Abstract:
A structure of a soft eyeball for dolls is disclosed. The structure of the eyeball comprises a supporting set and a transparent shell made of soft plastic or rubber material, wherein the supporting set comprises an open groove for placing an iris layer. This arrangement allows the job of placing eyeball into the eye portion of the doll easier and also provides better effect for imitating the real eyeballs.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to structures of soft eyeballs for dolls, and more particularly relates to eyeballs for assembling into the human or animal imitation dolls, which imitates to real eyeballs.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Usually, when the consumers purchase human or animal imitation dolls, the facial expression and the imitation effect of the whole appearance will be the priority factor of the selection. Concerning the facial expression, in addition to the outline features of the face, the eyes are also a very important part of the facial expression, therefore, the manufacturers in this field must consider that it is very crucial to improve the imitation eyes to make it appear as real as possible.  
           [0005]    The structure of an eyeball is well-known in the art as shown by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,673, the eyeball comprises a semi spherical main body, an indented portion is formed at an upper portion of the main body, which has eye pattern within and covered with a transparent plate which is shaped an iris on the top surface thereof. The iris is composed of lines which are drawn on the surface, and a transparent and semi spherical shaped cornea covers the iris and indented portion to make the eye of the doll look more real and to reflect like a real eyeball. The iris and the cornea are typically made of soft polymers, and because the cornea is a semi spherical shaped structure and since the eye pattern is directly painted on the surface of the indented portion, consequently such structure will have a light focused on the iris after it transmits to the cornea from the surroundings causing too much reflection of the surface surrounding the iris. Thus this would blur the pattern of the iris. Further, because the eye pattern being directly painted on the main body, therefore such design create less reality effect, and besides the painting cost will increase the overall manufacturing cost.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new structure of a soft eyeball for dolls in order to resolve the defects of the aforementioned prior art.  
           [0007]    In accordance with the above object and other advantages of the present invention as broadly embodied and described herein, the present invention provides a structure of an eyeball comprising a supporting set and a transparent shell, made of soft plastic or rubber material, wherein the supporting set comprises an open groove for placing an iris layer. This arrangement makes the job of placing eyeball into the eye portion of the doll easier, and also provides a better effect for imitating the real eyeballs.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0008]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference will now be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a view showing an eyeball according a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the eyeball the present invention; and  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a sectional side view of the eyeball of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0012]    Reference will be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.  
         [0013]    Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, show a structure of an eyeball according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The structure comprises an eyeball  1  of the present invention can be placed into the opening of the eye of a doll. The structure of the eyeball  1  comprises a semi spherical shaped supporting set  30 , which comprises a groove  31  formed on an upper portion and an adjusting element  32  formed on a lower portion thereof. An iris layer  20  is positioned within the groove  31  and a transparent shell  10  covers the supporting set  30  and the iris layer  20 . The supporting set  30  and the transparent shell  10  are made of soft plastic or rubber material, therefore the eyeball  1  has a certain elasticity which could make the fixing of the eyeball  1  into the openings of the human or animal imitation dolls&#39; eye portion. By placing eyeball  1  of the present invention into dolls, the dolls can produce an excellent imitation of the facial expression that can be comparable to the real feature, and in addition, a precise size of the eyeball  1  is not a critical issue for fitting a precise eye portion. The eyeball  1  can be fixed even directly from the outer frontal side of the doll. Besides, after fixing the eyeball  1  into the opening of the eye portion, the supporting set  30  fits into the opening of the eye tightly, and since the eyeball  1  is made of soft material, and therefore the adjusting element  32  that is formed on the supporting set  30  is merely for adjusting the angle of the eyeball  1 .  
         [0014]    Referring to FIG. 3, illustrates a sectional side view of the eyeball of the present invention. An injection mold process may be used for manufacturing the eyeball  1  of the present invention, first of all a soft plastic or rubber is used for forming a white semi spherical shaped supporting set  30  for imitating the white of the eye. Then a groove  31  is formed above the supporting set  30  and an adjusting element  32  formed as an indented structure at a lower portion thereof. The groove  31  may be formed together with the supporting set  30  as one single piece using either an injection mold process or a carving process. Next, the iris layer  20  printed with eye pattern is placed into the groove  31 . Because the dimension of the groove  31  of the supporting set  30  is same as the iris layer  20 , therefore, the iris layer  20  can be fitted into the groove  31  perfectly. Further, the supporting set  30  and the iris layer  20  are placed together on the model, then the soft plastic or rubber material is used as the material for forming a outer transparent shell  10  which is a integrated structure for covering and surrounding the supporting set  30  and the iris layer  20 . In the above structure, a flat face  11  is formed at the contact face of the transparent shell  10  and the iris layer  20 , while the other side of the transparent shell  10  forms as a protruded face  12  for imitating a real eye expression. Because the contact face of the shell  10  and the iris layer  20  is a flat face  11  and the other side forms as a protruded face  12 , the light passing through the shell  10  is effectively evenly spread on the eyeball  1  and the contrasting image pattern of the whole of the eyeball  1  can be clearly seen, and therefore the light passing through the transparent shell  10  will not be localized only onto the iris which otherwise cause poor imitation effect.  
         [0015]    There are several advantages of the eyeball of the present invention which are described as follows:  
         [0016]    1. Since the supporting set  30  and the transparent shell  10  are made of soft plastic or rubber material, thus the soft eyeball  1  has a certain elasticity, and it can be fixed into the opening of the eye portion of the man or animal imitated dolls for effectively solving the positioning difference of the opening of the doll&#39;s eye portion.  
         [0017]    2. Since the transparent shell  10  is injected into a single-piece structure for covering and surrounding the supporting set  30  and the iris layer  20 , and since a flat face  11  is formed at the contact face of the transparent shell  10  and the iris layer  20 , and the other side of the transparent  10  forms as a protruded face  12  for imitating the real eye expression, therefore the light passing through the transparent shell  10  can be effectively and evenly spread on the whole of the eyeball  1 , and therefore the contrasting image pattern of the whole eyeball can be clearly seen.  
         [0018]    3. An adjusting element  32  is formed on the supporting set  30  for merely adjusting the angle of the soft eyeball  1  and thereby the difficulty of adjusting the eye of the doll can be resolved.  
         [0019]    While the invention has been described in conjunction with a specific best mode, it is to be understood that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the a foregoing description. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations which fall within the spirit and scope of the included claims. All matters set forth herein or shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted in an illustrative and non-limiting sense.