The present invention is generally related to an improved walking device, such as a walking cane or a crutch, with a pick up mechanism that enables the device to be easily picked up when dropped on the ground.
Presently, many people use devices such as walking canes or crutches to facilitate their movement. Walking canes and crutches can fall to the ground or be dropped by the user, or can fall from any given place of rest. Once they fall on the ground, it could be very challenging for the user to pick them up, because this requires the user to bend over to reach the ground. Normally, those who require a walking cane or a crutch to move around are those with compromised or impaired physical conditions. Bending over to reach the ground could be very difficult for them, if not impossible.
There have been some attempts to solve this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,826,605, 6,039,064, and 6,068,007 disclosed a design which uses a series of complicated mechanicals to raise an arm when a cane or crutch falls on the ground. The draw back of this design is that it is too complicated, involves too many mechanical parts, and may not be very reliable. Another attempt to solve this problem is described in the paper “Intelligent walking stick”. This paper disclosed a walking stick with three prongs that can open up similar to the spokes on an umbrella. The opening up mechanism is based on voice command. When the user speaks a phrase which matches a prerecorded voice signature, the three prongs are opened, resulting in two prongs touching the ground and raising the cane, and the third prong sticking in the air for the user to pick up. This design requires sophisticated voice recognition, which may not work very well in a noisy environment, such as in the streets or in a shopping plaza. Moreover, this design requires three prongs to be installed on a walking device, which complicates the design of the walking device. Yet another attempt to solve the problem is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,387,638, 8,490,637, 8,689,811, and in U.S. patent publication US20210045508. These patent documents described a number of design alternatives that are improvements over the previous designs. However, they also have their own limitations.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved device to facilitate the convenient retrieval of a walking cane or a crutch that is dropped or falls on the ground.
Possible embodiments of the invention are discussed in this section.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an improved walking device is presented. This walking device could be a walking cane, a crutch, or any other devices that assist in walking. A sensor is incorporated into the walking device. The sensor senses an orientation of the walking device. The orientation sensor could be an accelerometer or a rate sensor such as a gyroscope. A power source and a power source connector are also incorporated into the walking device which supplies power to the sensor. At least one movable arm is attached to the walking device. The movable arm can rotate on the walking device. When the improved walking device according to one embodiment of the present invention falls onto the ground, the orientation sensor such as an accelerometer senses an orientation of the elongated body of the walking device, for example horizontal to the ground or vertical to the ground. If the sensed orientation is approximately horizontal to the ground within a range, it suggests that the walking device is likely dropped, then the sensor would produce electronic signal(s) to cause the rotation of a releaser such as a push pin or a trigger. The releaser can push away a locking device that locks the movable arm in place, the releasor further nudges the movable arm away from a resting position to enable it to raise up. Once the movable arm raises up, the walking device's user can grab it without having to bend too much, thus making it fairly easy for the walking device to be picked up.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, once the walking device is on the ground, the orientation sensor can sense whether the walking device is lying on its right side or left side. The orientation sensor will produce electronic signal(s) accordingly which will cause a release structure such as a push pin to rotate in the correction direction. The push pin pushes a latch structure such as a latch plate to unlock a wand hub wheel. The push pin then nudges a pick up wand to rotate away from its resting position by nudging the wand hub wheel to rotate. As the pick up wand rotates away from its resting position, a pull spring gains authority on the rotational torque and pulls the wand hub wheel and the pick up wand to a full deployed position. The pick up wand is typically parallel with the body of the walking device. When the walking devices lies on the ground, the wand would be approximately parallel with the ground. Once it rotates about 90 degrees, the far end of the wand would be a couple of feet above the ground, depending on the length of the wand. It would be fairly easy to pick up the walking device by grabbing the distal tip of the wand.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, control board 101 includes an orientation sensor and a microprocessor. If the orientation sensor senses that the walking device to which the pick up assembly is attached has fallen and is within allowable tilt limits, it will produce a signal and the signal goes to the microprocessor. The microprocessor controls motor 102 to rotate a pin wheel 104. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the orientation sensor senses which side of the walking device is on the ground and produces a different signal accordingly. The microprocessor controls the motor 102 to rotate pin wheel 104 in two different directions (such as clockwise and counterclockwise) based on the different signals.
The release pin 107 is attached to the pin wheel 104. When pin wheel 104 rotates, it will drive release pin 107 to rotate. When the release pin 107 rotates to the upside, it pushes up a latch plate 105. The latch plate 105 normally locks wand hub 110 in place so that it cannot freely rotate. When latch plate 105 is pushed up and releases the wand hub 110, wand hub 110 can freely rotate around a main shaft 111. After pushing up the latch plate 105, release pin 107 further rotates to nudge wand hub 110 to rotate. Because pin wheel 104 can rotate in two different directions depending on which side the walking device to which the pick up assembly is attached has fallen onto, release pin 107 can also rotate in two different directions, and therefore can nudge wand hub 110 to rotate in two different directions. Because wand 109 is connected to wand hub 110, when release pin 107 nudges wand hub 110 to rotate, it also nudges wand 109 to rotate.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the hub spring pin 108 is attached to wand hub 110. The fixed spring pin 103 is attached to the pick up assembly. Pull spring 106 is attached to the hub spring pin 108 and the fixed spring pin 103. Once wand hub 110 is nudged to rotate off its central position, pull spring 106 will quickly gain authority on the rotational torque and pulls wand hub 110 in one direction or another depending on in which direction wand hub 110 is nudged to rotate. Wand 109 is attached to wand hub 110. When wand hub 110 is pulled by pull spring 106 to a deployed position, it also rotates wand 109 to the deployed position.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the assembly senses with a sensor that the pin wheel 104 continues to rotate the release pin 107 to a predetermined position, for example the original position from where it started the rotation, and then stops the pin wheel 104 from further rotating. According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, a magnet is attached to the gearmotor assembly and rotates in sync with the release pin 107. A magnet sensor is attached to the control board 101. The assembly senses the position of release pin 107 by sensing the position of the magnet with the magnet sensor.
If the walking device is down within a certain range, then depending on whether it is lying on its left side or right side, the process progresses to steps 1204 or 1209. At these steps, the system will rotate a release pin in the correct direction. At steps 1205 and 1210, the release pin pushes up a latch plate to unlock a locking post, the locking post is connected to a wand hub. At steps 1206 and 1211, the release pin further rotates and pushes the locking post to rotate, and therefore rotates the wand hub connected to the locking post. At steps 1207 and 1212, a spring pulls the wand hub to rotate further until it reaches a deployed position. A movable arm is connected to the wand hub. When the wand hub rotates to the deployed position, the movable arm is also rotated to the deployed position. The spring pulls the wand hub and the movable arm to either the right side or to the left side depending on which side the walking device is lying on. If the walking device is lying on its left side, the movable arm will be pulled to rotate to its right side. If the walking device is lying on its right side, the movable arm will be pulled to rotate to its left side. Once the walking device is picked up by the user, then at step 1215 the user re-locks the movable arm by pushing it back to its locked position and the system resets. The process then loops back to step 1202. The above mentioned steps represent just one embodiment of the present invention. Different steps or different orders of the steps can be performed to achieve similar results.
It is obvious that there are numerous different variations and combinations of the above described embodiments of the invention. All these different variations, combinations and their structural or functional equivalences are considered as part of the invention. The terms used in the specification are illustrative and are not meant to restrict the scope of the invention. The described methods have steps that can be performed in different orders and yet achieve similar results. All the variations in the design components or orders of the method steps are considered as part of this invention as long as they achieve substantially the same results.
The invention is further defined and claimed by the following claims.
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