This invention concerns a child's clock indicator and, more specifically, a waking indicator showing, based on the time, designs or images in different positions or different colors.
It is known that young children do not know how to read the time on an analog or digital clock. Even if they were capable of doing so, it would be irrelevant because they do not have a concept of time. Often, outside noises—such as cars, airplanes, singing birds—or the first rays of sunlight lead the child to believe that it is time to wake up even though it is not the case.
This situation poses numerous problems for children and parents: to children who, when they wake up, do not know whether or not it is already time to get up; and to parents who are awakened by a child who gets up too early.
The fact that a child unknowingly got up too early will often make him cranky during the day. Moreover, doing so may make the child frustrated when he finds himself facing parents who are annoyed at having been woken up too early by the child. Indeed, the child finds himself in a situation where he is being blamed for something he did not do.
For the often exhausted parents, being unnecessarily awakened is also a reason for stress and may cause greater fatigue for those who are unable to fall back to sleep after having been awakened.
In the case of children, the known embodiments of alarm clocks present significant disadvantages. In fact, alarm clocks have a waking function, be it a ringing bell, vibration, or another sort of technique. These waking functions present the disadvantage of being useless and even completely undesirable for children, because they needlessly wake up the child. These known embodiments of alarm clocks present an additional significant disadvantage in that they comprise indicators that the child cannot read.
The purpose of this invention is therefore to remedy the disadvantages of the known embodiments.
The purpose is achieved through the principles of the invention as defined in claim 1.
The child's clock indicator consists of a dial that is mounted in a housing comprised of known timepiece or time-switch analog or digital elements. The dial has one or several time adjusting indicators and one or several activating knobs for changing the time. The dial has designs or images which appear in two positions: one sleep position and one waking position. The positions may be emphasized by color differences. The position showing a figure lying down indicates to the child that he must stay in bed, and the standing-up position indicates to the child that he may get up—the moment of the change being set by the parents.
The principles of the invention have the advantage of providing the child with a time indication that is easy to understand, an indication that they would not otherwise have. When they wake up, this indication lets them know if they must go back to sleep or if they may get up. In this way, the child can no longer unknowingly make a mistake. The invention's principles present the advantage of not waking the child, but on the contrary, encouraging him to sleep as long as possible. The designs may be ones the child knows—for example, a comic strip or an animal—which will motivate the child to imitate something that he can consider a friend.
With the principles of the invention, sleep time—very important for young children—is increased significantly.
The parents are not needlessly disturbed as much in the morning or during naps, which also increases the number of hours they sleep.
There is an interaction of advantages for the parents and children, since parents who are too often awakened may become irritable, which irritation may affect the child, the principles of the invention making it possible to prevent these interactions.
The principles of the invention are shown schematically and as examples in the attached figures.
Referring to
The dial 7 may incorporate a plate with openings which display the desired design shapes, for example designs featuring the child's hero, and a time adjusting indicator, luminous elements being located behind the openings.
The dial may also be made up of liquid crystal elements, for example.
The clock indicator may have several time adjusting indicators and several knobs.
The waking designs 2 and sleep designs 3 may show different shapes and different positions as well as different colors. The designs are also interchangeable.
In practice, the parents set the time adjusting indicator to the time they want the time indicator to change from the sleep phase to the waking phase. At the desired time, the sleep design 3 goes off and the waking design 2 lights up. At a glance, the child knows immediately which phase he is in.
As mentioned above, the sleep designs and the waking designs are shown in
Nonetheless, it is possible to consider displaying other positions.
As mentioned, the clock indicator may have two adjustment knobs and two time adjusting indicators, or more if necessary. For the young child who does not sleep only at night, it may indeed be necessary to provide for an additional time adjusting indicator for naps, for example.
The waking indicator is shown as a round shape on
The clock indicator may be produced so that it can be hung and also so that it may be placed on a night table, for example.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CH01/00736 | 12/20/2001 | WO | 00 | 12/3/2004 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO02/052357 | 7/4/2002 | WO | A |
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2259160 | Mar 1993 | GB |
WO 8700309 | Jan 1987 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050117458 A1 | Jun 2005 | US |