Abstract:
An infant care apparatus capable of providing various swing motions is disclosed. The infant care apparatus includes a base, a sliding mount, and a seat frame. The base has a concave surface. The sliding mount has a convex surface matching with the concave surface and disposed opposite to the concave surface. The sliding mount slides above the concave surface by the convex surface. The seat frame is fixed on the sliding mount to be moved together with the sliding mount. Thereby, the seat frame together with the sliding mount can swing relative to the base in two dimensions. The infant care apparatus can provide various swing motions without any pendulum arm to child sitting thereon. Besides, the infant care apparatus can be assembled in a compact size facilitating transport.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/634,713, which was filed on Mar. 5, 2012, and is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to an infant care apparatus, and especially relates to an infant care apparatus providing swing motions by relative sliding between two matching curved surface. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Bouncer seats, swings, car rides, plush toys and music have all been employed at one time or another by parents to aid in soothing their child. Bouncer seats are helpful, yet their repetitive motion can at times be boring or insufficient to calm a child. Moreover, a parent&#39;s time physically bouncing the unit could be otherwise used attending to another need in the baby&#39;s proximity. Swings are naturally smoothing, but tend to be large and not very portable. Furthermore, there is not much variety in a swing apart from the front to back pendulum motion. Plush toys can come to the rescue at times, but like choosing music, no parent knows what exactly will excite or calm their child. Lastly, car rides just are not always convenient or economical. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An objective of the invention is to provide an infant care apparatus capable of providing various swing motions by relative sliding between two matching curved surface. 
     The infant care apparatus includes a base, a sliding mount, and a seat frame. The base has a concave surface. The sliding mount has a convex surface matching with the concave surface and disposed opposite to the concave surface. The sliding mount slides above the concave surface by the convex surface. The seat frame is fixed on the sliding mount to be moved together with the sliding mount. In an embodiment, the concave surface is axially symmetrical relative to its central axis, like a bowl shaped surface; the concave surface is also axially symmetrical relative to its central axis, like a saucer shaped surface. Thereby, the two matching curved surface, i.e. the concave surface and the convex surface can slide relatively in two dimensions; that is, the seat frame together with the sliding mount can swing relative to the base in two dimensions. Therefore, compared with the prior art, the infant care apparatus according to the invention can provide various swing motions without any pendulum arm to child sitting thereon. Besides, the infant care apparatus can be assembled in a compact size facilitating transport. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating an infant care apparatus of a preferred embodiment according to the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the infant care apparatus in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a sectional view of the infant care apparatus in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating a driving mechanism of the infant care apparatus in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the driving mechanism in a top view thereof according an embodiment. 
         FIG. 6 , which is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the sliding mount together with the seat frame in accordance with the action of the driving mechanism in  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the driving mechanism in a top view thereof according another embodiment. 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the sliding mount together with the seat frame in accordance with the action of the driving mechanism in  FIG. 7 . 
         FIG. 9  is a sectional view of an infant care apparatus of another embodiment according to the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 1 through 3 .  FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating an infant care apparatus  1  of a preferred embodiment according to the invention.  FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the infant care apparatus  1 .  FIG. 3  is a sectional view of the infant care apparatus  1 . The infant care apparatus  1  includes a base  10 , a sliding mount  12 , a retaining part  14 , a seat frame  16 , a driving mechanism  18 , and a bearing mechanism  20 . The base  10  includes a base plate  100  and an upper cover  102  engaged with the base plate  100  for forming an accommodating space  104 . The upper cover  102  has a concave surface  1020  and an opening  1022  formed on the concave surface  1020 . The sliding mount  12  has a convex surface  120  matching with the concave surface  1020 . The sliding mount  12  is disposed above the base  10  such that the convex surface  120  is disposed opposite to the concave surface  1020 . The sliding mount  12  is capable of sliding above the concave surface  1020  by the convex surface  120 . The seat frame  16  is fixed on the sliding mount  12  to be moved together with the sliding mount  12 . In practice, the seat frame  16  thereon will dispose a seat cloth, a carrier or the like for child to sit or lie thereon. 
     The retaining part  14  is used for preventing the sliding mount  12  from pulling off the base  10 , but the invention is not limited thereto. The retaining part  14  is disposed inside the base  10  (i.e. in the accommodating space  104 ) opposite to the sliding mount  12  relative to the concave surface  1020 . The retaining part  14  is connected through the opening  1022  to the sliding mount  12  so that the retaining part  14  slides together with the sliding mount  12 , also with the seat frame  16 . The profile of the retaining part  14  is larger than the profile of the opening  1022  so that the retaining part  14  can prevent the sliding mount  12  from pulling off the base  10 . 
     In principle, if the friction between the concave surface  1020  and the convex surface  120  is acceptable, the bearing mechanism  20  can be absent in some embodiments. In the embodiment, the bearing mechanism  20  is disposed between the base  10  and the sliding mount  12 , so that the sliding mount  12  slides above the concave surface  1020  by the convex surface  120  in a friction-reducing way. Therefore, the convex surface  120  is disposed apart from the concave surface  1020  by a distance  122  (namely a gap), so as to form space for disposing the bearing mechanism  20 . In the embodiment, the bearing mechanism  20  includes a plurality of recesses  202  formed on the concave surface  1020  and a plurality of rolling balls  204  disposed in the recesses  202  correspondingly. The sliding mount  12  slides on the rolling balls  204 . The rolling balls  204  roll when the sliding mount  12  slides relative to the base  10 , which performs the friction-reducing way. In principle, the recesses  202  and the rolling balls  204  are disposed in pairs surrounding the opening  1022  for symmetrically and steadily supporting the sliding mount  12 . 
     In the embodiment the concave surface  1020  is axially symmetrical relative to its central axis, like a bowl shaped surface; the concave surface  120  is also axially symmetrical relative to its central axis, like a saucer shaped surface. Therefore, the seat frame  16  together with the sliding mount  12  can swing relative to the base  10  in two dimensions. As shown by  FIG. 3 , the seat frame  16  can swing like a pendulum motion without pendulum arm. Therein, the dashed bold line shown in  FIG. 3  represents a virtual pendulum arm; the seat frame  16  and the sliding mount  12  sliding to the left and right sides are illustrated by dashed lines. The opening  1022  constrains the connection portion of the sliding mount  12  with the retaining part  14  for preventing the sliding mount  12  glides out of the base  10  and also for keeping the sliding mount  12  smoothly and steadily gliding on the rolling balls  204 . The movement trajectory of the sliding mount  12  in  FIG. 3  occurs on a plane, but the invention is not limited thereto. In practice, the sliding mount  12  can swing at a 3-dimension trajectory. 
     Please also refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a schematic diagram illustrating the driving mechanism  18 . In the embodiment, the driving mechanism  18  is disposed in the accommodating space  104  for driving the retaining part  14  to move, i.e. for driving the sliding mount  12  to slide above the concave surface  1020 . The driving mechanism  18  includes two driving motors  182   a  and  182   b , two driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b , two link arms  186   a  and  186   b , and a connection part  188 . The two driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b  are pivotally connected to the base plate  100 . The two driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  are dynamically linked to the two driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b  respectively. In the embodiment, the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  are linked to the wheels  184   a  and  184   b  by a worm gear  1822  meshing with a spur gear  1842 , but the invention is not limited thereto. The two link arms  186   a  and  186   b  are pivotally and eccentrically connected to the two driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b  respectively and pivotally connected to each other. Therefore, the base plate  100 , the driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b , and the two link arms  186   a  and  186   b  form a five-bar linkage having two degrees of freedom. The connection part  188  is disposed on one of the two link arms  186   a  and  186   b  so that the movement trajectory of the connection part  188  can be determined by the five-bar linkage. In the embodiment, the connection part  188  is disposed such as by pin-joining where the two link arms  186   a  and  186   b  are connected, but the invention is not limited thereto. In principle, it is sufficient for determining the movement of the connection part  188  to dispose the connection part  188  on any link of the five-bar linkage excluding the base plate  100 . The connection part  188  is also connected to the sliding mount  12 , so that the sliding mount  12  and the seat frame  16  move following the connection part  188 . In the embodiment, the connection part  188  is inserted into a hole formed on the bottom of the sliding mount  12 , but the invention is not limited thereto. It is added that the connection part  188  moves on a virtual plane while the sliding mount  12  moves parallel to a curved surface (e.g. the concave surface  1020 ), so in practice, the hole may be a little larger than the connection part  188  for avoiding structural interference therebetween. Such structural interference also can be alternatively solved by using a ball joint between the connection part  188  and the sliding mount  12  or between the connection part  188  and the link arms  186   a  and  186   b.    
     In practice, the five-bar linkage will be driven by the two driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  through the two driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b . In other words, each of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  has a rotation direction  1824  (indicated by an arrow in  FIG. 4 ) and a rotation speed. Each worm gear  1822  pressed on a shaft of the corresponding motor  182   a  or  182   b  can be individually controlled to rotate by setting the rotation direction  1824  and the rotation speed of the corresponding motor  182   a  or  182   b , so as to rotate the corresponding driven wheel  184   a  or  184   b  through the corresponding spur gear  1842 . Therein, the direction of the arrow in  FIG. 4  is just used for reference and not for confining the practical rotation direction of the worm gear  1822  (or the shaft of the corresponding motor  182   a  or  182   b ); in practice, for rotating in a reverse direction to the rotation direction  1824  illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the driving motor  182   a  or  182   b  can be set to rotate in a negative rotation speed. The driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b  are then driven to rotate in a rotation direction  1844  which is determined by the rotation directions  1824  of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  correspondingly. Therefore, the operation of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  will determine the movement trajectory of the connection part  188  and also the sliding mount  12  and the seat frame  16 . The control of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  can be performed through a control module which provides a manipulation interface (such as a touch panel disposed on the base  10 ) for parents to set parameters (including at least the rotation directions  1824  and the rotation speeds of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b ) for the movement trajectory of the seat frame  16  (or the connection part  188  precisely). Please refer to  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 .  FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the driving mechanism  18  in a top view thereof according an embodiment. The two motors  182   a  and  182   b  are controlled individually to drive the two wheels  184   a  and  184   b  so as to move the connection part  188  in a specific motion path. In this embodiment, the driving motor  182   a  is halted (e.g. the corresponding rotation speed is set to be zero), so the driven wheel  184   a  is immobile. The five-bar linkage acts like a four-bar linkage now. When the driving motor  182   b  rotates in the rotation direction  1824 , the driven wheel  184   b  is driven to rotate in the rotation direction  1844  to link the link arms  186   a  and  186   b  to move back and forth in an almost horizontal (or left-to-right) motion path. The motion path is shown by an arc with arrows in  FIG. 5 . The movement speed of the connection part  188  is also determined by the setting for the rotation direction  1824  and the rotation speed of the driving motor  182   b . Therefore, the specific motion path for this embodiment is a left-to-right (or front-to-back) motion path. Please refer to  FIG. 6 , which is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the sliding mount  12  together with the seat frame  16  in accordance with the action of the driving mechanism  18  in  FIG. 5 ; therein, the arc with arrows also represents the movement trajectory of the seat frame  16 . The cross mark represents the center of the base  10  for reference. The sliding mount  12  together with the seat frame  16  will be moved left and right in a horizontal direction due to the connection part  188  (as shown by  FIG. 6 ) and up and down in a vertical direction due to the concave surface  1020  (referring to  FIG. 3 ). 
     Please refer to  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8 .  FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the driving mechanism  18  in a top view thereof according another embodiment.  FIG. 8  is a schematic diagram illustrating the movement of the sliding mount  12  together with the seat frame  16  in accordance with the action of the driving mechanism in  FIG. 7 ; therein, the circle with arrows also represents the movement trajectory of the seat frame  16 . The cross mark represents the center of the base  10  for reference. In this embodiment, the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b  rotate synchronously in the rotation direction  1824 , so the driven wheels  184   a  and  184   b  are driven to also rotate synchronously in the rotation direction  1844  so that the link arms  186   a  and  186   b  are moved as a whole and the connection part  188  moves in a circular motion path shown by a circle with arrows in  FIG. 7 . The movement speed of the connection part  188  is also determined by the setting for the rotation directions  1824  and the rotation speeds of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b . In this embodiment, the circular motion path is symmetrical to the centric axis of the concave surface  1020 , so the sliding mount  12  together with the seat frame  16  will be moved horizontally. 
     It is added that, the length and location of the motion path can be modified by setting the link lengths and the initial state (including positions and velocities) of the five-bar linkage even for the same kind motion path such as the foregoing front-to-back motion path and circular motion path. In the embodiment, the specific motion path is programmable by controlling the rotation conditions (including rotation speed and relative phase) of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b . In practice, the specific motion path can be but not limited to one of the following of a front-to-back motion path, a figure-8 motion path, a circular motion path, a combined motion path of at least two of the above motion paths, and even a random motion path which all can operate within the range of area that is always pre-determined by the lengths of the links and the rotation speed of the driving motors  182   a  and  182   b.    
     In the above embodiments, the bearing mechanism  20  is performed by rolling bearing, but the invention is not limited thereto. Please refer to  FIG. 9 , which is a sectional view of an infant care apparatus  3  of another embodiment according to the invention. The infant care apparatus  3  is similar to the infant care apparatus  1  excluding the bearing mechanism  20 . A bearing mechanism  40  of the infant care apparatus  3  is a kind of fluid bearing. The bearing mechanism  40  a plurality of fluid outlets  402  formed through the concave surface  1020  and a fluid pressurization device  404  disposed in the accommodating space  104 . In practice, the fluid outlets are connected to the fluid pressurization device  404  by tubes  406 . The fluid pressurization device  404  can pressurize a fluid through the fluid outlets  402  to form a fluid film  408  between the concave surface  1020  and the convex surface  120 . The flowing direction of the fluid is represented by arrows in  FIG. 9 . The fluid film  408  needs to have enough pressure to sustain (or lift) the weight of the sliding mount  12  (also the seat frame  16  and the child sitting thereon) so that the sliding mount  12  can float on the fluid film  408  smoothly, which can be ensured by the fluid pressurization device  404  and can be easily accomplished by a skilled person in the art. In the embodiment, the fluid is air, and the fluid pressurization device  404  is an air compressor; however, the invention is not limited thereto. It is added that, if a fluid of high viscosity which can provide a higher film tension is used, the fluid film produced by such fluid also can directly act as the bearing mechanism of the invention, and accordingly, the fluid pressurization device is unwanted. 
     In the above embodiments, the seat frame  16  is driven by the driving mechanism  18  to move, but the invention is not limited thereto. In practice, with an absence of the driving mechanism  18 , the sliding mount  12  (and the seat frame  16 ) still can be moved by man power. For example, the parents can first slide the seat frame  16  upward so that the seat frame  16  gets a potential energy and then leave the seat frame  16  to glide above the concave surface  1020 . When the friction force between the sliding mount  12  and the base  10  is less or can be neglected, the above gliding will continue for a certain long time. It also can perform a soothing effect. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.