Patent Application
20160166027
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The current invention relates to the field of eyewear, and more specifically to the field of eyewear cases.
Many people have poor vision. When a person has poor vision, many times that person wears either contact lenses or glasses. Sometimes even if a person is not required to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses, he or she may choose to wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from solar rays or eyeglasses for aesthetic purposes. Many people that wear eyeglasses or sunglasses choose to store such eyeglasses and sunglasses in cases.
Eyeglasses and sunglasses cases have padding on the inside to prevent scratching of the lenses of either the eyeglasses or sunglasses. Such cases may be a hard case or a soft pouch that protects the lenses. In the past, such sunglasses or eyeglasses cases have been bulky or cumbersome. When a sunglasses or eyeglasses case is bulky, it may become difficult for a person to carry.
Because sunglasses or eyeglasses cases are difficult to carry, many times people do not use a sunglasses or eyeglasses case to protect the sunglasses or eyeglasses. Because of this, many times a person's sunglasses or eyeglasses can become lost or scratched. At times, a person is forced to store the sunglasses or eyeglasses in places not intended for storing or carrying sunglasses or eyeglasses, such as in a person's pocket or along a person's collar.
Another problem with existing eyeglasses cases or sunglasses cases is that many times a person may misplace or lose the case. When this happens, a person may be required to purchase an additional pair of sunglasses or eyeglasses and an additional case. This increases the cost of eye care. Another problem with existing eyewear cases is that many times a person is unable to carry a piece of eyewear lens cleaning material or cloth inside of the case. Eyewear cases have a limited amount of space for carrying items. Many times there is not enough space inside of a case to carry both a cleaning cloth and eyewear. Many times a cleaning cloth haphazardly inserted into an eyewear case and can cause the eyewear to not properly fit inside the case, which may damage the eyewear.
Another problem with existing eyeglasses or sunglasses cases is that many times a person is unable to store such cases on their person. Many times cases are too large to fit inside of a pants pocket or shirt pocket and as a result the person is unable to prevent scratching of the lenses of a pair of sunglasses or eyeglasses. As a result, based upon the all of the problems listed above, there is a need for improvement over the prior art.
A device for carrying eyewear is disclosed. This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of disclosed concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description including the drawings provided. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter. Nor is this Summary intended to be used to limit the claimed subject matter's scope. In one embodiment, the device comprises a hollow body defining a cavity adapted to receive eyewear, such as sunglasses or eyeglasses.
The device comprises a hollow body defining a cavity configured for receiving eyewear. An upwardly protruding feature is located inside the cavity protruding upward from a bottom section of the body. Said upwardly protruding feature is adapted for maintaining said eyewear in a particular position when said eyewear is inside the cavity. A front section and top section of said hollow body is pivotally coupled to a bottom section of the body. The front section and top section are configured to open away from a back section of said body to provide access to the cavity from above the hollow body. A spring biased hinged clip is coupled to an outward facing surface of the back section of the body, wherein the spring biased hinged clip is configured to couple the hollow body to a waist belt. The spring biased hinged clip comprises a catching feature at a first end of the spring biased hinged clip, and wherein the catching device defines a flange protruding inward toward the back section of the body. A second spring biased hinged clip is coupled to an inside surface of the hollow body, wherein the second spring biased hinged clip is configured for retaining against an inside surface of the hollow body a piece of material configured for cleaning an eyewear lens. A pocket is coupled to the outward facing surface of the back section of the hollow body, wherein the pocket is configured to hold a communication tag configured for wireless communication with a monitoring device. A communication tag is configured for transmitting a signal to a monitoring device, wherein the signal is configured for being received by the monitoring device, and wherein the monitoring device is configured for monitoring a proximity of the communication tag relative to the monitoring device based upon the signal received, and wherein the monitoring device is configured for sending an alert message for display on a user interface of a remote computing device if the monitoring device determines that the proximity is greater than a threshold proximity.
Additional aspects of the disclosed embodiment will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosed embodiments. The aspects of the disclosed embodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Whenever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While disclosed embodiments may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting reordering, or adding additional stages or components to the disclosed methods and devices. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosed embodiments. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosed embodiments is defined by the appended claims.
In one embodiment, a device for carrying eyewear that can be attachable to a wearer's belt or portion of clothing is disclosed. The present invention improves over the prior art by providing a more aesthetically pleasing way to store and carry eyeglasses. Additionally, the present invention improves over the prior art by providing a system for monitoring the location of eyewear relative to a remote computing device, typically a mobile smart phone, so that a person can easier locate eyewear and his or her case. The device also provides a system for notifying a user if he or she leaves or forgets their eyewear and case, which will reduce the amount of money a user will have to spend if he or she has to re-purchase their glasses.
Another improvement over the prior art is that the present invention provides a user with an easy access to eyeglasses or sunglasses when worn on the belt. Another improvement over the prior art is that the invention provides a user with a less bulky way of storing eyeglasses or sunglasses. Another improvement over the prior is that the present invention provides a system for neatly including material used for cleaning eyewear within an eye glass case. Yet another improvement over the prior art is that device provides a stop means for preventing eyewear from inadvertently falling out of the case when the case is open.
Referring to the Figures,
The front section 115 and top section 110 of the hollow body are pivotally coupled to the bottom section of the body. As illustrated in the figures demonstrating the open state (
The top section of the device may also include a supplemental locking device or feature (not shown), such as a snap, button, with or otherwise to further secure the top side of the body to the back side of the body. Additionally, the top section of the hollow body may also be pivotally attached to the front section of the body to provide further access from above when in the open position.
The hollow body of the device may be formed from a variety of materials. For example, the various sides of the body may be formed from plastic, wood, aluminum, tin, metal, alloy, polymeric materials, other ferrous materials or any combination thereof. The surfaces of the inside of the body may be formed from soft material, such as velvet or cotton, such that the material facilitates the prevention of scratching of the eyeglasses or sunglasses lenses when placed inside of the device. The outside of the device may be curved slightly to further form to the curvature or contour of the waist of a wearer. The sections of the hollow body may comprise materials such as those commonly used in making eyewear cases. All these materials are those that are commonly known to those skilled in the art. It is understood that the use of other materials is within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
As is best illustrated when the device is in an open state (
An attaching device is coupled or affixed to an outward facing surface of the body. In one embodiment the attaching device is a spring biased hinged clip 130 coupled or affixed to an outward facing surface 125 of the back section. The spring biased hinged clip is configured to couple the hollow body of the case to an article of clothing or a waist belt (as is further explained below and illustrated in
As illustrated in
In other embodiments (not shown), other attaching devices may also be used. The strap may be similar to a strap of a woman's purse. The strap in one embodiments may be an elongated loop shaped body, which may be attached to a corner of the hollow shaped body 105 using a swivel type coupling or turn buckle. Additionally, turn buckles may be used for attaching other items such as key chains etc. on the device.
In yet another embodiment (not shown), the attaching device comprises a first magnet and a second magnet, wherein the first magnet is coupled to the outside of said back section and the second magnet is adapted to be positioned on an article of clothing proximate to a waist of a wearer. The first magnet is configured to mate with the second magnet. In operation, a person may affix the second magnet to an article of clothing. In order to attach the device to the article of clothing a user can bring the device within close enough proximity so that it allows the magnetic forces of the first and second magnets to couple the first and second magnets together, thereby coupling the device to the clothing being worn by the person.
In one embodiment, the device comprises a pocket 135 coupled to the outward facing surface of the back section of a hollow body. The pocket is configured to hold a communications tag 147 configured for wireless communication with a monitoring device. In one embodiment, the pocket comprises an outer part 145 having a pocket opening 140 on one end of the pocket and a pin hole 320 (best illustrated in
In one embodiment the device may include a communicating device 147 that may include communication tag. The communication tag is configured for transmitting a signal to a monitoring device. The signal is configured for being received by a monitoring device. The monitoring device is configured for monitoring a proximity of communication tag relative to the monitoring device based upon the signal received. The monitoring device is configured for sending an alert message for display on a user interface of a remote computing device if the monitoring device determines that the proximity is greater than a threshold proximity.
Referring to
In operation, in order for a user to install the device on a wearer's belt, a force must be applied to the elongated member 346 of the spring biased hinge clip such that the first end of the spring biased hinge clip pivots away from the back section 120 of the hollow body. Next, a user may position the elongated member 346 of the spring biased hinged clip such that a belt strap is between the elongated member of the spring biased hinged clip and the back section of the hollow body. Next, as the force pivoting the elongated member is removed, the hollow body and the elongated member 346 become substantially parallel to one another as illustrated in
In order to open the case to insert eyewear into the cavity 205 of the hollow body, a force must act upon the top section 110 and front section 115 in order to pivot the front section and top section away from the back section of the device (as illustrated in
When the hollow body is an open position as illustrated in
With reference to
Computing device 600 may have additional features or functionality. For example, computing device 600 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
Computing device 600 may also contain a communication connection 616 that may allow device 600 to communicate with other computing devices 618, such as over a network in a distributed computing environment, for example, an intranet or the Internet. Communication connection 616 is one example of communication media. Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” may describe a signal that has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, Bluetooth™ technology, WIFI, infrared technology, ZigBee technology and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein may include both computer storage media and communication media.
As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored in system memory 604, including operating system 605. While executing on processing unit 602, programming modules 606 (e.g. program module 607) may perform processes including, for example, one or more of the stages of the process 500 as described above. The aforementioned processes are examples, and processing unit 602 may perform other processes. Other programming modules that may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention may include electronic mail and contacts applications, word processing applications, spreadsheet applications, database applications, slide presentation applications, drawing or computer-aided application programs, etc.
Generally, consistent with embodiments of the invention, program modules may include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that may perform particular tasks or that may implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, embodiments of the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be practiced in an electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip (such as a System on Chip) containing electronic elements or microprocessors. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced using other technologies capable of performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition, embodiments of the invention may be practiced within a general purpose computer or in any other circuits or systems.
Embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
While certain embodiments of the invention have been described, other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the present invention have been described as being associated with data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from the invention.
In one embodiment, a second spring biased hinged clip 235 is coupled to an inside surface of the back section of hollow body. The second spring biased hinged clip is configured for retaining against the inside surface of the hollow body a piece of material for cleaning eyewear lens. In many cases, the piece of cleaning material cannot be properly fit inside of an eyewear case. Eyewear cases have a limited amount of space for carrying items. Many times there is not room inside of a case to carry both a cleaning cloth and eyewear. Many times a cleaning cloth haphazardly inserted into an eyewear case and can cause the eyewear to not properly fit inside the case, which may damage the eyewear. In the present embodiment the second spring biased hinge clip or spring loaded clip allows a user to properly restrain a cleaning cloth against the inside surface of the back section of the hollow body (illustrated in
Although specific embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, those having ordinary skill in the art will understand that changes can be made to the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is not to be restricted, therefore, to the specific embodiments. Furthermore, it is intended that the appended claims cover any and all such applications, modifications, and embodiments within the scope of the present invention.
This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/096,626 filed Dec. 11, 2014 and the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62090626 | Dec 2014 | US |
