Patent Application
20080196714
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to diving equipment and more particularly to a dive mask having an improved nose enclosure with a flexible portion formed on either side of the nose enclosure or either cheek of the skirt.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an “ear pressure equalization” act is done by a person prior to swimming, diving including surface diving, or engaging in any of other water sports activities. In detail, air in the middle ear is compressed gradually due to the increase of pressure as a diver continues to plunge deeper into the water. Also, pressure exerted on the external ear increases. And in turn, it can cause the external pressure of the ear drum to be unequal to the internal pressure thereof. As a result, the diver may feel pain in the ear drum. For relieving the pain, a diver usually takes an “ear pressure equalization” act which involves squeezing the nose with the hand and inhaling so that air can forcedly enter the middle ears through the throat and the Eustachian tubes.
For a diver wearing a dive mask having a nose enclosure put on the nose, the “ear pressure equalization” act involves pressing two sides of the nose enclosure to block the nostrils by the hand and inhaling so that air can forcedly enter the middle ears through the throat and the Eustachian tubes. However, the rigid nose enclosure of the conventional dive mask makes it difficult of pressing the sides of the nose enclosure. To the worse, a forced pressing may break the dive mask. Hence, water can enter into the face when diving. Thus, a need for improvement exists in order to overcome the inadequacy of the nose enclosure of the well known dive mask.
It is therefore one object of the invention to provide a dive mask having a flexible portion formed on either side of a nose enclosure or either cheek portion of a flexible skirt such that a pressing of the flexible portions with the hand, as a first step of “ear pressure equalization” act prior to diving, will stretch same substantially without causing movement of a peripheral edge of the skirt. By utilizing this dive mask, it is possible of relieving pain of the nose or preventing water from entering the dive mask.
In one aspect of the invention the flexible portions are wrinkles formed on cheek portions of the skirt spaced from both sides of the nose enclosure so that recesses can be formed due to the pressing and other portions of the skirt are substantially not adapted to move.
In another aspect of the invention the flexible portions are wrinkles formed on both sides of the nose enclosure so that recesses can be formed due to the pressing and other portions of the skirt are substantially not adapted to move.
In a further aspect of the invention the flexible portions are concentric ridges and grooves formed on both sides of the nose enclosure so that recesses can be formed due to the pressing and other portions of the skirt are substantially not adapted to move.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The skirt 10 is a well known device. The skirt 10 is substantially oval and is made of silicon or the like. The skirt 10 is dimensioned to cover an area of the face, longitudinally from under the forehead to a portion between the nose and the mouth, and transversely from one side of the face to the other side including the eyes and a portion of the cheeks. The nose enclosure 40 is disposed under a bridge between left and right openings of the frame 20.
The frame 20 is provided in front of the eyes. As known in the prior art, either a transparent lens as a unitary window is fitted around the front opening of the skirt 10 or the frame 20 is provided to sealingly secure one or two transparent lens as window(s) on the skirt 10.
The strap 10 is adapted to hold the dive mask on the head. One or two tensioning devices (not shown) are provided in the strap 30 for adjusting the length of the strap 30 as known in the art.
The nose enclosure 40 is integrally formed with the skirt 10 in the embodiment.
Referring to
Alternatively, the sides 41 of the nose enclosure 40 are formed as recesses. Hence, pressing the sides 41 will deform the recessed sides 41 first prior to stretching the wrinkled portions 50. This arrangement is more advantageous.
Referring to
In brief, the flexible deformation of the wrinkled portions 50 or the concentric portions 50′ on the sides of the nose enclosure 40 or 40′ can substantially prevent the skirt 10 or 10′ from moving. As a result, the “ear pressure equalization” act involving the pressing of the sides of the nose enclosure as a first step can be done effectively.
Moreover, the above wrinkled portions 50 or the concentric portions 50′ can be formed on both cheeks of the skirt in other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.
While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.
