Abstract:
A headset and eyewear combination comprises a headset adapted to cover the ears of a user and having a portion of a fastener on the exterior surface of the headset. Eyewear is selectively secured to the exterior portion of the headset with a complimentary portion of the fastener. The eyewear is thereby maintained over the face of the user by means of flexible temples.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to combining a device that covers the ears, such as headphones, with some form of eye protection device, such as sunglasses, in such a manner that the invention allows both the ear covering device and the eyewear to be worn simultaneously, while providing full efficaciousness for both devices. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many sorts of individuals wear ear protection devices such as headphones. Construction workers may wear earmuffs to protect themselves from loud machinery noises, which, if not guarded against, could destroy hearing. Likewise, hunters may wear earmuffs to protect their hearing from the loud reports associated with their firearms. Skiers wear earmuffs to protect their ears from the cold. Grounds crewmen at airfields or on aircraft carriers likewise wear earmuffs to protect their hearing from the roar of jet engines as the jets maneuver about the airfield. Pilots and other aviators may likewise wear headphones, albeit for perhaps a different reason. In general, the headsets of aviators double as ear protection and as a communications device. The headphones act as speakers through which the aviators may hear instructions such as from an air traffic control tower or the like. Other professions may also wear headsets. In general, these headsets, whether for protection, communications, or some other desired purpose, come in a number of shapes and sizes. However, it is common for these devices to have a cushion or resilient member, which completely encompasses the ear, forming a seal therearound, and a band, which arches over the head of the wearer, helping hold the set in a desired position. 
     In addition to headsets, many of these people may also wear some form of eye protection. Construction workers may have safety goggles to prevent debris from getting in their eyes. Hunters wear glasses to protect themselves from ejected shells, vented hot gases, and also as glare protection on sunny days. Skiers wear goggles to keep snow from their eyes and reduce glare from the snow. Likewise, aviators and grounds crewmen may wear sunglasses or prescription glasses in the course of their work. Besides traditional eyewear, aviators may sometimes wear hoods to help them in instrument training sessions. While not eye protection per se, these hoods are eyewear of sorts. 
     Traditionally, glasses are formed from a lens holding mechanism and a pair of temples that are adapted to slide over the ear of the user. Some temples may curl over and behind the ear, while others may merely extend straight back along the side of the head, resting on the cartilage joining the external ear to the head. If the eyewear has a temple that slides over the ear, and the eyewear is worn with a headset, a number of undesirable things may happen. The seal of the headset around the ear may be broken, thereby allowing ear injuring noise, cold, or other environmental hazards into the headset, defeating its purpose. Also, the temple may be pressed against the side of the head of the wearer, causing discomfort. The pressure of the headset may, over time, deform the temple, such that the eyewear is no longer suitable for wearing. 
     One solution to these problems is the use of a flexible, head-encircling “temple,” coupled to the eyewear such as is sometimes seen on vision-impaired athletes. Thus, an elastic band encircles the head of the wearer, holding the glasses in place during vigorous activity. As a general solution, these devices work fine. However, these devices should be positioned about the head of the wearer prior to donning any headset. Thus, if at some subsequent point, the wearer wishes to remove the eyewear, he or she must doff the headset, remove the eyewear and subsequently re-don the headset. This is a time consuming and annoying process. Alternatively, the individual may not initially need the eyewear, but desire to don it at some later time, such as a pilot not wearing sunglasses until cloud cover has been cleared. In these situations, the headset must be removed, the eyewear put in position, and the headset put back on. Again, this process is annoying, time consuming, and for a busy pilot who may have his hands relatively full flying the plane, perhaps dangerous. 
     There remains a need for a form of eyewear that is compatible with a headset; that does not require the wearer to remove the headset when donning or doffing the eyewear; and that may be retrofitted to existing headsets without great expense, as these headsets may be relatively expensive, especially in the case of aviators&#39; and hunters&#39; headsets. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The problems of the prior art are addressed by providing a headset with a part of a fastener available on an outside surface thereof. The fastener mates with a complementary portion of the fastener positioned proximate the terminal end of a flexible temple of the eyewear. Thus, the headset may be positioned properly over the ears of the wearer, and the eyewear may be attached to the headset at a later time without removing the headset. 
     An alternate embodiment of the invention comprises a kit for retrofitting eyewear to an existing headset. In this embodiment, the eyewear portion remains the same. However, the kit includes the fasteners that may be attached to the headset. In particular, the fasteners may include an adhesive that may be applied to the headset such that a portion of the fastener may be secured to the headset. 
     The type of fastener may be varied amongst many that exist. In particular, fasteners such as a hook-and-loop fastener, a snap, a button, and the like may be used. Flexible material for the temples may also be varied amongst many acceptable materials. A durable fabric or plastic material may be particularly well suited for the present invention. The eyewear may vary between sunglasses, prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses, protective eyewear without prescription qualities, a training hood, goggles, or the like as needed or desired. The headsets may be varied between earmuffs such as hunters use, earmuffs such as skiers use, headsets that pilots use, protective earwear such as construction workers may use, portable radio headsets, or the like as needed or desired. 
     An alternate embodiment includes using the eyewear as described on a helmet rather than a set of headphones. 
     By securing the eyewear to the outside of the headset, the seal created around the ear is maintained. Further, the individual may doff or don the eyewear without having to remove the headset. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of an eyewear device adapted for the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 illustrates a set of protective eyewear adapted for the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of a hood adapted for the present invention; 
     FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate exemplary fasteners such as may be used in the present invention; 
     FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate exemplary headsets adapted for the present invention; 
     FIG. 6 illustrates the present invention in use by an individual; 
     FIGS. 7A &amp; 7B illustrate an alternate embodiment of the temples in conjunction with the combination of the present invention; and 
     FIG. 8 illustrates another alternate embodiment of the fastener. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention solves the problems associated with the prior art by providing eyewear that includes flexible temples. The flexible temples each include a portion of a fastener near the terminal ends thereof for selective attachment to a headset. The headset may have a complementary portion of the fastener. The flexible nature of the temples makes it possible to conform the eyewear to a number of different faces and headsets while preserving the utility of both the headset and eyewear. 
     Turning now to the drawings, eyewear  10  is illustrated. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, eyewear  10  takes the form of sunglasses  10 A that include lenses  11 , temples  12 , and fasteners  14 . It should be appreciated that sunglasses  10 A could equivalently be normal prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses, or the like as needed or desired. As such, lenses  11  may include a tint, a reflective surface, or the like as needed or desired. Temples  12  are made from a flexible material. In particular, temples  12  may be made from an elastic or inelastic material. I.e., the temples  12  may stretch like spandex or be of a generally constant length. Natural or synthetic fibers may be used. Thus, it is possible that the temples  12  may be made from a substantially flexible plastic material. Fastener  14  is discussed in greater detail below, but, for example, fasteners  14 A may be one-half of a hook-and-loop fastener such as VELCRO™, and may be positioned proximate the terminal end of temples  12 . 
     In an alternate embodiment, eyewear  10  may comprise protective goggles  10 B as shown in FIG.  2 . In this embodiment, temples  12  may further include hinged side protective shields  16  such as may commonly exist on protective eyewear. While it could be argued that protective shields  16  are part of the lenses  11 , for the purposes of the present invention, they are defined to be part of the temples  12 . It should be appreciated that protective goggles  10 B may equivalently be lab goggles, such as are used in chemistry labs, a welder&#39;s mask or the like. Protective shields  16  may include slots through which temples  12  are secured. 
     In yet another alternate embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 3, eyewear  10  may be a vision restrictive hood  10 C such as are used for Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) training. Hood  10 C may include a protective hood  18  and slots at first end  19  thereof such that the temples  12  may be secured thereto. Although not eyewear per se, devices such as the hood  10 C are to be construed as falling within the definition of eyewear for the purpose of the present invention. 
     Turning now to FIGS. 4A-4C, a plurality of fasteners  14  are shown therein. In particular, FIG. 4A illustrates a snap-style fastener  14 B. FIG. 4B illustrates a button-style fastener  14 C wherein the temple  12  includes a slot to receive the button therethrough. FIG. 4C illustrates a clasp-type fastener such as is commonly found on nylon webbing. Other fasteners may equivalently be substituted in the aforementioned embodiments and those mentioned are for illustrative purposes only. It is to be understood that the fastener  14  may include a first member attached to the temple  12 , and a second member attached to the headset  20  (FIGS.  5 A- 5 C). When the two members are mated together, the eyewear  10  is securely, but removably (in a nondestructive fashion) attached to the headset  20 . In one embodiment, the members provide a positive confirmation when they are attached. By way of example, the snap-style fastener  14 B, in FIG. 4A may provide an audible “click” sound when the members are positively connected. Likewise, the button-style fastener  14 C allows the user to feel the button positioned through the receiving member of the temple  12 . This is important as the temples may often secure the eyewear  10  to the headsets  20  at a point that is not visible to the user. 
     In addition to the plurality of eyewear  10  and fasteners  14 , a plurality of different types of headsets may be used with the present invention. Turning now to FIG. 5A, a headset  20  includes rounded muffs  22  with protective seals  24  and arch  26 . Arch  26  is designed to arch over the head of the user to hold the muffs  22  in a desired position. On an exterior surface  23  of muff  22 , a complimentary portion of fastener  14  is secured thereto. In FIG. 5A, the other side of a hook-and-loop fastener  14 A is illustrated. It should be appreciated that complimentary portions of a snap  14 B, a button  14 C, or a clasp  14 D may be put on exterior surface  23 . FIG. 5B illustrates an alternate form of headset including squared off muffs  22 , and seals  24 . 
     Yet another alternate embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5C wherein a portable radio headset similar to that used with a SONY WALKMAN™ may be used with the present invention. Arch  26  remains substantially the same with earplugs/speakers  28  used to convey music to the user. Fastener  14  is secured to an external surface on arch  26 . Other headsets are also contemplated such as skiers&#39; earmuffs, construction workers&#39; headsets, hunters&#39; headsets with external audio speakers, hands free cellular headsets, and the like. 
     FIG. 5D illustrates eyewear  10  applied to a helmet  100 . For the purposes of the present invention, helmet  100  may be considered a headset  20 . Helmet  100  may be any of a number of helmets such as are worn by motorcyclists, sport pilots, ultra-light pilots, parachutists, or the like. Any appropriate fastener  14  may be used to secure the temple  12  to the helmet  100 . 
     A combination  30  of eyewear  10  and headset  20  is shown in FIG.  6 . Headset  20  may include microphone  32 , such as is commonly used by aviators. From FIG. 6, it is readily apparent that the user may don the headset  20  and easily selectively add or remove the eyewear  10  as needed or desired without having to remove the headset  20 . This is particularly advantageous for aviators who may need to don sunglasses when they break cloud cover or construction workers who may need to don periodically protective eyewear. Further, it is not necessary to pierce the seal  24  to don or remove the eyewear  10  thereby preserving the integrity of the sound protection afforded by the headset  20 . Likewise, other professions or users may benefit from the present invention. 
     It should be appreciated that the present invention is easily retrofit onto existing headsets. In particular, the eyewear  10  may be manufactured to accommodate the present invention with a first fastener portion  14  thereon. The second fastener portion  14  may accompany the eyewear  10  along with an adhesive or other securing means through which the complimentary portion of the fastener  14  is secured to the exterior surface  23 . For example, if a hook-and-loop fastener is used to secure the eyewear  10  to the headset  20 , the eyewear  10  would include a first portion of the hook-and-loop fastener  14  and the other portion of the hook-and-loop fastener  14  would be sold with an adhesive backing and a protective strip. In use, the protective strip would be removed and the adhesive backing applied to the exterior surface  23  of the headset  20  thereby putting the headset  20  in condition for use with the eyewear  10  of the present invention. 
     The length of the temples  12  may be adjusted as needed or desired to provide a good fit of eyewear  10  for the user. 
     An alternate embodiment of temples  12  is illustrated in FIGS. 7A &amp; 7B. In particular, instead of positioning a portion of the fastener  14  on the headset  20 , as illustrated in the previous embodiments, this alternate embodiment requires that headset  20  include a side member  50 , through which the temple  12  may be threaded and then folded back on itself thereby forming a loop  52  such that the fastener  14  may be used to fasten to temple  12  to itself. It should be appreciated that the loop  52  may be formed by folding the temple  12  inwardly (shown) or outwardly (not shown). However, folding the temple  12  inwardly may be easier for practical purposes. Further the type of fastener  14  may similarly be varied amongst the many equivalent fasteners previously discussed. 
     Another alternate embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 8, wherein the headset  20  includes vertical posts  60  over which a loop in temple  12  may be slipped. Posts  60  may be generally L-shaped, or merely slanted away from the exterior surface  23  of the headset  20 . While described as vertical, posts  60  may alternatively be at almost any angle as long as a loop may be slipped thereover and eyewear  10  secured to the headset  20 . 
     The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.