Patent Publication Number: US-2007113346-A1

Title: Comfort support system

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a support system providing spinal support to an individual lying on one side of the body. More particularly, the present invention provides a support system allowing a pregnant woman to comfortably lie on her side while sleeping, with the upper and lower portions of her back suitably supported.  
     BACKGROUND  
      Many individuals lie on one side of the body to rest or sleep. Children, adults, men, non-pregnant women and pregnant women prefer to sleep on one side of their body, but find it difficult to do so because of the lack of spinal support in this position. Pregnant women prefer this position, but again find it difficult due to the added weight of the developing fetus. Although many people enjoy or prefer to lie on one side of the body, the lack of spinal support creates widespread discomfort.  
      Generally, pillows are readily available to consumers to support the cervical portions of the spine in pillows for use in association with the head and neck. Several attempts have been made in the prior art to relieve the discomfort of lying on one side of the body. U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,419 discloses a Material Positioning Support System. This disclosure relates to a support system of a wedge shape support and a head support. This invention supports an individual lying on one side, although it does not provide any support to the curvature of the spine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,964 discloses an Inclined Support Pillow having a wedge with cushions for lower back support and neck support. This invention provides support to an individual lying on the back, but not on the side.  
      The present invention and disclosure overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.  
     SUMMARY  
      The present invention relates to a support system for individuals lying on one side of the body, providing spinal support. More particularly, the present invention relates to a support system for an individual lying on one side of the body providing additional support to an area of the spine.  
      Even more particularly, the present invention provides a support member having a removable and repositionable protruding member which may be positioned on the support member at a selected location which provides support to a desired portion of the spine or back portion.  
      Additionally, the support system may be adapted to provide support to an individual lying on either the right or left side of the body. Furthermore, the size and shape of the support member and the protruding member may be varied to provide support to individuals of different shapes and sizes.  
      The support system of the present invention may optionally have a covering. The support member may have a covering separate and distinct from a covering for the protruding member. In an embodiment, the entire support system including the support member and the protruding member may have one covering.  
      Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows and the accompanying drawings, wherein the embodiments of the disclosure are described and shown, and in part will become apparent upon examination of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     Brief Description of the Drawings  
      The above mentioned and other features of this disclosure and the manner of obtaining them will become more apparent and the disclosure will be best understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a an embodiment of a support system for an individual lying down on one side in accordance with the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of an embodiment of a support member of a support system of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a perspective view of an embodiment of another support member of the support system of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 4  is a perspective view of another embodiment of a protruding member of the support system of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view of an embodiment of a protruding member of a support system;  
       FIG. 6  is a perspective view of still another embodiment of the protruding member of a support system of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 7  is a bottom view of the protruding member of the support system of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 8  is a view of a cover for the protruding member;  
       FIG. 9  is a view of a cover for the support member; and  
       FIG. 10  is a view of a cover for the support system of  FIG. 1 .  
    
    
     DESCRIPTION  
      While the present disclosure will be described fully herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which a particular embodiment or embodiments are shown, it is to be understood at the outset that persons skilled in the art may modify the disclosure herein described while still achieving the desired result. Accordingly, the description that follows is to be understood as a broad informative disclosure directed to persons skilled in the appropriate art and not as limitations on the present disclosure.  
      The present invention generally relates to a support system  10  ( FIG. 1 ) for individuals lying down on one side of the body.  FIG. 1  is a view of the support system  10  having a support member  12  and a protruding member  13 . In an embodiment, the support member  12  forms a wedge like shape, having a body defining a first plane  17  and a second plane  18  meeting at angle  14 . Angle  14  may be up to, but not greater than 90 degrees. The supporting face  15  is opposite to angle  14  and generally in contact with the surface on which an individual is lying down on, such as a bed, a floor and the like. The support member  12  may be of different shapes and sizes to accommodate differing shapes and sizes of individuals.  FIG. 3  shows an example of a support member in the form of an ungular shape, having a body  50  bounded by two intersecting planes  52 ,  54  , where plane  52  comprises a part cylindrical surface of less than 360 degrees. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of three dimensional forms may be used to shape the support member  12 ,  50 , providing at least one off-vertical plane for supporting an individual lying on one side of the body.  
       FIG. 2  is a view of an embodiment of the support member  12  of  FIG. 1 , having a wedge like form and having at least one first attachment site  16 , providing a location for repositionably attaching the protruding member  13  to the support member  12 . The attachment of the protruding member  13  and the support member  12  may be of a variety of attachment means. Attachment means between the support member  12  having first attachment site  16 , and the protruding member  13  wherein the bottom  20  of the protruding member  13  includes at least one second attachment site  19 , may involve, but are not limited to snaps, hook-eye, hook and loop fasteners as is representative of Velcro®fasteners, zippers, buttons, ties, clips or any other means for fastening known in the art and combinations thereof. In an embodiment, the at least one first attachment site  16  is a hook and loop fastener.  
      The location of attachment of the protruding member  13  on plane  17  of the support member  12  may be varied. The location of the at least one first attachment site  16  on the support member  12  may be in a plurality of locations on the support member  12  to allow for the protruding member  13  to be placed at a variety of locations suitable to an individual&#39;s body and also to provide the adaptation to support an individual to lie down on either the right or left side.  
      By way of example and not limitation, in an embodiment, the first plane  17  of the support member  12  has a length of about 3 inches to about 60 inches in width, the second plane  18  is about 3 inches to about 60 inches in width, the first plane  17  and the second plane  18  meeting at angle  14  no greater than 90 degrees. The length of the support member  12  is about 3 inches for infants to about 100 inches for adults. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the dimensions of the support member may be as small or as large as necessary based on the sizes and shapes of a variety of individuals.  
       FIG. 4  shows an embodiment of a protruding member  13  having an arc like shape  56 . The shape of the protruding member may be varied, as those skilled in the art will recognize. Examples of the possible shapes of the protruding member  13  include but are not limited to shapes being arcuate, oblong, polygonal, pyramid, pointed, spherical, Quonset®-shaped, catenoid, ellipsoid, paraboloid, cylindrical, cone-like, tear drop, with variations and combinations thereof.  
      The size of the protruding member  13  may also vary to suit the size of a user from infant to adult. In addition, the depth of the protrusion may vary to suit the variation of spinal curvatures found in the consumer population.  FIG. 5  shows a view of an arc like protrusion  56  having lesser depth than the similar shaped protrusion shown in  FIG. 4 .  
       FIG. 6  shows an embodiment of the protruding member  13  having a tear drop like shape  58 , including an arc for spinal support of an individual. Variations of sizes and shapes of this embodiment may also be made, as those skilled in the art will recognize.  
       FIG. 7  shows the bottom surface  20  of the protruding member  13  having at least one second attachment site  19  for attaching the protruding member  13  to a variety of locations on surface  17  via first attachment site  16  on the support member  12 . In an embodiment, the protruding member  13  is removable and repositionable.  
      By way of example and not limitation, in an embodiment the protruding member has a width of about 3 inches to about 60 inches, a length of about 3 inches to about 50 inches and depth of about up to 10 inches.  
      The present invention may optionally include a cover  40  for the support system  10  as show in  FIG. 10 . Alternatively, the support member  12  and the protruding member  13  may be covered separately as shown in  FIG. 8  and  FIG. 9 . The covers  30 ,  35  and  40  shown in  FIGS. 8-10  may be used to protect the support system  10  from dust and debris, and may also have a decorative quality. The covers may be made of any material suitable in the art. By way of example and not limitation, the material for the cover may be fabric, leather, vinyl, silk, cotton, wool, woven fabric, plastic, rubber, with variations and combinations thereof.  
      Cover  30  ( FIG. 8 ) may optionally include closure member  32  to enclose the protruding member  13 . Illustrations of closure members are presented by way of example and not limitation, and may include a flap, elastic, snaps, hook-eye, hook and loop fasteners as in representative of Velcro®, zippers, buttons, ties, clips or any other means for fastening known in the art and combinations thereof.  
      Cover  35  ( FIG. 9 ) may optionally include closure member  37  to enclose the support member  12 . Examples of closure members are presented by way of example and not limitation and may include a flap, elastic, snaps, hook-eye, hook and loop fasteners as in representative of Velcro®, zippers, buttons, ties, clips or any other means for fastening known in the art and combinations thereof.  
      Cover  40  ( FIG. 10 ) may optionally include closure means  32  to enclose the support system  10 . Examples of closure members are presented by way of example and not limitation and may include a flap, elastic, snaps, hook-eye, hook and loop fasteners as in representative of Velcro®, zippers, buttons, ties, clips or any other means for fastening known in the art and combinations thereof.  
      In  FIG. 8 , cover  30  is used to cover and protect the protruding member  13 . In  FIG. 9 , cover  35  is used to cover and protect support member  12 . If cover  30  and cover  35  are used in an embodiment, there will be an attachment between cover  30  and cover  35  to assemble the support system  10 . Attachment between cover  30  and cover  35  may be by attachment means such as snaps, hook-eye, hook and loop fasteners as in representative of Velcro®, zippers, buttons, ties, clips or any other means for fastening known in the art and combinations thereof. Attachment means are presented by way of example and not limitation.  
      Covers  30 ,  35  and  40  ( FIGS. 8-10 ) may optionally include a sleeve  34  ( FIG. 8 ) adapted to receive items to increase the comfort of a user. Examples of these items may include, but are not limited to hot packs, hot water packs, hot water bottles, heating pads, ice packs, massage devices, additional protrusions and combinations thereof.  
      The support system  10  may be made of a variety of materials. By way of example and not limitation, the support system  10  may be made of materials such as foam, medium grade foam, fabric, cotton, plastics, vinyl, leather, down, acrylic, rubber and the like. Variations and combination of such examples may also be used.  
      In use, the support system  10  is assembled by adjoining protruding member  13  to a particular location on support member  12  suitable to the needs of an individual. The individual will assume a recumbent position, preferably on one side of the body, and will orient the support system  10  in a manner which allows the protruding member  13  to provide support to the individual&#39;s back portion in a particular location in need of support. The protruding member  13  may be repositioned on the support member  12  to allow the individual to have support in a different location of the back portion, or to provide support needed if lying down on the other side of the body.  
      Various features of the disclosure have been shown and described in connection with the illustrated embodiment, however, it is understood that these arrangements merely illustrate, and that the disclosure is to be given its fullest interpretation.