Patent Application
20240008627
The invention relates generally to portable storage receptacles and specifically to backpacks configured to store and preserve foods and/or other materials while simultaneously holding drinks.
Receptacles designed for portable food storage may provide a variety of features that allow for food (or other materials) to be transported while simultaneously maintain its temperature/preserving it. For example, receptacles such as cooler bags may provide a portable receptacle capable of preserving a food product at a suitable storage temperature for longer than a conventional receptacle. However, currently utilized food preservation receptacles lack the necessary structures to suitably preserve food at the necessary temperature while keeping said food securely in place. Additionally existing receptacle may not be capable of simultaneously holding drinks securely and allowing for said receptacle to be carried without using an individual's hands.
Therefore, there is a need to solve the problems described above by providing a device and method for securely storing food and drink while preserving the food in a highly portable form factor.
The aspects or the problems and the associated solutions presented in this section could be or could have been pursued; they are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches presented in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their presence in this section of the application.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key aspects or essential aspects of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, this Summary is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In an aspect, a tactical management backpack is provided, the tactical management backpack comprising: a backpack body having: an insulated pocket nested within the backpack body, the insulated pocket having: a plurality of perimeter walls; an outer wall configured to be selectively engaged with each perimeter wall to close the insulated pocket; at least two engagement surfaces, each engagement surface being attached to a corresponding perimeter wall; a mesh pocket secured to the outer wall, the mesh pocket being configured to hold a temperature moderation device; a securing band configured to engage with at least one engagement surface within the insulated pocket; an insulative layer surrounding the insulated pocket; and a drink pocket attached to the backpack body, the drink pocket having: a container slot configured to surround a lower portion of a drink receptacle; a tension cord housing disposed above the container slot, the tension cord housing being configured to surround an upper portion of the drink receptacle; and a tension cord partially nested within the tension cord housing, the tension cord being configured to selectively constrict the tension cord housing around the upper portion of the drink receptacle to secure the drink receptacle within the drink pocket. Thus, an advantage is food or other materials may be stored within the insulated pocket and maintained at a higher or lower temperature for longer than would be possible with a standard container. Another advantage is that containers may be held securely within the insulated pocket though the utilization of securing band to restrict container movement. Another advantage is that the positioning of the securing band may be adjusted to allow it to secure containers of varying sizes and quantities within the insulated pocket. Another advantage is that provided insulated pocket and the drink pocket allow for food and drink to be stored within the disclosed tactical management backpack simultaneously.
In another aspect, a tactical management backpack is provided, the tactical management backpack comprising: a backpack body having: an insulated pocket nested within the backpack body, the insulated pocket having: a plurality of perimeter walls; an outer wall attached to one of the plurality of perimeter walls; an engagement surface attached to a corresponding perimeter wall; a mesh pocket secured to the outer wall; a securing band configured to engage with the engagement surface; an insulative layer surrounding the insulated pocket; and a drink pocket attached to the backpack body, the drink pocket having a tension cord configured to secure a drink receptacle within the drink pocket. Thus, an advantage is food or other materials may be stored within the insulated pocket and maintained at a higher or lower temperature for longer than would be possible with a standard container. Another advantage is that containers may be held securely within the insulated pocket though the utilization of securing band to restrict container movement. Another advantage is that the positioning of the securing band may be adjusted to allow it to secure containers of varying sizes and quantities within the insulated pocket. Another advantage is that provided insulated pocket and the drink pocket allow for food and drink to be stored within the disclosed tactical management backpack simultaneously.
The above aspects or examples and advantages, as well as other aspects or examples and advantages, will become apparent from the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.
For exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes, aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention are illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:
What follows is a description of various aspects, embodiments and/or examples in which the invention may be practiced. Reference will be made to the attached drawings, and the information included in the drawings is part of this detailed description. The aspects, embodiments and/or examples described herein are presented for exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes. It should be understood that structural and/or logical modifications could be made by someone of ordinary skills in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents.
It should be understood that, for clarity of the drawings and of the specification, some or all details about some structural components or steps that are known in the art are not shown or described if they are not necessary for the invention to be understood by one of ordinary skills in the art.
For the following description, it can be assumed that most correspondingly labeled elements across the figures (e.g., 101 and 201, etc.) possess the same characteristics and are subject to the same structure and function. If there is a difference between correspondingly labeled elements that is not pointed out, and this difference results in a non-corresponding structure or function of an element for a particular embodiment, example or aspect, then the conflicting description given for that particular embodiment, example or aspect shall govern.
In order to securely hold a drink receptacle 103 and maintain it in an upright position, the meal management backpack 100 may have at least one drink pocket 102. Each drink pocket 102 may have a tension cord 102a configured to surround an upper portion of the drink pocket 102, such that the tension cord 102a may be tightened while a drink receptacle 103 is held within a drink pocket 102, thus securing the drink receptacle 103 within the drink pocket 102, as can be seen in
The drink pocket 102 may be comprised of several main components, a container slot 102c configured to surround and house a lower portion of the drink receptacle 103, a tension cord housing 102b disposed above the container slot 102c and configured to surround an upper portion of the drink receptacle 103, and a tension cord partially housed or nested within the tension cord housing 102b. In order to secure a drink receptacle 103 within the drink pocket 102, the drink receptacle 103 may be inserted into the container slot 102c. Next, the tension cord 102a housed within the tension cord 102a housing may be adjusted to constrict the tension cord housing 102b around an upper portion of the drink receptacle 103. The container slot 102c may be used to surround the majority (or a sufficiently large portion) of the drink receptacle 103, such that when the upper portion of the drink receptacle is constricted by the tightening of tension cord 102a within the tension cord housing 102b, that the drink receptacle 103 may remain securely within the drink pocket 102 until the tension cord 102a is loosened.
The container slot 102c may be made of a mesh material such that the amount of drink remaining in a held drink receptacle 103 is visible, even when stored. The tension cord housing 102b may be made out a material comparable to that of the backpack body 100a, such as canvas. The tension cord 102a may be made of a rigid or suitably elastic material, such that the tension cord 102a may be tightly constricted around the drink receptacle 103 to keep it in place.
An insulated pocket 101 may be nested within the front side 100c of the backpack body 100a. This insulated pocket 101 may be selectively opened and closed through manipulation of an insulated pocket zipper 101e secured to the insulated pocket 101. This insulated pocket 101 may be surrounded by an insulative liner (“liner”), such as EPE (“expanded polyethylene”) cooler liner 701a of
A front pocket 104 may also be nested within the front side 100c of the backpack body, but above the insulated pocket 101. This front pocket 104, and the remaining pockets described below, may not utilize any specialty insulation, but still may be utilized to store food, drinks and other materials that do not require temperature moderation. The height of the insulated pocket 101 and the front pocket 104 combined may be roughly the same as the heights of the center pocket 105 and the back pockets 106, which will be described in hereinbelow. The front pocket 104 may also utilize a corresponding front pocket zipper in order to selectively open and close the front pocket 104. It should be understood that each pocket described herein, may utilize a corresponding zipper in order to be selectively opened and closed to secure held items within the corresponding pocket and prevent loss/droppage of said items. For example, the back pocket may be selectively opened using an attached back pocket zipper 106b configured to open and close the back pocket 106.
A center pocket 105 may be nested within the backpack body 100a between the front pocket 104 and the back pocket 106. As will be described in greater detail hereinbelow, the insulative liner of the insulated pocket 101 may selectively protrude into the space defined by the center pocket 105, in order to provide the room needed to properly store items within the adjacent insulated pocket 101.
The back pocket 106 may be nested within the backpack body 100a on a back side 100d of the backpack body 100a. This back pocket may be comparable in size to the center pocket 105, but may not have a portion of the insulated pocket 101 protruding into it. This back pocket may include additional internal pockets or sleeves, such as a back pocket sleeve nested within the back pocket 106, to hold additional items securely within the backpack body 100a. The pockets of the meal management backpack 100 will be described in greater detail hereinbelow. It should be understood that the disclosed backpack 100 may not be restricted to only handling food and may hold any materials suitable for transport by backpack. Such materials may also utilize the insulated pockets, if moderation of their temperature is necessary or desirable.
A third strap in the form of a back strap 608c may be attached to the backpack body 600a, such that a user may wrap the back strap 608c around their body while wearing the backpack 600 on their back, to secure the backpack to themself. This back strap 608c may extend from one lateral side 600b-1 to the other lateral side 600b-2, wrapping around the back side 600d of the backpack body 600a. A user may utilize this back strap to ensure the meal management backpack 600 remains secured to themselves during travel. The back strap may be comprised of similar elements to the prior disclosed straps of
The securing band 714 may be made of an elastic material to allow for the securing band 714 to elastically conform around the shape of a container 707 to hold it in place within the insulated pocket. As seen in
As disclosed previously, the insulated pocket 701 may have an insulative liner 701a that is configured to surround the cavity formed within the insulated pocket 701. This insulative liner 701a may be an EPE cooler liner configured to allow the contents within the insulated pocket 701a to maintain their temperature for longer. The insulative liner 701a slows heat transfer between the inside of the insulated pocket 701 and the external environment 716. For example, a cold food product stored within the insulated pocket 701 may be kept at a cooler temperature for longer by securing it within the insulated pocket 701, due to the presence of the insulative liner 701a.
The temperature of the insulated pocket 701 may be further maintained by storing a temperature moderation device (not shown), such as a hot pack, cold pack, or ice pack, within the insulated pocket 701 alongside the containers 707. A mesh pocket 711 may be provided within the insulated pocket 701 to store the temperature moderation device to help keep the insulated pocket 701 organized. This mesh pocket may be attached to an outer wall 701d to make accessing the temperature moderation device straightforward. This may also allow the temperature moderation device to be accessed easily allowing for its replacement as needed while not disturbing the secured containers 707.
The hereinabove described configurations should be understood to simply be potential embodiments of the disclosed meal management backpack, as additional variations may also be implemented while remaining within the scope of the disclosed backpack. For example, additional securing bands 814, additional and/or alternatively positioned loop strips/engagement surface 815 and other features relevant to the secure handling of containers may also be implemented depending on the application of the backpack.
Each securing band 814 may have two opposing sides 814a, each opposing side 814a being configured to engage with a corresponding engagement surface 815, such as a loop strip. The aforenoted hook type fasteners, or another fastener type that is configured to engage with the corresponding engagement surface 815, may be disposed on said opposing sides 814a of the securing band 814, allowing the securing band 814 to be secured to the engagement strips on perimeter walls 801b within insulted pocket 801 to facilitate the secure holding of containers within the insulated pocket 801. As stated hereinabove, the perimeter walls may include the top wall 801b-1, bottom wall 801b-2, as well as the left wall 801b-3 and the right wall 801b-4 of the insulated pocket 801. While the provided figures may only depict the securing band 814 engaging with the engagement surfaces 815 on left wall 801b-3 and the right wall 801b-4, thus resulting in a horizontally oriented securing band 814, it should be understood that engagement surfaces 815 may also be provided on the top wall 801b-1 and the bottom wall 801b-2 to facilitate a vertical orientation of the securing band 814 as needed.
While each engagement surface 815, such as the loop strips, may be secured to a perimeter wall 801b of the insulated pocket 801, the mesh pocket 811 may be secured directly to an outer wall 801d of the insulated pocket 801. This outer wall 801d of the of the insulated pocket may be disposed between the mesh pocket 811 and the external environment 816. It should be understood that outer wall 801d is configured to be selectively engaged with each perimeter wall 801b in order to close the insulated pocket, such as through the utilization of an insulated pocket zipper.
The positioning of electronics and other objects in the back pocket 1006 may help to distance it from the temperature maintained within the insulated pocket. For example, if the insulated pocket is kept at a higher temperature, it may be desirable to avoid putting electronics in direct contact with or close proximity to the insulated pocket. By storing electronics in the back pocket 1006 and temperature moderated items, such as foods, within the insulate pocket, the center pocket may be used as a buffer between the temperature moderated items and electronic items.
The non-insulative materials used for the backpack body may include canvas, nylon and other suitably durable backpack materials known in the field, whereas each zipper may be made of steel, aluminum, plastic and or another suitably strong material. The insulative layer and may be made of a suitably efficient insulating material, such as the prior disclosed EPE material, or other sufficiently flexible insulative materials.
As described previously, each pocket may have a corresponding zipper to allow for its selective opening, wherein the front pocket 1304 has a front pocket zipper 1304a, the center pocket 1305 has a center pocket zipper 1305a, the insulated pocket has an insulated pocket zipper, such as insulated pocket zipper 101c of
The combination of the features of the tactical meal management backpack disclosed herein provides an overall meal management solution capable of providing easy access storage of drinks though the utilization of drink pockets, such as drink pockets 102 of
It may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used in this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with one another. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or. The phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like.
Further, as used in this application, “plurality” means two or more. A “set” of items may include one or more of such items. Whether in the written description or the claims, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of,” respectively, are closed or semi-closed transitional phrases with respect to claims.
If present, use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., in the claims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence or order of one claim element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed. These terms are used merely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the claim elements. As used in this application, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.
Throughout this description, the aspects, embodiments or examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus or procedures disclosed or claimed. Although some of the examples may involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives.
Acts, elements and features discussed only in connection with one aspect, embodiment or example are not intended to be excluded from a similar role(s) in other aspects, embodiments or examples.
Aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention may be described as processes, which are usually depicted using a flowchart, a flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may depict the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. With regard to flowcharts, it should be understood that additional and fewer steps may be taken, and the steps as shown may be combined or further refined to achieve the described methods.
If means-plus-function limitations are recited in the claims, the means are not intended to be limited to the means disclosed in this application for performing the recited function, but are intended to cover in scope any equivalent means, known now or later developed, for performing the recited function.
Claim limitations should be construed as means-plus-function limitations only if the claim recites the term “means” in association with a recited function.
If any presented, the claims directed to a method and/or process should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Although aspects, embodiments and/or examples have been illustrated and described herein, someone of ordinary skills in the art will easily detect alternate of the same and/or equivalent variations, which may be capable of achieving the same results, and which may be substituted for the aspects, embodiments and/or examples illustrated and described herein, without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of this application is intended to cover such alternate aspects, embodiments and/or examples. Hence, the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents. Further, each and every claim is incorporated as further disclosure into the specification.
