Motor driven stand-up urinal

A portable urinal including a urine bottle support, a hollow rod and an extension rod projecting from the hollow cylinder. The extension rod is selectively movable in a direction of elongation of the hollow cylinder by a driver. The driver is actuated remotely. The urine bottle support may be swung out of the way or into position as desired by actuating appropriate motor drives.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to aids for disabled and partially disabled 
persons, i.e., a motorized stand-up urinal. 
My copending patent application Ser. No. 08/365,071 (the '071 application), 
filed Dec. 27 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a 
portable stand-up urinal that includes a urine bottle support having a 
hollow rod and an extension rod disposed within the hollow rod. The 
extension rod is selectively movable in its direction of elongation 
relative to the hollow rod. A stop screw may be provided to lock the 
extension in position relative to the hollow rod. The extension makes 
provision for supporting the urine bottle. 
Disabled or partially disabled persons, who have trouble standing without 
an aid and generally must grasp the aid with both hands if changing 
position while standing, may find it awkward to adjust the height and 
distance of the extension disclosed in the '071 application through manual 
manipulation. It would therefore be desirable to adjust the relative 
height and distance of the extension other than through manual 
manipulation, thereby freeing the hands of the disabled or partially 
disabled person from manually positioning the extension. It would be 
desirable to free such persons from the need to make bending movements to 
effect such adjustment. 
In addition, such disabled or partially disabled persons may have 
difficulty transferring themselves between various aids or devices, such 
as a wheelchair, walker and a water closet. Often, there is a gap between 
the aid or device which the person is going to and the aid or device that 
the person is leaving. As a result, the person must reach across this gap 
to grasp the aid or device at the other side, thereby adversely affecting 
the leverage that the person has to pull or carry his/her weight across 
the gap. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed to aids for disabled or partially 
disabled persons. One aspect of the invention resides in an aid in the 
form of a stand-up urinal having a motorized elongated extension arm that 
moves between retracted and extended positions relative to a hollow rod. 
The rod may be moved along a vertically extending pole between upper and 
lower positions and may be positioned to be swung clockwise or 
counterclockwise about the pole between an operative position and one 
clear of the operative position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Turning to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show a portable urinal support in 
accordance with my copending patent application Ser. No. 08/365,071. The 
support is manually operated. There is a setting screw 10 for selectively 
locking the extension arm 12 in place. There is a standing pole 14 that 
extends from floor to ceiling. The extension arm 12 may be raised or 
lowered along the standing pole 14 to a desired height and then locked 
into place by the setting screw 10. The setting screw further allows the 
extension arm to rotate around the standing pole 14 so that if it is not 
needed it is out of the way of the person using the toilet (not shown, but 
located beneath the urine bottle 16 that is held by the extension arm 12). 
The standing pole 14 need not extend all the way between the floor and 
ceiling, but could be extend part way and be free standing. 
The present invention of FIGS. 3-8 replace the setting screw and its manual 
manipulation with a motorized system that is remote controlled. There is a 
support pole 20 with an endless threaded groove 22 wrapping around the 
support pole 20. The pole 20 sits on a base 24. A motorized drive 26 
drives the pole 20 to rotate relative to the base 24, which has bearings 
27 to allow for such rotation. 
Drive mechanisms, such as components that include an inner slotted cylinder 
28 and an outer slotted cylinder 30 each with slots 32 and a vertically 
extending gap 34, are provided to translate the rotary movement of the 
pole 20 into linear movement of an extension arm 36 in a direction of 
elongation of the pole and to selectively allow rotation of the extension 
arm 36 in unison with the pole 20 to an extent. 
A portion of the length of the pole 20 is radially surrounded by the inner 
slotted cylinder 28, which in turn is radially surrounded by the outer 
slotted cylinder 30. The slots 32 are spaced apart vertically in each and 
the vertically extending gaps 34 extend between central areas of each of 
the slots and along which vertically moves an extension arm 36. The 
extension arm 36 includes an elongated hollow cylinder 38 and a rod 40. 
The rod 40 is driven at its proximal end 42 by a motorized driver 44 to 
move longitudinally in a direction of elongation of the hollow cylinder 
38. The distal end 46 of the rod 40 is ring-shaped to hold a urine bottle 
such as the bottle 16 of FIG. 1. The distal end 48 of the hollow cylinder 
38 has an entrance 50 from which projects the rod 40 outwardly. The 
proximal end 52 of the hollow cylinder 38 includes a ring 54 with internal 
teeth 56 that engage the endless threaded groove 22 on the support pole 
20. If the extension arm 36 is prevented from rotating with the rotation 
of the threaded groove 22, then it moves either upwardly or downward 
depending upon whether the support pole 20 is rotating clockwise or 
counterclockwise. Its vertical movement is along the gap 34 that runs 
vertically along the inner slotted cylinder 28 and the outer slotted 
cylinder 30. 
When the extension arm 36 is in line with the slots 32, the extension arm 
36 is in a position to rotate with the rotation of the support pole 20. To 
achieve such alignment, the inner slotted cylinder 28 is rotated relative 
to the outer slotted cylinder 30 such that an end of one of its slots 32 
is inline with a slot in the outer slotted cylinder 30. An end of this one 
slot of the inner slotted cylinder 28 is then rotated relative to the 
outer slotted cylinder 30 so as to engage the extension arm 36 and rotate 
it, as well as the support pole 20. Once the extension arm 36 is out of 
the way, the toilet is readily accessible by someone else. By following a 
reverse procedure, the extension arm 36 can thereafter be rotated back 
into its position for use. 
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a motorized driver 58 is secured to the outer 
slotted cylinder 30 adjacent an additionally vertically extending slot to 
drive a wheel 62 that engages the inner slotted cylinder 28 to move it in 
its direction of elongation relative to the outer slotted cylinder 30. 
Such driving is done to prevent the extension arm 36 from rotating into 
the slots while it is changing its elevation between upper and lower 
positions along the support pole 20. When it becomes desirable to move the 
extension arm 36 out of the way, the inner slotted cylinder 28 is moved by 
the wheel 62 which is rotated by the motorized driver 58, until its slots 
align with those on the outer slotted cylinder 30. When the slots are so 
aligned, rotation of the support pole 20 causes the extension arm 36 to 
rotate into the slots 32 and out of the way. 
Thereafter, the support pole 20 may be rotated in the opposite direction to 
return the extension arm 36 to its position for use over the toilet. The 
wheel 62 may have a friction surface on its periphery to ensure contact is 
maintained with the inner slotted cylinder during its rotation. 
The motorized drives are actuated by remote control. The remote control may 
have separate buttons designated for movement in each direction, i.e., up, 
down, outward, inward, rotate clockwise, and rotate counterclockwise. 
Thus, the extension arm 36 may be moved up or down after the slots 32 are 
moved out of alignment, the rod 20 may be moved outwardly or inwardly 
relative to the hollow cylinder, and the extension arm 36 may be rotated 
out of the way either clockwise or counterclockwise and then rotated in 
the opposite direction to return after the slots 32 in the inner and outer 
slotted cylinders 28, 30 are moved into alignment. 
If necessary, additional buttons may be provided to position the slots 
either in or out of alignment, or this may be done automatically after 
pressing the other buttons that require the slots to be either aligned or 
out of alignment. For instance, pressing the clockwise button could first 
trigger the wheel 60 to rotate for a predetermined duration, causing the 
slots to align. Upon expiration of this duration, the motorized driver for 
driving the pole to rotate is actuated automatically after a time delay 
equal to this duration, because pressing the clockwise button also 
actuated a timing circuit (not shown) that controls actuation of the 
motorized driver 26 responsible for rotation of the support pole 20. 
FIG. 9 incorporates the embodiment of FIGS. 3-8 into a free standing walker 
70, except that provision for the inner and outer slotted cylinders are 
omitted. The walker has handgrips 72 and a cylindrical housing 74 radially 
surrounding the support pole 20 (see FIGS. 3-8), but is not rotatable with 
it. FIG. 10 shows a further embodiment similar to that of FIG. 9 except 
that instead of being part of a free standing walker, the housing 74 is 
attached to a wall 76 in any conventional manner such as with a fastener. 
For instance, the fastener may be a metal strip wrapped over the outside 
of the housing with its free ends secured to the wall with screws or bolts 
or may be an adhesive strip. 
In both embodiments of FIGS. 9 and 10, the motorized drivers may be driven 
by batteries and activated by buttons 78. FIG. 11 illustrates the relative 
position of a wheel chair with a person in preparation for use of the 
invention of FIGS. 9 or 10. The urine bottle 16 is positioned between and 
at a lower elevation than the calves of the person in the wheelchair 80. 
Since there is no toilet, there is no need to rotate the extension arm 36 
out of the way and so no need for the inner and outer slotted cylinders of 
the embodiment of FIGS. 3-8. 
While the foregoing description and drawings represent the preferred 
embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that various 
changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit 
and scope of the present invention.