Patent Application
20120000798
Since the inception of contact lenses, a person was required to transport, clean and care for the lenses on a regular basis. Furthermore, the person was generally required to keep track of the time period a set of lenses has been in use.
Other types of medical devices have been utilized to track the time periods for medical purposes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,912 discloses a windowed rotating disc pivoting on the top surface of a container cap with a plurality of time marks arranged or attached to the top surface of the cap and viewed through the window as the disc is rotated. The time marks are defined as molded, painted or printed on to the cap.
In another example, a disposable reminder device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,614 for attachment to a container with manually set dials on which indicia may be colored for highlighting.
Other existing art includes container caps displaying engraved, embossed, debossed or printed indicia on an indicator wheel; indicia that are marked, stamped, use stickers or decals, springs or magnetic digits, or other means of physically or chemically altering the surface of the dials to form the indicia.
In light of the foregoing, it can be appreciated there is a need for visually improved recognition of indicia on contact lens cases. Illumination of only the indicia dial with white or colored light is not efficient, nor acceptably effective, unless the light can easily pass through the disc where a permanent void provides the least resistance to the reflected or generated light source.
In cases where contact lens may be used to cosmetically alter the color, or other distinctions, of the eye; or where the user has poor vision and needs a method of easily recognizing the indicia data; determination of the indicia by feel is a major advantage in low light conditions or when the lens user has difficulty visually determining indicia data.
Therefore, the need for a method and devices utilizing permanent voids to represent desired indicia such as counting or time indicators is recognized.
In particular, the contact lens case eliminates the problem of illegibility of indicia caused from wear, fading, or other destructive activity and provides easy indication of the indicia by touch or visual accent. Visual accent may be from illumination, color or contrast to highlight the indicia void from underneath.
Example embodiments are hereby disclosed that teach and demonstrate indexed indicia indicating a date of the month as a reminder to the user of the time interval for maintenance or replacement of the lens. Alternately, a plurality of selectable indexed numbers, days, letters, symbols or other indicia can be arranged to represent any data desired to be retained with the lens case.
Suitable methods for creating the indicia voids include injection mold blockages to produce voids, laser or mechanical cutting, shear punching, chemically or thermally modifying the carrier to produce voids, or other means.
The method of producing indicia voids for indicators on a contact lens case consists of utilizing an aperture, cut out, window, hole or other void to represent indicia on various locations on the lens well cap. The cap has a manually adjustable indexed indicator device such as a dial, wheel, carrier or cover used for counting or time representations such as days or dates.
These voids may be accented by observation through a window, notch or opening on a cover, or by illumination of the space within the void from either direct or indirect (diffused) light producing a contrasting or accenting color or brightness. The illumination source may direct light through air or other media such as optic tubes, fibers or other carriers; and may be directed at the carrier from the side in order to illuminate the entire carrier except the void, or at surrounding parts of the cap or cover to produce unique light patterns for easy recognition of the indicia by sight. Illumination may be from luminescent, fluorescent, chemical or other self-powered light sources.
As shown in
Once the cap assemblies (3) and (6) have been unscrewed and removed from the base (1), in order to prevent incorrect cap replacement onto the wrong well, the illustrated embodiment uses indicia letters “L” (8) and “R” (9) displayed on the top center of the caps (3) and (6). The base (1) is not symmetric from front to rear allowing correct positioning of the base before screwing on the labeled caps (3) and (6). In one embodiment, the indicia “L” (8) and “R” (9) are identified by the contrasting colors between the caps (3) and (6). More specifically, the dials (2) and (5) contrasting with accent tabs (12) and (13) which fill the voids of indicia “L” (8) and “R” (9) with a color contrasting material for easy visual recognition. An alternate method of ensuring the proper placement of the caps is to vary the diameter of the left and right wells to physically prevent incorrect cap placement.
In the embodiments illustrated in
In one embodiment, the indicia (4) (7) are illuminated by external light that reflects off of accent tabs (12) (13) having different colors and/or contrasts. In an alternate embodiment, the light is generated by the accent tabs (12) (13), either internally or from the surface of the material. For example, in one embodiment the accent tabs (12) (13) include luminescent properties based upon chemical reactions, which allows indicia (4) and (7) to be identified in very low light.
Recesses (16) are located on the outer perimeter of indicator dial (2) and evenly spaced around the outer perimeter of indicator dial (2) to aid in manual rotation. Similar recesses (17) are located on the outside perimeter of the indicator dial (5) to aid in manual rotation. In one embodiment, ten indicia numbers (7) are evenly spaced around indicator dial (5), each with a corresponding recess (17) centered on each number. In this embodiment, the indicia (4) represent the tens digit of a month date, while the indicia (7) represent the single digits of a month date. Indexing recesses (18) are located in channel (24), as shown in
In the embodiment illustrated in
Indicator dials (28) and (30) have a plurality of indicia voids representing numbers that are evenly spaced about them. Left Indicator dial (28) has indicia (34) that indicates the tens digit of a number such as a month date, whereas right indicator dial (30) has indicia (35) that indicate the single units digit of a number such as a month date. Both digits combined compile the number desired which could be a counter or represent a complete date of the month. This embodiment displays the exemplary number “15”.
Recesses (36) located on the inside perimeter of dial (28) are centered on each indicia and act as a position lock when retained by paw (29) that indexes the indicia centered over accent plane (32). Similarly, recesses (37) are located on the inside perimeter of dial (30) along the centerline of indicia (35), and are positioned by paw (31) over accent plane (33).
A cover (40) snaps over a shoulder (41) on the upper perimeter on cap (26) and protects the dial (28) from incidental or accidental rotation after the desired index position of the indicia (34) has been selected. A window (42) penetrates cover (40) to expose the selected indicia (34) where reflected or generated light from surface (43) provides background lighting as it travels through the aligned indicia void (34), through window (42) to the user. A notch (44) in cover (40) allows easy manual operation of dial (28). Additionally, a void representing the letter L (45) is centered in cover (40) for identification of left cap (26).
Similarly, cover (46) is attached to shoulder (47) on right cap (27) to protect dial (30) and to allow viewing of indicia (35) through window (48). The indicia (35) are backlit from surface (49) of the respective cap. Furthermore, a notch (51) to provide access to the dial (30) and a void in the cover (46) defining an “R” (50) is located on the cover (46).
Other counting or timing configurations of indicia may be utilized with this method provided that voided indicia are utilized.
The materials that comprise the majority of the lens case are preferably plastic configured by injection molding. Differing types of plastic can be utilized to meet functional requirements such as structural durability and wear considerations. One example is to use a flexible plastic for use as indexing paws (29) and (31) such as polycarbonate; the body (1) and (25) and other parts of the assembly may be made of a thermosetting plastic such as PVC or polyvinyl chloride. Other materials may be used that fulfill structural, durability, economical and other requirements for use as a lens case.
The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed as limiting. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein. For example, the operations shown in the figures are merely examples. In various embodiments, similar operations can include more or fewer steps than those shown in the figures. Furthermore, in other embodiments, similar operations can include the steps of the operations shown in the figures in different orders or be executed concurrently. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
This application claims benefit of Provisional Application 61/398,673 filed Jun. 30, 2010.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61398673 | Jun 2010 | US |
