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(1) Technical Field
The present investigation is related to a walking stick or other monopod which has an attachment in the form of a pooper scooper device and more specifically a monopod based device to collect and dispose of solid pet waste.
(2) Background Art
According to the 2013-2014 American Pet Products Association Inc. (APPA) National Pet Owners Survey, there are 83.3 million pet dogs in the United States alone. Dogs are very faithful companions and dog walking is a favorite activity among many dog owners. However, there is an obligation while walking a dog; to pick-up the dog wastes from any public place and dispose of it in a proper disposable bin. A good pooper scooper which can be carried during pet walk should be easy to carry, able to pick up solid pet waste without bending and without exposing pet owner to the pet waste, easily and hygienically able to carry after the pet waste has been picked up, allow easy disposal the waste and the device remain clean after their use.
There have been prior attempts to developing a pooper scooper and there are various designs that are patented and commercially available. However, these designs have their own objectives and thus are only useful in limited scope. Known prior inventions for pet waste collection on tubular platform includes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,200 issued to Mashayuki Yoshioka, described to insert the casing members inside the tubular body with a pair of casing members to hold a sack.
US20020140240A1 issued to Ernest Charette described for a pair of bag supporting pivoting arms which can be folded. U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,967 issued to Verlon M Brown has a collapsible stalk with a pair of hinged casing members. U.S. Pat. No. 7,232,165 issued to David Zelon, has a nested wand which can be extended by activation of an actuator. It also has a pair of prong unit to hang a disposable bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,411 issued to Wang-On Kwok described for an extension handle with a V shaped resilient support arm and a cylindrical insert to lock the plastic bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,050 issued to Searing et al. described for a bag frame attached at one end of the handle. The bag frame also has an actuator device to close the bag frame. However all these are the dung or animal waste collecting devices with a pair of bag supporting arms that collects the animal waste by directly placing the sack under the rump of the pet animal. These devices cannot be used to collect the pet waste from the ground. Known prior invention to collect the pet waste from the floor and are on tubular platform includes: U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,618 issued to Pedro Figueroa described for an elongated pole with a pair of pivoting arms. A bag is placed on the pivoting arm and scooped by trigger mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,310 issued to Ho Yin Lau described for an elongated pole with a pair of pivoting arm at lower segment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,073 issued to Jeffrey A Harrison described for a shovel with a disposable bag. These devices fulfill their respective objectives and requirements; however has the limitation that the pet waste remains below the pole. Hence it is not very comfortable to carry to pet waste disposal while pet waste is still in the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,544,413 to Abaragidan Gnanendran is a waste bag dispenser for the pet waste and not useful to collect the pet waste from the floor.
The structure, purpose and mechanism of these patents are totally different than the proposed invention. The proposed invention is mainly developed for a pet walk. It is a monopod or walking stick and a hopper shape box attached at lower segment of the stick. It is used to collect the pet/dog waste from the ground and pet waste remains stored in the pooper scooper device and above the walking stick base hence it is easy to carry for the disposal.
One aspect of the present invention is a monopod or a stick mounted solid pet waste collecting and disposing system comprising of a stick or other monopod, a pooper scooper box, a disposable case, a spring hinge or pivot, a control assembly to move hinge up and down, a control assembly to open and close pooper scooper box and a control assembly to eject the disposable box out of pooper scooper box.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a solid pet waste collecting and disposing system comprising:
In the disclosed embodiment, the pivotally-coupled pair of compartments are spring loaded toward the closed-together state.
The disclosed embodiment includes a disposable case, wherein the pooper scooper box comprises an open face through which the disposable case is removably insertable into the pooper scooper box
In the disclosed embodiment, the open face of the pooper scooper box is located at an end thereof that faces upwardly toward the top of the elongated stick in the parked position.
The disclosed embodiment includes a telescopic rod disposed within the stick and moveable between an extended position extending through the lower end of the elongated stick and a retracted position upwardly withdrawn from the lower end of the elongated stick, wherein the pooper scooper box has a window therein that is located opposite the open face and the movable connection is arranged to enable movement of the pooper scooper box past the deployed position into a lowered position residing beneath the lower end of the elongated stick with the window facing toward said lower end of the elongated stick, whereby movement of the telescopic rod into the extended position with the pooper scooper box in the lowered position forces the disposable case downwardly out of the pooper scooper box through the open face thereof.
The disclosed embodiment includes comprising a third control mechanism having a third control input mounted to the elongated stick proximate the top thereof and operably linked to the telescopic rod to control movement thereof between the extended and retracted positions.
In the disclosed embodiment, the telescopic rod is spring loaded toward the retracted position.
In the disclosed embodiment, the third control input and the first control input are slidably engaged in a same channel in the elongated walking stick with the third control input disposed above the first control input of said same channel, and the first and third control mechanisms are arranged such that upward movement of the first control input opens the pivotally-coupled compartments of the pooper scooper box and downward movement of the third control input extends the telescopic rod.
In the disclosed embodiment, the first control mechanism comprises a flexible pulling medium that runs internally down the elongated stick from the first control input, exits the elongated stick at a location further downward thereon and joins to one of the pivotally-coupled compartments to open said one of the pivotally-coupled compartments away from the other of said pivotally-coupled compartments under raising of the first control input along the elongated stick.
In the disclosed embodiment, the second control mechanism comprises a second flexible pulling medium that runs internally down the elongated stick from the second control input, exits the elongated stick at a point further downward thereon and joins to the movable connection to raise the pooper scooper box toward the parked position under raising of the second control input along the elongated stick.
In one embodiment, each flexible pulling medium comprises wire.
In the disclosed embodiment, the second control input is slidably engaged with a respective channel in the walking stick for upward and downward sliding of said second control input along the elongated stick within said respective channel to operate the second control mechanism, and said respective channel comprises a horizontal extension in which the second control input is engagable to lock the pooper scooper box in the parked position.
In the disclosed embodiment, the movable connection is spring-loaded and forces the pooper scooper box away from the parked position.
In the disclosed embodiment, the disposable case comprises a lower lip arranged to cover a bottom edge of the pooper scooper box at the open face thereof to protect said bottom edge from contact with pet waste during collection thereof in the pooper scooper box.
In the disclosed embodiment, the pooper scooper box comprises extension tips jutting from respective edges on the pivotally-coupled compartments of the pooper scooper box at the open face thereof, and the disposable case comprises side lips arranged wrap around the edges of the pooper scooper box at the open face thereof and openings positioned in the side lips to receive the extension tips of the pooper scooper box when the disposable case is inserted in the pooper scooper box, whereby with the extension tips received in the openings, movement of the pivotally coupled compartments into the opened state will automatically open the disposable case.
The proposed invention of the monopod mounted solid pet waste collecting and disposing system has several unique features which were previously not anticipated or used in any of the previous invention. It also has many novel features that provided functional improvement in previous design. Some of the distinguish features of the proposed invention are:
All parts as illustrated in the above figure can be identified with their following sequential number:
The pooper scooper box 12 is in the form of two compartment box or cage. Both compartments are linked with each other by a spring loaded hinge 18 forcing the both compartments in closed position. One side of the box is fully open 16 and its opposite side has a window opening 17. The Pooper scooper box 12 is attached to the skid 1 via a spring loaded hinge 7 which opens from 0 to 180 degree. Hinge 7 is spring loaded forcing the pooper scooper box 12 downwards. One side of the hinge 7 is attached with the skid 1 and other side of the hinge 7 is attached to a segment of the pooper scooper box 12. The hinge 7 is attached at top of the pooper scooper box 12 so when it is open to 180 degree, it bring box 12 under the foot 8 so the disposable case 13 can be ejected out by pushing the top control knob 2. In normal parked position the open side of the pooper scooper box 16 is always facing up. Disposable case 13 is top down inserted from this opening 16. The window opening at opposite side of the box 17 is utilized to eject the disposable case 13 by pushing the telescopic rod 20.
Middle control knob 3 is linked with one of the compartment of the pooper scooper box 12 via a tie-in wire 10. Pooper scooper box 12 is open when tie-in wire 10 is pulled by pulling the middle control knob 3 upwards. Similarly Lower control knob 4 is linked with the spring hinge 7 via tie-in wire 11 in such a way that it pulls the pooper scooper box 12 upwards, parallel to the skid 1.
Disposable case 23 is of similar shape of the scooper box except it is closed from all the four sides. The bottom edge of the disposable case 23 is folded, as shown in
Referring to the
The vertically upward position of the scooper box 12 is providing almost no interference and stick 1 can be used for its normal walking support.
When the device is used for the waste pick-up function, the first action is to unlock and release the lower control Knob 4. It releases the Lower Tie-in wire 11 and spring loaded Hinge 7 forces the scooper box downwards. The scooper box 12 is supported against the ground maintaining it horizontally parallel to the ground. The above status is shown in the
To pick-up the dog/pet waste, the scooper box 12 is opened by pulling the Middle Control switch 3, which in fact is connected with the pooper scooper box 12 via tie-in wire 10. The sides lip of the disposable case 15 forces the disposable case 13 to open along with the scooper box 12. The open scooper box 12 is glided around dog/pet waste in such a way the waste remains between both the compartments. The action is described in
The device can be brought to the normal walking stick mode similar to
To release the disposal case in to the garbage bin, the Pooper scooper box 12 is lowered down by releasing the lower control switch 4. As the skid is not sitting against the floor, it opens ˜180 degree. In this status, the Scooper box 12 is vertically underneath of the foot 8 and its open side is in the downward position. This action is described in
After releasing the disposable case, the device is brought back to walking mode with two actions. In first action, the upper control knob 2 is released allowing the compression spring 24 is pulled back the telescopic rod 20 inside the stick 1 and thereafter, the lower control knob 4 is pulled up and locked. This action is similar to the
This application claims the benefit and priority to U.S. provisional application No. 61/961,411 filled on Oct. 15, 2013.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20150102618 A1 | Apr 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61961411 | Oct 2013 | US |