U.S. patent application number 10/775661 was filed with the patent office on 2004-08-19 for toy ball apparatus.
Invention is credited to Silverglate, David.
Application Number | 20040162171 10/775661 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 23194226 |
Filed Date | 2004-08-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040162171 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Silverglate, David |
August 19, 2004 |
Toy ball apparatus
Abstract
Toy apparatus are provided. One embodiment of the apparatus
includes a mesh having a plurality of loop structures with
cooperative mating surfaces located around the perimeter of the
loop structures. The loop structures form a surface of the
apparatus when the cooperative mating surfaces are coupled with
each other.
Inventors: |
Silverglate, David; (Santa
Cruz, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
KOLISCH HARTWELL, P.C.
520 S.W. YAMHILL STREET
SUITE 200
PORTLAND
OR
97204
US
|
Family ID: |
23194226 |
Appl. No.: |
10/775661 |
Filed: |
February 9, 2004 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10775661 |
Feb 9, 2004 |
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10183925 |
Jun 25, 2002 |
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6729984 |
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60308502 |
Jul 28, 2001 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
473/612 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63H 33/14 20130101;
A63B 2208/12 20130101; A63H 33/08 20130101; A63B 43/00
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
473/612 |
International
Class: |
A63B 039/00 |
Claims
I claim:
1. A toy apparatus having a surface, the apparatus comprising: a
mesh including a plurality of loop structures having cooperative
mating surfaces disposed at least partially around a perimeter of
each loop structure, wherein the loop structures form the surface
of the toy when the cooperative mating surfaces are coupled with
each other.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of and claims priority
under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 120 to U.S. patent application Ser. No.
10/183,925, entitled "Toy Ball Apparatus," which was filed on Jun.
25, 2002, by inventor David Silverglate, which in turn claims
priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 to U.S. Provisional Application
Serial No. 60/308,502, entitled "Amusement Device With Mesh
Structure," which was filed on Jul. 27, 2001, by inventor David
Silverglate. The entire disclosure of each of these applications is
hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Balls are one of the oldest types of toys and sports
equipment. Many popular games involve rolling, passing, kicking,
tossing, catching, bouncing, or hitting balls. For children who are
just developing motor control, for those who may have some motor
control dysfunction, as well as for many who simply enjoy such
activities, it is often difficult and/or frustrating to handle
various available throwing and catching devices, such as balls. One
of the problems with many conventional balls is that they are
sometimes painful to catch and/or hold. Another problem is that
conventional balls do not offer a surface configuration that
promotes quick, sure gripping, making them difficult to catch
and/or hold.
[0003] Prior devices intended to address at least some of these
concerns, such as the "GrabBall", commercially available from
Sportime of Atlanta, Ga., and the geodesic ball shown in U.S. Pat.
No. 3,889,950, suffer from drawbacks such as angular holes with
sharp corners and discontinuities and/or couplers where two
hemispheres (or halves) are joined to form the respective balls.
These aspects result in those apparatus being difficult to grasp
and/or to catch when thrown, as well as being aesthetically
unpleasing and non-resilient. A further drawback of such apparatus
is that the holes of these balls are not appropriately sized to
receive the fingers of a person using such balls.
[0004] Another prior device is the "Hol-ee Roller" dog chew toy
commercially available from J W Pet Company, Inc. of Hasbrock
Heights, N.J. This chew toy suffers from drawbacks similar to those
discussed above, as it includes angular holes with sharp,
uncomfortable edges resulting from discontinuities where inner and
outer mold halves meet due to mold clearances and undercuts.
Additionally, this chew toy is molded in one piece, and, therefore,
can have only one color, which makes it aesthetically unpleasing.
Furthermore, this device does not bounce well and has a relatively
poor strength to weight ratio. This poor strength to weight ratio
is due, at least in part, to the fact that stress on the structure
of this device is not well distributed due to the angular holes
requiring the device to be relatively thick in order to tearing at
the hub-to-strut joints. Based on the foregoing, alternative toy
ball structures that overcome at least some of the current
drawbacks may be desirable.
SUMMARY
[0005] Toy apparatus are provided, where the apparatus include a
mesh having a plurality of loop structures with cooperative mating
surfaces located around the perimeter of the loop structures. The
loop structures form a surface of the apparatus when the
cooperative mating surfaces are coupled with each other.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a ball according to an
embodiment of the invention, wherein the backside, bottom left of
the ball is a substantial mirror image of the front side, top
right;
[0007] FIG. 2 is an exploded, perspective view of an approximate
hemisphere of the ball illustrated in FIG. 1, showing various
sub-components;
[0008] FIG. 3 is a more detailed isometric, exploded view of two
sub-components of the ball illustrated in FIG. 1;
[0009] FIG. 4 is an isometric view of the two sub-components
illustrated in FIG. 3 viewed as assembled;
[0010] FIG. 5 is an isometric view of a ball according to another
embodiment of the invention, wherein the backside, bottom left of
the ball is a substantial mirror image of the front side, top
right.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0011] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a toy ball apparatus 10
according to an embodiment of the invention. Ball 10 may include a
surface that is formed by a mesh 12. Mesh 12 may be formed from a
plurality of differently sized loop structures 14 and 16. For this
embodiment, loop structures 14 may be relatively smaller than loop
structures 16. Loop structures 14 and 16 may be appropriately sized
to receive the fingers of a user's hand, such as a child's hand.
Loop structures 14 and 16 typically may be continuously curved on
their inside surface (14a and 16a, respectively) and, therefore,
contain no angular portions that may be uncomfortable when ball 10
is grasped and/or thrown by a user.
[0012] A plurality of loop structures 14 and 16 also may be
included in loop structure assemblies 18 and 20. For this
embodiment, loop structure assembly 18 may be termed a "four-loop
assembly", while loop structure assembly 20 may be termed a
"three-loop assembly." In this respect, loop structure assembly 18
may include two smaller loop structures 14 and two larger loop
structures 16, while loop structure assembly 20 may include one
smaller loop structure 14 and two larger loop structures 16. It
will be appreciated that any subset of loop structures 14 and 16 of
ball 10 may be included in loop structure assemblies, such as loop
structure assemblies 18 and 20.
[0013] Ball 10, as shown in FIG. 1 and previously indicated, may be
formed using loop structures 14 and 16 (hereafter "structures")
and/or loop structure assemblies 18 and 20 (hereafter
"assemblies"). It will be appreciated that the use of loop
structure assemblies may reduce the number of component parts for
ball 10. Such a reduction in component parts may reduce
manufacturing complexity and, as a result, reduce manufacturing
costs. In forming ball 10, each component part may be affixed to
one or more adjacent component parts using an adhesive, or any
number of appropriate fastening techniques. Seams 22, also referred
to as joints 22, may be formed between adjacent component parts
when they are affixed to each other. The structure of mesh 12 may
help distribute stress over ball 10 when it is stretched or
deformed, thereby reducing stress on seams 22 and loop structures
14, 16. This is because the loop structures, and the absence of any
angular holes or sharp corners, may allow such stresses to be
distributed over the surface of ball 10, improving its overall
strength and in particular, reducing the possibility of
tearing.
[0014] Within assemblies 18 and 20, as well as at intersections of
seams 22, ball 10 may include web structures 24 that are
interstitially located between structures 14 and 16, and assemblies
18 and 20 of ball 10. Web structures 24 may further improve the
strength, durability and resiliency of ball 10, as they may, in
conjunction with mesh 12, distribute stress over the surface of
ball 10 when it is stretched or deformed. Additionally, within
assemblies 18 and 20, structures 14 and 16 may form substantially
circular finger-receiving open spaces 28, which may be used to
grip, stretch, throw and/or catch ball 10.
[0015] Structures 14 and 16, and assemblies 18 and 20 may be formed
from a variety of materials, such as various plastic or polymer
materials. For example, structures 14 and 16, and assemblies 18 and
20 may be formed of thermoplastic using an injection molding
process. Structures 14 and 16 and/or assemblies 18 and 20, once
molded, may be assembled to form ball 10, as shown in. FIG. 1.
Also, because structures 14 and 16 and assemblies 18 and 20 may be
individually molded, each component part of ball 10 may be of a
different color material, if desired, which may improve the
aesthetic appearance of ball 10. Because there is substantially
more open space than structure in ball 10 and because it has a high
strength-to-weight ratio, especially in tension, only a small
amount of material need be used in order to define a ball-like
shape, which decreases the cost of manufacture.
[0016] Ball 10 (e.g. structures 14 and 16, and/or assemblies 18 and
20) may be formed of materials that result in ball 10 being
substantially deformable, as well as substantially resilient or
rigid. In this respect, ball 10 may be formed of plastic or polymer
materials having a shore "A" hardness of between approximately 50
and 150. As a result, ball 10 may be at least partially deformed
into a space 26, also referred to as closed volume 26, surrounded
by mesh 12. Typically, once a force, or object, causing such
deformation is removed from ball 10, the resilient character of
mesh 12 results in ball 10 substantially returning to its original
shape. Due to mesh 12 being substantially deformable and
substantially resilient, ball 10 may bounce when thrown against an
object or impediment. Such deformability and resiliency of ball 10
may also make it more comfortable to catch and throw as compared to
prior devices. The resiliency of ball 10 may be varied by using
materials of different shore hardness, as was previously noted.
Such variations may provide for manufacturing a competition-type
sports ball, such as a soccer ball, that would not require
inflation, as well as a highly deformable and resilient structure.
A first portion of the mesh may be formed of a first hardness and a
second portion of the mesh may be formed with a second hardness.
The mesh may be used to form, for example, a dual stiffness toy
apparatus such as a baseball bat with a handle that is stiffer than
the head of the bat.
[0017] Ball 10 may form a polyhedron shape such as a truncated
icosahedron (an approximate soccer ball shape, as shown in FIG. 1).
Further, ball 10 may approximate a sphere in cross-section, or on
an axis of rotation. It will be appreciated that other polyhedron
shapes may be formed, such as tetrahedrons, icosahedrons,
icosadodecahedron or dodecahedrons. Alternatively, other
non-polyhedron shapes may be formed using structures 14 and 16,
and/or assemblies 18 and 20, such as ovoids, animal shapes,
baseball bats, sports racquets, organic shapes, and/or basketball
nets, among many other possible configurations.
[0018] Referring to FIG. 2, an exploded view of an approximate
hemisphere of ball 10 is indicated generally at 30. Hemisphere 30
may include one four-loop structure assembly 18 and four two-loop
structure assemblies 20, which may include cooperative mating
surfaces 32. Mating surfaces 32 may be arranged around the
perimeter of assemblies 18 and 20. Mating surfaces 32 also may be
congruent and substantially planar. Alternatively, mating surfaces
32 may be complimentarily convex and concave in configuration, or
any number of other complimentary surface configurations.
[0019] However, it may be desirable that assemblies 18 and 20 be of
a configuration that is relatively easy to tool for molding, such
as injection molding. In this regard, it may be desirable to reduce
the number of undercuts, as well as limit the curvature in such
molds. Such measures may reduce the likelihood that assemblies 18
and 20 become damaged when ejected from their molds without
significantly increasing tooling cost for such molds, such as
associated with sliding portions of such molds.
[0020] A single assembly 18, and four assemblies 20 may be affixed
together along mating surfaces 32, as indicated in FIG. 2, to form
approximate hemisphere 30 of ball 10. Two hemispheres 30 may then
be affixed along mating surfaces 32 to form ball 10. In this
regard, ball 10 may include two assemblies 18 (which may be termed
"ends") and eight assemblies 20 (which may be termed "sides").
Alternatively, as illustrated in FIG. 5, twelve loop structures 14
and twenty loop structures 16 may be used to form ball 10', with
each loop structure 14 and 16 including mating surfaces 32 around
its perimeter. However, as was indicated earlier, it may be
desirable to reduce the number of individual components included in
ball 10, so as to reduce manufacturing complexity.
[0021] Loop structures 14 may include mating surfaces 32 that are
pentagonal in arrangement, while loop structures 16 may include
mating surfaces 32 that are hexagonal in arrangement (such as shown
in FIG. 2). It will be appreciated that many other configurations
are possible. For example, structures 14 may include mating
surfaces that are square in arrangement and loop structures 16 may
include mating surfaces that are octagonal in arrangement, or any
other compatible polygonal arrangements may be used. In such a
configuration, structures 14 and 16 may still include continuously
curved inner surfaces 14a and 16a that include no angular portions
so as to be comfortable for gripping, catching and/or throwing, as
well as better distributing forces and stress over the surface of
ball 10.
[0022] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a more detailed view of the
assembly of assembly 18 with assembly 20 is shown. In FIG. 3,
arrows indicate how assembly 18 and assembly 20 may be mated at
cooperative mating surfaces 32 when forming mesh 12 of ball 10.
Interstitial web structures 24 are formed within assemblies 18 and
20. Referring to FIG. 4, assembly 18 and assembly 20 are affixed
with each other at mating surfaces 32. Seams 22 are formed between
assembly 18 and assembly 20 (along mating surfaces 32). At the
intersection of seams 22, additional web structures 24 are formed
as a result of affixing assembly 18 with assembly 20.
[0023] While ball 10 has been described above, an alternative way
of describing ball 10, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, is as
follows. Ball 10 may include an elastic mesh structure 12 formed
from plural elongate strands 14 and 16. Mesh structure 12 may also
include joinder regions 32 uniting adjacent strands 14 and 16 to
form, as viewed in developed form, plural closed-perimeter open
spaces 28 including such spaces 28 which are defined, substantially
completely throughout their perimeters, by curved perimeter
surfaces 14 and 16, or endless-loop curved surfaces. The curved
perimeter surfaces 14 and 16 may be, with elastic deformation of
the mesh 12, permitted to flex so as selectively, and depending
upon the character of deformation, to increase or decrease with
regard to local radius of curvature. Further, mesh 12 may be
characterized as having substantial radial symmetry within its
pattern. Each closed-perimeter open space 28 and joinder region 32
typically includes a central zone, and each is characterized,
relative to its central zone, by substantial radial symmetry within
the pattern.
[0024] The invention may also be described as a toy apparatus 10,
including a plurality of substantially deformable smooth loops 14,
16, one or more of the loops being closed, and a plurality of
mating surfaces 32 disposed perimetrically around at least a
portion of each loop, for coupling the loops with one another,
wherein the plurality of loops 14, 16, when coupled, form a
resilient mesh 12, which defines a surface. The loops may be
differently sized so as to provide for curving the surface, to form
a spherical ball, or a polyhedron such as a truncated icosahedron,
tetrahedron, icosahedron, icosadodecahedron or dodecahedron.
[0025] Although the invention has been disclosed in its preferred
forms, the specific embodiments thereof as disclosed and
illustrated herein are not to be considered in a limiting sense,
because numerous variations are possible. The subject matter of the
invention includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and
sub-combinations of the various elements, features, functions,
and/or properties disclosed herein. The following claims define
certain combinations and sub-combinations of features, functions,
elements, and/or properties that are regarded as novel and
non-obvious. Other combinations and sub-combinations may be claimed
through amendment of the present claims or presentation of new
claims in this or a related application. Such claims, whether they
are broader, narrower, equal, or different in scope to any earlier
claims, also are regarded as included within the subject matter of
the invention.
* * * * *