The present application relates generally to the field of shoe sanitizers capable of reducing shoe odors.
According to a research study, the 2012 National Foot Health Assessment, conducted for the Institute for Preventative Foot Health, 16 percent of adults age 21 and older, a population of about 36 million people, have experienced foot odor. (https://www.ipfh.org/foot-conditions/foot-conditions-a-z/foot-odor). According to an article published by the American Society for Microbiology, foot odor is caused from microbes on the skin that metabolize compounds in sweat, which produces offensive odors in the form of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Some of these skin microbes comprise Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus and Cutibacterium genera. (https://asm.org/Articles/2021/December/Microbial-Origins-of-Body-Odor). When sweat is left behind in shoes, this can result in shoes that also have an odor. (https://www.verywellfit.com/ways-to-prevent-stinky-shoes-smelly-feet-3436314). High levels of harmful microorganisms sustained in enclosed shoes may cause or promote various foot ailments.
Many solutions have been used to alleviate the issue of shoe odor. Such solutions have included washing the shoes and insoles, dowsing the shoes with odor-absorbing powders, spraying shoes with a disinfecting spray, or placing objects inside to try to absorb and mask the odor.
It is well known that ultraviolet (UV) light of certain wavelengths, intensities, and durations can destroy or inhibit growth of surface pathogens. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_germicidal_irradiation). One existing solution uses a shoe tree structure having ultraviolet light emitters that can be placed into a shoe. This approach to addressing shoe odor includes disinfecting the shoe with UV light generated from UV light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are mounted over an inside of a hollow shoe tree. With the shoe tree structure, the ultraviolet (UV) light is not directed to both the front and back of the insides of the shoe. The sanitizer also appears large and heavy, and expensive (as of this application's filing date, approximately $100).
Another ultraviolet-based solution, described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,314,928 uses a shoe sole insert that can be an insole, a footbed enclosure, or the like that has UV light sources embedded in the insert; the insert is configured to emit UV radiation in the footwear through a transparent window region formed in the insert. The background of '928 mentions the shoe tree using UV LEDs. The background of the '928 also mentions an enclosure to contain UV light emanating from a bulb inserted inside a shoe without the support of a shoe tree. The background also discusses safety issues so that UV light does not escape the shoe.
The above-described background relating to shoe deodorizing is merely intended to provide a contextual overview and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become apparent in view of the following description.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the subject disclosure are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.
The subject disclosure is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the subject matter. However, these aspects are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the subject matter can be employed. Other aspects, advantages, and novel features of the disclosed subject matter will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the provided drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the subject disclosure. It may be evident, however, that the subject disclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to facilitate describing the subject disclosure. Moreover, components are not necessarily shown to be at scale. Components can be larger or smaller, or longer or shorter than depicted in the drawings.
In accordance with various aspects and example embodiments of the subject application, a shoe sanitizer is provided that can emit ultraviolet (UV) radiation (also referred to as UV light) when a portion of the shoe sanitizer is disposed within the cavity of a shoe where a foot would normally be.
The central body 120 can be, for example, a rectangular body, or a cylindrical body, and can be made of plastic or some other durable material. It can, for example, be pieces of molded plastic joined together (for example two halves of molded plastic) which result in a single member. It can be large enough to house electronic components inside of it; some of these components will be described below. For example, either the cover 105 or the central body 120 can comprise a battery as its power source. If most of the electronic components will be embedded within the cover 105, then the central body 120 can be thinner. As shown by the two-way arrow next to the central body 120 in
The UV sources 125 can emit electromagnetic radiation within a certain range that is effective to destroy microorganisms in the shoe. The UV sources 125 can be a UV LED, UV bulb, or strip of material capable of emitting UV light. In alternative example embodiments, infrared light that kills microorganism can be used as well. In example embodiments, as shown in
The shoe sanitizer 100 can also have one or more stabilizers 130 that can impinge on the insole 135 of the shoe. The insole 135 can come with the shoe when purchased or acquired, or can be a separate insert, which can be subsequently acquired or purchased, that is inserted into the shoe for extra cushioning, arch support, etc. In example embodiments, the stabilizers 130 can serve to keep the front portion of the central body 120 from touching or getting too close to the insole 135. In some example embodiments, one or more stabilizers 130 can also be oriented upward such that they impinge on the inside of the shoe's ceiling 140 (which can comprise the tongue of the shoe, laces, or lace hole liners), thus stabilizing the central body 120 such that it is not impinging on the insole 135 or the ceiling 140. In example embodiments, one stabilizer can be used, wherein the base of the stabilizer is broader and resembling the base of a triangle. The base and angle can be curved such that the curved portion corresponding to the angle of the triangle can be in contact with the insole 135. The stabilizers 130 can be made of deformable or flexible material, such that the stabilizers 130 can bend, or curve, as shown by the arrows near the stabilizers 130. Like the cover 105, the material for the stabilizers 130 can comprise, for example, silicon, plastic, rubber, or flexible metal surrounded by silicon, plastic, or rubber. The stabilizers 130 can be made of transparent, or translucent material, such that if they are in the path of any LED's emitted light, then the light can still pass through.
The shoe sanitizer 100 can also comprise a connector 150, which can on one end be connected to the cover 105, and on the other be connected to the central body 120. The connector 150 can serve as a conduit, which can be made of plastic, through which one or more conductors (e.g., wires) carry electrical signals (e.g., power, current) between components associated with the cover 105 and components associated with the central body 120. The shoe sanitizer 100 can also comprise a switch 145, which a user can use to turn the shoe sanitizer 100 on or off, which results in the UV sources 125 emitting UV light, or when turned to the off position, ceasing to emit the UV light. Power to the UV sources can come from an AC-DC power adapter that draws power from an electrical socket, or the power source can be a battery, which can be rechargeable. The switch 145 can be of any kind, for example, a switch that moves from an on to off position, or a button that depresses to an on state, or a button that toggles between on and off. The user might be instructed to keep the UV sources turned on for 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc., depending on the type of UV sources 125, in terms of the characteristics and intensity of the emitted UV light. As shown by the two-way arrow next to the connector 150 in
Staying on
Initially, with the switch in the off position, the circuit is in a standby state, and the UV LEDs are off. When the user pushes the switch 145, it triggers the timer IC 1110. The trigger input (Pin 2) of the 555 timer IC 1205 receives a high signal, initiating the timing cycle. During the timing cycle, capacitor C11215 is charged as current flows through resistor R11220. As mentioned above with respect to
Still referring to
In particular and in regard to the various functions performed by the above described components, devices, circuits, systems and the like, any claim terms comprising a reference to a “means” used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., a functional equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure, which performs the function in the herein illustrated example aspects of the embodiments. Further, unless the term “means” appears in a claim, the claim is not to be defined or construed as a means plus function claim.
As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.
In addition, while a particular feature may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature can be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “have”, “having”, “includes” and “including” and variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”
The above descriptions of various embodiments of the subject disclosure and corresponding figures and what is described in the Abstract, are described herein for illustrative purposes, and are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. It is to be understood that one of ordinary skill in the art can recognize that other embodiments comprising modifications, permutations, combinations, and additions can be implemented for performing the same, similar, alternative, or substitute functions of the disclosed subject matter, and are therefore considered within the scope of this disclosure.
For example, disclosed systems and apparatuses and components or subsets thereof (referred to hereinafter as components) should neither be presumed to be exclusive of other disclosed systems and apparatuses, nor should an apparatus be presumed to be exclusive to its depicted components in an example embodiment or embodiments of this disclosure, unless where clear from context to the contrary.
The scope of this disclosure is generally intended to encompass modifications of depicted embodiments with additions from other depicted embodiments, where suitable, interoperability among or between depicted embodiments, where suitable, as well as addition of a component(s) from one embodiment(s) within another or subtraction of a component(s) from any depicted embodiment, where suitable, aggregation of components (or embodiments) into a single component achieving aggregate functionality, where suitable, or distribution of functionality of a single system or component into multiple systems or components, where suitable. In addition, incorporation, combination or modification of systems or components depicted herein or modified as stated above with systems, apparatuses, components or subsets thereof not explicitly depicted herein but known in the art or made evident to one with ordinary skill in the art through the context disclosed herein are also considered within the scope of the present disclosure.
Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the claims below.
This application is a non-provisional application claiming the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/540,140 filed Sep. 25, 2023 entitled “Ultraviolet shoe sanitizer,” the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63540140 | Sep 2023 | US |