Patent Application
20180103766
The present invention is broadly directed to lumbar and neck supports provided to a user to supplement portions of seating for a person along a back rest.
Millions of Americans suffer from back pain which generally involves the cervical and lumbar spines. The majority of the back pain is related to spondylosis or what is generally called degenerative disease. Other contribution factors are related to poor posture, congenital or developmental back problems and prior history of back injury. Back supports provided in addition to seat cushions or rigid surfaces allow proper spinal alignment has been shown to improve these problems. While numerous back support devices have been proposed in the prior art, these devices are single use devices and are often neglected or left behind as a user moves from one location to another. Numerous prior art devices are configured in a fixed configuration, such as a solid foam cylinder. There is a need for multi-purpose devices for lumbar and neck support which encourages a user to carry the support from one location to another.
US Publication 20030045824 discloses an inflatable portable lumbar support as encouragement to carry the support in a compact manner. The general idea of inflatable lumbar supports is found again in U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,827, where a longitudinal cavity is formed by inflation of a lumbar area of a user in a chair. Further encouraging portability of a lumbar support is one found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,993 for removable attachment by straps to the back of a chair, similar to the support found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,386. Also similar to the portable support of the '993 patent is one with an incorporated a very thin layered heating or cooling cell located just beneath a cover fabric. The '386 patent describes the necessity of making the cell very thin to accomplish the conforming function of the support from highly curved to entirely flat.
The present invention is (1) a lumbar support and/or (2) a neck support incorporating a water or liquid containing bottle for beverages. The invention devices are shaped to provide lumbar or neck support but retain a removable cap and a large internal volume for storage of a beverage.
While prior art neck or lumbar supports have been proven to be effective for their intended purposes, they are sole purpose devices. In airplane or bus travel where possessions of a passenger within their reach is typically very limited, the passenger will typically carry a beverage bottle of some type and a lumbar or neck support. The present invention frees the passenger from having to carry two space taking devices and combines them into a single, easy to carry product incorporating in the form factor of the lumbar or neck support a beverage bottle.
It is an object of the invention that the beverage bottle incorporated into an encircling layer of padding material with an outside surface shape of the support surface and rear surfaces be capable of being removed and replaced through an opening in one of the end walls of the invention lumbar or neck support or by way of recloseable opening in the encircling padding material to replace a leaky or empty bottle with a full one. Beverage bottles may be relatively thin walled plastic well known in the field of non-carbonated and carbonated beverages or may be an insulated thermos or vacuum bottle that is insertable through an opening in an end wall of the invention lumbar or neck support.
Because re-filling the beverage bottle my result in spilling of liquids on the beverage bottle, an opening in or having removable padding material is another object of the invention relative to the beverage bottle.
Various objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention. The drawings submitted herewith constitute a part of this specification, include exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and illustrate various objects and features thereof.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure.
Referring to the drawings in more detail,
It is a critical feature of one embodiment of the inventions is for that cutout 17 be made in an upper part of bottle 11 so that a user may easily carry bottle 11 from one location to the next, as bottle 11 is intended to have substantial weight in the form of beverages contained in it. In a preferred embodiment, a slight downward curve is formed in the upper portion of cutout 17 to enhance support of the weight and to better conform to a human hand carrying the device.
It is preferred that front plate 16 comprises flexible polymer material so that a user's lumbar spinal section may compress it instead of encountering a rigid support surface. It is an alternate embodiment of the device 10 that at least the front plate 11 be covered in compressible foam and a fabric surface to further enhance the comfort provided to a user of device 10.
Bottle 33 comprises a generally long vertical, cylindrical shape very similar to that of water or soft drink bottles, i.e., in the form factor of, say, the classic Coke® bottle in a one or two liter size. A user is more likely, thereby, to be accustomed to carrying a similar bottle, where the present device 30 comprises a neck support at impressions 36, 37 and 38 made in the general form factor of a beverage bottle. Impression 36 is generally outlined at lines 35 in a lower portion of bottle 30. Impression 38 is generally outlined at lines 34 in bottle 30. Impression 37 is continuous with and between impressions 36 and 38. The scalloped portion removed in the bottle form factor represented in bottle 30 is shallow at impressions 36 and 38 and deepest at impression 37 so that a the entire impression or scalloped section of bottle 30 is adapted to receive a base portion of a human neck so that bottle 30 is urged rearward of the neck pressing into impressions 36, 37 and 38, whereby a backside 41 is urged against a solid surface where a user's head might normally lie, resulting in elevation of the user's neck away from that solid surface and preventing the user's neck from being uncomfortably urged further toward that solid surface.
Bottle 30 comprises a sealed base 44 an right side 40, where lower section 43 is scooped out at impression 36 but is in the form factor of a cylindrical beverage bottle at backside 41.
It is preferred that bottle 33 comprises flexible polymer material so that a user's neck may compress it instead of encountering a rigid support surface. It is an alternate embodiment of the device 30 that at least the impressions 36, 37 and 38 be covered in compressible foam and a fabric surface to further enhance the comfort provided to a user of device 30.
Thus, the invention in several embodiments is a portable lumbar support for support of a user's lower back in a chair or seat comprising a generally wedge shape of two end walls connected by a rear surfaces and a support surface. It will be appreciated from examination of the drawing figures that rear surfaces of the wedge shape are supported on a seat surface of the chair and a back surface of the chair, so that the support surface of the wedge shape is oriented upward and outward from the seat surface of the chair and the back surface of the chair to thereby support a back of a user. It is critical that a beverage bottle be incorporated within the wedge shape with a recloseable external opening of the bottle being accessible by a user. Padded material can entirely encircle of only partly encircle the support surface and rear surfaces. Thickness and softness of the padded materials depends upon a user's preference for soft or firm polymer foam or other padding materials and a cover fabric for the padded materials. For instance, a user may desire to be supported structurally almost entirely and not to sense the shape of the beverage bottle, in which case a beverage bottle has a small diameter relative to the entire cross section shape of the encircling padding materials and the beverage bottle is embedded more distant from the support surface and more toward the rear surfaces.
As described above, the overall shape of the invention portable neck support is in the form factor of a one or two liter soft drink bottle, but where the support surface is substantially flattened in a center portion and the rear surfaces comprise a generally cylindrical shape of the form factor of a one or two liter soft drink bottle.
The portable lumbar support of the invention can be a heating or cooling aid for the lower back or neck of a user, where all or a part of the support surface and rear surfaces are a minimally padded or no-padded layer hot or cold liquid contents of the beverage bottle transfer heat between a user and liquid contents of the beverage bottle through exposed surfaces of the beverage bottle so that hot or cold liquid contents of the beverage bottle heat or cool a user's back or neck.
It is to be understood that while certain forms of the present invention have been illustrated and described herein, it is not to be limited to the specific forms or arrangement of parts described and shown.
This application claims priority to Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/407,797, filed on Sep. 13, 2016, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62407797 | Oct 2016 | US |
