Patent Application
20050241115
The present invention relates to a holder for a pair of eyeglasses and, more particularly, to a necklace assembly for holding eyeglasses which can be worn about the neck.
Generally, persons who wear eyeglasses remove and replace them frequently during the course of a day. When an eyeglass wearer removes his or her eyeglasses, it is usually desired to keep the eyeglasses close at hand in order to be able to replace them conveniently. Upon removing eyeglasses, therefore, eyeglass wearers frequently place the eyeglasses in a pocket of a shirt or coat, or hang the eyeglasses from a neck opening of a sweater or a blouse by inserting a temple piece of the eyeglasses down inside the garment. However, eyeglasses may fall from a shirt or coat pocket or from a neck opening of a sweater or blouse when the eyeglass wearer bends over, which is at best an annoyance and which can result in damage to the eyeglasses. In addition, certain styles of garments do not have pockets or neck openings suitable for holding eyeglasses.
Thus, a need exists for an eyeglass holder necklace assembly which holds a pair of eyeglasses neatly and securely even as a wearer of the necklace assembly moves about.
The present invention provides, in a first aspect, a necklace assembly for holding a pair of eyeglasses which includes a necklace and an eyeglass-holder assembly. The necklace has a first end and second end. The eyeglass-holder assembly includes an eyeglass-holder loop, a first swivel linker and a second swivel linker. The eyeglass-holder loop includes an opening passing therethrough shaped and dimensioned to receive a temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses. Each swivel linker has a necklace-side connector and a holder-loop-side connector. The necklace-side connector and the holder-loop-side connector are rotatably connected to each other to allow full rotation about a swivel axis. The holder-loop-side connectors of the first swivel linker and the second swivel linker are connected to the eyeglass-holder loop at locations spaced apart from one another about the loop and the holder-loop-side connectors are rotatable about the loop. Each necklace-side connector is fixably connected to the necklace. The necklace assembly may be worn about the neck of the wearer with a pair of eyeglasses in a folded-closed configuration removably pendulously held in the eyeglass-holder loop of the eyeglass-holder assembly with a temple piece extending downwardly from one side of the eyeglass-holder loop opening and a lens frame of the eyeglasses extending downwardly from an opposite side of the loop opening. Twisting induced in the necklace by movement of the wearer tends to be relieved by rotation of the holder-loop-side connectors relative to the necklace-side connectors and/or the holder-loop-side connectors relative to the loop.
The present invention provides, in a second aspect, a necklace assembly for holding a pair of eyeglasses which includes a necklace and an eyeglass-holder assembly. The necklace has a first end and a second end. The eyeglass-holder assembly includes an eyeglass-holder loop, a first swivel linker and a second swivel linker. The eyeglass-holder loop includes an opening passing therethrough shaped and dimensioned to receive a temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses. Each swivel linker has a necklace-side connector and a holder-loop-side connector. The necklace-side connector and the holder-loop-side connector are rotatably connected to each other to allow full rotation about a swivel axis. The swivel axis is substantially aligned with a longitudinal axis of one of the first end and the second end of the necklace. The holder-loop-side connectors of the first swivel linker and the second swivel linker are connected to the eyeglass-holder loop at locations spaced apart from one another about the loop, and the holder-loop-side connectors are rotatable about the loop. The necklace assembly may be worn about the neck of the wearer with a pair of eyeglasses in a folded-closed configuration removably pendulously held in the eyeglass-holder loop of the eyeglass-holder assembly with a temple piece extending downwardly from one side of the eyeglass-holder loop opening and a lens frame of the eyeglasses extending downwardly from an opposite side of the loop opening. Twisting induced in the necklace by movement of the wearer tends to be relieved by rotation of the holder-loop-side connectors relative to the necklace-side connectors and/or the holder-loop-side connectors relative to the loop.
The present invention provides, in a third aspect, a swivel-linker for use in a necklace assembly for holding a pair of eyeglasses which includes a necklace-side connector and a holder-loop-side connector. The necklace-side connector is attachable to a necklace. The holder-loop-side connector has a connector opening configured to receive an eyeglass-holder loop having an eyeglass opening passing therethrough shaped and dimensioned to receive a temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses. The connector opening is configured to allow the holder-loop-side connector to rotate about the eyeglass-holder loop when the eyeglass-holder loop is received in the connector opening. The holder-loop-side connector includes a pin protruding away from the connector opening. The necklace-side connector has a cavity configured to receive the pin and to rotatably connect the necklace-side connector and the holder-loop-side connector to allow a full rotation between the necklace-side connector and the holder-loop-side connector about a swivel axis. Rotation of the holder-loop-side connector relative to the necklace-side-connector and/or the holder-loop-side connector relative to the eyeglass-holder-loop relieves twisting induced in the necklace in response to the holder-loop-side connector receiving the eyeglass-holder loop, the necklace-side connector being connected to the necklace and the necklace being worn about the neck of a wearer with a pair of eyeglasses in a folded-closed configuration removably pendulously held in the eyeglass-holder loop with a temple piece extending downwardly from one side of the eyeglass-holder loop opening and a lens frame of the eyeglasses extending downwardly from an opposite side of the eyeglass opening.
The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a necklace assembly for holding a pair of eyeglasses is provided. In an exemplary embodiment depicted in
Necklace 14 is depicted in
At opposite ends of necklace 14 are a first necklace end 16 and a second necklace end 18. Eyeglass-holder assembly 20 is connected to first necklace end 16 and second necklace end 18. Eyeglass-holder assembly 20 includes an eyeglass-holder ring 22, a first swivel linker 24, and a second swivel linker 26.
First swivel linker 24 and second swivel linker 26 are constructed identically. As shown best in
In particular, a top end 27 of necklace-side connector 28 of second swivel linker 26 is fixedly connected to second necklace end 18 and a bottom end 29 of necklace-side connector 28 is rotatably connected to holder-ring-side connector ring 30. More specifically, necklace-side connector 28 may be cylindrically shaped. Also, necklace-side connector 28 includes a cavity 21 which may receive second necklace end 18. An interior surface 23 defining cavity 21 may be glued to second necklace end 18 to fixedly connect necklace-side connector 28 to second necklace end 18. Interior surface 23 may also include a groove 31 for receiving a linker pin 32 of holder-ring-side connector ring 30. Interior surface 23 may be cylindrically shaped, exclusive of groove 31.
Linker pin 32 projects radially outwardly from an outer circumferential surface 130 of a loop portion 132 of connector ring 30. Linker pin 32 is substantially rotationally symmetric about an axis 140 which defines a swivel axis associated with second swivel linker 26 as depicted in
Necklace-side connector 28 of second swivel linker 26 has an opening passing radially through it which forms cavity 21. Interior surface 23 of cavity 21 is substantially rotationally symmetric with a contour which is complementary to the outside surfaces of linker pin 32. In particular, interior surface 23 of cavity 21 has an outer portion 143 which corresponds to neck portion 36 of linker pin 32 and includes an expanded radially inner portion, i.e., groove 31, which corresponds to head portion 34. Outer portion 143 has a smaller inside diameter than groove 31.
Linker pin 32 of holder-ring-side connector ring 30 of second swivel linker 26 may extend within cavity 21 of the necklace-side connector 28 of the swivel linker 26 and is retained against withdrawal in the swivel axis direction by interference between the greater outside diameter of head portion 34 of linker pin 32 and the smaller inside diameter of outer portion 143. The inside diameter of groove 31 is sufficiently greater than outside diameters of corresponding portions (e.g., head portion 34) of the linker pin 32 to provide clearance for linker pin 32 to rotate unimpeded about swivel axis 140 in groove 31 and cavity 21.
As shown best in
A second pivot axis may be defined for the pivotal connection between the eyeglass-holder ring 22 and the second swivel linker 26 as a second pivot axis 150 about which pivotal motion between eyeglass-holder ring 22 and swivel linker 26 can occur as best shown in
First swivel linker 24 includes a holder-ring-side connector ring 70 rotatably connected to a necklace-side connector 50 by the pin-and-socket arrangement described above in connection with the second swivel linker 26, as depicted in
Turning again to
A central opening 76 of the eyeglass-holder ring 22 of the eyeglass-holder assembly 20 defines a temple-piece-receiver ring opening 76. Eyeglasses 12 in a folded closed configuration can be held in the eyeglass-holder ring 22 with temple piece 78 of the eyeglasses extending downwardly from one side of the temple-piece-receiver ring opening 76 and the lens frame 80 of the eyeglasses extending downwardly from the opposite side of ring opening 76. The first and the second swivel linkers 24 and 26 relieve twisting which can occur in necklace 14 as a result of movement of the wearer of necklace assembly 10, so that necklace 14 and eyeglass-holder assembly 20 bearing the eyeglasses 12 tend to lie neatly on the chest of the wearer.
It is not intended to limit the present invention to the specific embodiments described above. For example, the eyeglass-holder loop of the eyeglass-holder assembly of the necklace assembly of the invention could have an oval, hexagonal, octagonal, serpentine or other non-circular shape. Jewelry chains or strings of beads of a wide variety of styles may be used for the necklace of the necklace assembly of the invention.
Further, the necklace-side connectors and holder-ring-side connector rings may be formed of various shapes and sizes configured to connect to necklaces and eyeglass-holder loops, respectively. For example, the necklace-side connectors could be spherically shaped. Also, a cavity (e.g. cavity 21) of a necklace-side connector (e.g., necklace-side connector 28) could be of any of various shapes and sizes configured to receive various size projecting components (e.g., pin 32) of various shaped holder-side connectors (e.g., holder-ring-side connector ring 30). Also, grooves (e.g., groove 32) in such cavities of such necklace-side connectors could be of various shapes and sizes configured (e.g., shaped and dimensioned) to receive such projecting components while rotatably connecting the necklace-side connectors and projecting components. Also, loop portions (e.g., loop portion 132) of holder-side connectors (e.g., holder-ring-side connector rings 30) may be continuous loops without openings when connected to necklace-side connectors (e.g., necklace-side connector 28). Alternatively, one or more loop portions connected to an eyeglass-holder loop (e.g., eyeglass-holder loop 22) may be openable at one or more locations to allow releasable attachment of such loop portions to the eyeglass-holder loop.
Although preferred embodiments have been depicted and described in detail herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that various modifications, additions, substitutions and the like can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and these are therefore considered to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
