Patent Application
20120305422
1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to protector cases for mobile devices, and more particularly to a protector case for an Apple™ iPhone™.
2. Background
Mobile personal consumer electronic products are vulnerable to damage if dropped. Smart phones, such as the Apple™ iPhone™, constitute a valuable and increasingly costly vehicle for storage of contact data, appointment information, photography, entertainment data storage and retrieval, all in addition to the primary function of communication, whether by voice or data. There is a need for a system in which it is easy to install the smart phone that is effective protection against shock damage, and enables access to all the functionality of the smart phone.
In one aspect of the disclosure, a portable device case includes a flexible material jacket conformably surrounding at least a portion of the periphery of the portable device and a rigid rim conformably surrounding the jacket comprising one or more hinges and a lock to encase the jacket and the portable device surrounded therein, wherein total functionality of the portable device is accessible through apertures and contacts in the jacket and rim and no accessory tools or affixing devices are required to install the portable device in the case.
In another aspect of the disclosure, a method of protecting a portable device includes conformally encasing at least a portion of a periphery of the portable device with a flexible material jacket, conformally surrounding the flexible material with a rigid rim comprising one or more hinges and a lock to encase the jacket and the portable device surrounded therein, wherein the conformally encasing and conformally surrounding is achieved without accessory tools or affixing devices, and retaining total access to all functionality of the portable device through apertures and contacts in the jacket and rim.
The present disclosure is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various aspects of a portable device protector case are presented. This disclosure, however, may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited by the various aspects of the device presented herein. The detailed description of the portable device protector case with reference to the Apple™ iPhone™ is provided below so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. However, the disclosure is not limited to one particular device as a protector case, and details of the various aspects described may vary with respect to different portable devices.
The detailed description may include specific details for illustrating various aspects of the portable device protector case. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known elements may be shown in block diagram form, or omitted, to avoid obscuring the inventive concepts presented throughout this disclosure.
By way of example, various aspects of the portable device protector case may be illustrated by describing components that arc coupled, attached or connected together, However, the disclosure, while described in terms of an Apple™ iPhone™, may be practiced with other portable devices. As used herein, the terms “coupled”, “attached”, and “connected” may be used to indicate either a direct connection between two components or, where appropriate, an indirect connection to one another through intervening or intermediate components. In contrast, when a component is referred to as being “directly coupled”, “directly attached” or “directly connected” to another component, there are no intervening elements present.
Relative terms such as “lower” or “bottom” and “upper” or “top” may be used herein to describe one element's relationship to another element illustrated in the drawings. It will be understood that relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of a portable device equipped with the protector case in addition to the orientation depicted in the drawings. By way of example, if a protector case for a portable device in the drawings is turned over, elements described as being on the “bottom” side of the other elements would then be oriented on the “top” side of the other elements. The term “bottom” can therefore encompass both an orientation of “bottom” and “top” depending on the particular orientation of the apparatus.
Various aspects of a protector case for a portable device may be illustrated with reference to one or more exemplary embodiments. As used herein, the term “exemplary” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” and should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments of a protector case disclosed herein.
In an aspect of the disclosure,
The protector case 100 includes a flexible material jacket 125 conformably surrounding at least a portion of the periphery of the portable device 100. The protector case 100 further includes a rigid rim 130 conformably surrounding the jacket 125.
Preferably, the rigid rim 130 is comprised of metal, plastics (e.g., polycarbonate), carbon fiber, wood, etc. The rigid rim 130 is configured to receive the brunt of an impulse of shock waves in the event that the iPhone™ 101 is dropped. The rigid rim is in conformal contact with the jacket 125, where the jacket 125 may be made from a flexible material that has a sufficient amount of elastic damping to absorb and dissipate the shock waves from an impact, thereby reducing an amount of shock vibration received by the iPhone™ 101. The jacket 125, is in substantially conformal contact with surfaces of the iPhone™ 101 to prevent a significant amount of vibration and shockwave motion of the iPhone™ 101 with respect to either the jacket 125 or the rim 130.
The flexible material may be a silicone rubber or a rubberized material having absorbing and damping properties and dimensional characteristics suitable to prevent damage according to a defined set of impact conditions. For example, a combination of damping properties and material thickness of the jacket 125 may be determined, for example, to prevent operational damage to the iPhone™ 101 when it experiences a drop from a defined height and impacting a hard surface in any of a number of defined orientations and impact edges.
A thickness dimension of the jacket 125 from back to front of the iPhone™ 101 may be somewhat greater than a thickness of the iPhone™ 101, in order to prevent the touch screen 110 from contacting flat surfaces. In some locations of the jacket, such as at least at the corners where impact is likely to be more concentrated at a point, the thickness dimension may be made larger to provide a greater amount of shock absorption material. In addition the rim 130, being rigid, may distribute, and thereby dilute, the impact shock over a greater volume and perimeter of the jacket 125, further reducing the likelihood of damage to the iPhone™ 101.
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The rim 130 may further include one or more hinges to subdivide the rim 130 into two or more portions to enable insertion of the iPhone™ 101, which is already installed in the jacket 125 by press-fitting and minor stretching, into the rim 130. Referring to
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It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein.
The claims are not intended to be limited to the various aspects of this disclosure, but are to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. For example, while the Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “step for.”
