ATTACHABLE-DETACHABLE MOBILE COMPUTING & SOUND PRODUCING SHOE ACCESSORY
An attachable-detachable accessory for shoes which includes a curved member having first and second arms biased toward each other to enable attachment of the accessory to the heel of a shoe. The curved member carries an appropriate speaker and a digital control medium and a control circuit, therefore along with an appropriate battery and switch control means for activating the digital storage medium to produce desired audio.
This invention relates generally to shoes and more particularly to an accessory that hosts cellular, GPS and/or computing technology and also has technology that produces audio signals and which is attachable to and detachable from a shoe.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONFor a number of years articles of foot wear have been developed which have incorporated into the foot wear audio devices which provide music or other sound effects. Typically the speakers and the audio circuitry including the appropriate memory devices are built directly into and form a part of the shoe such as being incorporated into the side walls or the tongue of the shoe. Alternatively in some instances the shoe is designed to have formed therein a cavity or a channel which extends into the sole or heel of the shoe and receives a module containing various parts of the audio producing structure. In some instances a pocket or similar receptacle is formed in a side wall of the shoe which retains the module which contains the sound producing audio module. In shoes designed in this fashion where the speaker is mounted either on the tongue of the shoe or within an audio module that is retained in the pocket or other receptacle on the side of the shoe or into a cavity or opening formed in the sole of the shoe, the speakers are extremely limited in size which compromises the sound volume and quality which can be achieved. It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that to produce shoes of this type requires additional manufacturing effort and adds costs and also when the shoe is worn to a degree such that it is no longer wearable and must be discarded then typically the voice producing modules designed and incorporated into the shoe are also discarded along with the shoe.
There is thus needed an accessory which may be attached to a shoe as desired by the user and that also may be detached when it is not desired to have the audio producing capability or alternatively to move the audio producing capability from one pair of shoes to a different pair of shoes.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAn attachable shoe accessory including a curved member having first and second arms which are biased toward each other and shaped to be received on the heel portion of a shoe, a speaker, a battery, switch means and a digital storage medium and control circuit therefore carried by the curved member such that the control circuit when activated by the switch applies audio from the digital storage medium to the speaker.
Referring now more particularly to
The curved member 10 is constructed in such a manner as to carry the various components to produce an audio signal and/or hosts cellular, GPS and/or computing technology. For example as shown schematically in
A digital storage medium and cellular, computing, GPS and the control circuit for the digital storage medium as shown at 20 are attached to the curved member 10, such for example, as between the arm 14 and the bight 16 as shown in
By reference now more particularly to
In some instances it may be desired to more clearly secure the accessory 32 in place on a shoe and assure that even if there are large forces applied to the shoe, such as by running, walking, jumping or the like that the accessory cannot be detached. For this purpose as is shown in
As is shown in
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the control circuit may also include blue tooth technology which would allow the audio stored on the digital control medium to be connected to headphones or ear plugs worn by the user, such for example as shown at 40 in
There has thus been disclosed an accessory for a shoe which may be attached to the shoe or detached from the shoe and which when activated either manually or remotely produces a desired audio signal which has been stored upon a digital storage medium carried by the accessory and activated by an appropriate control circuit.
Claims
1. An attachable-detachable accessory for shoes comprising:
- (a) A curved member having first and second arms interconnected by a bight, said first and second arms being biased toward each other, said member being shaped to be received on the heel portion of a shoe, said bias being sufficient to grip said heel portion of said shoe;
- (b) A digital storage medium and control circuit therefore carried by said member for receiving audio;
- (c) A speaker carried by said curved member and connected to said digital storage medium;
- (d) A port in said curved member communicating with said digital storage medium for down loading audio to said digital storage medium;
- (e) A battery mounted within said curved member;
- (f) Switch means mounted in said member and connected between said battery and said control circuit to apply electrical energy from said battery to said digital storage medium to play said audio;
- (g) Cellular technology to make and receive calls, connect to the Internet, send messages;
- (h) GPS technology to track and/or identify the location of the device; and
- (i) Computing technology to process information, data, sounds, and other computer functions
2. An accessory as defined in claim 1, which further includes a retainer connected to said curved member for positioning internally of the shoe for securing the curved member in place on the heel of the shoe.
3. An accessory as defined in claim 2, wherein said retainer is a flexible member connected to said first and second arms.
4. An accessory as defined in claim 3, wherein said retainer includes a central section of sufficient length to fit within said shoe and receive the foot of the user for securing said curved member to the heel of the shoe.
5. An accessory as defined in claim 4, which said curved member is a flexible molded plastic member.
6. An accessory as defined in claim 5, wherein said speaker, said storage medium, said switch and said battery are mounted to said molded plastic member.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 18, 2014
Publication Date: Apr 16, 2015
Inventor: Nicolas Chavando (Sherman Oaks, CA)
Application Number: 14/462,268
International Classification: A43B 3/00 (20060101); A43B 23/24 (20060101);