Patent Application
20050098591
1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a device for holding personal articles such as eyeglasses and the like. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to a device that holds eyeglasses or sunglasses, pens, pencils or any other small object and includes one or more tools built into the device. The device may be attached to any surface such as appliances, furniture, computers, clothing, clothing accessories and flat surfaces such as automobile visors and books where a user may stow personal articles in the device and/or access the tool built into the device.
2. Background Art
Many people periodically wear eyeglasses and/or sunglasses. However, at certain times, a wearer of eyeglasses or sunglasses (collectively referred to herein as “glasses”) may wish to remove and store their glasses for short periods when the glasses are not needed. For example, a wearer of sunglasses may remove them during evening hours when sunlight begins to fade. The wearer may typically remove them and place them in a convenient location such as on the dashboard of the car, on an adjacent seat, in a cubbyhole or the like. These locations, while convenient, may subject the glasses to be susceptible to soiling, damage and/or loss. Consequently, there is a need for a holder of personal articles, including glasses, which conveniently stores such items to prevent soiling, damage and/or loss.
Many attempts to provide such a holder have been made, some more successful than others. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,134,753 and 5,794,312 to O'Mahony disclose holding devices including a clip portion for attaching the holding device to a desired surface and a clamping portion for securing the personal article or glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,487 to Keely discloses a retainer for holding eyeglasses that includes a retainer ring rotatably mounted to a clamping means. The clamping means secures the retainer to a desired surface, such as a automobile visor, while the retainer ring receives and secures the temple portion of a pair of eyeglasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,476 to Mancinelli discloses a holder for securing eyeglasses to a visor including a body and a clip. The body receives the bridge of the eyeglasses with the temple bars of the glasses resting on top of the body. The clip is disposed on a portion of the body and forms a flexible clamp for securing the holder to a visor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,459 to Goldenberg discloses a clip for securing eyeglasses or sunglasses that slides onto an article of clothing. The clip is similar to a conventional money clip but has an elastic material to create a channel for receiving a temple of a pair of glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,003 to Chan discloses a personal article holder having a clamping body and a visor clip. And U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,432 to Kushner, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a personal article holder having a clamping body and a display window disposed on the clamping body for displaying desired images.
While these and other known retainers and holders for glasses and other articles may provide effective for protecting such items against loss, damage or soiling, they do not include a built in tool or accessory which may be utilized by a user in addition to stowing personal articles.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a personal article holder that not only is capable of holding personal articles for a user but also includes a built in tool or accessory that may be removed from the personal article holder and utilized by the user.
According to one aspect of the present invention a personal article holder includes an upper arm member hingedly connected to a lower arm member via a pivot mechanism and an attachment mechanism for attaching the personal article holder to desired surfaces. The personal article holder also includes a cavity for retaining one or more tools or accessories. The tool may include a calculator, paper and a writing utensil, a screwdriver, a lens cleaning device such as a microfiber cloth and/or a lens cleaning solution or any other tool or accessory which may be desirable to stow in a specified location.
In certain embodiments, the personal article holder thus provides a first storage location for storage of a user's personal article between a clamping body and a second storage location for a tool.
In other embodiments, the personal article holder includes the tool stored in the second storage location.
Further aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention in reference to the appended drawing in which like numerals denote like elements and in which:
A personal article holder with accompanying tool according to one embodiment of the invention includes: a clamping body for securing the personal article and an attachment portion for securing the clamping body to a desired surface. The clamping body may generally include: (i) an upper arm member hingedly connected on one end to (ii) a lower arm member. On an opposite, non-hinged, end of the upper and lower arm members is a clasp device for securing the upper arm member to the lower arm member between closed and open positions. The upper and lower arm members may each include a resilient cushion member that, when the clamping body is in a closed position, face each other to secure personal articles that have been placed there between.
The upper arm member preferably includes, on a side opposite its respective cushion member and/or along its side, a cavity for stowing a tool. The attachment portion is secured the lower arm member, opposite the side of its respective cushion member, so that, when attached to a surface, e.g., a car visor, refrigerator, or other surface, the cavity for stowing the tool is accessible or viewable by a person.
Referring to
Upper arm 20 includes one or more cavities 25 for retaining a tool 26 (for example, a calculator in
Referring back to the side view in
Upper arm 20 and lower arm 30 of the clamping body may be made from any material rigid enough to provide support for a personal article, such as rigid plastics, ceramics, metals, woods or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, upper and lower arms are formed in an injection mold using an ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadience-Styrene) plastic material, which may be tinted or colored to achieve a desired color. ABS plastics are used in preferred embodiments since they possess high strength and durability material characteristics and readily accept plating and painting to vary appearance and design of the device. The clamping body may be formed in any desired shape such as a circle, an oval, a rectangle, a square, a trapezoid or any other symmetrical or asymmetrical shape and may be any size or color desired.
Cavity 25 is preferably formed during injection molding of holder 10 (provided holder 10 is made from an injection molded plastic or resin) and is a recess or depression formed to accommodate a shape of the accompanying tool. As shown in
Pivot 40 may be any type of rotating connector between upper arm 20 and lower arm 30. In one embodiment pivot 40 comprises an axial pin disposed through holes formed in the injection mold plastic of the respective upper and lower arms. In another embodiment, pivot 40 comprises divots or holes in an end of one arm (upper or lower) and corresponding protrusions in the opposite arm that mate with the divots or holes.
Attachment portion 35 may be any mechanism or arrangement for facilitating temporary or permanent fixation of clamping body to other surfaces. Examples of attachment portion 35 include a clip, a magnet, VELCRO, a suction cup, double sided tape, etc. In one embodiment, attachment portion 35 is a tensioned wire attached to lower arm 30 similar to, but not limited to, the example shown in
Turning to
Panel 725 may be opaque or transparent and may be hingedly connected to upper arm 720 on one end, e.g., using hinges 728. On an opposite end of panel 725 is tab 727 for securing into slot 729 located in arm 720. Slot 729 may include a release mechanism (not shown) for releasing and securing tab 727 of panel 725. Hinges 728 may be any type of arrangement for facilitating rotation of panel 725 between open and closed positions. In one embodiment, hinges 728 are C-shaped plastic extensions of panel 725 that rotate around corresponding axial members formed in upper arm 720. In other embodiments, tabs are used in place of hinges 728 so that panel 725 completely removes from holder 700 for access to cavity 726.
While panel 725 is illustrated in
In addition to the cavities which retain the tools as described above, the personal article holders of the present invention will serve to hold a personal article, for example eyeglasses, in the clamping body, as is well known in the art.
Unless contrary to physical possibility, the inventor envisions the components of respective embodiments may be combined in any manner.
Although there have been described preferred embodiments of this novel invention, many variations and modifications are possible and the embodiments described herein are not limited by the specific disclosure above, but rather should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
