Apparatus For Holding Electronic Device
A holding apparatus, including an accommodation unit, at least a clapping unit, and at least a stopping unit, is provided. The accommodation unit includes a surface on which the electronic device can be placed. The clapping unit is located at the sides of the accommodation unit, and is a bendable element. The stopping unit is located at the lower part of the accommodation unit surface to stop the held electronic device from sliding off. When the electronic device is placed on the surface of accommodation unit, the clapping units can be bended to embrace the electronic device snugly to hold the device in place.
The present invention generally relates to a holding apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus easily adjustable to hold electronic devices of various thickness or width.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONA wide range of portable electronic devices are becoming a part of the modern daily life for most people, such as mobile phones, PDA, MP4, GPS, and so on. As most of the electronic devices are not standard options to the majority of the vehicles, the driver usually needs an additional holder to hold the electronic devices in place so that the use of these electronic devices will not interfere with the driving. Conventional holders available in the market use a structure of two clapping arms on both sides to clap an electronic device. In this structure, one or two moveable clappers are installed in the holding seat. The clappers can move towards or away from each other for holding or releasing the electronic device. The movement mechanism for the clappers is usually gears, spring, linkage rack or rods, and so on. The shortcomings of these types of movement mechanism include the noises when the mechanism moves, and the higher cost to assemble a plurality of elements of the movement mechanism.
Conventional holders have a fixed shape and the fixed shape restricts the shape the electronic devices that can be held by the holders. As the current electronic devices are available in various designs, shapes, thickness, and width, the manufacturers must produce different shapes of holders to hold the various electronic devices. This is inconvenient to the user as well as expensive. It is imperative to design a holding apparatus that is flexible to accommodate various designs and shapes of electronic devices that are used in a vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe primary object of the present invention is to provide a holding apparatus with a bendable clapping unit for clapping the electronic devices. The clapping unit can be bended to form any shape to fit the shape of held electronic device so that the electronic device can be held snugly in place.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for holding electronic devices of a variety of thickness and width.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a holding apparatus that is small in size, convenient to use and easy to manufacture.
To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a holding apparatus, including an accommodation unit, at least a clapping unit, and at least a stopping unit. The accommodation unit includes a surface on which the electronic device can be placed. The clapping unit is located at the sides of the accommodation unit, and is a bendable element. The stopping unit is located at the lower part of the accommodation unit surface to stop the held electronic device from sliding off.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be understood in more detail by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
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In summary, the holding apparatus of the present invention uses bendable clapping units to hold the electronic device. Because the clapping units can be bended to any shape, the holding apparatus of the present invention can be used to hold electronic devices of various shapes. In addition, because the structure of the present invention is simple, the manufacturing cost can be reduced for market competitiveness.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
Claims
1. A holding apparatus, comprising:
- an accommodation unit having a surface for placing an object onto said surface;
- at least one clapping unit located on a side of said accommodation unit and made of a bendable material; and
- at least a stopping unit located at a lower part of said accommodation unit and protruding from said surface;
- wherein said at least one clapping unit has a first position in which said at least one clapping unit is substantially flat with said accommodation unit, and a second position in which said at least one clapping unit is bended to form a holding space for embracing said object between said at least one clapping unit and said accommodation unit, said holding space being adjustable by adjusting said second position for accommodating objects of different sizes.
2. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one clapping unit comprises an embedded metal layer so that said at least one clapping unit is bendable.
3. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said embedded metal layer is covered with a cover layer made of leather or rubber.
4. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said metal layer is made of aluminum, copper or lead.
5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said accommodation unit comprises an embedded metal layer, and said metal layer extends into said at least one clapping unit on the side of said accommodation unit.
6. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said metal layer is covered with a cover layer made of leather or rubber
7. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the location of said stopping unit is adjustable.
8. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an engaging unit located on a surface of said accommodation unit opposite to the surface where said object is placed onto for engaging with other devices.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 6, 2007
Publication Date: Jan 8, 2009
Inventor: Eagle Fan (Hsinchu)
Application Number: 11/774,536
International Classification: A44B 21/00 (20060101);