U.S. patent application number 10/307943 was filed with the patent office on 2004-06-03 for structure of soft eye ball for doll.
Invention is credited to Chang, Alex.
Application Number | 20040106353 10/307943 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32392674 |
Filed Date | 2004-06-03 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040106353 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chang, Alex |
June 3, 2004 |
Structure of soft eye ball for doll
Abstract
A structure of a soft eyeball for dolls is disclosed. The
structure of the eyeball comprises a supporting set and a
transparent shell made of soft plastic or rubber material, wherein
the supporting set comprises an open groove for placing an iris
layer. This arrangement allows the job of placing eyeball into the
eye portion of the doll easier and also provides better effect for
imitating the real eyeballs.
Inventors: |
Chang, Alex; (Taipei City,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BIRCH STEWART KOLASCH & BIRCH
PO BOX 747
FALLS CHURCH
VA
22040-0747
US
|
Family ID: |
32392674 |
Appl. No.: |
10/307943 |
Filed: |
December 3, 2002 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
446/392 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63H 3/38 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
446/392 |
International
Class: |
A63H 003/38 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A structure of a soft eyeball for a doll, for placing into a eye
portion of the doll, the structure comprising: a semi spherical
shaped supporting set comprising a groove on an upper portion and
an adjusting element at a lower portion thereof; an iris layer for
placing in said groove and a transparent shell for covering and
surrounding said supporting set and said iris layer, Wherein said
supporting set and transparent shell are made of soft plastic or
rubber material, and a dimension of said groove of said supporting
set is same as that of said iris layer for a convenience of
assembling the eyeball, and wherein said transparent shell is
formed by an injection molding process for covering the outer
portion of said supporting set, and a contact face between the
transparent shell and the iris layer is a flat face, and the other
side of said transparent shell is formed as a protruded face.
2. The structure according to claim 1, wherein said groove of said
supporting set is formed as a single-piece together with said
supporting set either by using an injection mold process or by
using a carving method.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to structures of soft eyeballs
for dolls, and more particularly relates to eyeballs for assembling
into the human or animal imitation dolls, which imitates to real
eyeballs.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Usually, when the consumers purchase human or animal
imitation dolls, the facial expression and the imitation effect of
the whole appearance will be the priority factor of the selection.
Concerning the facial expression, in addition to the outline
features of the face, the eyes are also a very important part of
the facial expression, therefore, the manufacturers in this field
must consider that it is very crucial to improve the imitation eyes
to make it appear as real as possible.
[0005] The structure of an eyeball is well-known in the art as
shown by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,673, the eyeball comprises a semi
spherical main body, an indented portion is formed at an upper
portion of the main body, which has eye pattern within and covered
with a transparent plate which is shaped an iris on the top surface
thereof. The iris is composed of lines which are drawn on the
surface, and a transparent and semi spherical shaped cornea covers
the iris and indented portion to make the eye of the doll look more
real and to reflect like a real eyeball. The iris and the cornea
are typically made of soft polymers, and because the cornea is a
semi spherical shaped structure and since the eye pattern is
directly painted on the surface of the indented portion,
consequently such structure will have a light focused on the iris
after it transmits to the cornea from the surroundings causing too
much reflection of the surface surrounding the iris. Thus this
would blur the pattern of the iris. Further, because the eye
pattern being directly painted on the main body, therefore such
design create less reality effect, and besides the painting cost
will increase the overall manufacturing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to
provide a new structure of a soft eyeball for dolls in order to
resolve the defects of the aforementioned prior art.
[0007] In accordance with the above object and other advantages of
the present invention as broadly embodied and described herein, the
present invention provides a structure of an eyeball comprising a
supporting set and a transparent shell, made of soft plastic or
rubber material, wherein the supporting set comprises an open
groove for placing an iris layer. This arrangement makes the job of
placing eyeball into the eye portion of the doll easier, and also
provides a better effect for imitating the real eyeballs.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] For a more complete understanding of the present invention,
reference will now be made to the following detailed description of
preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings, in which:
[0009] FIG. 1 is a view showing an eyeball according a preferred
embodiment of the present invention;
[0010] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the eyeball the present
invention; and
[0011] FIG. 3 is a sectional side view of the eyeball of the
present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0012] Reference will be made in detail to the preferred
embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in
the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference
numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to
the same or like parts.
[0013] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, show a structure of an eyeball
according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The
structure comprises an eyeball 1 of the present invention can be
placed into the opening of the eye of a doll. The structure of the
eyeball 1 comprises a semi spherical shaped supporting set 30,
which comprises a groove 31 formed on an upper portion and an
adjusting element 32 formed on a lower portion thereof. An iris
layer 20 is positioned within the groove 31 and a transparent shell
10 covers the supporting set 30 and the iris layer 20. The
supporting set 30 and the transparent shell 10 are made of soft
plastic or rubber material, therefore the eyeball 1 has a certain
elasticity which could make the fixing of the eyeball 1 into the
openings of the human or animal imitation dolls' eye portion. By
placing eyeball 1 of the present invention into dolls, the dolls
can produce an excellent imitation of the facial expression that
can be comparable to the real feature, and in addition, a precise
size of the eyeball 1 is not a critical issue for fitting a precise
eye portion. The eyeball 1 can be fixed even directly from the
outer frontal side of the doll. Besides, after fixing the eyeball 1
into the opening of the eye portion, the supporting set 30 fits
into the opening of the eye tightly, and since the eyeball 1 is
made of soft material, and therefore the adjusting element 32 that
is formed on the supporting set 30 is merely for adjusting the
angle of the eyeball 1.
[0014] Referring to FIG. 3, illustrates a sectional side view of
the eyeball of the present invention. An injection mold process may
be used for manufacturing the eyeball 1 of the present invention,
first of all a soft plastic or rubber is used for forming a white
semi spherical shaped supporting set 30 for imitating the white of
the eye. Then a groove 31 is formed above the supporting set 30 and
an adjusting element 32 formed as an indented structure at a lower
portion thereof. The groove 31 may be formed together with the
supporting set 30 as one single piece using either an injection
mold process or a carving process. Next, the iris layer 20 printed
with eye pattern is placed into the groove 31. Because the
dimension of the groove 31 of the supporting set 30 is same as the
iris layer 20, therefore, the iris layer 20 can be fitted into the
groove 31 perfectly. Further, the supporting set 30 and the iris
layer 20 are placed together on the model, then the soft plastic or
rubber material is used as the material for forming a outer
transparent shell 10 which is a integrated structure for covering
and surrounding the supporting set 30 and the iris layer 20. In the
above structure, a flat face 11 is formed at the contact face of
the transparent shell 10 and the iris layer 20, while the other
side of the transparent shell 10 forms as a protruded face 12 for
imitating a real eye expression. Because the contact face of the
shell 10 and the iris layer 20 is a flat face 11 and the other side
forms as a protruded face 12, the light passing through the shell
10 is effectively evenly spread on the eyeball 1 and the
contrasting image pattern of the whole of the eyeball 1 can be
clearly seen, and therefore the light passing through the
transparent shell 10 will not be localized only onto the iris which
otherwise cause poor imitation effect.
[0015] There are several advantages of the eyeball of the present
invention which are described as follows:
[0016] 1. Since the supporting set 30 and the transparent shell 10
are made of soft plastic or rubber material, thus the soft eyeball
1 has a certain elasticity, and it can be fixed into the opening of
the eye portion of the man or animal imitated dolls for effectively
solving the positioning difference of the opening of the doll's eye
portion.
[0017] 2. Since the transparent shell 10 is injected into a
single-piece structure for covering and surrounding the supporting
set 30 and the iris layer 20, and since a flat face 11 is formed at
the contact face of the transparent shell 10 and the iris layer 20,
and the other side of the transparent 10 forms as a protruded face
12 for imitating the real eye expression, therefore the light
passing through the transparent shell 10 can be effectively and
evenly spread on the whole of the eyeball 1, and therefore the
contrasting image pattern of the whole eyeball can be clearly
seen.
[0018] 3. An adjusting element 32 is formed on the supporting set
30 for merely adjusting the angle of the soft eyeball 1 and thereby
the difficulty of adjusting the eye of the doll can be
resolved.
[0019] While the invention has been described in conjunction with a
specific best mode, it is to be understood that many alternatives,
modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in
the art in light of the a foregoing description. Accordingly, it is
intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and
variations which fall within the spirit and scope of the included
claims. All matters set forth herein or shown in the accompanying
drawings are to be interpreted in an illustrative and non-limiting
sense.
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