Patent Publication Number: US-2012040785-A1

Title: Night Light Balls

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/372,599 filed Aug. 11, 2010 and Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/323,783 filed Apr. 13, 2010 the entire contents of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. 
    
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to improvements in illuminated sports equipment. More particularly, the present night light balls includes footballs, baseball, soccer balls, Disks, field markers and gloves with one or more colored electroluminescent (EL) lighting elements. 
     Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98: 
     For many athletic events that require an object to be thrown the play time is limited to daylight hours or when external artificial lighting is available. To play these activities at night some devices have been developed that either glow in the dark or an internal lighting elements. For the devices to glow they must be charged by a light source and then continue to dim as the activity is played. When the devices are illuminated with power and lights the illumination is spot lighted or illuminated so the entire object or ball glows. Several products and patents have been. Exemplary examples of patents covering these products are disclosed herein. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,047 issued on Feb. 6, 1996 to Thomas J. O&#39;Rourke et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,528 issued on Jan. 9, 1979 to Jeffrey Koblick and U.S. Publication2003/0224885 that published on Dec. 4, 2003 all disclose balls that are internally illuminated to make essentially the entire outer surface of the ball illuminate. While these patents disclose a method that allows the ball to be visible when it is dark, the illumination does not provide any information of the spin of the ball. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,316 that issued on Nov. 4, 1997 to Daniel Scott Campbell and U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,000 that issued on Apr. 4, 1995 to John Woosley both disclose balls that use illuminated tubes that are placed with the ball. The illumination tubes use chemiluminescent light. The chambers of the tubes must be broken and the chemicals mixed to start the illumination. When the glowing properties are expended the tubes must be replaced. This patent does not provide illumination strips that are electrically powered where they can be turned on and off as desired. They further do not provide the use of more than one color to identify rotation or spin of the ball. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,156 that issued on Mar. 30, 1999 to Peter J. Cmiel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,179,181 that issued on Feb. 20, 2007 to Li-Lin Ko and published U.S. Application 2008/0132363 that published on Jun. 5, 2008 to Shiro Harada each disclose balls with one or more spots of light. The spots of light allow the balls to be seen from different sides of the ball but because the lights are the same color information regarding the direction and speed of a spinning ball can&#39;t be determined. 
     What is needed is an activity device or ball that uses powered flat electroluminescent strips having different colors to provide information on location and flight characteristics of the activity device or ball. This application provides a solution to the problem with a ball having multiple colored electroluminescent lighting elements. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the night light ball for the ball to be made of self-skinning flexible urethane foam, or elastomer which holds air, and has grip ridges between electroluminescent lighting elements that surround the ball. The ball can be formed in a variety of colors. 
     It is an object of the night light ball for the ball to have grip ridges to allow small to large hands to easily grip the ball and throw a spiral. The ridges on a beach ball further give the user a good grip when ball is wet. 
     It is an object of the night light ball, when configured as a football, for the football to have at least two different colored EL wires. Many more colors can be used. For example a beach ball can have four colors. Each EL wire surrounds the ball equally spaced from each other. The use of different colors allows spin on a ball to be more visible. 
     It is another object of the night light ball to have a compartment inside the ball that holds the power supply and the driver. The driver inverts the DC power to AC current and contains one or more batteries. An on/off switch controls the lights on the ball. The football has one compartment and driver, the beach ball has two drivers with battery(ies) and two compartments mounted in opposing side of the ball to provide an even balance. In all cases the compartment is waterproof or water resistive. 
     It is another object of the night light ball that the compartment(s) that hold the driver has an electrical plug attached to the inside of the compartment. The plug connects to the driver for easy removing and battery replacement. This plug has wires on the inside of the ball that are connected to the EL wire(s) that are on the outside of the ball. 
     It is still another object of the night light ball for the El wires to be glued to the outside of the ball. The El wires are essentially flat ribbons that provide even illumination over the entire length of the EL wires. The wires are encased in heavy plastic to make them water resistant. 
     Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
         FIG. 1  shows an external view of a football. 
         FIG. 2  shows a view of the driver and the battery pack. 
         FIG. 3  shows the flight of an illuminated football. 
         FIG. 4  shows a schematic of the inverter drive circuit. 
         FIG. 5  shows a cross section of a Disk. 
         FIG. 6  shows an underside view of the Disk in  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 7  is an external view of a baseball. 
         FIG. 8  is a cross sectional view of the baseball in  FIG. 7   
         FIG. 9  is a top view of a glove. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG. 1  shows an external view of a football. The ball  20  made of self-skinning flexible urethane foam  42 , or elastomer. The ball can be formed in a variety of colors or color combinations. The ball  20  has a plurality of grip ridges  41  located around the ball and arranged along the elongated body of the ball  20  or may be arranged in a swirled pattern along the body of the ball  20 . A plurality of electroluminescent (EL) lighting elements  30  and  31  are placed in recess of the ball  20 . The electroluminescent exist in different colored strips extending from pointed end to pointed end of the football  20 . The electroluminescent ribbons  31  and  31  are located in slight recessed to protect the ribbons from being accidentally lifted or peeled from the ball  20 . The ball  20  is designed to accommodate the thickness of the electroluminescent wire and has grooves embedded into the skin of the ball  20  to accommodate the wires  30  and  31 . The ball  20  works with or without lights, but the object of the games is to let players see the ball. The ball has grooves that hold the EL wire which is glued to the surface of the ball and are covered with protective strips of water resistant tape. The wires themselves are embedded in recesses on the ball. 
     The electroluminescent wires  30  and  31  are configured as flat ribbons. The electroluminescent wires  30  and  31  are basically a copper core wire, with a phosphor material sputtered onto it, then 2 very fine small wires that conduct electricity to make the phosphor material glow. The phosphor material glows in generally 9 different colors, but the colors can slightly change based upon the driving voltage and the excitation frequency. The phosphor material has a plastic coating, then a normal plastic insulation on top of that. When AC current at the proper voltage and frequency is applied to this wire, it glows. 
     The grip ridges  41  allow small to large hands to easily grip the ball and throw a spiral. The ridges  41  further allow the ball to be more easily gripped when the ball is wet or configured as a beach ball (not shown). In one embodiment the ball  20  is made in two halves where the internal components are added and the two halves are bonded or otherwise secured together. 
     The football  20  has three different colored EL wires. An embodiment of a beach ball can ideally have four colors. A minimum of two colors are used to provide a visual contrast on the ball  20  to allow any spin on the ball to be visible. Each electroluminescent wire  30  and  31  surrounds the ball equally spaced from each other. The electroluminescent wires are countersunk glued and covered with protective tape to the outside of the ball  20  to prevent undesirable movement of the electroluminescent wires  30  and  31 . 
     A compartment  40  inside the ball holds the power supply and the driver as shown and described in  FIG. 2 . The football  20  has one compartment and driver with a battery. In a beach ball embodiment, two drivers and two compartments are mounted opposite each other for the ball to balance and prevent the ball favoring a particular orientation. This compartment is waterproof or at least water resistant to prevent infiltration of unwanted water or moisture. A hook and loop closure may also be used to ensure that the opening remains closed during play. 
     The compartment  43  that holds the driver has an electrical wiring  52  and plug  51  attached to the inside of the compartment  43  that the driver plugs into for easy removing and battery replacement. This plug  51  has wires  52  on the inside of the ball  20  that are connected to the electro-luminescent wire (s)  30  and  31  that are on the outside of the ball  20 . 
     Inside the ball wires connected from the electroluminescent wire plug into an electrical connection that leads to a waterproof container  52  that holds the driver  55  and battery(ies)  53 . This unit  52  has an on/off switch  54  that controls the light on the ball. When the compartment cover is replaced on the ball that holds the battery, driver and on/off switch. 
       FIG. 2  shows a view of the driver and the battery pack. The housing  52  encloses a driver  55  that inverts the DC power to AC current and contains one or more batteries  53 . An on/off switch  54  controls the lights on the ball. An electrical connector  56  connects to the power connection  51  of the ball or other equipment. 
       FIG. 3  shows the flight of an illuminated football. Using a single color electroluminescent element limits the amount of visible indication of the ball  20  spinning. A minimum of two different colors are required to clearly discern the flight and spin of the ball  20 . In the preferred embodiment three different colors are used to ensure that at least two different colors  30  and  31  are visible at the same time. 
       FIG. 4  shows a schematic of the inverter drive circuit. The circuit shown uses an integrated circuit  60  that is custom made to drive electroluminescent wires. The integrated circuit  60  in this embodiment is from Sipex, but other devices including a simple  555  timer chip can be used. The circuit provides essentially 200 VAC at 1200 Hz. This device takes only a couple of external components such as a resonance coil or inductor  61  and several capacitors and a diode to drive the electroluminescent elements. This circuit can operate from a single 1.5 volt battery  53 . A switch  54  turns the circuit on and off to turn the electroluminescent wires  30  and  31  on and off. 
       FIG. 5  shows a cross section of a Disk and  FIG. 6  shows an underside view of the Disk in  FIG. 5 . The Disk  70  is constructed with the inverter and battery  53  pack  52  located in the center of the Disk  70  to minimize aerodynamic interference. Wires or conductors  58  and  59  connect the inverter to the external surface of the Disk  70  where the electroluminescent elements are located in the outer vertical rim of the Disk  70 . The conductor  58  and  59  can be enclosed in protective tubing or bonded onto the surface of the Disk. Two different colored electroluminescent elements  30  and  31  are uses to provide a visual indicator of the spin rate of the Disk  70 . While two colors are shown and described, three, four or more colors are contemplated. 
       FIG. 7  is an external view of a baseball and  FIG. 8  is a cross sectional view of the baseball in  FIG. 7 . This embodiment shows a baseball  80 , but other balls are also contemplated including but not limited to a kickball, volleyball, soccer ball, beach ball and others. In this embodiment two color ribbons  30  and  31  are shown and arranged in an orthogonal arrangement. The exterior of the ball has tiny grip ridges  81  that allow the ball to be more easily gripped and thrown. An access door  40  functions as both access to the internal battery and inverter driver as well as functions to operate the switch  54  that turn the electroluminescent elements  30  and  31  on and off. The cover is made of the same material as the ball, is flat and has an on/off and removal instructions. The internal housing  52  has wiring  58  and  59  that connects to the electroluminescent elements  30  and  31 . 
       FIG. 9  is a top view of once contemplated embodiment of a glove  90 . The battery(ies)  53  are enclosed within a housing that is secured to the back of the wrist area of the glove  90 . An elastic band at the base of the glove helps to retain the glove  90  on the hand of a player. The hand portion of the glove can be configured with channels for individual fingers  91  or with an open area where all of the fingers can exist in a single pocket  92 . Wiring  58  and  59  connect the power supply to an electroluminescent element  32 . It is contemplated that each team will have a glove used as a target with a color that matches all of the players on a team. This allows one player to easily identify teammates when they play in the dark. The surface of the glove can be printed or colored to identify a particular team, logo, slogan or advertising. 
     Other contemplated electroluminescent equipment includes but is not limited to wristbands, line markers, headbands, clothing, vest and shoes. The electroluminescent equipment is a sports toy. It can be played individually or with teams members. It is excellent for tag, or flag night football, a new game. The beach ball can be played with individually or with team members and is beneficially used in the dark playing team volleyball. The lighting element of the various disclosed products provides for sports products and improves the education and safety. 
     Thus, specific embodiments of night light sports equipment have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.