Patent Application
20130319450
This invention relates to a hair styling tool, and more specifically, to a hair styling tool with an automatically reversing cylinder allowing a user to more efficiently and more effectively brush and style hair by optimizing the brushing, smoothing and styling of each hair section.
This invention relates to a hair styling tool, and more specifically, to a hair styling tool with an automatically reversing cylinder allowing a user to more efficiently and more effectively brush and style hair by optimizing the brushing, smoothing and styling of each hair section.
Brushing hair pulls oil from the scalp region and spreads it throughout the hair, adding body and sheen to the hair and keeping the hair healthy. To add even more body or to style hair in particular shapes, many people blow dry their hair as they brush it. When simultaneously blow drying and brushing hair, desirable results are achieved by pulling the bristles of a hair brush through the hair while heat, such as in the form of hot air, is applied directly to the hair. One method of brushing involves partially rotating the brush so that the bristles move through the hair. A user can usually rotate a brush about one half turn manually and, after each half turn, the user pulls the brush from the hair. The brush is then replaced in a new location, usually adjacent to the preceding location, and the process is repeated. Various brushes have been developed as an improved hair brushing means. Exemplary embodiments of such brushes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,635 to Marino, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,631,646 to Ragosta both of which are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference.
Each of the brushes described have different ways of determining the direction and rotation for a cylinder associated with the brush. For example, in one embodiment the cylinder direction is changed manually using a switch. In another embodiment the direction of the cylinder is changed using either a mechanical means or an opto-electric sensor.
However, all of these methods, while functional, are either slow to react to a change in direction or cumbersome by forcing the user to stop styling and change the direction.
Therefore, there is a need for an automatically reversing cylinder allowing a user to more efficiently and more effectively brush and style hair by optimizing the brushing, smoothing and styling of each hair section.
In one exemplary embodiment, a hair styling tool is provided including a body, a cylinder extending from the body, the cylinder rotatable relative to the body, a motor for rotating the cylinder, and a styling arm attached to the body. The styling arm may be adapted to make contact with the cylinder and the styling arm may be movable between an open position in which the styling arm does not contact the cylinder and a closed position in which the styling arm contacts the cylinder. In a preferred embodiment, there is a spacing means between the styling arm and the cylinder so that in the closed position the styling arm does not touch the surface of the cylinder. The styling arm may include a brush head and/or a smoothing plate. In one exemplary embodiment, the hair styling tool may have a hinged or clam shell configuration.
A brush head of the hair styling tool may include a brush head housing, a smoothing plate housed within the brush head housing and a blade on which bristles are formed, the blade located between the housing and the smoothing plate. The bristles may be movable between an extended position in which the bristles protrude past the smoothing plate and a collapsed position in which the bristles are retracted with respect to the smoothing plate. The brush head housing may also include a bristle release knob, wherein the bristle release knob is adapted to contact the blade to maintain the blade in the extended position and wherein the bristle release knob is movable to be spaced from the blade to permit the blade to be placed in the collapsed position with the bristles retracted.
The hair styling tool may further include a heater adapted to heat the cylinder. The cylinder may have surface holes to dissipate heat and may include grooves or other types of indentations to provide additional friction between the cylinder and the brush head or smoothing plate.
In one exemplary embodiment, the blade is removable from the brush head and replaceable with one of a plurality of different blades having, for example, varying bristle patterns, densities and lengths or having no bristles at all. Additionally, in another exemplary embodiment, the brush head is removable and replaceable with one of a plurality of different brush heads.
In one exemplary embodiment there is provided a tool suitable for hair styling having an elongated body and a cylinder that rotates relative to the body in both a clockwise direction and a counterclockwise direction. The cylinder can also have a heater to heat the cylinder and/or a styling arm heater for heating the styling arm. The tool also has a motor to rotate the cylinder and a pivotal non-rotating styling arm that can be opened and closed on the cylinder for hair styling. The styling arm can have a brush head at its distal end for hair brushing and styling. The brush head can have a removable blade, from which the bristles extend, that allows for a plurality of interchangeable blades for the user to style their hair, each blade having a different bristle configuration. The brush head includes a smoothing plate, between two sets of bristles, and at least some of the bristles extend beyond the smoothing plate. The smoothing plate also has a concave surface curved the same degree as the cylinder.
The styling arm is supported by the body, and is movable between an open position and a closed position proximate to the cylinder for hair styling. A spring can be used for biasing the styling arm into the open position. A switch activates the motor to rotate the cylinder when the styling arm is moved toward the closed position from the open position. There is a spacing means for preventing the styling arm from overloading the motor or from contacting the cylinder. In one exemplary embodiment, the spacing means comprises a projection that engages a detent in the body, on the styling arm. Alternatively, the spacing means can comprise a projection on the body to engage a detent in the spacing arm.
The tool also has a detector for detecting the direction of movement of the styling arm along a user's hair. The detector is a rotatable member that is mechanically coupled to a shaft that is movable in and out of an air gapped inductor coil. Preferably, the shaft is made from a magnetic field inducing material, such as, for example, iron. Nominal inductance of the air gapped inductor coil will vary between 75 uh to 185 uh depending on the shaft location with respect to the air gapped inductor coil. The inductor is designed as a part of an RLC tank oscillator that will change the oscillation frequency output by an operational amplifier between 8 KHz to 8.88 KHz.
In one exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method to style a person's hair using the hair styling tool. First, allowing the heater to heat the cylinder. Then, placing the hair between the cylinder and the styling arm near the scalp with the styling arm in its open position. Next, moving the styling arm to its closed position and causing the switch to activate the motor to rotate the cylinder. Finally, while the cylinder is rotating, pulling the tool toward the tips of the hair, thereby styling the hair.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying figures where:
In previous systems, mechanical and opto-electrical devices where used to determine the direction that a user was using the hair tool to style their hair. Although these system did reverse the direction of the cylinder, users often had to pause while styling their hair for the change in direction to take place. The present invention obviates this problem by quickly and efficiently determining the direction that the user is moving the hair styling tool and automatically changing direction. The system is so effective, that motion and direction of the hair styling tool along a single strand of hair is detectable.
The system, methods, circuits and devices that implement the embodiments of the various features and advantages of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention. Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” is intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least an embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or “an embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. In addition, the first digit of each reference number indicates the figure where the element first appears.
As used in this disclosure, except where the context requires otherwise, the term “comprise” and variations of the term, such as “comprising”, “comprises” and “comprised” are not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.
In the following description, specific details are given to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific detail. Well-known circuits, structures and techniques may not be shown in detail in order not to obscure the embodiments. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail.
Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process that is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.
Moreover, a storage may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing information. The term “machine readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.
Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine-readable medium such as a storage medium or other storage(s). One or more than one processor may perform the necessary tasks in series, concurrently, distributed or in parallel. A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or a combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted through a suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
In the following description, certain terminology is used to describe certain features of one or more embodiments of the invention.
The term “tank circuit” refers to an RLC circuit (or LCR circuit) that is an electrical circuit consisting of a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor, connected in series or in parallel.
Various embodiments provide a system, circuit and a method for an automatically reversing cylinder allowing a user to more efficiently and more effectively brush and style hair by optimizing the brushing, smoothing and styling of each hair section. One embodiment of the present invention provides a system comprising one or more detection circuits for determining motion and direction of a hair styling tool. In another embodiment, there is provided a method for using the system. The system, circuit and method will now be disclosed in detail.
Referring to
With reference also to
Referring again to
An elongated hollow cylinder 24 may be rotatably mounted over the mounting channel 72. The mounting channel 72 may include a groove 81 into which teeth 83 protruding from a cap 27 of the cylinder 24 may be snapped to mount the cylinder to the mounting channel. A base 25 of the cylinder may be adapted to be connected to a distal portion of the body 22. In one exemplary embodiment, the base 25 of the cylinder 24 is connected to the body 22 by a slip fit. In one exemplary embodiment, teeth (not shown) on an inner circumference of the base 25 mesh with teeth on a cylinder drive gear 50 at a distal end of the body 22 to align the cylinder 24 to the body. A distal end of the cylinder 24 may include the cap 27 to seal the distal end of the cylinder and prevent, for example, hot air provided through the hot air channel 71 from escaping from the distal end of the cylinder. The cap 27 may contain teeth 83 to allow the cylinder to be mounted and secured by an interference fit to the mounting channel 72 as described above. The specific shape or dimensions of the cap 27 are not critical as long as the cap substantially covers the distal end of the cylinder 24 and prevents a significant amount of air from escaping from the distal end.
In one exemplary embodiment, the cylinder 24 includes a plurality of holes 30 which allow a flow of hot air from the hot air channel 72 to an exterior of the hair styling tool 20 and to contact hair adjacent the cylinder. In one exemplary embodiment, the holes 30 are circular and arranged in rows, evenly spaced throughout the cylinder 24. The even spacing of the holes 30 throughout the cylinder 24 allows for even distribution of hot air throughout the cylinder and also for uniform heating of the cylinder, thus providing uniform drying when the cylinder is applied to hair, as described in more detail below. Although one configuration of the holes 30 is described herein, the specific configuration of the holes is not critical, and the holes may be arranged in any configuration allowing hot air to travel from the hot air channel 72 through the cylinder 24. Additionally, although the described holes 30 are circular, the shape of the holes is not critical. The holes 30 also serve to increase the friction between the brush head housing and the cylinder, increasing the brushing effectiveness on the hair.
With reference to
The rotation assembly of the hair styling tool 20 will now be described with further reference to
In one exemplary embodiment, the electric motor 39 is reversible such that it can rotate the drive shaft 48 in either direction. A rotation direction switch 41 may be electrically connected to the motor 39 to allow the direction of the motor to be set by a user. The motor 39 may be powered by, for example, electricity from an electrical power cord 40, a rechargeable battery, or by other means sufficient to generate enough energy to power the motor. An activation switch 38 may be used to activate the motor 39 to drive rotation of the cylinder 24. The activation switch 38 may be located anywhere on the brush, but in exemplary embodiment, the rotation switch is located in a position such that it is activated when a pivot handle 36 is in a closed position, as described in more detail below. Although a specific system including gears is described to allow the motor 39 to rotate the cylinder 24, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many other similar configurations of the driving system will achieve the same result in substantially the same way.
An elongated styling arm may be attached to the body 22 of the hair styling tool 20. In one exemplary embodiment, the styling arm may be a brush head 26. The brush head 26 may include an array of bristles 28 mounted on a surface of the brush head and protruding toward an outer surface of the cylinder 24. The brush head 26 may also include vent holes 32 to allow hot air to enter or hot air and/or steam to escape to prevent the brush head from becoming dangerously hot. An exemplary brush head 26 venting pattern is shown in
In one exemplary embodiment, as shown in
With reference again to
Referring now to
The cylinder 124 includes a heat transfer assembly 64 attached to an inner circumferential surface of the cylinder and adapted to allow the cylinder to slide over and make contact with the heating rod 60. The heat transfer assembly 64 may be any suitable heat transfer material, for example, plastic, metal, ceramic, or any combination thereof. Accordingly, when the heating rod 60 is heated, the heat is transferred by conduction from the heating rod to the heat transfer assembly 64 and to an exterior surface of the cylinder 124. The cylinder 124 includes holes 66, for example, concave indentations or convex protrusions, which enhance hair engagement as the cylinder rotates. In one exemplary embodiment, an exterior surface of the cylinder 124 is slightly corrugated to increase the friction between the hair and the cylinder as the cylinder rotates. Although a specific heating system, including a heat transfer assembly 64 is described to allow the heating rod 60 to conduct heat to the rotating cylinder 124, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many other similar configurations of the heating system will achieve the same result in substantially the same way, including using a radiant heating element instead of heating rod 60, which may eliminate the need for a heat transfer assembly such as 64.
Referring to
With further reference to
Another exemplary embodiment of the hair styling tool is shown with respect to
Yet another exemplary embodiment of a brush head 110 is shown with reference to
The brush head housing 112 is also adapted to slidingly receive a blade 113 including bristles 114. The brush head housing 112 includes a bristle release knob 111a/111b adapted to be received into a release knob slot 133 located on a planar surface of the brush head housing. Specifically, with reference to
Still another exemplary embodiment of a brush head 400 of the present invention is shown with respect to
Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown with reference to
As will understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the “S” shaped lever arm configuration may also be used with any of the exemplary styling arms described above.
Yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown with reference to
In one exemplary embodiment, the styling arm 151 may be biased, for example, by a spring, into an open position such that the styling arm is not in contact with the cylinder 24. A force to overcome the bias may be applied to the styling arm 151 to place the styling arm in a closed position wherein the styling arm contacts the cylinder.
The operation and use of the hair styling tool 20 will now be described with reference to
The brushing, shaping and styling effects may be enhanced by using the heat apparatus associated with exemplary embodiments of the brush. Specifically, the hot air fan assembly 44 or the heating rod may be activated to heat the cylinder 24 as it rotates. Additionally or alternatively, the heatable smoothing plates 108,115, 208 or 412 of the brush heads 100,110, 200 or 400 may be heated. The heat applied to the hair by the cylinder 24 and/or the brush heads 100,110, 200 or 400 not only allows the hair to dry more quickly, but also provides the hair with smoothing volume and a healthy shine.
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
The tool 1300 also has a spacing means 1320, such as, for example, an adjustable screw, a projection on the styling arm 1314, or a fixed plastic stop among others, positioned to engage a detent 1309 in the body 1302 or a spacing arm 1321 prevents the styling arm 1314 from contacting the cylinder 1322. The distance between the cylinder 1322 and the styling arm 1314 can be between 0.001 mm and 0.5 mm. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the distance is 0.3 mm. Preferably, the motor 1308 has current overload protection as is known in the art. If current drawn by the tool 1300 exceeds a target level, such as, for example, 7 amps of current provided from a standard electrical socket, or if too much current is being drawn by the tool 1300, the command circuit 1306 can intermittently turn off motor 1308 or deactivate the tool 1300 completely, like a fuse, as a safety precaution. For example, an excessive current load can happen from a short circuit in a heating element, or from a user clamping the tool 1300 down on the hair with too much pressure, thereby bypassing the spacing means, and causing the styling arm 1314 and the cylinder 1322 to forcefully contact one another.
The styling arm 1314 can have interchangeable brush heads 1316 and 1317, at its distal end for evenly spacing the user's hair between the styling arm 1314 and the cylinder 1322. The brush heads 1316 and 1317 can each have a plurality of bristles and variety of bristles to suit the hair type of the user. For example, a user with coarser hair can use larger bristle brush heads 1316 and 1317 to more easily move through the coarse hair. In another embodiment, the brush heads 1316 and 1317 also have a bristle release knob (not shown) with a first and second position to move the bristles 1317 into the extended position in the first knob position, and to collapse the bristle 1317 in the second knob position.
In another embodiment, a smoothing plate 1318 can be located between the brush heads 1316 and 1317. The smoothing plate 1318 has a curved concave surface, substantially the same as the cylinder 1322, to maximize the effectiveness of the smoothing plate 1318 and the rotating cylinder 1322. In one embodiment, at least some of the bristles 1316 and 1317 can extend beyond the smoothing plate 1318. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the bristles 1316 and 1317 are movable between an extended position protruding past the smoothing plate 1318 and a collapsed position in which the bristles 1316 and 1317 are retracted with respect to the smoothing plate 1318.
In one embodiment, the switch 1304 can turn the optional cylinder heater 1324 on or off and can turn the motor 1308 on or off to rotate the cylinder 1322 relative to the body in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. In a preferred embodiment, the control circuit 1308 can automatically detect the direction of movement of the styling arm 1314 along a user's hair when the styling arm 1314 is in a closed position and automatically rotate the cylinder 1322 in the correct direction. Optionally, the styling arm 1314 can have a projection 1315 that can engage a switch detent 1303 in the body 1302 that can signal the control circuit 1306 to automatically rotate the cylinder 1322 when the user places the styling arm 1314 in the closed position.
With reference to
With reference to
In a preferred embodiment, the inductor coil assembly 1510 is an air spaced inductor coil. Additionally, the magnetic conductor pole is selected from the group of magnetic field inducing materials and preferably iron.
The air gapped inductor coil detector automatically identifies and selects the proper rotation direction of the cylinder 1522 for each pass through the user's hair ensuring optimum brushing, smoothing and styling of each hair section. This frees the user from having to deliberately determine and select the direction of rotation in a manual or semi-automated manner or having the device select a default direction of rotation regardless of true optimal direction.
In one embodiment of this invention the barrel shaft 1520, the cylinder 1522 and the end cap 1524 are is mechanically coupled to an iron magnetic conductor pole 1514 that is movable in and out of an air gapped inductor coil 1510. Nominal inductance of the air gapped inductor coil varies between 75 uh to 185 uh depending on the location of the iron magnetic conductor pole 1514 with respect the air gapped inductor coil 1510. The inductor coil 1510 is designed as a part of an RLC tank oscillator that will change the oscillation frequency output of an operational amplifier 1608 between 8 KHz to 8.88 KHz.
With reference to
When the user places as little as a single strand of hair into the hair styling tool 1300 and begins to move the hair styling tool 1300 in a direction, the magnetic conductor pole 1514 changes position and an electricity is conducted through the inductor coil assembly 1510. The amount of electricity generated by the movement of the magnetic conductor pole 1514 in proximity to the inductor coil assembly 1510 is detected by the RLC tank 1612, the operational amplifier 1608 and the microcontroller 1602. Once the amount of movement has been determined by the circuit 1600, the motor is driven in the same direction as the movement of the hair styling tool 1300.
With reference to
With reference to
In another embodiment, there is provided a method to style a person's hair using the styling tool 1300. The user can style their hair by first selecting the tool 1300. Next, turning on the switch 1304 and allowing the heater to heat the cylinder 1322, the styling arm 1314 or both the cylinder 1322 and the styling arm 1314. Then, placing the user's hair between the cylinder 1322 and the styling arm 1314 near the scalp with the styling arm 1314 in an open position. Next, moving the styling arm 1314 to a closed position thereby causing the switch 1303 to activate the motor 1308 to rotate the cylinder 1322 and while the cylinder 1322 is rotating, styling the hair by pulling the tool toward the tips of the hair.
Although the present invention has been described with a degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made by way of example. As various changes could be made in the above description without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be illustrative and not used in a limiting sense.
