Patent Application
20250144504
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The disclosure relates to illuminating devices and more particularly pertains to a new illuminating device for enhancing safety while skateboarding. Skateboards often utilize roadways and traverse intersections, so increasing their visibility to drivers decreases chances of collision, particularly in conditions of low visibility. Additionally, skateboarders would benefit from an illuminating device that illuminates an area forward of their skateboards so as to avoid objects or defects in their paths that may cause falls.
The prior art relates to illuminating devices that are attachable to skateboards and may comprise light emitting diodes (LEDs) incorporated into risers of skateboards, LEDs attachable to undersides of decks of skateboards by adhesives, screws, or the like. Related prior art includes brackets which are mountable to lower surfaces of trucks of skateboards and to which light emitters may be attached. What is lacking in the prior art is a bracket having a downwardly projecting element to which a light emitter is attached and wherein the bracket can be mounted to a skateboard using the hardware that holds the truck to the deck.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a set of brackets and a set of light emitters. Each bracket has a mounting hole positioned therein so that the bracket is configured to be mounted to an underside of a deck of a skateboard using a nut and a respective mounting bolt that is integral to the skateboard. The bracket upon mounting is positioned between the deck and a truck of the skateboard. Each light emitter is attached to a respective bracket and is configured to emit light either forwardly of the deck for illumination and increased visibility or rearwardly of the deck for increased visibility.
Another embodiment of the disclosure includes a skateboard mounted illuminating system, which comprises a skateboard to which a skateboard mountable illuminating device, according to the disclosure above been mounted. Each light emitter of a set of light emitters is configured to emit light either forwardly of the deck for illumination and increased visibility or rearwardly of the deck for increased visibility.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The set of brackets 12 comprises four brackets 12 so that the deck 20 can be fitted with two brackets 12 extending toward a rear end 30 of the deck 20 and two brackets 12 extending toward a front end 32 of the deck 20. The present invention also anticipates one bracket 12 or two brackets 12 extending forwardly or rearwardly, or two brackets 12 extending one forwardly and one rearwardly. Also anticipated by the present invention is one bracket 12 extending forwardly and two brackets 12 extending rearwardly or one bracket 12 extending rearwardly and two brackets 12 extending forwardly.
The bracket 12 has a cross-sectional profile 34, which is substantially L-shaped. Each bracket 12 comprises a first piece 36 and a second piece 38 and may comprise a third piece 40. It should be understood that first piece 36, second piece 38 and third piece 40 are used for descriptive purposes and the bracket 12 may comprise a single element shaped as described below. The first piece 36 has a first lateral edge 42, a second lateral edge 44, a first end 46, and a second end 48. The mounting hole 16 is positioned in the first piece 36 proximate to the first end 46. The second piece 38 is attached to and extends substantially perpendicularly from the second end 48 and extends away from the deck 20 upon mounting of the bracket 12 to the deck 20. When the bracket 12 comprises the third piece 40, it is attached to and extends substantially coplanarly from a respective one of the first lateral edge 42 and the second lateral edge 44, with the second piece 38 being attached to and extending substantially perpendicularly from the third piece 40 distal from the first piece 36.
As is shown in
Each light emitter 14 comprises a housing 68, which defines an interior space 70 and which has a front end 72 and a rear end 74. The housing 68 typically is substantially cylindrical, as is shown in
The set of light emitters 14 generally comprises a pair of white emitters 84, which emit light forwardly of the deck 20 of the skateboard 22, and a pair of red emitters 86, which emit light rearwardly of the deck 20 of the skateboard 22. The light emitter 14 also may comprise a microprocessor 88, which is attached to the housing 68, positioned in the interior space 70, and operationally engaged to the bulb 78, the battery 76, and the switch 82. The microprocessor 88 is programmed to selectively actuate the bulb 78 in a plurality of modes. For example, the microprocessor 88 may be programmed to actuate the bulb 78 in a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode upon sequential switching of the switch 82, with the first mode being continuous illumination, the second mode being a first flashing mode, the third mode being a second flashing mode. A subsequent switching of the switch 82 would power off the bulb 78.
As is shown in
Also as is shown in
The present invention also includes a skateboard mounted illuminating system 108, which comprises a skateboard 22 and a skateboard mountable illuminating device 10, according to the specification above. The skateboard 22 comprises a deck 20, which has an underside 18, and a plurality of mounting bolts 26, which are attached to the skateboard 22 and which protrude from the underside 18. A pair of trucks 28 has been attached to the deck 20 using the plurality of mounting bolts 26 and a plurality of nuts 24. Each bracket 12 of a set of brackets 12 also has been mounted to the underside 18 of a deck 20 by insertion of a respective mounting bolt 26 through a mounting hole 16 in the bracket 12 and threading of a nut 24 onto the mounting bolt 26. The bracket 12 is the deck 20 and the nut 24. Each light emitter 14 of a set of light emitters 14 is attached to a respective bracket 12 and is configured to emit light either forwardly of the deck 20 for illumination and increased visibility or rearwardly of the deck 20 for increased visibility.
In use, respective nuts 24 used to secure a truck 28 to a deck 20 of a skateboard 22 are removed. A bracket 12 is abutted against truck 28 by inserting a respective mounting bolt 26 through a mounting hole 16 in the bracket 12. The truck 28 then is reattached to the underside 18 of the deck 20 using the nuts 24 so that the bracket 12 is positioned between the truck 28 and a nut 24. A user then can switch the switch 82 to actuate the light emitter 14 that is attached to the bracket 12 to emit light either forwardly of the deck 20 for illumination and increased visibility or rearwardly of the deck 20 for increased visibility, depending on the positioning of the bracket 12 upon mounting.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
