US20190359303A1

US20190359303A1 - Regulatable pressure goggle mask

Info

Publication number: US20190359303A1
Application number: US16/386,558
Authority: US
Inventors: Chih-Cheng Shiue
Original assignee: QBAS Co Ltd
Current assignee: QBAS Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-05-24
Filing date: 2019-04-17
Publication date: 2019-11-28
Also published as: TW202003331A

Abstract

A regulatable pressure goggle mask having a lens and a regulating structure is provided. The lens includes a viewing area and a regulating pressure area disposed under the viewing area. The regulating structure is disposed in the regulating pressure area and includes a support unit and two recesses disposed adjacent to the two sides of the support unit. The two recesses extend to two sides of a nose of a user respectively, and are formed by a first soft material.

Description

This application claims priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 107117804 filed on May 24, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a goggle mask, and more particularly, relates to a regulatable pressure goggle mask that is suitable for use in snorkeling or diving sports.

Descriptions of the Related Art

During water sports such as the snorkeling or diving, people usually wear a breathing tube and a lens to breathe air under the water. For the diving goggle that is currently used most widely, the breathing tube and the lens thereof are parts independent from each other, and the breathing tube is simply fixed aside the lens detachably. During the actual operation, a user must first wear the lens before entering the water, and then bite the mouthpiece of the breathing tube tightly with the mouth thereof so that the user can breathe the air in the water with the mouth thereof by using the breathing tube as a medium. Therefore, the lens of such a diving goggle does not cover the mouth of the user. However, it is hard for a diving beginner to get used to such a using method of the breathing tube, and a mouthpiece of a poor design or incorrect biting manner is likely to cause tension and ache of the muscle of the lower jaw.
In order to overcome the aforesaid trouble in the use of the aforesaid diving goggle, a full-face goggle in which the breathing tube is directly disposed above and connected with the lens and the lens covers the mouth and the nose portions of the user is accordingly developed, and thus the user can use the mouth or the nose to breathe freely during underwater sports. However, the lens portion of such a full-face goggle is completely made of a hard material, and when the user dives deeper, such type of the full-face goggle will severely oppress the face of the user and cause great discomfort. Moreover, when the user feels ache at the ears thereof due to unbalanced internal and external ear pressure, the ear pressure cannot be balanced by pinching the nose thereof while swallowing the saliva or blowing air. If the unbalanced internal and external ear pressure is not dealt in time, barotraumatic otitis media may occur to the user in the severe case, and this requires several months for the treatment thereof. Therefore, the diving depth of the aforesaid full-face goggle is limited.
To solve the aforesaid problem of unbalanced internal and external ear pressure for the full-face goggle, some manufactures have disposed a soft material on the lens with the intention of enabling the user to regulate the pressure by using fingers to press the soft material and thus pinch the nose thereof. However, during the actual use, the soft material cannot bear the excessively large under-water pressure so that the whole soft material is closely attached to and oppresses the mouth/nose of the user, which greatly impedes the breathing of the user. Moreover, even if improvement is made by using a soft material of a greater hardness, the aforesaid problem that the soft material will be closely attached to and oppress the mouth/nose of the user cannot be solved, and an adverse effect that it is hard to press the soft material with a general force of the fingers may be further generated.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art to provide a regulatable goggle mask so as to improve the aforesaid drawbacks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a goggle mask, a regulating mechanism of which enables a user to perform the action of pinching the nose thereof while swallowing the saliva or blowing air under the water, thereby performing a pressure regulating operation for balancing the internal and external ear pressure. Moreover, the regulating mechanism will not be closely attached to or oppress the mouth and nose of the user during the underwater sports, so there is no limit in the diving depth.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, a goggle mask of the present invention comprises a lens and a regulating structure. The lens comprises a viewing area and a regulating pressure area disposed under the viewing area. The regulating structure is disposed in the regulating pressure area and has a support unit and two recesses disposed adjacent to the two sides of the support unit, wherein the two recesses extend to two sides of a nose portion of a user respectively and are formed by a first soft material.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the support unit of the regulating structure of the goggle mask according to the present invention is independent from the lens.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the two recesses of the regulating structure of the goggle mask according to the present invention comprise a second soft material which has a higher hardness than the first soft material.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the support unit of the regulating structure and the lens of the goggle mask according to the present invention are formed integrally.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the regulating pressure area of the lens of the goggle mask according to the present comprises two recesses, each of the two recesses covers an opening, and the opening has an outline shape with a triangle, water drop, oval, or circle.
To achieve the aforesaid objective, the first soft material and the second soft material of the goggle mask according to the present invention are selected from Silicone rubber, Thermoplastic Rubber (TPR), Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), or the groups of combination thereof.
The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the subject invention are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a goggle mask according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic exploded view of a regulating structure and a lens of the goggle mask according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of a goggle mask according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the use of the goggle mask of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5A is a front view of the goggle mask of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5B is a schematic view taken along a cross-sectional line A-A of the goggle mask of FIG. 5A; and

FIG. 6 is a front view of a third embodiment of a goggle mask according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a goggle mask 10 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the goggle mask 10 may be used in combination with a breathing tube 20, and the goggle mask 10 may be worn on the head of a user during an underwater sport so that the user can breathe the air above the water. The goggle mask 10 may comprise a lens 100 and a regulating structure 200, and technical contents of these elements will be described sequentially as follows.
A skirt portion (not shown) is provided at the periphery of the lens 100 to cover the whole face of the user so that water cannot contact with the face of the user, and a frame 30 disposed around the skirt portion is connected with a strap 40 so that the lens 100 can be fixed on the face of the user.
More specifically, the lens 100 may be made of a transparent material, so a greater field of view can be provided as compared to the conventional goggle. The lens 100 may be made of a material of a better structural strength (hard material) so that the lens 100 will not deform due to the water pressure. Reference may be made to Taiwan Patent Application No. 201741201 proposed previously by the applicant for other technical contents of the goggle mask 10, and this will not be further described herein.
The lens 100 has a viewing area 110 and a regulating pressure area 120 disposed under the viewing area 110, the regulating pressure area 120 having an opening 122, the position of the opening 122 of the regulating pressure area 120 corresponds to a nose portion or a mouth and nose portion of the user, and the opening 122 may have a size that is smaller than or equal to one half or one third of the lens 100 so that the viewing area 110 can maintain a wider field of view.
The regulating structure 200 is disposed at the opening 122 of the regulating pressure area 120 and has a support unit 210 and two recesses 220 disposed adjacent to the two sides of the support unit 210, wherein the two recesses 220 extend to two sides of a nose portion (not shown) of a user respectively and are formed by a first soft material 222.
In detail, referring to FIG. 2, the support unit 210 is a component formed integrally with the lens 100, so the support unit 210 will have an adequate hardness to bear the water pressure without being deformed in the first embodiment of the present invention. The support unit 210 may be plate-shaped, column-shaped or an arc sheet protruding along the shape of the nose (as shown in FIG. 3). As shown in FIG. 2, the support unit 210 is disposed at the middle of the opening 122 and divides the opening 122 into a first opening 122 a and a second opening 122 b that are symmetrical to each other in the left and right direction, and the two recesses 220 disposed adjacent to the two sides of the support unit 210 may be a first soft material 222 formed integrally.
Referring to FIG. 5A, when the support unit 210 is a component formed integrally with the lens 100, the first soft material 222 may be disposed on the opening 122 via overmolding so that the first soft material 222 covers the support unit 210 (not shown). In this way, the first soft material 222 extend towards the face direction of the user to respectively form the two recesses 220.
Referring to FIG. 3, in the second embodiment of the present invention, the two recesses 220 may also be two independent first soft materials 222, and the two first soft materials 222 are respectively formed via injection molding and then assembled or adhered onto the first opening 122 a and the second opening 122 b. In this way, the two recesses 220 can closely cover the first opening 122 a and the second opening 122 b, and the recesses 220 extend towards the face direction of the user.
Through the aforesaid arrangement, when the user dives into deeper water, the support unit 210 may abut against or support the first soft material 222 so that the first soft material 222 will not be closely attached to and oppress the nose portion of the user due to the under-water pressure, and pressure regulation can be performed by putting the fingers into the two recesses 220 to pinch the nose (as shown in FIG. 4), thereby relieving the discomfort caused by the unbalanced internal and external ear pressure.
Although not shown in the figures, the support unit 210 may also be an independent unit separated from the lens 100, and the support unit 210 is fixed on the opening 122 by clamping, locking or adhering or the like so that the opening 122 is divided into the first opening 122 a and the second opening 122 b. Thereafter, the first soft material 222 is disposed in the aforesaid way to facilitate pressure regulating operation in the water.
The two recesses 220 may also comprise a second soft material 224 (as shown in FIG. 5B), and the hardness of the second soft material is higher than the first soft material 222. In this way, the recesses 220 that is away from the face area of the user has a higher hardness, while the recesses 220 that is close to the face area of the user has a lower hardness so that the recesses 220 may be stably fixed on the opening 122. Meanwhile, the recesses 220 has a better durability so that the user can perform the pressure regulating operation simply by applying a general force to pinch the nose.
In the present invention, the first soft material 222 and the second soft material 224 may be Silicone rubber, Thermoplastic Rubber (TPR), Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), or the groups of combination thereof, and the hardness of the first soft material 222 and the second soft material 224 preferably ranges from A20 to A90.
In the embodiments of the present invention, an outline shape of the first opening 122 a or the second opening 122 b covered by the recesses 220 may include a triangle, a water drop, an oval (as shown in FIG. 6) or a circle or the like, but it is not limited thereto. In other words, the outline shape of the first opening 122 a or the second opening 122 b can be adjusted in response to users of different groups to make it convenient for the users to accomplish the operation of pinching the nose and meanwhile reduce the influence to the field of view.
Moreover, although not shown in the figures, the adjusting structure 200 is not limited to only having two recesses, but may also have more than two recesses corresponding to other fingers, thereby improving the stability or the usability of the soft material structure.
According to the above descriptions, the goggle mask of the present invention makes a great improvement based on the full-face goggle, which not only enables the user to perform pressure regulating operation during the snorkeling sport and relieve the discomfort caused by the unbalanced internal and external ear pressure under a certain depth of water, but also can avoid the danger that the soft material of the full-face goggle currently available cannot bear excessive underwater pressure and thus is overall attached to and oppresses the mouth/nose of the user, so the user can perform the diving sport more comfortably.
The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A regulatable pressure goggle mask, comprising:

a lens, comprising a viewing area and a regulating pressure area disposed under the viewing area; and

a regulating structure, disposed in the regulating pressure area and having a support unit and two recesses disposed adjacent to the two sides of the support unit, wherein the two recesses extend to two sides of a nose portion of a user respectively and are formed by a first soft material.

2. The regulatable pressure goggle mask according to claim 1, wherein the support unit of the regulating structure is independent from the lens.

3. The regulatable pressure goggle mask according to claim 2, wherein the two recesses of the regulating structure comprise a second soft material which has a higher hardness than the first soft material.

4. The regulatable pressure goggle mask according to claim 1, wherein the support unit of the regulating structure and the lens are formed integrally.

5. The regulatable pressure goggle mask according to claim 1, wherein the regulating pressure area comprises two recesses, each of the two recesses covers an opening, and the opening is substantially shaped by a triangle, water drop, oval, or circle.

6. The regulatable pressure goggle mask according to claim 3., wherein the first soft material and the second soft material are selected from Silicone rubber, Thermoplastic Rubber (TPR), Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), or the groups of combination thereof.