Patent Grant
9919187
The present invention relates to swimming goggles intended to be worn by a user when swimming.
Swimming goggles typically comprise two eyepieces, with a substantially cup-like shape, a bridge element joining said two eyepieces at the nose, a strap wrapping the head and intended to couple the outer ends of each eyepiece and to keep the goggles in place when in use.
Swimming goggles used in training and in competitions, the so called “Swedish goggles”, generally have a pair of eyepieces made of transparent plastic material with such a size to surround the eye and to allow vision both underwater and above water.
Other types of swimming goggles have lenses fitted in a support frame, which, unlike diving masks, lets the user nose free.
In some goggles the rear part of each eyepiece, faced towards the user face, may be provided with a seal made of soft, yielding material that prevents water from entering between the eyepiece and the face part on which said eyepiece is applied when goggles are worn.
It is known that under-water the main problem is that a non-flat lens leads to refraction problems, since water and air have very different refractive indexes, negatively affecting the vision.
For example in diving masks in order to overcome such problem, a flat lens or a pair of flat lenses are provided which are kept co-planar in front of the diver's eyes by means of a rigid frame structure: therefore vision is free from defects but the visual field is strongly limited, it is practically null at the sides. Moreover masks or goggles made according to this technical solution have a high hydrodynamic encumbrance that makes them not useful for being used in competitive swimming.
Other masks or goggles have completely curved lenses but by this embodiment the visual field free from defects is considerably reduced and the curved regions create out of focus images.
There are also masks having a flat front lens and two flat or curved lateral lenses. For example generally swimming goggles have a pair of eyepieces each one composed of a front transparent lens parallel to the face projecting backwardly, connecting, with a curved lateral wall or lens, transparent as well, that delimits by said front surface an open chamber towards the rear part of the eyepiece, that is towards the eye.
This arrangement allows the visual field to be extended also laterally but it is not free from defects: the image is “broken” due to blind fields at the connections between the front lenses and the lateral lenses and the vision through the curved lenses deforms and puts images out of focus.
The known swimming goggles also have further drawbacks.
In some cases the lenses of the eyepieces are too much spaced ahead of the eyes, and this may create visual problems, particularly as regards the near vision.
Moreover the presence of too much bulky eyepieces, that protrude both forwardly and laterally of the swimmer face, makes goggles little hydrodynamic and unstable, particularly in case of impact with the water during dives, in fast swimming or in stream with rough water, conditions that tend to displace the goggles from their correct position on the face. In some cases goggles have also lenses made of glass and therefore they are heavy, dangerous and uncomfortable to be worn, particularly during the long training sessions or in competitions.
Often in the goggles the region of contact between the eyepieces and the swimmer face at the eye sockets is considerably reduced and it does not allow watertightness to be kept under all swimming conditions or it does not allow the position of the goggles on the face to be firmly kept, with consequent defects as regards vision.
Moreover in order to guarantee the watertightness on the face surface about the eyes, the eyepieces have to be orientable and this usually leads to distortions and imperfections in the visual field. At the same time, in use, in order to have a good vision, the swimmer often has the tendency to displace or rotate the eyepieces, but this leads to watertightness problems between the contact elements at the eye sockets.
The forward, inner lateral, outer lateral, upper and lower visual field of a swimmer is determined by needs deriving from what the swimmer has to see well in order to orientate himself/herself when swimming. These visual fields are not the same for all the swimming styles. Therefore in order to optimize the vision with the known swimming goggles, the swimmers provide to modify the position of the goggles such to cause the transparent surfaces to be oriented that generate visual fields corresponding to the needs dictated by the swimming activity performed, thus resulting in the above watertightness problems.
The aim of the present invention is to overcome the visual problems just described above by providing swimming goggles guaranteeing, when in use, a panoramic vision substantially of or almost of 180°, without obstacles and optical disturbances.
A further aim of the present invention is to provide goggles that are light, comfortable, easy to be worn, with an easy adjustment of the strap, guaranteeing the watertightness on the swimmer face and that has an extremely reduced hydrodynamic encumbrance, with a consequent enhanced stability on the swimmer face both when diving and in fast swimming or in stream, rough water.
From the above it is clear that the technical effects pursued by the present invention are needs conflicting with each other and that the optimization of a characteristic can negatively affect one of the other characteristics or other pursued technical effects.
Therefore the invention aims at providing swimming goggles being a compromise between the conflicting needs mentioned above and that allow all the problems of the known goggles to be solved at a greatest extent, without resulting in declines of some performances to the detriment of the maximization of other ones.
According to the invention these aims are achieved by swimming goggles comprising:
In one embodiment said shell wall is substantially diverging and the eyepiece has a shape like a truncated pyramid with an irregular polygonal base, preferably hexagonal one.
On the side of the eyepieces facing the eye region, the edges of said shell wall are shaped correspondingly to a curved section plane of said pyramidal shape, the curve arrangement of said plane being anatomically fitted on or corresponding to the shape of the region of contact of the eyepiece with the face region surrounding the corresponding eye. Along such edge there is advantageously provided a tight seal.
In a preferred embodiment each one of the two eyepieces comprises only one polygonal plan shaped flat front lens.
In the present description and in the claims the term “lens or wall” means a transparent wall or more generally a transparent diaphragm separating, with the goggles in use, water from air in the inner chamber of the eyepiece rested on the face surface surrounding the eyes.
Moreover the terms “vertical”, “horizontal”, “upper”, “lower”, “outer”, “inner” have to be considered to be referred to the worn condition of the goggles on the face of an upright user.
The term “flat” lens or wall comprises also the term “planar”.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention the eyepieces of the goggles are composed of a rigid, transparent and plastic material, possibly colored and possibly treated to be anti-fogging and/or anti-scratching, and/or photoabsorbing and/or mirror-finished: this allows goggles to be provided that are light, stable on the user face and aesthetically pleasant.
Obviously it is possible to use any other transparent material, such as glass, that enables the vision and/or to use prescription lenses in particular with reference to the front lens or wall.
Each eyepiece is composed of flat lenses such to avoid out of focus and deformed images.
According to the present invention the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall is inclined forward such that its lower end is displaced in a front direction, that is forwardly, with respect to the upper end, with reference to goggles worn by a user in the upright position.
As an alternative, the front wall or lens can be inclined forward such to displace its upper end forward with respect to the lower one, with reference to goggles worn by a user in the upright position. Advantageously the shape of the goggles can be substantially symmetrical with respect to a transverse plane containing the interocular axis, therefore it is possible to pass from the configuration of the front lens with forward inclination of the lower side with respect to the upper side and to that of the upper side with respect to the lower side by simply mounting the goggles rotated by 180° with respect to the axis coinciding with the sagittal axis in the worn condition.
The two configurations of inclination of the front wall allow the usable visual field obtainable with the goggles to be oriented in the forward visual direction more upwardly or more downwardly, that is towards the feet.
This is important for the several swimming styles that require seeing more upwardly or more downwardly, both for controlling the movements, for controlling the direction, and in the competitive field for controlling the competitor swimmers.
With reference to goggles worn by a user in the upright position, the shell wall of each eyepiece comprises:
Preferably the area of said at least one polygonal plan shaped flat lower lens is greater than the area of said at least one polygonal plan shaped flat upper lens.
Moreover it is possible to provide the polygonal plan shaped flat upper lens and/or the polygonal plan shaped flat lower lens to be inclined towards the inner angle of the eye such to promote the vision in the lateral-upward and lateral-downward direction. According to the present invention the shell wall comprises at least one lens, among those forming the shell wall, joined inclined with said polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall, which lens forms, with the inner surface of said wall, an angle greater than 90°. As an alternative or in combination it is possible to provide at least one lens, among those forming the shell wall, joined inclined with said polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall and forming with the inner surface of said wall (201) an angle smaller than 90°.
According to one embodiment of the present invention the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall has at least 5, preferably 6, vertices with two pairs of side edges and a lower and/or upper edge, two of said vertices being substantially coincident with the outer angle and the inner angle of the eye: as a consequence the shell wall of each eyepiece comprises two pairs of polygonal plan shaped flat lenses joined with the peripheral edge of said polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall and joined with each other, along adjacent contact edges, such to form a V, in section, with the vertex at the outer angle and inner angle of the eye respectively.
Preferably the pair of lenses with the vertex at the outer angle of the eye has an area greater than the pair of lenses with the vertex at the inner angle of the eye.
The mutual inclination of the lenses, both one with respect to the other and with respect to the eye, and their reduced number in favor of the increase in their surface allows the number of connections and therefore the image distortion regions to be reduced and it allows the user practically to have a panoramic and continuous up-down and right-left vision.
Moreover the fact of increasing the areas of the lenses in the regions of highest visual importance (frontal, downward and outward lateral regions) combined with the fact of reducing the areas of the lenses for the vision in visual sub-fields with less importance for the swimmer (for example upward vision, which however is already physically limited by the eyebrow arch, and inward vision, towards the nose) allows the visual field to be optimally wide and at the same time to have optimal hydrodynamic goggles.
The moderate projection of the goggles of the present invention with respect to the face helps in considerably reducing the hydrodynamic drag.
The size and the arrangement of the lenses in the eyepiece of the goggles of the present invention combined also with the provision of a peripheral adhesion lip, allows the position of the lenses to be always optimal with respect to the direction the swimmer is looking.
Coupling seats provided on each eyepiece, of a bridge element and a strap, help in keeping the lenses in the correct position with respect to the eye, in order to guarantee the maximum vision, said seats being provided on a plane parallel to a transverse axis of the skull.
In order to facilitate the adhesion of the goggles on the face the peripheral edge of the shell wall faced towards the face radially projects by a peripheral adhesion lip. Said lip has such a size and shape to match each face, in the contact region about each eye.
The substantially elliptical shape, tapered towards the nose and the arcuate shape of the lip allow the goggles to remain firmly on the face, also in case of a strong impact with water or in case of whirling motions and/or stream in water.
The invention relates also to a method for designing swimming goggles, particularly eyepieces of swimming goggles, which method comprises the following steps:
These and other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be more clear from the following description of some embodiments shown in the annexed drawings wherein:
The swimming goggles shown in the figures are suitable for being used in sports or activities that need to protect the eye from contacting water. Particularly they are suitable for swimming and are usable both when training and in competition.
Such as shown in
Each eyepiece 2 is made as one piece made of a rigid and transparent plastic material: this allows to provide light goggles and easy to be manufactured since they are made by a single injection molding operation.
It is possible to use acrylic plastic material or a carbonate material such as polycarbonate, polyamide, polypropylene or the like; the material can be colored, mirror-finished, with anti-scratching and/or anti-fogging properties.
According to the present invention each one of the two eyepieces 2 comprises at least one polygonal plan shaped flat front wall or lens 201 and a shell wall 202 composed of a set of polygonal plan shaped flat lenses, connected with each other, along adjacent contact edges, and with the peripheral edge of the at least one front flat wall or lens 201 such to delimit a reduced volume inner chamber which is completely open towards the rear part of the eyepiece 2, that is towards the eye.
In a preferred embodiment each one of the two eyepieces 2 comprises only one polygonal plan shaped flat front wall or lens 201.
Said shell wall 202, as it is clear from
Each substantially cup-like shaped eyepiece 2 may have a cross-section perpendicular to the median axis of the polygonal shaped cup inscribable in an ellipse, with the longer axis substantially parallel to the transverse axis of the skull, which ellipse gets narrower towards the inner angle of the eye. Inner angle of the eye in the present description and claims means the angle at the lacrimal duct, while outer angle of the eye means the end of the eye opposite to the lacrimal duct.
A peripheral adhesion lip 3 radially extending from the peripheral edge of the shell wall 202 is shaped such to allow each eyepiece 2 to tightly rest on the face of the user around the eyes.
Said peripheral adhesion lip 3 allows each eyepiece 2 to tightly bear on the skin at the left and right eye socket, due to the fastening exerted by the length-adjustable and/or elastic strap 7 secured at the two outer sides of the shell wall 202.
As it is clear from
As it is clear from
In order to improve the seal on the user face the peripheral adhesion lip 3 particularly the surface of the lip 3 faced towards the user face or, in the embodiments not providing said lip 3, the peripheral edge of the shell wall 202 may be provided with a soft watertight element: such element is intended to be applied on the user face and to accomplish the watertightness of each eyepiece 2, preventing water from entering the inner chamber of said eyepiece 2 when goggles 1 are worn.
Said soft watertight element can be composed of an elastomeric foam coating covering the peripheral edge of the shell wall 202 or the surface of the peripheral adhesion lip 3 in contact with the face or of a gasket made of rubber, silicone or another elastomer fastened, by chemical/physical means or joined to said edge or lip 3.
The dimensions of each eyepiece 2 are such to allow the peripheral adhesion lip 3 to exert a pressure that is uniform and properly distributed along all the face portion about each eye: this allows an optimal watertightness between the goggles 1 and the user face to be obtained preventing water from entering and while guaranteeing the goggles 1 to be optimally hydrodynamic.
According to the present invention, as it is clear from
Each eyepiece 2 is composed only of flat lenses. However the number of flat lenses is reduced, in favor of the increase in the surface thereof such to provide the greatest continuous vision and the smallest amount of connections between the lenses, reducing the visual distortions due to the passage from one to another flat lens.
Particularly the number of sides of the polygonal plan shaped flat front wall or lens 201 and therefore the number of polygonal plan shaped flat lenses of the shell wall 202 is kept reduced such to maximize the surface of the lenses and to maximize the continuity of the overall visual field and at the same time such to minimize the number of connections between the lenses and consequently to minimize the distortions of the overall visual field.
With reference to goggles worn by a user in the upright position, the shell wall 202 of each eyepiece 2 comprises at least one polygonal plan shaped upper flat lens 202a in order to allow the upward vision, at least one polygonal plan shaped lower flat lens 202b in order to allow the downward vision, at least one polygonal plan shaped outer lateral flat lens 202c and at least one polygonal plan shaped inner lateral flat lens 202d in order to allow the lateral vision.
Considering that the upward vision is hindered by eyebrow arches, it is possible to provide the area of said at least one polygonal plan shaped lower flat lens 202b to be wider than the area of said at least one polygonal plan shaped upper flat lens 202a, since the downward vision is particularly important for the swimmer since it allows the shape or the images on the bottom to be followed when swimming with the face underwater, such as the line of swimming pools.
It is possible to provide said at least one polygonal plan shaped flat upper lens 202a and/or said at least one polygonal plan shaped flat lower lens 202b to be inclined towards the inner angle of the eye such to promote the vision in the lateral-upward and lateral-downward direction.
In order to promote the lateral vision, the polygonal plan shaped flat front wall or lens 201 has at least 5 vertices, with two pairs of sides edges and a lower and/or upper edge, two of said vertices being substantially coincident with the outer angle and the inner angle of the eye: consequently the shell wall 202 of each eyepiece 2 comprises two pairs of polygonal plan shaped flat lenses 202c, 202f, and 202e, 202d joined with the peripheral edge of said polygonal plan shaped flat front wall or lens 201 and joined with each other, along adjacent contact edges, such to form, in section, a V, with a vertex at the outer angle and inner angle of the eye respectively. As it is clear from
Such as shown in
Particularly considering that for a swimmer the most important portions of the visual field are those that allow him/her to see frontally, the front bottom of the pool, the competitor swimmers and the swimmers behind him/her, according to the present invention the area of the lenses 201, 202f, 202c, 202b corresponding to:
This embodiment allows also the hydrodynamic aspect of the goggles 1 to be promoted when swimming with the face underwater.
According to a non limitative embodiment shown in the figures the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201 has a hexagonal shape and the shell wall 202 of each eyepiece 2 is composed of 6 polygonal plan shaped flat lenses, that is, considering the goggles 1 worn by an upright user, it is composed of a pair of lateral lenses 202e and 202d at the inner angle of the eye, a pair of lateral lenses 202f and 202c at the outer angle of the eye, a lower lens 202b and an upper lens 202a said lower lens 202b and said outer side lenses 202c and 202f having greater area than the remaining upper lens 202a and side lenses 202e and 202d.
As it is clear from
According to the present invention the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201 is inclined forward such to displace in a front direction, that is forwardly, its lower end with respect to the upper one, with reference to goggles worn by a user in the upright position.
Therefore in one embodiment such as shown in
With reference to the goggles 1 worn by a user in the upright position, the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201 has a forward inclination of the lower end with respect to the upper end, corresponding to an angle Z ranging from 10 to 21°. Particularly the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201 can be inclined by 10°, 15° or 21°. Said polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201 therefore is rotated forward with respect to an axis intermediate to said front lens or wall 201 and substantially parallel to the transverse axis of the skull (that is to one of the main anatomical axes of the human body).
Such as shown in
Still with reference to
Such as shown in
According to one embodiment shown in
Moreover still as shown in
According to one embodiment the angle size Y is 78° and/or the angle size X is 32°.
Such as shown in
By means of the shape of the goggles 1 of the present invention, particularly due to the polygonal plan shaped flat front lens or wall 201, said goggles 1 can be used also for backstroke swimming: by wearing the goggles reversed, the direction of inclination of the polygonal plan shaped lens or wall 201 is reversed thus facilitating the vision of the lower body portion and of the swimmers that are behind.
In order to allow the goggles 1 to be worn by the user each eyepiece 2 is provided with coupling seats 4, 5 of a bridge element 6 and a strap 7, said seats being provided on a plane parallel to a transverse axis of the skull.
Said bridge element 6 and/or said strap 7 can be made of a rigid, semirigid, deformable, soft and/or elastic and/or length adjustable material.
Such as shown in the figures the shell wall 202 of each eyepiece 2 is provided, on the outer side, with a protuberance or extension 4 preferably made as one piece with said eyepiece 2 allowing one end of the strap 7 to be connected, and on the inner side with a protuberance or extension 5, it being made also as one piece, allowing one end of the bridge element 6 to be connected.
Said extensions or protuberances 4,5 can therefore be placed at the outer angle and at the inner angle of the user eye respectively.
Such as shown in the figures, according to one embodiment, said extensions or protuberances 4, 5 have at least one hole 401, 501 inside which the bridge element 6 and the strap 7 can pass which is made as a thread, ribbon, band or the like: in order to connect the two eyepieces 2 at the nose it is possible to provide to pass the bridge element 6 through the two holes 501, one on each eyepiece 2, and then to connect with each other the two ends of said element 6 for example by tying them, or it is possible to provide each end of the bridge element 6 to pass in the hole 501 of each extension or protuberance 5 provided on the eyepiece and then to tie it on itself such to prevent it from slipping out of the hole 501, such as shown in
At the same manner it is possible to connect the strap 7 to the two eyepieces 2.
The assembly of said bridge element 6 and/or strap 7 on the eyepieces 2 allows to adjust both the length of the bridge element 6, therefore to approach or move away from each other the two eyepieces 2, fitting the goggles 1 to the shape of the user face and the length of the strap 7 that wraps the user head with the goggles 1 in the worn condition.
Obviously it is possible to provide said bridge element 6 and said strap 7 to be connected and/or fastened to said eyepieces 2 by any known means for example by overmolding soft plastic material on said eyepieces 2 and/or on the lip 3, or by using snap-on means such as buckles or the like.
Changes and/or modifications can be made to the swimming goggles 1 of the present invention without departing from the protective scope claimed below. With reference to
In this case, the transparent front wall or front lens 201 that may exhibit a combination or sub-combination of the characteristics described for the other embodiments, at the outer corners of the eye, so called outer canthi, has an edge that is contained in a plane parallel to or substantially parallel to the sagittal plane. Particularly the transparent shell wall that is the set of transparent walls or flat lenses 202a to 202g are seven and the transparent wall or transparent lens 202g is oriented substantially vertically.
Like the other flat lenses 202a to 202f forming the shell transparent wall also such flat wall 202g can be inclined with its side facing the face displaced laterally outwardly with respect to the edge connecting to the front transparent wall or front lens 201 to the eye.
Such as shown and described, the eyepieces that is the front transparent wall or the front flat lens 201 thereof may have a polygonal shape with a different number of corners and therefore for example it can be pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, etc. Therefore a corresponding number of flat transparent elements 202 are connected thereto forming the shell transparent wall of the eyepiece.
Other variants of the goggles that can be provided in any combination with the characteristics already described, advantageously are a strap composed of a tubular element made of compressed silicone.
The seals along the contact edges of the eyepiece at the peripheral lip 3 contacting the region around the eye of the face may be made by overmolding technique. The eyepieces may be made of polycarbonate and have a number of planar or flat surfaces corresponding to the selected polygonal shape of the front lens.
Also the nose pad may be composed of a tubular material element. Preferably this is translucid.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| GE2014A0093 | Sep 2014 | IT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2015/057125 | 9/16/2015 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2016/042495 | 3/24/2016 | WO | A |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4286340 | Lathrop | Sep 1981 | A |
| 4353134 | Macnabb | Oct 1982 | A |
| 4405212 | Cooper | Sep 1983 | A |
| 4755040 | Haslbeck | Jul 1988 | A |
| 6079054 | Chou | Jun 2000 | A |
| 7779488 | Fukasawa | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 20040158916 | Sung | Aug 2004 | A1 |
| 20100033671 | Campo | Feb 2010 | A1 |
| 20130019386 | Hahn | Jan 2013 | A1 |
| 20130187786 | Dadlani Mahtani | Jul 2013 | A1 |
| 20140041106 | Shau | Feb 2014 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2451155 | Oct 2001 | CN |
| 201327551 | Oct 2009 | CN |
| 0255262 | Feb 1988 | EP |
| M469934 | Jan 2014 | TW |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20170239528 A1 | Aug 2017 | US |
