Night Light Balls
Improvements in a football and beach ball to allow the balls to be used at night. The illumination from the “EL” lights gives the ball an exciting kaleidoscope of color as it spirals, adding a new and exciting twist to an old game in addition to adding safety to night play. The ball is made of various colored self-skinning flexible urethane foam, or elastomer and has grip ridges between electroluminescent lighting that surrounds ball. The ball is formed with grip ridges to allow small to large hands to easily grip the ball and throw a spiral when wet or dry. At least two different colors of EL lights are equally spaced and glued to the outside of the ball to allow spin on a ball to be more visible. The ball has a compartment that holds a power supply on/off switch and the EL driver.
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 DEVELOPMENTNot Applicable
THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENTNot Applicable
INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISCNot Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the InventionThis 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'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'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 INVENTIONIt 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.
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
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.
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.
Claims
1. A night light ball comprising:
- a ball made of self-skinning flexible urethane foam, or elastomer which holds air;
- said ball further has grip ridges on an external surface of said ball;
- said ball further having at least two separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements;
- each of said colored electroluminescent lighting elements surrounds said ball and are equally spaced from each other;
- a compartment inside said ball that holds a power supply comprising at least one battery and a driver;
- said driver inverts DC voltage to AC voltage, and
- an on/off switch that controls said driver to illuminate said at least two separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements.
2. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein there are at least three separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements.
3. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein there are at four separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements.
4. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein there are at six separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements.
5. The night light ball according to claim 1 that has two separate sets of batteries and drivers that power separate electroluminescent lighting elements.
6. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said electroluminescent lighting elements operate in an off and constant on condition.
7. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said electroluminescent lighting elements operate in an off and flashing on condition.
8. The night light ball according to claim 5 wherein said two separate sets of batteries and drivers are mounted opposite each other within said night light ball.
9. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said electroluminescent lighting elements are further covered with water resistant tape.
10. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said compartment is water resistant.
11. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said power supply is water resistant.
12. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said power supply is separable from said ball.
13. The night light ball according to claim 12 wherein said separable connection is with a plug and socket.
14. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said power supply is wired to said electroluminescent lighting elements.
15. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein night light ball is usable in reduced ambient light levels, total darkness and daylight.
16. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said battery(ies) are replaceable or rechargeable.
17. The night light ball according to claim 1 wherein said at least two separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements are secured to the exterior of said night light ball.
18. The night light ball according to claim 17 wherein said at least two separate and different colored electroluminescent lighting elements are essentially flat ribbons.
19. The night light ball according to claim 1 that further includes a glove that has a separate power supply and electroluminescent lighting element.
20. The night light ball according to claim 1 that further includes a separate lighted cone.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 1, 2011
Publication Date: Feb 16, 2012
Inventor: Jack William De SORT (Redlands, CA)
Application Number: 13/195,218
International Classification: A63B 43/06 (20060101);