-inch diameter cane or even the smallest diameter cane.
According to another embodiment of the present invention as shown in
Although the present invention has been described herein in the context of a particular implementation in a particular environment for a particular purpose, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that its usefulness is not limited thereto and that the present invention may be beneficially implemented in any number of environments for any number of purposes. Accordingly, the claims set forth below should be construed in view of the full breadth and spirit of the present invention as described herein. Although specific terms may be employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
