U.S. patent application number 11/418685 was filed with the patent office on 2007-05-17 for enclosure system.
This patent application is currently assigned to JumpSport, Inc.. Invention is credited to Mark W. Publicover.
Application Number | 20070111860 11/418685 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38041666 |
Filed Date | 2007-05-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070111860 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Publicover; Mark W. |
May 17, 2007 |
Enclosure system
Abstract
A swimming or wading pool has an enclosed area for playing games
such as volleyball and basketball, so that the enclosed pool serves
as a game court.
Inventors: |
Publicover; Mark W.;
(Saratoga, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP
121 SW SALMON STREET
SUITE 1600
PORTLAND
OR
97204
US
|
Assignee: |
JumpSport, Inc.
|
Family ID: |
38041666 |
Appl. No.: |
11/418685 |
Filed: |
May 4, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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09800273 |
Mar 5, 2001 |
|
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11418685 |
May 4, 2006 |
|
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09432998 |
Nov 2, 1999 |
6261207 |
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09800273 |
Mar 5, 2001 |
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09100586 |
Jun 19, 1998 |
6053845 |
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09432998 |
Nov 2, 1999 |
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10467684 |
Jan 26, 2004 |
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PCT/US02/04150 |
Feb 11, 2002 |
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11418685 |
May 4, 2006 |
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60050323 |
Jun 20, 1997 |
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60052052 |
Jul 9, 1997 |
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60087835 |
Jun 3, 1998 |
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60267546 |
Feb 9, 2001 |
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60276564 |
Mar 15, 2001 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
482/27 ;
482/29 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B 2208/03 20130101;
A63B 2225/62 20130101; A63B 71/022 20130101; E04H 4/0025 20130101;
A63B 5/11 20130101; A63B 2225/605 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
482/027 ;
482/029 |
International
Class: |
A63B 5/11 20060101
A63B005/11 |
Claims
1. An aboveground pool and game court system comprising: a
watertight vessel having a floor and a sidewall that extends
upwardly from the floor; and an enclosure that extends above the
sidewall to define an enclosed area above the vessel and that
comprises upwardly extending supports and an expanse of fabric-like
material sufficiently encompassing to block game balls from leaving
the pool area.
2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of sockets
that are supported by the vessel and that are configured to receive
at least some of the upright members.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein at lease some of the sockets are
supported by the sidewall.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the enclosure comprises support
members that contain a liquid.
5. An aboveground pool and enclosure system comprising: a
watertight vessel having a floor and a sidewall that extends
upwardly from the floor; an enclosure that extends above the
sidewall and that comprises a plurality of upright members; and a
plurality of sockets that are supported by the vessel and that are
configured to receive at least some of the upright members.
6. The system of claim 5 wherein at lease some of the sockets are
supported by the sidewall.
7. An aboveground pool and enclosure system comprising: a
watertight vessel having a floor and a sidewall that extends
upwardly from the floor; and an enclosure that extends above the
sidewall and that comprises support members that contain a
liquid.
8. An aboveground pool and game court system comprising: a
watertight vessel having a floor and a sidewall that extends
upwardly from the floor; and an enclosure that is attached to the
vessel, that extends above the sidewall, and that comprises
substantially straight, upwardly extending supports and an expanse
of fabric-like material sufficiently encompassing to block game
balls from leaving the pool area.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.
09/800,273, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.
09/432,998, filed Nov. 2, 1999, now U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 6,261,207,
which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/100,586,
filed, Jun. 19, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,845, which claims the
benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/050,323, filed Jun.
20, 1997, U.S. Provisional application No. 60/052,052, filed Jul.
9, 1997, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/087,835, filed
Jun. 3, 1998. This also is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 10/467,684, filed Aug. 8, 2003, which is the National Stage of
International Application No. PCT/US02/04150, filed Feb. 11, 2002,
which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.
60/267,546, filed Feb. 9, 2001, and U.S. Provisional Application
No. 60/276,564, filed Mar. 15, 2001. All of the above-mentioned
applications are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
[0002] The present invention relates to enclosures for swimming
pools, particularly aboveground pools.
[0003] A swimming or wading pool has an enclosed area for playing
games such as volleyball and basketball, so that the enclosed pool
serves as a game court. Various constructions are possible.
Advantageously, a pool is surrounded by an enclosure having at
least one inflatable bladder.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] In the drawings:
[0005] FIG. 1 is an oblique view of a pool and enclosure;
[0006] FIG. 2 is an enlarged, partial oblique view of the pool and
enclosure of FIG. 1, with a portion of an upright member broken
away to show internal structure;
[0007] FIG. 3 is an oblique view of another pool and enclosure;
[0008] FIG. 4 is an enlarged, partial oblique view of the pool and
enclosure of FIG. 3, with a portion telescoped to show the
attachment of an upright member,
[0009] FIG. 5 is an oblique view of another pool and enclosure;
[0010] FIG. 6 is an enlarged, partial oblique view of the pool and
enclosure of FIG. 5, with a portion telescoped to show the
attachment of an upright member,
[0011] FIG. 7 is an oblique view of another pool and enclosure;
[0012] FIG. 8 is an enlarged, partial oblique view of the pool and
enclosure of FIG. 7, showing the attachment of an upright
member;
[0013] FIG. 9 is an oblique view of another pool and enclosure;
and
[0014] FIG. 10 is an oblique view of another pool and
enclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] Swimming or wading pools having an enclosed area for playing
games such as volleyball, basketball, and the like are shown in all
of the drawing figures. These enclosed pools serve as game courts.
Game balls and other equipment are retained within the enclosed
area; and the enclosure serves as a fence to prevent a person, who
jumps up from inside the pool, from falling onto the surrounding
ground. The enclosure also serves as a barrier to prevent persons
from falling into the water accidentally.
[0016] FIGS. 1-7 show pools and enclosures, portions of which are
inflatable bladders. In some cases, at least some of the bladders
communicate with one another so that they can be filled from a
common source of air or other fluid.
[0017] FIG. 1 shows a pool and enclosure system wherein the pool 20
is a watertight vessel that has a floor (not shown) and a sidewall
26. The pool contains water 28.
[0018] An enclosure 30 has base ring bladder 32 and an upper ring
bladders 34 that best are vertically aligned to be concentric to a
common vertical axis A.sub.1. The base ring bladder 32 in this
system connects to the upper edge of the sidewall 26 and serves as
a top rail for the pool 20. The sidewall 26 can be made from PVC,
fabric, or any other resilient material. Enclosure upright members
40 support the upper ring bladder 34 above the base ring bladder
32. These upright members 40 are upwardly extending inflatable
bladders. For additional support, inflatable sidewall upright
members 44 are inflatable bladders that can be positioned below
some or all of the enclosure upright members 40 or elsewhere along
the sidewall 26 of the pool 20.
[0019] Flexible fencing, netting or other fabric-like material 50
extends between the rings 32, 34 to complete the enclosure. A door
or opening is provided in the fabric-like material 50 to provide
access to the interior of the enclosure.
[0020] FIGS. 3-4 show a pool and enclosure system can have base and
upper ring bladders 132, 134 as in FIG. 1, only in the system of
FIGS. 3-4 the top ring bladder 134 is supported by enclosure
upright members 140 that are metal or plastic poles or tubes. The
bottoms of the poles or tubes 140 are received in sockets 142
formed in the base ring bladder 132. The poles or tubes 140 should
be self-supporting, but should be sufficiently flexible that they
will bend elastically when lateral force is applied. The
flexibility of the poles allows them to adsorb energy should a
person impact the enclosure.
[0021] The upper ring bladder 134 supports generally horizontally
extending cross members 136. The cross members support a roof of
flexible fencing, netting or other fabric-like material that
further helps retain athletic equipment within the enclosed area
defined by the pool and enclosure system.
[0022] FIGS. 5-6 show an enclosure 230 that floats on top of water
in a pool 220. In particular, a base ring bladder 232 floats on
water of the pool, with other elements of the enclosure 230
extending upwardly from the base ring bladder. Such enclosures are
designed for pools 220 having a resilient top rail 233 at the upper
perimeter edge of the sidewall 226 and/or having a sidewall 226
that is resilient. The outside diameter of the ring bladder 232
should be the same as or close to the inside diameter of the
resilient top rail 233 so that the ring bladder 232 nests within
the top rail 233. Poles or tubes 240 arch and connect at a central
apex 241 above the pool 220. The bottoms of the poles or tubes 240
are received in sockets 242 formed in the base ring bladder
232.
[0023] The pool and enclosure system of FIGS. 7-8 is similar to
that of FIGS. 3-4 in that a top ring bladder 334 is supported over
a base ring bladder 332, that is the top rail of a pool 320, by
enclosure upright members 340 that are metal or plastic poles or
tubes. In this instance, the enclosure upright members 340 extend
through passageways 343 defined in the base ring bladder 332 and
all the way to the bottom of the pool or to the ground. Thus each
enclosure upright member 340 has an upper portion 345 that extends
above the base ring bladder 332 and a lower portion 346 that
extends below the base ring bladder. The bottom end of each
enclosure upright member 340 is received in a socket or pocket 348
attached to the sidewall 326 of the pool 320.
[0024] The pool and enclosure systems of FIGS. 1-8 are advantageous
in that any impact to the area of the enclosure above the water
that is greater than 100 foot pounds of energy is partially
absorbed by the water in the pool and/or by the resilient sidewalls
of the pool such that an impact to the enclosure would cause the
sidewall to deform or the shape of the pool perimeter to deform
during an impact thereby helping to absorb the forces of impact
directed at the netting or sidewall material of the enclosure.
[0025] The enclosures add structural support to pools having
inflatable or resilient sidewalls, such that an impact force
applied to the top or side of the pool is partially absorbed by the
enclosure. These enclosures are physically or frictionally
connected to the pool to accomplish this goal. The added support
provided by such an enclosure reduces the amount of water that
would otherwise spill out during a given impact to the top or side
of the resilient pool wall.
[0026] The inflatable bladders, of the pool and enclosure systems
of FIGS. 1-8, can vary in firmness from day to day, or from hour to
hour within a single day due to air expansion and contraction
caused by ambient temperature fluctuations.
[0027] One way to avoid such fluctuations in firmness is to use an
air pump that operates to inflate the bladder(s) when the pressure
is below a desired level. Such a pump could be mechanical or
electrical. A mechanical pump could operate on the energy generated
from the movement of persons inside the enclosure. A solar energy
cell or battery could power an electrical pump.
[0028] A second method for controlling pressure variations due to
temperature fluctuations is shown in FIG. 2. A spring-actuated
device 60 is compressed as an air bladder expands during the heat
of the day, and contracts with the cold of the night. Such a spring
device could be installed in an interior portion of the enclosure
as illustrated, or could be installed on the exterior (not
shown).
[0029] A third method is to fill some or all of the bladders with a
liquid such as water, in which case there would be substantially no
expansion. An advantage of this approach is that the water would
have greater mass that a gas, and thus would make the bladders more
rigid to better resist impacts on exposed surfaces of the
enclosure.
[0030] One could combine the second and third methods, or provide a
mix air and liquid in a bladder, and/or include an air shock to
give the water someplace to go when the bladder is impacted since
water does not compress. Filling one or more bladder members with
both air and water has important advantages. The performance of the
enclosure can be tuned by varying the ration of air to water.
Usually, best results are obtained when half the volume of a
bladder is occupied with water and the other half of the volume is
filled with air. When a pool is to be used by relatively heavy
persons, more water could be used. If lighter persons will use the
pool, the amount of air relative to the amount of water can be
increased to achieve comparable performance.
[0031] FIGS. 9-10 each show a pool and freestanding enclosure
system. During a high-energy impact, such freestanding enclosures
will transfer less impact force to the pool then the enclosure
systems of FIGS. 1-8, reducing the potential for stress damage to
the pool. This reduction in impact force helps to reduce the amount
of water that would spill out during a given impact to the top or
side of a resilient pool wall. Also, an enclosure that stands
independently and is not frictionally or physically connected to a
pool with resilient sidewalls could be employed to limit pool
sidewall deformation so that less water is lost from the pool.
[0032] FIG. 9 shows one freestanding enclosure 430 that, when
impacted, does not necessarily transfer impact forces to a pool
structure 420 because a freestanding enclosure can be installed so
that it is not physically or frictionally connected to its pool. In
the system of FIG. 9, poles 440 extend from the ground to support a
top ring 434 without touching, or only lightly touching, the pool
420. The fence material 450 best will touch or lie alongside the
top rail 433 of the pool so that the pool and enclosure can best
serve as a game court. If the fence material 450 is spaced from the
top rail 433, balls and other athletic equipment might fall to the
ground thought the gap between the fence material and the pool.
[0033] FIG. 10 shows a freestanding enclosure 530 installed inside
a pool 520 with the base of the enclosure contacting the floor of
the pool. This enclosure has poles 540 that arch and connect at a
central apex 541 above the pool 520. It is designed to absorb some
of the impact force from a falling object above the pool so that if
and when a falling object does impact the pool, the impact force
will have been reduced.
[0034] The freestanding enclosures shown in FIGS. 9-10 are formed
entirely of noninflatable elements. Freestanding enclosures having
one or more inflatable bladder elements also could be constructed
along the same lines.
[0035] It will be appreciated that pool and enclosure systems can
be configured in numerous other ways and combinations based on the
principles described herein.
[0036] For example, the base and upper rings and vertical supports
could, as shown in some of the drawing figures, be made of
resilient or less-resilient materials such as PVC, fiberglass, and
even non-resilient tubular or solid steel members.
[0037] Although base and upper rings are most often illustrated as
being generally circular, such members could have other ring
shapes, including polygonal rings such as octagons, hexagons, and
rectangles.
[0038] Accessories, such as squirt guns, baskets, ball tubes,
lights, and water hoses, can be attached for playing games that
teach eye hand coordination, timing, and the like.
[0039] An enclosure system, having one or more inflatable bladders,
could also be used to surround a trampoline to provide a protective
fence. To avoid fluctuations in firmness of the bladder(s), a
mechanical or electrical air pump that operates to inflate the
bladder(s) could be powered the bed of trampoline. The trampoline
could have more than one bed for greater shock absorption. The
trampoline could have a shock surface fixed to top or bottom of its
bed(s). Bottom attachment helps prevent injury if bed bottoms out
on ground. The trampoline could have cams attached in line with
some or all of the springs or elastic members.
[0040] Many of the above-described enclosures could be used with an
inflatable trampoline frame of the type that looks like a big inner
tube with an elastic top surface for jumping. The inflatable ring
that serves as the trampoline frame could be filled with a liquid
or a liquid/gas mixture for reasons described above. And poles or
tubes could extend upwardly from the frame to serve as enclosure
upright members.
* * * * *