U.S. patent number 3,779,548 [Application Number 05/289,286] was granted by the patent office on 1973-12-18 for finger-training apparatus.
Invention is credited to Atsuhiko Sato.
United States Patent |
3,779,548 |
Sato |
December 18, 1973 |
FINGER-TRAINING APPARATUS
Abstract
A finger-training apparatus, comprising a grip portion and a
forked portion formed in connection with the grip portion. The
forked portion includes two spaced arms which support a couple of
juxtaposed rollers rotatable therebetween. Gears interconnect the
rollers whereby rotation of one of the rollers in one direction
will cause synchronous rotation of the other roller in an opposite
direction.
Inventors: |
Sato; Atsuhiko (Nihonbashi,
Chuo-ku, Tokyo, JA) |
Family
ID: |
23110871 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/289,286 |
Filed: |
September 27, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
482/44 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B
23/16 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A63B
23/035 (20060101); A63B 23/16 (20060101); A63b
023/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;272/67,68,57D
;128/57 |
Foreign Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
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|
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233,915 |
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Mar 1957 |
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JA |
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6,365 |
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Nov 1893 |
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SW |
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109,810 |
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Mar 1927 |
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OE |
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Primary Examiner: Pinkham; Richard C.
Assistant Examiner: Stouffer; R. T.
Claims
I claim:
1. A finger-training apparatus, comprising a grip portion shaped to
be held by one hand of a human, a forked roller supporting portion
including two spaced arms, two rollers positioned between said
spaced arms and rotatably journalled thereto, means connecting said
rollers whereby rotation of one of said rollers in one direction
will cause synchronous rotation of the other roller in an opposite
direction, and means connecting said grip portion and said roller
supporting portion whereby at least one finger of the hand which
grasps said grip portion may engage and digitally rotate one of
said rollers.
2. A finger-training apparatus as set forth in claim 1
characterized in that said rollers have axes of rotation extending
obliquely to each other.
3. A finger-training apparatus as set forth in claim 1
characterized in that said means connecting said rollers are
intermeshing gears.
4. A finger-training apparatus as set forth in claim 1,
characterized in that said rollers provide therearound means for
facilitating engagement of the fingertips with the roller surfaces.
Description
The present invention relates to an apparatus for training the
human fingers, and more particularly, relates to finger-training
apparatus of the type which is handy to be carried out and is
usable readily by the user for the purpose of training his
fingers.
Hitherto, it has long been known in the art of memory that when
memorizing spellings of words, numerical formulas, etc., the memory
span could be substantially improved through an exercise of writing
them down in repetition. Also, as commonly accepted, the necessity
of habitually exercising the working of fingers is imperative to
any of professionals or technicians who need to be skillful with
their fingers, such as for example musicians, typists,
stenographers, telegraph operators, etc., for maintenance of and
improvement on their skills. By way of further arguing the
foregoing from a view of cerebral physiology, it is generally
believed that particularly in case of a writing exercise, the human
brain is given stimuli by flexible motions of the fingers in
repeated extension and contraction that are accompanied by the
association of ideas, whereby the memorizing action being enhanced
while nervous and muscles associated with the moving fingers being
exercised for training to improve their biological interconnected
functions, so that there will be developed nervous systems or
circuits of the character well adapted for better transmission of
motor instructions from the brain. Further, it is also duly
conceivable that even if such the above motions of the fingers are
not accompanied by any association of ideas, the finger-muscles
being exercised will be greatly developed to attain satisfactory
controllabilities for the finger motion.
Basing upon the above described principle, the present inventor has
proposed a portable finger-training apparatus as disclosed in his
Japanese Patent No. 233915. This apparatus comprises a grip portion
and a forked roller-supporting portion formed in connection with
said grip portion, a sole roller being rotatably supported between
two arms formed on the roller supporting portion. It is intended in
use that one who wishes to train his fingers takes hold of the grip
portion with only one of his fingers to be trained, the foregfinger
for example, being applied to the roller surface, and practices the
training step by repeatedly bending and stretching it in a
rhythmical manner, with the finger being kept in engagement with
the roller. With this structure, however, it is not possible to
effect a simultaneous training of the thumb, the forefinger and the
middle finger altogether. These three fingers designated are of
particular importance to the use of writing means, especially a
writing brush, namely a lowering of motor controllabilities in any
one of these three fingers results in irregularities in the style
of written hand and also in the reduction of the writing speed.
Therefore, for the particular purpose of improving the skill of
writing it is essentially required to train the above three fingers
through a simultaneous exercise of extending and contracting all of
them in a repeated manner. In case of a typist, for instance, there
also exists the necessity of training only a finger that is
particularly awkward in motion.
Therefore, the present invention has one object to provide a
portable finger-training apparatus of the type which enables a
simultaneous training for the thumb and any one of other four
fingers.
Another object of the invention is to provide a portable
finger-training apparatus which enables a training only for any
desired one of the human fingers in addition to the above
training.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the
finger-training apparatus comprises a forked roller-supporting
portion on which two juxtaposed rollers are rotatably mounted, the
rollers having respective tooth for meshing engagement with each
other in such a manner that when one roller rotates in a certain
direction, the other is caused to rotate in the opposite direction.
With this arrangement of the apparatus, when desired to use the
invention to the training of hand-writing skills for example, it is
intended that the user grasping the apparatus applies his thumb,
forefinger and middle finger, that are to be commonly used in
handwriting, to the rollers with their tips being in light touch
upon the surfaces of the rollers, and practices a rhythmical motion
of stretching and bending these three fingers in repetition by way
of trying to trace the pattern of spellings in question as if it
were in the actual case of writing on the paper with the above
fingers. Relating to the above manner of exercise, it is duly
conceivable that stimuli given to the fingertips by the rollers
exert influence on the brain more dynamically than the provision of
an imaginary pen in the brain would do, so that the spellings in
question be intensely impressed in the central organs of perception
whereby the memorizing function in the brain being accelerated
while the nervous circuits for transmission of motor instructions
issued by the brain being simplified. Actually, it has been found
that through the use of the presently invented apparatus, a bad
handwriting or slow writing may be cured also with a resultant
improvement on the workabilities of fingers other than the above
three fingers.
Other objects and features of the present invention will be
apparent from the following description of its preferred embodiment
in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a finger-training apparatus
according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II--II of FIG.
1;
FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the finger-training apparatus shown in
FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a top view of the finger-training apparatus shown in FIG.
1;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating how the user practices the
apparatus with his right hand for a simultaneous training of the
thumb, forefinger and middle finger; and
FIG. 6 is another schematic view similar to FIG. 5 however
illustrating how the user performs a simultaneous training of the
middle finger, ring finger and little finger of his right hand.
In FIGS. 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings, the finger-training
apparatus comprises a grip portion 10 adapted for hold holding by
the user, and a forked roller-supporting portion 11 formed
forwardly and in connection with the grip portion. Alternatively,
the roller supporting portion 11 may be connected to the grip
portion 10 in a detachable manner, if such desired, which
conveniently enables the selection of a proper-sized grip portion
10 according to the palm size of the user.
The forked roller-supporting portion 11 has two spaced arms 12, 12a
which extend downwardly, as viewed in FIG. 1, with one in front and
the other in the rear, and these arms carry a couple of shafts 13,
13 juxtaposed therebetween. One end of each shaft 13 is in
shrinkage fit in a blind hole 14 formed on the rear arm 12a while
the other end being also in shrinkage fit in a through-hole 15 on
the front arm 12. The head 16 of each shaft 13 is in engagement
with the outer surface of the front arm 12.
As shown, a roller 17 is rotatably mounted on each shaft 13. In
this concern, it may alternatively be arranged that by providing
journals at both ends of each roller 17, the rollers be in loose
fit in respective blind holes formed on the inner sides of the
front and rear arms 12, 12a. This alternative arrangement
eliminates the provision of the above described shafts 13. The
rollers 17 have respective spur gears 18 at their front ends for
meshing engagement with each other, so that synchronous rotation of
the paired rollers 17 be attainable to facilitate a simultaneous
training of fingers reducing risks of uneveness in the training
effect. It is noted that in a further embodiment, not shown here,
of the invention, there is no provision of such meshing gears on
the rollers, however the effect of finger training achieved in this
case might be lessened to some extent. Each roller 17 is in the
shape of a bulge or is diametrically enlarged of its middle, and
provides therearound a plurality of substantially longitudinally
extending grooves 19 in rows (See FIG. 2), which serve to
facilitate engagement of the fingertips with the rollers during use
of the apparatus, as will be described hereinafter. The
configuration of the roller is not necessarily limited to that
illustrated herein, but may be cylindrical for example. The grooves
19 on each roller extend somewhat twistingly of the roller axis,
which also facilitates the effect of engagement between the
fingertips and the rollers. Any suitable angle of twisting can be
provided as desired. Further, alternatively, each roller may be
provided with a plurality of properly spaced projections
therearound, in place of the described grooves 19.
As can be seen in FIG. 3, the shafts 13 are placed both in a common
plane with their axes extending oblique to each other in a
convergent angle indicated at D. The degree of this angle D may be
predetermined properly depending on the desirous conditions of
engagement between the fingertips and the rollers. Although there
will admittedly be no full engagement between the two spur gears
described above with this arrangement, it is to be understood that
actually the spur gears do not need to be in complete mesh since
the rollers 17 functionally have only to achieve synchronous
movement of bending and stretching the thumb and forefinger, for
example, as will be referred to hereinafter. Of course, these spur
gears may be substituted by bevel gears if a more smooth gear mesh
is desired.
In the illustrated embodiment, the gears 18 are shown as mounted at
the front ends of the associated rollers 17, however they may
alternatively be mounted at the rear ends of the rollers. The
additional provision of not shown means for releasing the gears
from mesh engagement, conveniently enables the training exercise of
a sole finger through one roller only.
Referring, now, to FIG. 5, the finger-training apparatus according
to the present invention is shown as being ready for operation with
the grip portion 10 grasped between the third finger, little finger
and the hollow of the user's right hand, and with the grooves 19 of
the rollers 17 being engaged by the tips of the thumb and the
forefinger, middle finger, respectively. From this starting
position, repeated motion of simultaneously bending and stretching
the thumb, forefinger and middle finger altogether is effected
while keeping all the fingers in engagement with the respective
rollers. This motion exercise is best suitable to the training of
handwriting. By way of envisaging a word spelling, for example, to
be memorized while assuming a posture exactly the same as that for
an actual letter-writing with writing means, it will be appreciated
that such a rhythmically stretching and bending motion of fingers
causes a significant enhancement of the user's memorizing function.
Besides, thanks to substantial improvement on controllabilities of
finger motion attainable through this training practice, the user
will be able to write a fluent and yet pretty hand.
With the fingers positioned in a manner shown by FIG. 6, it is also
possible to accomplish a simultaneous training for the middle
finger, ring finger and little finger altogether. This is very
likely to meet the purpose of finger-training by a typist. Also,
when it is desired to practice the training of only a sole finger,
the little finger of a typist for example, it is possible, through
the provision of the above described releasing means for
disengagement of the two gears on the rollers 17, to reduce the
rate of a resisting load working against the finger.
Each roller 17 may be properly determined of its weight depending
on the specified purpose of training or the convenience of handling
by the user. In this connection, it will be more advantageous to
design the apparatus such that the rollers are detachable from the
roller supporting portion.
Although the finger-training apparatus according to the invention
may be made of any suitable material, it is preferred that the
shafts for supporting rotatable rollers be metal made and other
parts be all made of plastics.
It is to be understood that the present finger-training apparatus
may be used not only in manners shown by FIGS. 5 and 6, but also
may be used in other varied manners.
Although the present invention has been so far illustrated and
described of its preferred embodiments, it also is to be understood
that the invention is not limited only to those but may be modified
or changed in various ways within the scope of the annexed
claim.
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