Patent Application
20230389730
The present disclosure generally relates to personal support devices, and, more particularly, to pillows or cushions for supporting a user's head and neck and related methods.
Resting outdoors such as laying on a grassy hill or luxuriating in a hammock has long been a method of relaxing. Pillows are often cumbersome. Support cushions whether for resting a head on or sitting on are often ill-suited to using outside. Cushions will often get lost or misplaced and then will not be ready when desired for rest.
In a first aspect, the disclosure provides a support cushion. The support cushion includes: an outer cover; a material to fill the cushion; a strap attached to the cushion.
In some embodiments, the outer cover comprises a front side and a back side. It is desirable for the support cushion to be comfortable to rest one's head against, yet durable enough to last through hard use. Therefore, the front side of the cover comprises one material and the back side of the cover comprises a second material. The material of the front side of the cover is a material with a soft hand, or that is comfortable against the skin. The material of the back side is a material that is abrasion resistant.
It is often desirable to have a cushion that takes up less space for transporting, yet expands to be comfortable, for this reason in some embodiments, the filling is compressible. IN some embodiments, the compressible filling is fiberfill.
Keeping the cushion in place is desirable in many embodiments, in such embodiments, the strap includes a fastening device. In some of these embodiments, the fastening device is a carabiner. In some embodiments, the fastening device is a buckle.
In some embodiments, the length of the strap is adjustable.
In some embodiments, the outer cover and the material filling the cushion comprise a body of the cushion, and wherein the strap is connected to the body of the cushion at a first connection point and at a second connection point. In some embodiments, the first and second connection points are spaced apart.
In some embodiments, the cushion is trapezoid shaped and the first connection point is at one corner of a short edge of the trapezoid and the other connection point is at a second corner of the trapezoid.
In a second aspect, the disclosure provides a support cushion for use with a hammock comprising: an outer cover; a material to fill the cushion; a strap attached to the cushion.
In some embodiments, the outer cover comprises a front side, a back side, and sides. the strap is attached to the sides. In some of these embodiments, the strap is attached around the sides, leaving a small portion at the top where the strap is not attached.
Further aspects and embodiments are provided in the foregoing drawings, detailed description and claims.
The following drawings are provided to illustrate certain embodiments described herein. The drawings are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of claimed inventions and are not intended to show every potential feature or embodiment of the claimed inventions. The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale; in some instances, certain elements of the drawing may be enlarged with respect to other elements of the drawing for purposes of illustration.
The following description recites various aspects and embodiments of the inventions disclosed herein. No particular embodiment is intended to define the scope of the invention. Rather, the embodiments provide non-limiting examples of various compositions, and methods that are included within the scope of the claimed inventions. The description is to be read from the perspective of one of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, information that is well known to the ordinarily skilled artisan is not necessarily included.
The following terms and phrases have the meanings indicated below, unless otherwise provided herein. This disclosure may employ other terms and phrases not expressly defined herein. Such other terms and phrases shall have the meanings that they would possess within the context of this disclosure to those of ordinary skill in the art. In some instances, a term or phrase may be defined in the singular or plural. In such instances, it is understood that any term in the singular may include its plural counterpart and vice versa, unless expressly indicated to the contrary.
As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, reference to “a substituent” encompasses a single substituent as well as two or more substituents, and the like.
As used herein, “for example,” “for instance,” “such as,” or “including” are meant to introduce examples that further clarify more general subject matter. Unless otherwise expressly indicated, such examples are provided only as an aid for understanding embodiments illustrated in the present disclosure and are not meant to be limiting in any fashion. Nor do these phrases indicate any kind of preference for the disclosed embodiment.
A support cushion may include a cushion body comprising an outer cover and a filler within the outer cover, the outer cover having front and back sides, top and bottom edges, and left and right edges. The bottom edge of the cushion body may have a greater length than the top edge. The support cushion may further include a hanging strap having first and second ends coupled to at least one of the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the cushion body.
In some embodiments, the cushion body may define a trapezoidal shape with the top and bottom edges being parallel to one another. In one example embodiment, the first end of the hanging strap may be coupled to a first connection point on the top edge of the cushion body, and a second end of the hanging strap may be coupled to a second connection point on the top edge of the cushion body, with the second connection point being spaced apart from the first connection point along the top edge.
In another embodiments, the hanging strap may be coupled to the left and right edges of the cushion body. Moreover, the hanging strap may further be coupled to the bottom edge of the cushion body. The cushion body comprises at least one fabric of nylon, cotton, and polyester, for example. In some embodiments, the cushion body comprises multiple fabrics. In these embodiments, a fabric with a soft hand is placed on one side. This soft hand fabric feels better against the skin and will be more comfortable as a pillow against the face. In these embodiments, the fabric on the opposite side is composed of a more abrasion resistant or weather resistant fabric. This will improve the durability of the cushion.
In some embodiments, the cushion is filled with a fiberfill. Fiberfill is can be referred to as synthetic down, and may be composed of polyester, nylon, polyolefin, or a combination of these materials, there are numerous trademarked brands of fiberfill and many other non-trademarked varieties. In some embodiments, the cushion is filled with foam. The foam may be open cell foam, closed cell foam, memory foam, or any combination of foams. The foam may be a solid single piece of foam, multiple pieces of foam, or cut pieces of foam. In some embodiments, the cushion is filled with down. In some embodiments, the cushion is filled with polystyrene beads.
The support cushion may further include a fastener carried by the hanging strap. Furthermore, the hanging strap may be adjustable to change a length thereof. Also, the outer cover may have a pocket therein for receiving the hanging strap.
One use for the support cushion is as a pillow for a hammock, and the support cushion will be described in this context in this disclosure for example purposes. However, it will be appreciated that the support cushion may be used for other applications as well.
In some embodiments, the support cushion is shown attached to a camping-style hammock to support the user's head. The support cushion illustratively includes a cushion body having an outer cover and a filler within the outer cover. More particularly, the outer cover has front and back sides, top and bottom edges, and left and right edges.
A strap is sewn or otherwise attached to the top edge of the outer cover, with the purpose of keeping the cushion body hanging in place while it is being used. In the illustrated embodiment, the strap is sewn into the top two corners of the top edge of the cover, thus forming a loop with the top edge of the cushion body. At the peak of the loop, a fastener such as a carabineer clip is carried on the hanging strap and is used to attach or couple the hanging strap to the hammock support rope (which, in turn, attaches the hammock to a tree, etc., as shown in
In some embodiments, the hanging strap is adjustable in length, accommodating users of different heights. The adjustment is made using a plastic slider, which moves up and down the strap vertically. However, it should be noted that different strap configurations are possible in different embodiments. The first and second strap pieces may be attached to the top edge as described above (or to other edges, as will be described further below), and these two separate strap pieces may be tied, buckled (similar to a belt), or otherwise connected together to form the hanging (and optionally adjustable) strap. A pocket may be sewn into the back side of the cover, if desired. In some embodiments, the pocket is located at the bottom half of the pillow. The upper portion of the pillow, including the straps, may be stuffed or tucked into the pocket, compacting the pillow to roughly half its size to facilitate travel. The pocket may also be used for carrying other items along with the pillow as well in some embodiments. Pockets may also be located elsewhere on the outer cover, if desired (e.g., on the left and/or right edges, front side, bottom side, etc.).
In another embodiment, on one (or both) corners of the cushion a fastening loop may be secured (e.g., plastic, metal, etc.). In some embodiments, the fastening loop is a rectangular 1-inch wide plastic piece through which the hanging strap feeds, although other sizes and shapes may also be used. This creates a loop with the hanging strap, which can be either shortened or elongated to change the overall length of the hanging strap.
In some embodiments, the hanging strap is secured to the left and right edges of the cushion body, as opposed to the top edge as discussed above. Here, the hanging strap is attached (e.g., sewn, riveted, etc.) along the left and right edges of the cushion body up from the bottom edge to about the half-way point, although this attachment could be lower to the bottom edge or extend all the way to the top edge, if desired. Moreover, in this embodiment, the hanging strap also continues around the bottom edge of the cushion body and attaches thereto (e.g., by sewing, rivets, etc.). In this embodiment, the hanging strap may also be used to wrap the cushion body up into a more compact traveling configuration, similar to a sleeping bag.
The cushion bodies in the above-described embodiments are generally trapezoidal in shape with parallel top and bottom edges and left and right side edges that slant inward from the bottom edge toward the top edge. That is, the bottom edge has a greater length than the top edge. This is advantageous for use within a camping hammock such as the one noted above, for example, as the width of the hammock will taper inward as it gets closer to the top (head end) of the hammock. Thus, the tapered, trapezoidal shape of the support cushion will allow it to fit better at the head end of the hammock. However, it should be noted that a trapezoidal shape need not be used in all embodiments. The top and/or bottom edges do not necessarily have to be straight edges, or parallel to one another. Moreover, the left and right side edges also do not have to be straight or parallel to one another.
In some embodiments, the outer cover may be made out of polyester taffeta, parachute nylon, cotton canvas, cotton flannel, polyester/cotton blends, etc. The inner filler or stuffing material may also be made out of cotton, polyester, polyester/cotton blends, feathers, etc. With regard to the hanging strap, one example material is nylon, such as in one-inch widths, although other widths and materials (e.g., leather, etc.) may also be used. In one embodiment implementation for a camping hammock, the cushion body may have dimensions in a range of about 10 inches to about 24 inches wide, about 10 inches to about 24 inches long, and about 2 inches to about 8 inches thick. However, different dimensions may be used for different sizes of hammocks, and also for different embodiments other than hammocks, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
Now referring to
Referring to
A strap 203 is sewn or otherwise attached to the top edge of the outer cover, with the purpose of keeping the cushion body hanging in place while it is being used. In some embodiments, the strap is sewn into the top two corners of the top edge of the cover, thus forming a loop with the top edge of the cushion body. At the peak of the loop, a fastener such as a carabineer clip 7 is carried on the hanging strap and is used to attach or couple the hanging strap to the hammock support rope 211 which, in turn, attaches the hammock to a tree. In some embodiments, the fastener is a hook-and-loop (often identified by the trademarked name Velcro).
Referring to
In some embodiments, the support cushion is designed to compress. Referring to
All patents and published patent applications referred to herein are incorporated herein by reference. The invention has been described with reference to various specific and preferred embodiments and techniques. Nevertheless, it is understood that many variations and modifications may be made while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.
