Patent Publication Number: US-6338165-B1

Title: Visioned enhanced face guard for a sports helmet

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates in general to a headgear assembly and more particularly to the guard assembly mounted to the headgear assembly, which allows for enhanced vision for the user. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Various types of protective headgear assemblies are worn in different types of sports such as hockey, football, lacross, and baseball. The headgear assemblies can come in various shapes and forms and are often provided with a type of face guard. In general, these face guards can be a protective visor or cage. There are various disadvantages with the current available face guards as they often impair the vision of the user using the headgear assembly. 
     For example, due to the nature of most sports requiring protective headgear and that the headgear assemblies must fit snugly around the user&#39;s head, the user often will perspire profusely from the head often resulting in impaired vision. Furthermore if the headgear assembly includes a protective visor, the perspiration will often cause fogging of the visor therefore impairing the user&#39;s vision. Moreover impaired vision may result in the more injuries to the user since their vision is limited. 
     The user&#39;s vision may also be impaired when the headgear assembly includes a face guard that is a cage. Typically the cage is mounted to the helmet portion of the headgear assembly and is usually painted. Traditionally the same colour of paint is used on both the outer surface and the inner surface of the cage. The colours that have typically been used have either been black or white. A disadvantage of using the painted cage is that the user&#39;s vision is impaired when they look through the cage. Specifically, the user&#39;s the line of vision is distorted by the painted lines or wires of the cage that the user sees when looking through the cage. The distortion may result in loss of peripheral vision and could cause injury or the inability to participate in the sport at the user&#39;s optimum level. 
     Furthermore, most of the sports requiring these headgear assemblies are played in lighted arenas or during daylight. The lighting often causes glare on the face guards which results in the impaired vision of the user. To combat the glare, in the case of the cage, the paint colour used on both the inner and outer surfaces of the cage has been black. The black surface on the outside of the cage reduces the glare from the lighting. However, the black surface on the inside of the cage disrupts the user&#39;s vision which results in impaired vision. 
     Conversely, the use of white paint on the outside surface does not reduce the glare from the lighting, yet may be less disruptive to the user&#39;s vision if the surface the user is playing on is white as in the instance of hockey. If the user is playing on grass as in the case of lacross or football, the white inside surface of the cage will also disrupt the user&#39;s vision. 
     Prior art headgear assemblies have been devised to address the some of the aforenoted problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,217 issued on Jan. 4, 2000 to Houston et al. This patent relates to an optically corrected shield for unitary lens eyeglasses or safety helmets. The shield is characterized by an optical centerline and a mechanical centerline, which intersect each other at an angle. The lens is oriented on the head of the wearer by a frame or helmet that maintains the lens in a position such that the optical centerline is maintained substantially in parallel to the normal sight line of the wearer. 
     Joslin et al. is the owner of U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,066 which issued on Jul. 15, 1997. This patent relates to an adjustable safety helmet visor that extends for protection for the face by providing a simple one-piece adjustable add-on visor that will fit a multitude of helmet configurations. The visor is formed of a pre-cut deformable synthetic resin material that is removably secured to the helmet by continuous bands of interengageable hook and loop material along its edges. 
     Smith, Jr. is the owner of U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,744 which issued on Oct. 19, 1999. This patent relates to a helmet apparatus including a head-covering assembly which has a top portion and a side portion extending downward from the top portion. A guard support is connected to the side portion of the head-covering assembly, and a guard assembly is connected to the guard support. 
     Thus a guard assembly for a headgear assembly having the ability to absorb light or reduce the glare from lighting on the outside surface, while enhancing the user&#39;s vision by matching the inside surface of the guard assembly to the playing environment is desirable. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide an improved guard assembly for a headgear assembly. 
     In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a headgear assembly for enhanced vision comprising of a guard assembly having an inner surface and outer surface. The inner surface may be covered with a vision enhancing substance, while the outer surface may be covered with a light absorbing substance. Preferably the guard assembly is mounted to a helmet. 
     Conveniently, the guard assembly may further comprise of a securing means, a support means and a mask member each having an inner surface with a vision enhancing substance applied to it and an outer surface with a light absorbing substance applied to it. 
     Preferably, the paint on the inner surface for enhanced vision matches the environment viewed by a user wearing the headgear assembly and the paint on the outer surface had light absorbing qualities. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of enhancing the vision of a user wearing a headgear assembly comprising of wearing a helmet with a guard assembly. The guard assembly may have an inner surface and outer surface with the inner surface having a vision enhancing substance and the outer surface having a light absorbing substance. 
     In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention there is provided the use of a headgear assembly comprising of a guard assembly having an inner surface with a vision enhancing substance and an outer surface having a light absorbing substance for use in hockey. 
     Advantages of the present invention are improved vision for the user as there is no fogging of the cage as seen with visors, the environment blends into the inner surface of the cage so that the user&#39;s vision is not disrupted, improved peripheral vision during use of the headgear assembly, reduction of glare and reflected light as outer surface of the guard assembly has light absorbing properties. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     A detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) is(are) provided herein below by way of example only and with reference to the following drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 in a side view, illustrates a headgear assembly for enhanced vision in operation in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 in a perspective view, illustrates the headgear assembly of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 in a close-up cut away view, illustrates both the inner surface having a vision enhancing substance and the outer surface having a light absorbing substance of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     In the drawings, preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example. It is to be expressly understood that the description and drawings are only for the purpose of illustration and as an aid to understanding, and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to FIGS. 1,  2  and  3  there is illustrated in a side, perspective and close-up views, a headgear assembly for enhancing vision  10  in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The headgear assembly for enhancing vision  10  includes a guard assembly  12  having an inner surface  14  and outer surface  16 . The inner surface  14  may have applied to it a vision enhancing substance  18 . The outer surface  16  may have a light absorbing substance  20 . The guard assembly  12  is mounted to a helmet  22 . 
     The guard assembly  12  may be further defined as having a securing means  24 , a support means  26  and a mask member  28 . The securing means  24 , the support means  26  and the mask member  28  may each have inner surfaces  14  with vision enhancing substance  18  and outer surfaces  16  with light absorbing substance  20 . The securing means  26  may be further defined as an adjustable strap  30  that is mounted to the helmet  22 . The support means  26  may be further defined as a chin guard  32  that is moveably attached to the adjustable strap  30  and protects the user&#39;s chin. The mask member  28  may be further defined as a cage  34  that is mounted to the helmet  22 . 
     Both the vision enhancing substance  18  and the light absorbing substance  20  may be paint that is painted on to the inner and outer surfaces,  14  and  16  respectively, of the guard assembly  12 . The paint for vision enhancement surface may match the environment viewed by a user when wearing the headgear assembly  10 . For example where the user of the headgear assembly for enhancing vision  10  is playing a sport such as ice hockey, the vision enhancing substance  18  or paint would be white to match the colour of the surface the user is playing on, in this case ice. Similarly the vision enhancing substance  18  can be any colour that matches the environment or background the user is playing in. Therefore the vision enhancing substance  18  may be coloured different colours to match the different playing surfaces. 
     The purpose of the vision enhancing surface  18  on the inner surface  14  of the mask member  28  is to improve the vision of the user through the mask member  28 . Currently the user&#39;s vision is disrupted by the mask member  28  or cage  34  since the wires or lines  36  from the cage  34  are in front of the user&#39;s eyes. More specifically the user&#39;s eyes have difficulty focusing through the wires or lines  36  as the wires  36  are traditionally a different colour than the environment that the user is looking at through the cage  34 . The wires  36  are traditionally painted the same colour on both the inner and outer surfaces  14  and  16  respectively of the cage  34 , and therefore do not take into account the different playing surfaces the user may be playing on. 
     By painting the vision enhancing surface  18  on the inner surface  14  of the cage  34  so that it matches the environment or background that the user is playing on, for example ice, the lines  36  of the cage  34  blend into the environment. Therefore the user&#39;s vision is improved and is not disrupted by the lines  36  of the cage  34  as the lines  36  blend into the environment that the user is in. 
     The outer surface  16  may have a light absorbing substance  20  that absorbs light so that the user does not experience light reflection or glare in the eyes. By reducing glare the user&#39;s vision is improved. The light absorbing substance  20  may be a paint that is painted on to the outer surface of the mask member  28 . A dark coloured paint such as black would absorb the light and reduce glare. 
     In operation, the user would place the headgear assembly  10  on their head and adjust the adjustable strap  30  and chin guard  32  to the correct degree of tightness for the user&#39;s comfort. The user would see through the cage  34  having the vision enhancing substance  18  on the inner surface  14  of the cage  34  that matches the environment or playing surface that the user is playing in. The light absorbing substance  20  on the outer surface of the cage  34  will reduce the light reflection or glare the user experiences from the lighted environment. 
     In a another embodiment of the present invention there is provided a method of enhancing the vision of a user wearing a headgear assembly  10  comprising of wearing a helmet  22  with a guard assembly  12  having an inner surface  14  and outer surface  16 . The method includes all previously disclosed attributes of the headgear assembly  10 . 
     In a further embodiment of the present invention there is provided the use of the headgear assembly for enhancing vision  10  as described above for use in hockey and football. 
     Other variations and modifications of the invention are possible. All such modifications or variations are believed to be within the sphere and scope of the invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.