Nose-worn air filter

A device is disclosed which attaches to the nose and filters the air a person breathes through the nostrils of the nose. The filter element of the device covers the nostrils and base of the nose. Thus, the remainder of the face is uncovered. The device includes the filter element and an adhesive strip which includes two substantially triangular portions designed to adhere to the sides of the nose and hold the filter in place. The adhesive strip is such that it securely holds the filter over the nostrils when the adhesive strip is properly placed on the sides of the nose. The filter element can be constructed of various materials. For example, cotton, wool, polyester, or carbon. The filter element can include specially designed inserts which are dome shaped or ellipsoidal shaped and which fit in or against the nostrils. The filter element can filter out unwanted gases, solid particles, and/or other matter.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
There are many masks which may be worn for filtering dusty or otherwise 
impure air for people who wish to purify the air that is passing into 
their lungs. These generally fit over the nose and mouth and are held in 
place by a string, an elastic strip or string, or strings or strips which 
fit around the back of the head or ears, or by adhesive which holds the 
filter in place in some way. Some of these masks are relatively expensive, 
and some are rather inexpensive. 
The use of a filter to clean or purify the air people breath is not new, 
and many filter masks have been designed to fit over the nose and mouth. 
Many of these masks are uncomfortable for various reasons and have other 
faults as well. Many allow unfiltered air to get around parts of the masks 
which don't hold tightly against the curves on the face of the wearer. 
Some of these masks may cause the face to perspire and to collect dust on 
the face around the edges of the masks. They also tend to cause fog to 
form on the eyeglasses of the wearer. My invention reduces the discomfort 
of wearing a mask, the air bypass or leakage, perspiration, and the 
fogging of eyeglasses which are caused by the wearing of other masks. My 
invention is relatively inexpensive to produce, is light in weight, and is 
held tightly in place without any strings or straps which go around the 
head or the ears. 
My invention has significant benefits over other inventions in the field. 
Some inventions (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,240,420 and 4,354,489 to Riaboy) use an 
adhesive strip which goes around the edge of the mask and holds it in 
place. To hold the mask in place, this strip adheres to the bridge of the 
nose, the upper lip, and the part of the face around the nose. 
Disadvantages of this mask are that heat, perspiration, and moist air from 
the lungs are trapped within the mask. This, along with the movement of 
the facial skin, tend to loosen the mask and let air in and out along the 
edges, and lessen its ability to stay on the face. In addition, the warm 
air discharged around the upper part of the nose will fog the eyeglasses 
of the wearer. 
Another invention (U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,584 to Geaney) has a filter element 
held to the base of the nose with an adhesive strip around the perimeter 
of the element which adheres to the base of the nose. One of the 
disadvantages of this filter is that it has to be shaped accurately for 
each nose in order that the adhesive portion engages the outside areas of 
the base of the nose. Another disadvantage is that the air passing through 
the filter and the filter's weight pull the adhesive directly away from 
the skin; thus, the filter would fall off rather easily in active use. My 
invention eliminates these disadvantages. 
Other air filtering masks which press against the face all around the nose 
(such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,265 to Brevik) allow air to escape and enter 
all around the edges of the masks because it is difficult to get their 
shape to conform exactly to the different facial contours of different 
people. The air entering around the edges isn't filtered, and the air 
escaping around the top of the masks will cause condensation on the 
eyeglasses of a wearer. In addition to these disadvantages, if the mask is 
held on with an adhesive strip around the perimeter of the mask (like the 
Riaboy, supra, inventions), the mask will loosen easily and be likely to 
fall off in active use. If the mask is held on by a spot of adhesive 
against the tip of the nose (like the Brevik, supra, invention) the force 
of the air passing out of the mask and the weight of the mask will pull 
the adhesive almost directly away from the nose and cause the mask to come 
off the face rather easily. My invention eliminates all these problems. 
Breathing filters held against the base of the nose with strings and 
mechanical devices (such as disclosed in the French Patent No. 684,622 of 
Ogrisek and Piccard) have the disadvantages of being difficult to fit and 
to adjust the strings and other mechanical parts. In addition, the 
mechanical part would interfere with the eyeglasses of a wearer of 
eyeglasses, the device could get knocked off the nose easily, and the 
bearing points of the mechanical device would probably put uncomfortable 
pressure against the nose. My invention is comfortable, is not easily 
dislodged, is easy to apply, will fit easily and properly on almost any 
wearer, and needs no adjustment. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is a device which enables its user to breath filtered air 
through the nostrils of the nose while the user's mouth is accessible for 
talking, eating, and other purposes. The device covers essentially only 
the nostrils and is attached to the nose with one or more adhesive strips. 
Thus, the device provides its user greater freedom and less discomfort 
than other dust masks. It is light in weight and has no string or strap 
going around the head to hold it in place. It is attached only to the 
nose, and is attached in such a way that is is held on very tightly while 
still being comfortable and easy to remove. It is inexpensive to produce; 
thus, it can be disposed of rather than having to change filter elements 
once the filter is clogged or dirty. Some of the significant problems 
associated with the present state of the art breathing masks are the 
problems they cause for people who wear eyeglasses. The masks interfere 
with the eyeglass bearing points on the nose and ears. There is no such 
interference from my invention. The present state of the art masks allow 
air to escape near the eyeglass lenses, and this causes the lenses to get 
foggy. My invention discharges the warm moist air from the lungs in a 
direction away from the eyeglasses of the wearer; thus, there is no 
condensation on the eyeglasses of the wearer, or at least, less of a 
problem with fogging. 
An important characteristic of my invention is the mode of attachment to 
the nose of the user. My mode of attachment isolates the nose and utilizes 
its shape to provide great holding ability to the adhesive strips. The 
adhesive strips adhere to substantially the entire sides of the nose and 
may overlap at the top of the nose to hold the filter in place. The method 
of attachment is very important for a nose filter held in place with an 
adhesive. This is because the force of moving air and the weight of the 
filter are constantly working to loosen the adhesive. When one breathes 
out, the force of the air pushing against the filter tends to push the 
filter off the nose or face. Thus, the ability of the adhesive strips to 
hold onto the skin is critical. The holding ability can be increased by 
increasing the adhesive quality of the adhesive used on the strips. 
However, the adhesive quality of the adhesive cannot be so great as to 
cause harm to the skin when the mask is being removed. Another technique 
of getting more adhesiveness to the strips without increasing the 
adhesiveness of the adhesive on the strips, is to make the forces of the 
weight of the filter and the wearer's breathing pull on the adhesive 
strips at angles such that the force vectors acting on the strips go 
through the planes of the adhesive strips where they are attached to the 
skin and force the strips toward the skin. My invention makes use of this 
feature of forcing the adhesive strips toward the skin. The technique can 
be used because of the shape of the nose. When viewing noses from the 
front, the shapes of most of them appear to be triangular. My invention's 
adhesive strips attach to the sides of the nose, that is, the sides of 
this triangle. Thus, the force vectors acting on the strips pull the 
adhesive strips toward the skin rather than away from it or parallel to 
its surface, a distinct improvement and advantage. 
In other inventions such as those discussed above as background to my 
invention, these force vectors generally pull at angles which force the 
adhesive parallel to or away from the skin rather than toward the skin. In 
other words, there is a tendency to lift the adhesive strips off the skin, 
contrary to the arrangement according to my invention. In my invention, 
the adhesive strips are constantly pulled toward the adhesive side and 
toward the skin in distinction from the prior art. 
The angles of pull on the adhesive on the Riaboy, supra, inventions are 
generally different from those on mine. These angles of pull on the 
adhesive of the Riaboy, supra, inventions are parallel to or away from the 
skin. The angles of pull on the Geaney, supra, invention are also 
different. The Geaney, supra, invention attaches to the base of the nose 
(the area around the nostril openings and the septum) and the vector 
forces pull on the adhesive strip in such a way as to lift it off the 
skin. Masks using the Riaboy, supra, or the Geaney, supra, adhesive 
systems would probably not stay attached nearly as well as my mask would. 
Another characteristic of my invention is that it uses adherence to almost 
the entire surface of nose; whereas, the Riaboy, supra, inventions adhere 
to the area of the face all around the nose, including only a part of the 
sides and top of the nose. In the Geaney, supra, invention, the device 
adheres to only the base of the nose to hold the filter on, whereas any 
adherence to the base of the nose with my invention is just to form a seal 
to stop the passage of air around the edges of the filter element. 
However, such an adhesive seal is not a necessary part of my invention, as 
the filter element of my invention flexes around the base of the nose to 
form a natural pressure seal. The inventions of Riaboy, supra, and Geaney, 
supra, also appear to be more susceptible to being loosened by forces 
caused by the wrinkling of the face or talking. My invention is not as 
suscepible to such forces. 
In addition, my invention includes a versatile filter element which allows 
the wearer to select from a variety of filters designed to filter out 
various sizes of particles, gases, or other matter. These versatile filter 
elements include elements which are ellipsoidal shaped or dome shaped, and 
they fit into or against the nostril openings. The areas of the filter 
which are increased in thickness or bulge at the nostril openings can be 
called protuberances in the filter. The areas of increased thickness of 
the filter push up into the nostril openings, are located opposite the 
openings on the side of the filter element away from the nose, or can be 
on both sides of the filter; that is, on the side against the nose and the 
side away from the nose. When the protuberances stick out on both sides of 
the filter, they are football-like or ellipsoidal shaped. When they are 
only on one side of the filter, they are dome shaped. 
The protuberances have the effect of providing a greater amount of surface 
area for air to enter and leave the filter than is allowed by a flat 
filter. This enables the filter to be made thicker without diminishing the 
flow of air through it as much as would be the case with a thicker flat 
filter. 
The protuberances are also good containers for filtering material. They can 
be filled with the same filtering material as the filter element is 
composed of, they can be filled with charcoal, or they can be filled with 
any other filtering material which will enable the filter element to do a 
particular job. Materials such as charcoal would enable one to use the 
filter to filter out undesireable gases in the air. The protuberances can 
be filled with loose material held together within the cloth-like outer 
portions of the filter elements, or they can be filled with a molded part 
which is held in place against the nostril by the cloth-like outer 
portions of the filter element.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 1, an air filter device, which is to be worn over the 
nostrils of the nose, includes a specially shaped adhesive strip having an 
adhesive side 1 having an adhesive substance applied thereto which adheres 
to the sides of the nose and which is attached to the filter element 2. 
The filter element 2 is shaped to cover the entire base of the nose, with 
two substantially triangular portions of the adhesive strip extending 
along the sides of the user's nose. The adhesive side 1 contacts the sides 
of the nose and removably fixes the air filter to the nose. (The base of 
the nose spreads out around the center of the upper lip, and the preferred 
design of the filter element is shaped to complement the shape of the base 
of the nose.) 
Referring now to FIG. 2, the non-adhesive side 3 of the adhesive strip can 
be seen overlapping the filter element 3 at the area of connection 10 and 
going all around the filter element. The filter element 2 is attached to 
the adhesive strip at the area of connection 10 by adhesive and/or 
stitching. 
As best seen in FIG. 3, the adhesive strip is attached to the filter 
element 2, which is made of woven cloth, by the attachment area 10, as 
noted above. The adhesive side 1 of the ashesive strip is covered by two 
thin plastic strips 8 and 9 which are removed prior to placing the 
adhesive strip against the wearer's skin by a user simply peeling the 
strips 8 and 9 off, using the free ends 8a and 9a to access the strips 
with his or her fingers. The two plastic strips 8 and 9 keep the adhesive 
strips and the filter element clean prior to use. The filter element 2 is 
a thin flat piece constructed of woven cloth material which may be cotton, 
wool, nylon, a synthetic fiber, or any other material which can be formed 
into a cloth-like structure which can filter particulate matter and/or 
chemicals out of the air passing over or through it. The filter element 2 
allows air to pass through, into, and out of the nostrils in sufficient 
quantity for normal activity for which it is designed. The filtering 
effect of the filter can be increased by increasing the thickness of the 
entire filter element 2 or by adding protuberances which increase the 
thickness of the filter element in certain areas, by making the open 
spaces in the cloth smaller, or by adding certain chemicals to the filter. 
Referring now to FIG. 4, an air filter element 11 with a pair of 
protuberances 12 and 13 which fit into the nostrils of the nose of the 
wearer and/or are on the side of the filter element away from the 
nostrils. There is shown the flat part of the filter element. The flat 
part attaches to the adhesive strip of the nose worn device as shown in 
FIG. 2. There are two protuberances 12 and 13 in the filter element shown 
in FIG. 4. 
Referring to FIG. 5, a sectional view on line A'--A' in FIG. 4, the two 
protuberances 12 and 13 are shown as being defined by portions 14 and 15 
of the filter element's fabric, the portions 14 defining respective domes 
with respective cavities 16 being defined between the fabric portions 14 
and the fabric portion 17, which contacts the fabric portion 15. The 
fabric is a material which is formed around or encloses the cavities 16 of 
the protuberances 12 and 13. The cavities 16 may be filled with material 
such as carbon granules, loose cotton, or any other appropriate filtering 
material. The element's fabric portions 15 and 17 enclosing the cavities 
16 can be sewn or glued together. 
Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown a variant of the protuberances; in 
this case, the protuberances are composed of two halves 18 and 20, to 
define four cavities 16'. The filtering material inside the cavities 16' 
of the protuberances in the variant of FIG. 6 is held in by a thin piece 
of air permeable fabric 21 extending over each half. The halves are then 
glued or sewn together. The two halves form a filter element with 
ellipsoidal shaped (football shaped) protuberances. One side of the 
protuberances fits up into the nostrils and the other half juts out on the 
lower side of the filter element away from the nostrils. 
Referring to FIG. 7, a sectional view on line B'--B' in FIG. 4, the 
protuberance 12 is shown with the element's fabric portion 14 and 15 
formed around or enclosing the cavity 16. In FIG. 7, 17 designates the 
fabric portion also illustrated in FIG. 5, while 24 designates a visible 
inclined surface of the air filter element 11 (FIG. 4). Referring now to 
FIG. 8, two molded inserts designed to fit into the cavities 16' of FIG. 6 
and form the protuberances 12 and 13 of FIG. 4. The inserts are made of 
filtering material cemented together or filtering material enclosed by a 
stiff, perforated, form-shaped outer covering. As shown in FIG. 8, a flat 
portion or collar 31 is around the ellipsoidal portion 32. For the insert 
which is cemented together, both the collar 31 and the ellipsoidal portion 
32 are made of the same material. For the inserts with loose material 
inside, the collar is made of the same material as the stiff outer 
covering, and only the ellipsoidal portion contains the filtering 
material. The collar 31 of both types of molded inserts is covered with an 
impervious material, such as a thin coating of polyethelene, to prevent 
the passage of air through the collar area and consequently require all 
the air to pass through the central portions of the inserts. 
Referring to FIG. 8, a bottom view of the inserts, the collars 31 are 
visible as respective thin flat portions of the inserts and are used to 
form a seal around the respective inserts when they are in the nostrils of 
the wearer. The collars 31 prevent air from passing around the inserts 
without going through the core of the inserts. (The collars could be made 
of an impervious material such as polyethelene.) The thick, rounded 
portions 32 provide the filtering effect provided by the inserts. 
Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, side views of the inserts of FIG. 8, the 
flat collar 31 is shown to go around the insert. The elliptical shape of 
the insert is clearly shown. The thick, rounded portion 34 shows the large 
surface area and volume provided by the ellipsoidal shape of the insert. 
In order to fit the inserts of FIGS. 8-10 into the cavities 16' of the 
filter shown in FIG. 6, the portions of the thin piece of fabric 21 within 
the cavities 16' would be cut away. 
Turning briefly to FIGS. 11A and 11B, the exemplary nose-worn air filter is 
shown in place on the face of a male user 40. As shown, the two 
substantially triangular portions 3a and 3b of the nonadhesive side 3, 
also shown in FIG. 2, of the air filter are shown positioned on opposite 
sides of the user's nose. The adhesive side 1, also shown in FIG. 1, is in 
contact with the skin on the sides of the nose, thereby holding the air 
filter in place. The adhesive side 1 does not contact any portion of the 
face beneath the nose nor portions of the user's cheeks, a desirable 
characteristic of my invention. As visible in FIGS. 11A and 11B, the air 
filter includes protuberances 42 and 43, as do the protuberances which 
define the lower two cavities 16' (FIG. 6). 
It is to be understood that the foregoing description relates to exemplary 
embodiments and variants of my invention set out by way of example, not by 
way of limitation. Numerous other embodiments and variants are possible 
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, its scope 
being defined in the appended claims.