US20140295729A1

US20140295729A1 - Articulating ornament

Info

Publication number: US20140295729A1
Application number: US14/303,091
Authority: US
Inventors: Sharon L. Blalock; William B. McBride
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-06-12
Filing date: 2014-06-12
Publication date: 2014-10-02

Abstract

An articulating ornament is in the form of a sports figurine wherein the figurine is secured to a target surface via a post. The legs of the figurine move up and down and slightly forward and back to give the appearance that the figurine is running The arms of the figurine may also arc up and down to further the running illusion. The figurine holds a desired sports implement in one hand, which implement can be swapped out for a different implement. The figurine is capable of emitting light and sound outputs.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sports oriented articulating lawn ornament in a human form wherein the legs and possibly the arms of the ornament articulate.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Many sports fans love to get behind their team and cheer them on to victory, especially on game day. Fans show support for the team in many ways including planning game day parties, sometimes even inviting fans from the opposition. There is nothing more exciting than a house full of excited fans, possibly consuming refreshing adult beverages, cheering on their favorite team and rubbing it in to the opposition when the team makes a great play. Additionally fans dress up in their team colors including putting on team shirts, team hats and even face paint in team colors—some fans get even crazier such as covering their bodies in team colored glitter, men putting on women's dresses appropriate for the specific game at hand, etc. Fans also like to dress out their house. Such house decorations typically involve placing one or more team flags in an appropriate spot and hoping for a strong breeze to help the flags fly. While flags show true team spirit, many fans want more than a single or even multiple team flags adorning the outside of their house as the flags may get overlooked, especially if the flags are not flying due to an absence of wind.
What is needed is a way for fans to dress up their house in order to show team spirit in order to enhance the overall excitement of the big game that is more robust than a team flag that may or not be flying depending on wind conditions. Specifically, a device is needed that is dynamic and that attracts attention to passersby irrespective of the wind conditions. Such a device must be elegant in design, yet relatively simple in construction so as to be economically attractive to potential consumers for this type of product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The articulating ornament of the present invention addresses the aforementioned needs in the art by providing a figurine that can be dressed out in support of a favorite team, wherein the figurine articulates at two or more points and potentially draws attention to itself in other ways. The articulating ornament is an attractive device that catches the attention of passersby without depending on wind conditions. The articulating ornament is of relatively simple design and construction, being produced using standard manufacturing techniques, so as to make the device relatively inexpensive and thereby economically attractive to potential consumers for this type of product. The articulating ornament is versatile so that it can be used to show support for more than one team in more than one sport.
The articulating ornament of the present invention is comprised of a figurine that is in the form of a human having a torso with a head atop and a pair of legs attached to each side of the torso. The legs articulate in an up and down motion. The torso also has a pair of arms attached to each side of the torso. A post is attached to a bottom of the torso and is used to secure the torso to a target surface, such as to the ground or a portable base. The legs also articulate in a back and forth motion while articulating in the up and down motion. The arms may articulate in an up and down arcing motion. At least one light may be located on the figurine. The figurine may emit a sound track through a speaker located on the figurine. The sound track may be recorded onto a storage device held within the figurine via a microphone located on the figurine or may be downloaded onto the storage device held within the figurine or both. A sports implement is removably secured to an end of one of the arms. The motor may be electrically powered by a solar collector seated atop the figurine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective environmental view of the articulating ornament of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side environmental view of the articulating ornament illustrating the range of articulation of the external moving parts.

FIG. 3 is a partially exploded view of the articulating ornament.

Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings, it is seen that the articulating ornament of the present invention, generally denoted by reference numeral 10, is comprised of a figurine 12 that is in the form of a human, namely a sports figure, such as the illustrated football player. As such, the figurine has a torso 14, a pair of legs 16 that are pivotally attached the torso 14—one leg 16 positioned forward and one leg 16 positioned back to simulate running—and a pair of arms 18 that are either pivotally (as shown) attached to the torso 14—one arm up and one arm 18 down, again to give the appearance that the figurine 12 is running—or for a more simplified device, are fixedly attached to the torso 14. Of course a head 20 is attached to the torso 14, which head 20 may be adorned with a helmet 22 as shown. The figurine 12 can be adorned in a favorite team color scheme, including logos, numbers, a player's name or can be relatively neutral in order to be usable for more than one sport as more fully described below.
Extending downwardly from the bottom of the torso 14 is a post 24 which may be inserted into the ground G directly in some appropriate fashion known in the art, such as sharpening the end of the post, putting an auger at the bottom of the post, etc., or the post 24 may be formed in two sections, with the upper section 26 attached to the torso 14 and the lower section 28 secured into the ground G in appropriate fashion with the upper section 26 removably receivable within the lower section 28 and secured thereto in appropriate fashion such as via the illustrated set screw 30. A locking mechanism (not illustrated) may be provided to lock the upper section 26 to the lower section 28 to help prevent the articulating ornament 10 from running away. By using a two-section ground securement system, the lower section 28 may be semi-permanently installed into the ground G in prepositioned fashion such that the upper section, and thus the figurine 12 proper, is attached to the lower section 28 only when needed such as on game day. Of course, the post, whether as a single section post or the two section post illustrated, may be received within a base (not illustrated) or other appropriate holder so that the figurine 12 can be placed on a patio, indoors, etc.
A sports implement 32, such as the illustrated football, is removably attachable to the end of one of the arms 18 of the figurine 12 in appropriate fashion such as via the illustrated bolt 34 and wing nut 36. By making the sports implement 32 removably attached to the arm 18, different sports implements can be attached to the figurine 12 depending on which team is being supported on a given day. For example, as football season ends and baseball season gears up, the football can be replaced with a baseball in very quick order—fans will gladly overlook the fact that the articulating ornament 10 may possibly have the wrong helmet 22 for the sport being promoted. The torso 14 including the head 20 and helmet 22 are made from two substantially similar halves that are removably secured together in appropriate fashion for ease of manufacturing as well as to easily gain service access into the interior of the figurine 12.
The legs 16 of the figurine 12 articulate up and down with a bit of forward motion as well. In order to achieve this articulation, a motor 38 is disposed within the figurine 12, the motor 38 having an appropriate output shaft 40 driven by the motor 38. An eccentric gear 42 is operatively coupled to the output shaft 40, the eccentric gear 42 having an eccentric pin 44 thereon. An articulated eccentric rod 46 is pivotally coupled to the eccentric pin 44 so that as the motor 38 operates, its output shaft 40 rotates which rotates the eccentric gear 42, which causes the articulated eccentric rod 46 to move up and down as is known in the science of eccentric gear systems. Of course, other methods can be used to translate the rotational output of the motor 38 into linear movement of a rod. Connected to the distal end of the eccentric rod 46 is a connector hub 48. The connector hub 48 is received within a hub slot 50 located on the torso 14. The hub slot 50 is dimensioned to snugly hold the connector hub 48 and permit the connector hub 48 to travel through its range of up and down movement within the hub slot 50. The connector hub 48 is also attached to a leg 16 of the figurine 12 just forward of the pivotal attachment of the leg 16 to the torso 14 proper. As such, as the connector hub 48 moves up and down in response to the eccentric gear system movement, the leg 16 moves up and down at its point of attachment to the torso 14 proper, which causes the leg 16 to have a bit of forward motion as well, giving the illusion of running The opposing leg 16 articulates in substantially similar fashion. Of course a single motor, gearably attached to two sets of eccentric gear systems (or other rotational to linear translation systems) can be used, however, due to the availability of inexpensive small motors, the use of two motors 38 simplifies the gearing system of the articulation subsystem of the articulating ornament 10. Electric power for the motor 38 comes from batteries 52 located within the FIG. 12 (a separate access panel (not illustrated) may be provided for easy change out of the batteries 52 without the need to disassemble the figurine 12), which batteries 52 may be trickle charged by a small solar panel 54 located on top of the figurine 12. Of course, the batteries 52 may be rechargeable via an appropriate charging plug (not illustrated) which charging plug plugs into a typical 110 volt electric wall outlet as is known. Such a system can also provide direct electric power to the motors 38 as is well known in the art with or without the use of batteries.
The arms 18 of the figurine 12 can be simply affixed to the figurine 12 without movement, or the arms 18 can also articulate, as illustrated. To provide arm 18 movement a connector rod 56 connects to a second connector hub 58 located above the leg connector hub 48, which second or arm connector hub 58 is received within a second hub slot 60 located on the torso 14 above the first hub slot 50, this arm hub slot 60 is also dimensioned to snugly hold the arm connector hub 58 and permit the connector hub 58 to travel through its range of up and down movement within the hub slot 60. The connector hub 58 is attached to an arm 18 of the figurine 12 just forward of the pivotal attachment of the arm 18 to the torso 14 proper. As such, as the connector hub 58 moves up and down in response to the eccentric gear system movement via the connector rod 56, the arm 18 arcs up and down at its point of attachment to the torso 14 proper, which causes the arm 18 to have the illusion of running The opposing arm 18 articulates in substantially similar manner.
Other optional features of the articulating ornament 10 include having lights 62, such as the illustrated LEDs located on the figurine 12 in order to attract further attention, especially at night. A speaker 64 is located on the figurine 12 in order to output a desired sound. Such sound can be recorded by a user via a microphone 66, or one or more sound tracks, such as a team fight song, can be preloaded or can be downloaded and stored onto an appropriate storage device held within a controller 68 within the figurine 12. Downloading a sound track can be in any appropriate fashion such as via a USB port 70. One or more switches 72 are provided and are used to control the various functions, including leg 16 and arm 18 articulation, the lights 62, sound recording if such function is provided, sound track downloading if such function is provide and sound track play.
In order to use the articulating ornament 10 of the present invention, the appropriate sports implement 32 is secured to an arm 18 of the figurine 12 and the figurine 12 is secured to a target surface such ground surface G or to a base in appropriate fashion. The articulating ornament 10 is turned on via the switch 72. If provided, the lights 62 can be activated and a sound track or sound tracks played as desired.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to an embodiment thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

I claim:

1. An articulating ornament comprising:

a figurine in the form of a human having a torso with a head atop and a pair of legs attached to each side of the torso, the legs reciprocate in an up and down motion in response to an output of a motor, the torso also having a pair of arms attached to each side of the torso; and

a post extending downwardly from a bottom of the torso.

2. The articulating ornament as in claim 1 wherein the legs also articulate in a back and forth motion while articulating in the up and down motion.

3. The articulating ornament as in claim 2 wherein the arms articulate in an up and down arcing motion in response to the output of the motor.

4. The articulating ornament as in claim 3 further comprising at least one light located on the figurine.

5. The articulating ornament as in claim 4 further comprising a figure of a sports implement removably attached to an end of one of the arms.

6. The articulating ornament as in claim 5 wherein the motor is electrically powered by a solar collector.

7. The articulating ornament as in claim 6 wherein the figurine emits a sound track through a speaker located on the figurine.

8. The articulating ornament as in claim 7 wherein the sound track is recorded onto a storage device held within the figurine via a microphone located on the figurine.

9. The articulating ornament as in claim 7 wherein the sound track is downloaded onto a storage device held within the figurine.

10. The articulating ornament as in claim 1 wherein the arms articulate in an up and down arcing motion in response to the output of the motor.

11. The articulating ornament as in claim 1 further comprising at least one light located on the figurine.

12. The articulating ornament as in claim 1 wherein the figurine emits a sound track through a speaker located on the figurine.

13. The articulating ornament as in claim 10 wherein the sound track is recorded onto a storage device held within the figurine via a microphone located on the figurine.

14. The articulating ornament as in claim 10 wherein the sound track is downloaded onto a storage device held within the figurine.

15. The articulating ornament as in claim 1 wherein the motor is electrically powered by a solar collector.