This invention relates to bathroom accessories and more particularly to bathroom accessories having a fixed tier and a rotatable tier, each tier having a design on a visible side such that when the sides are aligned the designs create at least one composite design.
Like many other rooms in a home, a bathroom may contain functional items. Quite often, in addition to their operation, items also present aesthetic or appearance considerations. To enhance their aesthetic features, bathroom accessories are sold as ensembles with matching soap dishes, tumblers, toothbrush holders, and other matching components. However, appearance does not influence certain types or groups of people as much as others.
In particular, children are engaged by other elements of design beyond the appearance of an ensemble. While it is universally recognized that children could spend more time washing their hands or brushing their teeth when they are in the bathroom, getting them to do so is challenging. Thus, merely introducing a matching ensemble into a bathroom is not likely to markedly improve a child's personal hygiene.
Unlike children, adults tend to appreciate personal hygiene to a greater degree. While adults may be pleased with the aesthetic appearance of bathroom accessories, they may be entertained, much like children, by bathroom accessories that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but have novel and entertaining characteristics.
What is needed are bathroom accessories that provide entertainment and motivate children of all ages while fulfilling more ordinary, operational functions and desired aesthetics.
These and other objectives and advantages of the invention will be readily appreciated from the foregoing, and from the following written description and drawings, in which:
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a variable design bathroom accessory comprises a holder, a fixed tier, and a first rotatable tier. The holder has a central axis. The fixed tier is attached to the holder and has a fixed side with a first design thereon. The first rotatable tier is rotatable about the holder and is in proximity to the fixed tier. The first rotatable tier has a first rotatable side with a second design thereon. The first rotatable tier is rotatable around the central axis, whereby rotation of the first rotatable tier aligns the fixed side with the first rotatable side such that the first design and the second design form a composite design.
In another embodiment, a liquid dispenser includes a pump for dispensing a liquid and a liquid reservoir for storing the liquid. The liquid reservoir has a central axis. The liquid dispenser comprises the fixed tier and the rotatable tier. The fixed tier is attached to the liquid reservoir. The fixed tier has a fixed side with a first design thereon. The first rotatable tier is rotatable about the liquid reservoir and is in proximity to the fixed tier. The first rotatable tier has a first rotatable side with a second design thereon. The first rotatable tier is rotatable around the central axis, whereby rotation of the first rotatable tier aligns the fixed side and the first rotatable side such that the first design and the second design form a composite design.
In another embodiment, the liquid dispenser comprises the fixed tier, the first rotatable tier, and a second rotatable tier. The fixed tier is attached to the liquid reservoir, has a square perimeter, and four fixed sides each with a design thereon. The first rotatable tier is rotatable about the liquid reservoir and is in proximity to the fixed tier. The first rotatable tier has a square perimeter, four first rotatable sides each with a design thereon, and is rotatable around the central axis. The second rotatable tier is rotatable about the liquid reservoir and is in proximity to the first rotatable tier. The second rotatable tier has the square perimeter, four second rotatable sides each with a design thereon, and is rotatable around the central axis, whereby rotation of the first rotatable tier aligns one fixed side with one first rotatable side, and rotation of the second rotatable tier aligns one second rotatable side with the one first rotatable side such that one design on the fixed tier, one design on the first rotatable tier, and one design on the second rotatable tier form one composite design.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Turning to the drawings and particularly
With continued reference to
With reference to
When the design 30 on the rotatable side 28 is aligned with the design 24 on the fixed side 22, a composite design 32 is formed. In other words, in one embodiment, the designs 24 and 30 cooperate to form the composite design 32. The composite design 32 may be a character, by way of example, as shown in
One skilled in the art will observe and appreciate that each design 24, 30 on the fixed side 22 and rotatable side 28 may be in the form of a sculpture, a picture, a painting, a relief pattern, or other visually discernable design, possibly to create characters or themes such as Santa Claus for holidays such as Christmas, or any number of other popular characters or themes, like Halloween, that children or even adults identify with. In particular, the characters or themes that people identify with may engage them such that they are more likely to wash their hands, brush their teeth, or use the other functions related to the variable design bathroom accessory 10. For example, they may be more apt to brush their teeth while engaged in rotating the rotatable tier 16 relative to the fixed tier 14 to modify the composite design 32 or while they wash their hands prior to or following modifying the composite design 32.
In one embodiment, the polygon-shaped perimeter 21 of the fixed tier 14 and the polygon-shaped perimeter 27 of the rotatable tier 16 define regular polygons. For example, the polygon-shaped perimeters 21, 27 may define an equilateral triangle, square (as shown in
In one embodiment, as shown in
In the exemplary embodiment of
In the embodiment shown in
Additionally, as shown, each of the two rotatable tiers 16, 40 and the fixed tier 14 has a square perimeter such that each tier 14, 16, 40, has four sides. Therefore, four designs per tier are possible. Thus, the designs 24, 30, 44 align to form a composite design 32 when the perimeters 21, 27, 41 coincide.
In one embodiment, the composite design 32 is a character, as shown in
While the fixed side 22 is shown in
While a two and three tier variable design bathroom accessory 10 is described, one skilled in the art will observe that multiple additional tiers may be added forming any one of a number of entertaining variable design bathroom accessories 10. One skilled in the art will observe that as the number of sides 22, 28, 42 increases the number of possible composite design variations increases, and, consequently, entertainment value may also increase.
In another embodiment, a cap 48, as shown in
In addition, the variable design bathroom accessory 10 may be made of any material satisfactory for bathroom environments that may be easily cleaned, does not degrade with water contact, or react in any manner with soaps or other liquids that may be in or around the variable design bathroom accessory 10. These materials may include any one of a number of plastics, wood, metal, glass, ceramic, such as bone china or porcelain, resin, or papier-mâché that provides more detail for the designs 24, 30, 44 formed on the fixed side 22 and rotatable sides 28, 42.
These and other advantages, embodiments and modifications will be readily apparent from the foregoing to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention and applicant intends to be bound only by the claims appended hereto.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/948,842, filed Jul. 10, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60948842 | Jul 2007 | US |