Patent Publication Number: US-2012036623-A1

Title: Climate control protective safety vest and associated method

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application to Vern Minogue entitled “CLIMATE CONTROL SAFETY VEST AND ASSOCIATED METHOD,” Ser. No. 61/373,985, filed Aug. 16, 2010, now pending, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     This invention relates generally to safety equipment and, snore particularly, to a safety vest. 
     2. State of the Art 
     Inventions are always a product of vision and creativity, whether they are world changing inventions like cars or computers, or everyday conveniences like pump hairsprays, cordless tools, or re-sealable soda bottles. Some inventions present us with a product that is entirely new, like a cell phone; and before long, such an invention literally changes the way we live. Other inventions combine two already-existing tools or products into one—a snow-scraper and brush, for example—thus reducing the clutter in our lives, and making (in this example, at least) our daily winter chores a little easier. 
     Some inventions deal with common problems, as, for example, roll-on deodorants deal with body odors; others—and again the cell phone is a good example—bring us so much convenience that we didn&#39;t know we needed them until they came into being. Many, if not most, inventions consist of relatively small but highly effective improvements of existing products or technologies. Inventions come in so many categories that counting them all would be difficult—because you never know what might be invented today. Sometimes necessity, sometimes creativity, is the mother of invention. All we can say for certain is that somewhere, someone is even now combining their own vision, imagination, and creativity to create something that will improve, or even revolutionize our lives. 
     Most inventions fill a relatively small need or perform a specialized, limited function—but if that need is shared by a sufficient number of consumers, the invention may have a great potential for success. Consider, for example, the millions of men and women who work outside on road crews; as linemen for power, cable, and phone companies; and in assorted other occupations which place them not only out in hot and cold weather but in the vicinity of physical hazards including vehicle traffic. Typically, such workers wear brightly colored, reflective safety vests—but other than being highly visible, the vests actually do little to protect those who wear them, much less designed to enhance his or her comfort in extreme hot and cold conditions. 
     Accordingly, a need remains for a device in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. 
     DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to safety equipment and, more particularly, to a climate control safety vest for providing users with an efficient means of staying comfortable in extreme hot or cold conditions while protecting the user from sharp objects and blunt force traumas. 
     The present invention provides a climate control safety vest that is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, versatile in its applications, and designed for providing a user with an efficient means of staying comfortable in extreme hot or cold conditions while protecting the user from sharp objects and blunt force traumas. Such an invention would provide workers with a vest designed to enhance his or her safety, as well as comfort in all weather conditions. 
     The novel features believed to be characteristic of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a front perspective view of a vest in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a back perspective view of the vest in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view of the vest in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION 
     A detailed description of the hereinafter described embodiments of the disclosed apparatus and method are presented herein by way of exemplification and not limitation with reference to the Figures listed above. Although certain embodiments are shown and described in detail, it should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The scope of the present disclosure will in no way be limited to the number of constituting components, the materials thereof, the shapes thereof, the relative arrangement thereof, etc., and are disclosed simply as an example of embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     As a preface to the detailed description, it should be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. 
     The device of this invention is referred to generally in the Figures and is intended to provide a climate control, protective safety vest. It should be understood that the present invention may be used to comfort and protect many different types of outdoor workers and the like, and should not be limited to the uses described herein. 
     Referring to the Figures general, a climate control safety vest  10  preferably includes a vest  30 ; a solar heating and cooling system  40  and removable, impact-absorbing protective panels  35 . The vest  30  may be made of a lightweight but highly durable material, such as, for example, Mylar or Kevlar or the like, may consist of one or more bright colors, such as, for example, a bright orange color, and feature light-reflective strips  32  on the front and back. 
     The vest  30  may further be provided with a plurality of full-length pockets  34 , for example, one in back of the vest  30  and two in the front of the vest  30 , one each for each of the front panels of the vest  30 . These pockets  34  may be configured to accommodate a plurality of panels  35  that comprise dedicated, form-fitting shock panels made of an impact-absorbing cellular foam material, designed to protect the wearer from impacts, sharp objects, and other sources of impact injury. The panel pockets  34  may preferably be closed securely with VELCRO®-equipped flaps. The pockets  34  may be positioned on the exterior or the interior of the vest  30 . 
     Along with its protective foam panel  35 , as mentioned above, the rear of the vest  30  would also incorporate a full-length, meshed pocket  34 , again equipped with a VELCRO® closure, opening from the top rear of the vest  30  and designed to accommodate another flexible, lightweight panel  37 . This removable panel  37  provides similar functions to the protective foam panel  35 , but may also be fitted with a plurality of small electric ventilation fans  28 , and with a grid of electrically resistant heat-conducting wire  29 . The fans  28  can be configured to draw air away from the user or can be configured to draw air toward the user. Additionally, one fan  28  may be configured to draw air away from the user, while another fan  28  may be configured to draw air toward the user. Such a configuration may create an air flow effect within the vest  30  and/or against the user&#39;s body. At the top of the panel, a plug  41  would connect the fan/heater panel  37  to a solar-collector/photo-voltaic cell panel  27 , comprising one or more photo-voltaic cells, stationed around the outer collar of the vest  30 ; and a plug  41  on either side of the fan/heater panel  37  would be configured to be connected to two mating plugs  41  coupled to the vest  30 , by a hook and loop fastening system or other similar coupling loop, and connected to a similar wire gridwork running through the interior lining of the vest  30 . Thus, the pockets  34  are configured to receive the protective foam panel  35 , the fan/heater panel  37 , or both at the same time. The pockets  34  can also be placed in the side portions of the vest  30 , such that the pockets  34  in the side portions can receive the foam panel  35 . The pockets  34  may be positioned on the exterior or the interior of the vest  30 . 
     An On/Off and function switch  20  located on the collar of the vest  30  may activate the photo-voltaic panel  27  and the relevant heating or cooling functions. The fans  28  would operate on electrical power generated by the cells located in the solar panel  27 , and the heating grid would use the current generated by the cells to heat the interior of the vest  30  via electrical resistance in the wiring of the grid, the wiring heating up in response to the current. The entire vest  30  can be lined with a mesh fabric to maximize ventilation from the cooling fans  28 . In addition, the vest  30  may be produced in small, medium, large and extra-large sizes for men and women. The vest  30  may further be configured to have removable, or otherwise detachable, long-sleeves comprising pockets  34  along the length of the sleeves that are configured to receive and accommodate one or more of the panels  35 . The long-sleeves may be adhered by zipper, Velcro®, or other known attachment means, and may be removed or attached by the user as desired. The vest  30  may further be configured of a lightweight, breathable material, such as mesh, nylon, polyester, cotton, or other like material, such that the cooling fans  28  may create airflow through the vest  30 . Additionally, the pockets  34  may be configured of a lightweight, breathable material, such as mesh, nylon, polyester, cotton, or other like material, such that the cooling fans  28  may create airflow through the vest  30  and the pockets  34 . 
     A solar heating and cooling system  40  comprising solar cells  27 , a processor  22 , and a user interface  21  is connected to the cooling fans/heating elements  28 ,  29  which would allow the user to activate and deactivate the heating and cooling functions of the vest  30 . The user interface  21  may include a variety of stand-alone or shared devices that are capable of generating and transmitting a control signal upon receiving a user input. 
     For example, exemplary user interface devices may include a remote controller employing RE, infra-red, acoustic or cellular technology, for example, as well known in the industry. The user interfaces  20  thus described are intended to represent a broad category of exemplary user interfaces capable of functioning in accordance with the present invention. Of course, the user interfaces  20  may include other components, peripherals and software applications provided they are compatible and capable of cooperating with remaining devices of the present invention. In addition, the user interfaces  20  may include information, documents, data and files needed to provide functionality and enable performance of methodologies in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention. 
     The user interface  21  preferably is communicatively coupled to a processor  22  which would analyze the signal and determine which function to activate. The processor  22  may include a microprocessor or other devices capable of being programmed or configured to perform computations and instruction processing in accordance with the invention. Such other devices may include microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSP), Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), discrete gate logic, and/or other integrated circuits, hardware or firmware in lieu of or in addition to a microprocessor. 
     Functions and process steps described herein may be performed using programmed computer devices and related hardware, peripherals, equipment and networks. When programmed, the computing devices are configured to perform functions and carry out steps in accordance with principles of the invention. Such programming may comprise operating systems, software applications, software modules, scripts, files, data, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), discrete gate logic, or other hardware, firmware, or any conventional programmable software, collectively referred to herein as a module. 
     The processor  22  may preferably be communicatively coupled with a transducer  24  that will serve to use the signal and activate the desired part of the device, which may be fans  28  or a heating source  29 . The processor  22  may preferably be connected to the plugs  41  and communicatively coupled to a rechargeable power source  26  and a plurality of photovoltaic cells  27 . The rechargeable power source  26  may store the electric power produced by the photovoltaic cells  27 . 
     In use, the climate control safety vest  10  would be simple and straightforward to use. First, the user would insert the foam shields  35  in the pockets  34  of the vest  30 . The user would then put on the vest  30  as they would any normal safety vest. The solar panel/cell  27  on the collar of the vest  30  would receive solar rays and transfer that energy to the cooling fans  28  or heating elements  29 . If the user becomes hot or cold, he may use the power switch  20  to manually turn on or off the cooling fans  28  or heating elements  29  of the vest  30 . The vest  30  may further be configured with a temperature sensor  19  that senses the ambient temperature or body temperature of the user and activates or deactivates, accordingly, the heating and cooling system  40  of the vest  30  in response to the sensed temperature. For example, the temperature sensor  19  may be configured to communicate with the processor  22  to command the processor  22  to operate the cooling fans  28  if the sensed temperature rises above a predetermined upper-limit temperature and to operate the heating elements  29  if the sensed temperature falls below a predetermined lower-limit temperature. 
     In an alternative embodiment, the device  10  may feature LEDs on its outer surface. The power source  26  would provide power to the LEDs at night to light them up and cause them to flash. This embodiment would be very useful to workers who work at night or in inclement weather conditions. The LEDs would make the workers more visible to drivers, machine operators and other workers. 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     It is noted the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, especially the Scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way. 
     While the invention has been described with respect to certain specific embodiments, it will be appreciated that many modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is intended, therefore, by the appended claims to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. 
     In particular, with respect to the above description, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the present invention may include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation. The assembly and use of the present invention are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art.