Patent Publication Number: US-11640773-B1

Title: Rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
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     REFERENCE TO APPENDIX 
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     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the fields of vehicle accessories and signaling devices, more specifically, a rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle comprises a mounting base, a telescoping armature, a sign, and an information pouch. The rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle may be removably coupled to a vehicle and may be adapted to alert oncoming motorists that the vehicle is disabled and/or unattended. The mounting base may couple to a top surface of the vehicle. The telescoping armature may extend upwards from the mounting base and may support the sign above the vehicle. The sign may rotate when actuated by wind. The sign may comprise a plurality of vanes that may reflect light and may thereby increase the visibility of the sign. The information pouch may be adapted to provide information regarding an owner of the vehicle. 
     An object of the invention is to provide a sign to warn oncoming traffic of a potential hazard due to a disabled vehicle. 
     Another object of the invention is to couple the sign to the top of the disabled vehicle. 
     A further object of the invention is to provide a plurality of vanes that are reflective and curved such wind may cause the sign to rotate. 
     Yet another object of the invention is to provide a telescoping armature to support the sign above the disabled vehicle. 
     These together with additional objects, features and advantages of the rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     In this respect, before explaining the current embodiments of the rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle in detail, it is to be understood that the rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle is not limited in its applications to the details of construction and arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustration. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the concept of this disclosure may be readily utilized as a basis for the design of other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle. 
     It is therefore important that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle. It is also to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for purposes of description and should not be regarded as limiting. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. They are meant to be exemplary illustrations provided to enable persons skilled in the art to practice the disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims. 
         FIG.  1    is an isometric view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    is a side view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG.  3    is a top view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    is an in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT 
     The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the described embodiments of the application and uses of the described embodiments. As used herein, the word “exemplary” or “illustrative” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as “exemplary” or “illustrative” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. All of the implementations described below are exemplary implementations provided to enable persons skilled in the art to practice the disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description. As used herein, the word “or” is intended to be inclusive. 
     Detailed reference will now be made to a first potential embodiment of the disclosure, which is illustrated in  FIGS.  1  through  4   . 
     The rotating reflective sign for use with a disabled vehicle  100  (hereinafter invention) comprises a mounting base  200 , a telescoping armature  220 , a sign  240 , and an information pouch  270 . The invention  100  may be removably coupled to a vehicle  900  and may be adapted to alert oncoming motorists that the vehicle  900  is disabled and/or unattended. The mounting base  200  may couple to a top surface of the vehicle  900 . The telescoping armature  220  may extend upwards from the mounting base  200  and may support the sign  240  above the vehicle  900 . The sign  240  may rotate when actuated by wind. The sign  240  may comprise a plurality of vanes  250  that may reflect light and may thereby increase the visibility of the sign  240 . The information pouch  270  may be adapted to provide information regarding an owner of the vehicle  900 . 
     The mounting base  200  may comprise a collar  202  and a vehicle attachment  210 . The mounting base  200  may be configured to couple to the vehicle  900  and to support the telescoping armature  220 . The vehicle attachment  210  may be coupled to the bottom of the collar  202 . As a non-limiting example, the vehicle attachment  210  may be a suction cup  212 . The collar  202  may comprise a pouch attachment  204  to retain the information pouch  270  to the mounting base  200 . 
     The telescoping armature  220  may be a telescoping shaft. The bottom of the telescoping armature  220  may detachably couple to the collar  202 . The top of the telescoping armature  220  may detachably couple to a hub  242  of the sign  240 . The telescoping armature  220  may comprise a plurality of telescoping sections  222  and may extend and collapse as the plurality of telescoping sections  222  are repositioned by sliding. As a non-limiting example, for two adjacent sections  224  selected from the plurality of telescoping sections  222  a smaller section  228  may slide within a larger section  226  when a force is applied such that the telescoping armature  220  may collapse when the smaller section  228  slides into the larger section  226  and may extend when the smaller section  228  slides out of the larger section  226 . Friction between the two adjacent sections  224  may retain the telescoping armature  220  at a length once the force is removed. 
     The sign  240  may be operable to rotate when actuated by the wind in order to draw attention to the vehicle  900 . The sign  240  may comprise the hub  242  and the plurality of vanes  250 . The plurality of vanes  250  may be coupled to the hub  242 . The plurality of vanes  250  may be organized to lie within a horizontally-oriented plane. The plurality of vanes  250  may be equally spaced around the periphery of the hub  242 . The hub  242  may be operable to rotate around the top of the telescoping armature  220 . 
     The plurality of vanes  250  may be curved in the same direction. As a non-limiting example, the plurality of vanes  250  may curve in a counter-clockwise direction as the plurality of vanes  250  project away from the hub  242 . The curvature of the plurality of vanes  250  may therefore present a concave surface  262  on one side of the hub  242  and a convex surface  260  on the opposite side of the hub  242 . In the presence of the wind, the convex surface  260  may deflect the wind and the concave surface  262  may catch the wind, thus causing the plurality of vanes  250  to rotate the hub  242 . 
     The plurality of vanes  250  may be reflective  254  on at least one side of the plurality of vanes  250  such that the plurality of vanes  250  may reflect headlights of approaching vehicles. In some embodiments, the plurality of vanes  250  may comprise polished metal. In some embodiments, the plurality of vanes  250  may comprise a retroreflective sheet applied to the plurality of vanes  250 . 
     In a preferred embodiment, there may be four vanes. 
     The information pouch  270  may be a clear plastic container for an information card  272 . The information pouch  270  may be waterproof such that the information card  272  is protected from the weather. The information pouch  270  may couple to the collar  202  of the mounting base  200  via the pouch attachment  204 . 
     The information card  272  may be adapted to display information regarding the owner of the vehicle  900 . As non-limiting examples, the information card  272  may display a name, an address, a phone number, or any combination thereof. 
     In use, the invention  100  may be placed on top of a vehicle  900  that has become disabled in order to alert oncoming motorists to a potential hazard. The mounting base  200  may be placed on the vehicle  900  to hold the invention  100  in place. As non-limiting examples, the suction cup  212  on the bottom of the mounting base  200  may be applied to a roof, a trunk lid, a hood, or even a rear window of the vehicle  900 . The sign  240  may be placed on top of the telescoping armature  220  and the telescoping armature  220  may be extended to raise the sign  240 . The plurality of vanes  250  may reflect the headlights of approaching vehicles. The plurality of vanes  250  may catch the wind to cause the sign  240  to spin, thus altering the appearance of the sign  240  on a periodic basis. 
     Definitions 
     Unless otherwise stated, the words “up”, “down”, “top”, “bottom”, “upper”, and “lower” should be interpreted within a gravitational framework. “Down” is the direction that gravity would pull an object. “Up” is the opposite of “down”. “Bottom” is the part of an object that is down farther than any other part of the object. “Top” is the part of an object that is up farther than any other part of the object. “Upper” may refer to top and “lower” may refer to the bottom. As a non-limiting example, the upper end of a vertical shaft is the top end of the vertical shaft. 
     As used in this disclosure, “concave” may be used to describe a surface that resembles the interior surface of a sphere or a portion thereof. 
     As used in this disclosure, “convex” may be used to describe a surface that resembles the exterior surface of a sphere or a portion thereof. 
     As used herein, the words “couple”, “couples”, “coupled” or “coupling”, may refer to connecting, either directly or indirectly, and does not necessarily imply a mechanical connection. 
     As used herein, the words “data” and “information” may be used interchangeably to refer to raw, unprocessed facts and to facts that have been processed, structured, organized, or presented in a context that makes the facts useful. 
     As used in this disclosure, “horizontal” may be a directional term that refers to a direction that is perpendicular to the local force of gravity. Unless specifically noted in this disclosure, the horizontal direction is always perpendicular to the vertical direction. 
     As used herein, “retroreflective” may refer to a property of an object that reflects light back to the light source with minimal scattering. A retroreflective device may be referred to as a “retroreflector”. A retroreflector may reflect light back to the light source over a wide range of angle of incidence. 
     As used in this disclosure, a “suction cup” may refer to an object or device that uses negative fluid pressure of air or water to adhere to non-porous surfaces by creating a partial vacuum. 
     As used in this disclosure, “telescopic”, “telescoping”, and “telescopically” may refer to an object made of two or more sections that fit or slide into each other such that the object can be made longer or shorter by adjusting the relative positions of the sections. 
     As used in this disclosure, “transparent” may refer to a material that allows light to pass through the material without significant scattering such that an object can be seen without distortion through the material. “Clear” may be considered to be both transparent and colorless. 
     As used herein, the word “waterproof” may refer to an object that is not harmed when being exposed to water, including total submersion for a period of time. When used as a verb, “waterproof” may refer to taking steps to make an object waterproof. Non-limiting examples of such steps may include applying special coatings or using gaskets to seal seams and entry points of an enclosure. 
     With respect to the above description, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationship for the various components of the invention described above and in  FIGS.  1    through  4 , include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function, and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the invention. 
     It shall be noted that those skilled in the art will readily recognize numerous adaptations and modifications which can be made to the various embodiments of the present invention which will result in an improved invention, yet all of which will fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the following claims. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.