Patent ID: 7637226

Claim:
An emergency signaling apparatus for notifying rescuers that a search area has already been cleared, said emergency signaling apparatus comprising: a base member; a telescopically adjustable pole coupled to said base member and extending upwardly therefrom; a plurality of brackets slidably engaged with said pole; a flag directly coupled to said brackets and being adaptable between compressed and expanded positions when said brackets are displaced along a longitudinal length of said pole; and means for simultaneously articulating and linearly displacing said pole about at least two mutually exclusive axes respectively in such a manner that said flag is automatically returned to an equilibrium position defined along a vertically oriented plane after being biased about said at least two mutually exclusive axes; wherein said simultaneous articulating and linearly displacing means comprises a plurality of linear slots formed within said base member and radially extending outward from a center thereof, said linear slots being equidistantly juxtaposed along four quadrants of said base member; a plurality of anchors slidably seated within said slots such that said anchors slide from the center of said base member to a perimeter of said base member; a plurality of deformably resilient spring members having opposed ends directly coupled to said pole and said anchors respectively, said spring members being coplanar; wherein said pole is rotated about a fulcrum axis extending vertically upward from said base member such that said flag rotates about a first arcuate path; wherein said pole is linearly displaced along a selected one of said slots such that said flag becomes linearly offset from the center of said base member; wherein said pole is pivoted along an x-axis and a z-axis such that said flag is displaced downwardly along a second arcuate path and towards said base member; wherein a first pair of said spring members are compressed and extended along an x-axis when said pole is linearly displaced along a first linear path, where in a second pair of said spring members are compressed and extended along a z-axis when said pole is linearly displaced along a second linear path; wherein said first and second linear paths are orthogonally registered.