Abstract:
A method comprising cutting a cradle to a desired length, positioning the cradle at a position between an article of furnishing and a wall and reachable without moving the article of furnishing, removing adhesive backing from the cradle, and affixing the cradle to the article of furnishing and the wall. An apparatus comprising a generally rectangular sheet having two lateral edges and two longitudinal edges and dimensions generally conforming to a gap between an article of furnishing and a wall, and a plurality of adhesive strips put on one surface of the sheet along the two longitudinal edges of the sheet.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of the earlier filing date of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/971,165, filed Sep. 10, 2007. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Technical Field 
         [0003]    An apparatus catches objects susceptible to fall behind an article of furnishing such as furniture or an appliance. More particularly, it catches objects susceptible to fall from the top of the article of furnishing before they fall to the floor behind the article of furnishing and between the wall and the article of furnishing or getting stuck between the wall and the article of furnishing. 
         [0004]    2. Background 
         [0005]    When an article of furnishing such as a piece of furniture or an appliance is placed against a wall, it is often the case that a gap is created between the back surface of an article of furnishing and the wall. Objects such as keys, coins, jewelries and pieces of clothing may be temporarily placed on the top surface of the article of furnishing for the convenience and objects like a picture frame and a desktop calendar may be placed on top of the article for an extended period of time. Those objects are vulnerable to fall from the top surface of the article of furnishing because they are often picked up or moved around on the top. When the objects fall behind the article of furnishing through the gap, the objects either land on the floor behind or below the article of furnishing or get stuck between the back surface of the article of furnishing and the wall. It is often very difficult to recover those objects in short time if possible at all. One may employ various tools to recover the objects, for example, a long stick or a ruler but there usually is not enough room to operate such a tool underneath or behind the article of furnishing. The article of furnishing may eventually have to be displaced to recover the objects. Displacing the article of furnishing will consume much time and physical strength and may also damage the article of furnishing or the floor. 
         [0006]    Consequently, there is a need for an apparatus to catch the objects falling from the top surface of an article of furnishing and make those objects easily recoverable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,309 discloses a metal mesh basket as a catching device and U.S. Publication No. 20070134457 discloses a tubular body with a catching fin. There is, however, a further need of an apparatus that is relatively inexpensive to produce, causes no or minimal damage to the article of furnishing to be attached to and is adoptive to any shape of a wall or an article of furnishing with minimal effort. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an embodiment of a cradle. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a lateral side view of the cradle of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a longitudinal bottom view of the cradle of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 4   a  is a planar side view of the cradle of  FIG. 1  attached between a wall and a desk. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4   b  is a magnified view of the cradle of  FIG. 1  attached as in  FIG. 4   a.    
           [0012]      FIG. 4   c  is a planar side view of the cradle of  FIG. 1  attached between a wall and a desk. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the cradle of  FIG. 1  attached between a wall and a desk. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view the cradle of  FIG. 1  attached to a wall and a washing machine. 
           [0015]      FIG. 7  is a flow diagram of methods of installing a cradle. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    A method and apparatus for catching objects behind an article of furnishing are described herein. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth such as specific materials, adhesives, articles of furnishing, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be clear to one skilled in the art, however, that these specific details described herein need not be utilized to practice the embodiments. Further, specific embodiments are presented below and should be regarded only as illustrative. It is to be recognized that articles of furnishing in this description may include pieces of furniture such as a desk, a bookshelf and a dresser, appliances such a washing machine and a dryer or any large bodily objects that create gaps between a wall and them when they are placed against the wall. 
         [0017]    In  FIGS. 1-3 , an embodiment of a cradle is illustrated.  FIG. 1  illustrates cradle  100  bent to a U-shape which a lateral edge of cradle  100  is typically formed to when the cradle is affixed between a wall and an article of furnishing. Cradle  100  in  FIGS. 2-3  is generally flat and is illustrative of a cradle when it is not affixed.  FIG. 2  illustrates the planar side view of cradle  100 .  FIG. 3  illustrates the bottom view of cradle  100 . In one embodiment, cradle  100  includes a flexible sheet  110  of, for example, a polymer (e.g., polypropylene) cloth (e.g., canvas), or paper with two surfaces, top surface  120  and bottom surface  130 . Only bottom surface  130  is shown in  FIG. 3 . Adhesive strips  140  and  150  are coated on the portions of the back surface along both longitudinal edges of flexible sheet  110 , as illustrated in  FIGS. 1-3 , and attaches flexible sheet  110  to a wall and an article of furnishing. Adhesive backings  141  and  151  are covering adhesive strips  140  and  150 , respectively, and can be peeled off from adhesive strips  140  and  150  as illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 3  where it is shown that adhesive backings  141  and  151  are partially peeled off from adhesives strips  140  and  150 . Adhesive strips  140  and  150  do not have to be continuous strips as illustrated  FIGS. 1-3  as long as they can serve to affix the cradle  100  between a wall and an article of furnishing. For example, the adhesive substance may be coated on to the flexible sheet to make a series of short strips. 
         [0018]    Flexible sheet  110  of cradle  100  may be produced in different dimensions and thicknesses to conform to different width of articles and different sizes of gap depths between an article of furnishing and a wall. For flexible sheet  110 , a representative dimension is 4×36 inches and a representative thickness is about 0.5 to 3 mm. Flexible sheet  110  may be made of any material that allows flexibility and sufficient sturdiness to withstand the weight of fallen objects when made into a sheet form. A plastic material such as polypropylene may be used. 
         [0019]    Adhesive strips  140  and  150  may be made from any conventional adhesive substances used to make conventional adhesive tapes. Such adhesive substances may be coated onto the flexible sheet directly and then covered by adhesive backings to be peeled off from the coated adhesive substances. Alternatively, a conventional double-sided adhesive tape having an adhesive backing on each side of the tape may be employed to make the adhesive strips. Leaving an adhesive backing on one side of the tape remain unpeeled, the tape on the peeled side may be applied to back surface  130  along the longitudinal edges of flexible sheet  110 . 
         [0020]      FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  illustrate a planar side view of cradle  100  affixed between wall  410  and desk  420 .  FIG. 4   b  is a magnified view of cradle  100  in  FIG. 4   a.  In  FIG. 4   b,  one of the two longitudinal end portions onto which adhesive strip  150  is coated is affixed to the top portion of the back surface of desk  420  and the other longitudinal end portion onto which adhesive strip  140  is coated is affixed by adhesive strip  140  to a portion of wall  410  that horizontally faces the top portion of the back surface of desk  420  so that the lateral edge of flexible sheet  110  is formed to a U-shape and thereby cradle  100  is affixed between wall  410  and desk  420  and covers gab  430 . Objects that may fall from the top surface of desk  420  will be caught by cradle  100  and remain on top surface  120  of flexible sheet  110 . Cradle  100  may be removed from wall  410  and desk  420  by peeling off the longitudinal portions from wall  410  and desk  420  just like peeling off adhesive tape from an object which the tapes were applied to. 
         [0021]      FIG. 4   c  illustrates a planar side view of cradle  100  affixed between wall  410  and desk  420  in an alternative way than the way cradle  100  is affixed in  FIG. 4   b.  In  FIG. 4   c,  the longitudinal end portion of flexible sheet  110  onto which adhesive strip  150  is coated is affixed to the back end portion of top surface of desk  420  instead of back surface of desk  420  which it is affixed to in  FIG. 4   a  and the other longitudinal end portion of flexible sheet  110  on to which adhesive strip  140  is coated is affixed to a portion of wall  410  above the portion that it was attached to in  FIG. 4   b  so that the lateral edge of flexible sheet  110  in  FIG. 4   c  is formed to a slope downward from wall  410  to the top surface of desk  420 . Cradle  100 , affixed as illustrated in  FIG. 4   c,  can catch an object falling from the top surface of desk  420  or have the object slide back to the top surface of desk  420  depending on how steep the slope of flexible sheet  110  is. 
         [0022]      FIG. 5  shows a perspective view of the cradle and the desk of  FIG. 4   a.  Cradle  100  extends the entire length, L  422 , of the top panel of desk  420 . Because cradle  100  extends the entire length, it is not necessary to add another length by attaching another cradle between wall  410  and desk  420 . 
         [0023]      FIG. 6  illustrates cradle  100  affixed between wall  510  and washing machine  520 . Cradle  100  does not extend the entire width, W  522 , of washing machine  520  (e.g., 24 inches). To cover the portion of the back side remaining uncovered, another cradle may be cut to the remaining width, W  524 , and affixed to wall  510  and back surface of washing machine  520 . Although it is not illustrated in  FIG. 6 , if the length, W  112 , of cradle  100  is longer than the width, W  522 , of washing machine  520 , cradle  100  may be cut to the same length as the width, W  522 , and attached to extend the entire and exact width of washing machine  520 . 
         [0024]      FIG. 7  illustrates a flow diagram of a process to install a cradle between a wall and a piece of furnishing according to one embodiment of a cradle. At process block  702 , a cradle is cut to a desired length if the desired length is shorter than the length of a cradle. A cradle can be cut to any length using a pair of scissors or any other cutting instrument. At process block  704 , the cradle cut to the desired length at process block  702  is positioned between an article of furnishing and a wall at a desired position. As discussed above, the lateral edge of a cradle may be parallel to the floor or be formed to a slope between a wall and an article of furnishing depending on the need. At process block  706 , the adhesive backings are removed from the cradle to expose the adhesive strips of the cradle. At process block  708 , the cradle is affixed to the top portion of the back surface of the article of furnishing and to the desired portion of the wall. It is to be recognized that the steps in the process blocks can be accomplished in any order. For example, adhesive backings can be removed from a cradle before the cradle is affixed to the wall and the article of furnishing. It is also evident that the steps can be partially completed. For example, adhesive backings are partially removed from a cradle and then can be completely removed after the cradle is affixed by partially exposed adhesive strips. 
         [0025]    In the preceding detailed description specific exemplary embodiments are described. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and change may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of embodiments as set forth in the claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.