TWO-PIECE INTERLOCKING SYSTEM FOR TEMPORARY, PERMANENT, OR INTERCHANGEABLE ATTACHMENT BETWEEN RECEPTIVE HEADPIECE AND COSTUME HEADWEAR COMPONENTS CONTAINING BUILT-IN PROGRAMMABLE LED LIGHTS AND SOUND RESPONSIVE CAPABILITIES

Abstract

A method for producing realistic, lightweight, scaled to size facsimiles of animal antlers, horns and other three-dimensional objects for costume headwear, and a system of interlocking components that provide interchangeability, adaptability and versatility in costume looks. Costume components contain LED lights and a sound sensor, providing environmentally responsive capabilities with programmed responses (e.g.: flashing light patterns) when activated (e.g.: in response to music or cheering in a stadium). The system includes an adaptor to retrofit hats, and a headband designed for pets.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the field of costume headwear, and more particularly to ornamental headwear such as that worn for holidays, parties, sports games, and other social events. The invention relates to a method of producing lightweight, scalable facsimiles of three-dimensional objects for the application of costume headwear, a two-piece interlocking system for attachment to, or for retrofitting, a headband, hat, helmet and the like, for temporary or permanent costume use, and the inclusion of internal programmable and addressable LED lights and a sensor capable of responding to external stimuli (e.g. sound). The ornamental headwear components include lightweight, three-dimensional facsimiles of animal antlers, animal horns, or other fanciful objects that are associated with costumes, animal features, wearable holiday and seasonal décor, or objects involving three-dimensional mascot or logo features that express affiliation with a sports team or other organization.

Year-round adult costuming is a rapidly growing area of interest. In recent years, sales of adult costumes and ornamental costume headwear have expanded from Halloween to a host of other holiday and social events. Costumes and costume headwear are no longer desired only for holidays such as Halloween, but are sought for other major holidays, such as Christmas, and social events such as conventions, sports events, pub crawls, parties, music festivals, “cosplay” events, etc. Costumes are used as social identifiers in public spaces with increasing frequency. Costume components (such as cat ears and animal tails) are more frequently seen and accepted in every day street wear as well, as more people gain interest in fantasy movies, video games, characters from comic books, and the like. Animal costumes and animalistic elements in everyday fashion are currently on trend, increasing the year-round retail appeal of antlers, animal horns, animal ears, and the like. Animal ears sewn onto hooded sweatshirts and clip-on tails are two examples of these elements commonly seen in everyday street wear.

Typical retail costume headwear is intended for a single use. That is, once a costume piece is manufactured, it is essentially used only for its originally intended costume purpose. Typical costume headbands or other costume headwear (e.g. costume hats for sporting events) are generally one-piece and designed for a standalone purpose or look. They cannot be easily adapted, customized, or personalized for alternate costume uses once they are manufactured. This makes them bulky, adding costs to shipping and packaging, and creating the need for additional shelf space in retail settings. Traditional one-piece costume headbands and hats are also more costly to manufacture, since the entire piece must be produced, not just the ornamental features. Thereby, these items are more costly to the supplier and to the consumer. In addition, a one-piece, single-purpose costume headwear piece is more wasteful to produce, since a new substrate (the headband, hat, etc.) must be made each time a different costume element is applied to it. This invention stands as a versatile, economic, and less wasteful alternative to single-use costume headwear accessories. The invention also creates a system for retrofitting existing hats (e.g. ball caps) with decorative costume elements, making the decorative elements extremely adaptable for licensing potential.

This invention creates the opportunity for costume headwear to be broken into components, thereby increasing versatility, adaptability, and quick customizability. This method provides flexibility and quicker turnaround time when designing costume headwear, since only the ornamental piece itself need be created or re-worked (via three-dimensional scanning and printing, a relatively quick process) and can be manufactured to fit the standardized headpiece or existing hats and headwear via the universal, interlocking system described herein. Consumers would then be able to buy new adaptations to existing headwear, creating a more interactive, updatable, and less wasteful costume niche opportunity with a quicker turnaround time for manufacturing. Additionally, large organizations, such as sports team franchises, can adapt their own team logo or mascot features to be represented by the costume components, which can then be produced on demand to be able to retrofit preexisting sports caps, beanies, and other types of headwear for either permanent or temporary costume use.

Features such as internal LED lights would be desirable to consumers of costume headwear, but mass-produced costume features are not typically designed with the ability to light up or respond to external stimuli. Environmentally responsive features, such as a sound sensor and microcontroller that are programmed to respond to external stimuli (e.g. the noise produced by crowds cheering in a sports stadium) and to produce a result (e.g. flashing LED light patterns in response to noise in a sports stadium) would be desirable in costume headgear. The two capabilities (internal LED lighting and sound responsiveness) would also be attractive features for potential licensing opportunities. However, these options cannot easily be incorporated into costume pieces once they are manufactured. The universal two-piece interlocking component system creates an opportunity to introduce such features into the base of the ornamental piece during or even after the manufacturing process, allowing for customization, flexibility, and quicker turnaround time (without the need to re-work the entire headwear piece) which would be a desirable attribute for headwear representing large organizations such as sports teams. In the case of sports teams, customized costume components representing a team logo (e.g. deer antlers for the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team) would be fitted with internal, programmable LED lights and the pieces could then be attached directly on to pre-fabricated team ball caps. Internal LED lights can be programmed to produce light displays in a particular sport team's colors in response to stadium noise (e.g. cheering and applause).

Typical costume headwear, such as the traditional one-piece headbands with two-dimensional felt antlers typically worn for festive occasions during the Christmas holiday season, exemplify the outdated, cartoonish, and flat versions of animal features and other three-dimensional objects that are prevalent in mass-produced costume headwear. This invention incorporates an updated take on costume headwear, in that it introduces a method for creating a realism that has heretofore been largely absent in mass-produced costume headwear. Typical costume headwear mimicking, for example, animal features (such as deer antlers worn for Christmas) is cartoonish, somewhat two-dimensional, and not realistic. With the advent of virtual reality, advances in video game animation and special effects in movies, today's costume consumers are becoming more attracted to the richness of realism, rather than cheap-looking, cartoonish representations of characters, animals, or other objects and their attributes. New technologies such as three-dimensional scanning and printing capabilities enable the printing of a life-like replica (e.g. of deer antlers or ram horns) to scale or miniaturized, that can then be used to make an industrial mold for mass production of the desired costume or ornamental features.

This method eliminates yet another downside of typical mass-produced costume headwear, which can be cartoonish or cheap looking. True-to-life replicas of real objects, such as deer antlers, will not look cheap or cheaply made. The elegance and intricacy of natural forms can be preserved in this method and replicated for mass-produced costume headwear. Surface detail is preserved and a highly natural look can be created.

Typical mass-produced costume headwear is often uncomfortable, bulky, heavy, oversized, and ill-fitting. The method described herein employs the use of lightweight resin, foam, or similar for casting molds (for non-hollow components) and/or a plastic injection, rotational molding method, 3D printing or similar process to create hollow costume components. The resulting lightweight costume components can be either temporarily or permanently mounted onto a specialized headband or hat insert adapter for maximum comfort, stability, balance, and adjustability.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises a lightweight detachable costume ornament (e.g. a scaled-down, realistic facsimile of a deer antler) which attaches, either permanently or temporarily, to a headband, hat, and the like through an interlocking attachment system (such as a twist-lock connective mechanism, or similar) wherein the base of the decorative costume component includes one half of a male/female fitting that connects via twist-lock, or similar, to the corresponding half of a male/female fitting on the specialized headband or hat insert adapter. The base of the costume component can accommodate an LED light and sound sensor, and the specialized headband or hat insert adapter can accommodate and conceal a mini battery pack. A specialized headband allows the costume components to easily attach and detach to and from the headpiece in a locking fashion. Hats are adapted with a plastic strip either sewn into or tucked tucked into the inside crown of the hat. A male/female fitting is attached to the top of the hat by screw, rivet, or similar through existing grommets (where applicable) or two small holes punched in the crown of the hat, allowing the hat to receive the corresponding male/female fitting in the base of the costume components. Realistic costume components are produced using a method of 3D scanning an object (e.g. animal antlers or horns), scaling the 3D model to an ideal size, adding the male/female attachment fitting (within the 3D model) to the base of the costume component, and printing a hollow replica including the attachment part. 3D printed components can be produced for small-scale batches or for products that are very timely and in need of a quick turnaround time (just-in-time manufacturing process). Additionally, 3D printed and scaled replicas can be used to make an industrial mold for large-scale batches, to be injected with a lightweight resin, foam, or similar (for lightweight, non-hollow pieces) or by a rotational molding process, or similar method (for lightweight, hollow pieces). All manufacturing methods will allow LED light to shine through the final piece, provided the injected material used for producing non-hollow objects is slightly translucent. Three-dimensional facsimiles for costume components may also be produced by making a direct mold of a real object (e.g. animal antlers or horns), and then cast in the same fashion described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some embodiments of the present invention are illustrated as an example and are not limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references may indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts front, side and locked views of male/female parts of one example of a typical twist-lock type connective fitting for the universal attachment system, according to various embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows one example of a twist-lock connective fitting, in which a plug with flanges (11, 13) is inserted into the corresponding gaps in a receptacle (12, 14) and twisted to lock it into place (15).

FIG. 2 shows one example of a U-shaped headband (23) with an example of a twist-lock receptacle fitting (22) attached to the top with a rivet, screw, or similar (21), according to various embodiments described herein.

FIG. 3 shows an exploded perspective view of one example of an adjustable fabric-encased specialized receiving headband (35) with one example of a connective male or female twist-lock (or similar) receptacle/plug attachment fitting (37) attached to or molded into the flexible plastic insert (32), according to various embodiments described herein. The flexible plastic insert (32) is encased between two pieces of fabric (31, 33), the top piece of fabric having two holes (38) allowing for the exposure of the attachment fitting (37). A chin strap made of elastic (34) is made adjustable in size with bra strap adjustment rings and sliders.

FIG. 4 depicts various examples of 3D-printed or injection molded costume components (41, 42, 43) each, according to this embodiment, with a flanged plug (or similar connective fitting) either molded into, inserted into, or attached to its base (44), according to various embodiments described herein.

FIG. 5 shows an exploded perspective view of a U-shaped headband (56) and costume components (51) with attachment parts according to various embodiments described herein. In this embodiment, a flanged plug twist-lock (or similar) connective fitting (52) is either molded into, inserted into, or attached to the base of the costume component (51). The corresponding fitting (54) is attached to the U-shaped headband with a rivet (53, 55). FIG. 57 shows the U-shaped headband with costume components in locked (attached) position. FIG. 58 shows another embodiment, in this case a headband for cats and dogs (or other pets). The pet costume headband includes a flexible plastic insert (58.1) with grommets or holes to allow for connection between the two twist-lock (or similar) attachment fittings. Elastic straps (58.2) fit around the animal's ears and attach under the animal's chin with a Velcro chin strap (58.4). Costume components for the pet headband will attach using same attachment parts and methods as shown in FIGS. 51-55. FIG. 59 shows a U-shaped headband (59.4) and a different attachment method. In this embodiment, costume components (59.1) are attached by threading a screw (59.3) through a hole or grommet in the headband, and into a threaded insert (59.2) in the base of the costume component. Alternately, costume components can be attached with a screw directly screwed into the base of the component (without a threaded insert), or glued using epoxy.

FIG. 6 shows one embodiment of costume components fitted internally with programmable LED lights. In this embodiment, a strip of small LED lights (61) is either threaded into a hollow costume component (67), or placed into a mold prior to injection molding, thereby becoming encased/embedded into the plastic during the injection molding process. Wires (63) connecting the LED light strips to the battery, sound sensor, and on/off switch (65) will exit through the bottom of the costume component connector fitting (62) and through the bottom or side of the corresponding fitting (66), and the battery and switch are held in place and concealed in a small pocket (64) on the inside of the fabric-encased headband. Alternately, the battery and switch can be held in place with Velcro, straps, snaps, glue, and the like. In another embodiment, the electrical parts (battery, sound sensor, and switch) can be contained within the connective fittings themselves, either at the base of a costume component or in the corresponding fitting in the headband or hat.

FIG. 7 shows an exploded perspective of one example of a baseball hat (79) with a flexible plastic hat insert adaptor (76) and a connector such as a snap or a rivet (74,77), which enable the wearer to easily attach one half of the twist-lock attachment (in this case, the female receptacle) (73) to the top of the hat and the hat insert adaptor (76) through the corresponding grommets (75, 78) in the plastic hat insert adapter (76) and the top of the baseball hat. The hat insert adaptor allows a wearer to retrofit any hat, connecting the costume components (71) securely to the top of the hat and the plastic hat insert (76). The plastic hat insert adaptor enables the hat to receive and support the costume components (71) via corresponding interlocking fittings in the base of the components and the top of the hat (72, 73), according to various embodiments described herein.

FIG. 8 shows another perspective of the example shown in FIG. 7, with the hat insert adaptor, snap/rivet, connective (male/female) twist-lock type (or similar) mechanism and costume components with corresponding interlocking fittings, according to various embodiments described herein.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show further examples of costume components attached to various types of hats, hoods and the like, fitted with the plastic hat insert adaptor, according to various embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used herein, the singular forms of “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well as the singular forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

In describing the invention, it will be understood that a number of techniques and steps are disclosed. Each of these has individual benefit and each can also be used in conjunction with one or more, or in some cases all, of the other disclosed techniques. Accordingly, for the sake of clarity, this description will refrain from repeating every possible combination of the individual steps in an unnecessary fashion. Nevertheless, the specification and claims should be read with the understanding that such combinations are entirely within the scope of the invention and the claims.

New methods for producing realistic costume headwear components and a system for attachment to various forms of headwear are discussed herein. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

The present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the invention, and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated by the figures or description below.

The present invention will now be described by referencing the appended figures representing preferred embodiments. FIG. 1 depicts an exploded perspective view of the elements that comprise one embodiment of the two-piece interlocking mechanism for costume headwear and the like (the “system”) according to various embodiments of the present invention. In preferred embodiments, a female twist-lock connective fitting (“receptacle”) (12,14) is attached to the receiving headband (23,35) with a rivet (21,53,55). Attachment may also be achieved with screw (59.3, 59.2), epoxy, or similar, or may be molded directly into the plastic headband or plastic hat insert adaptor itself. In preferred embodiments, a male twist-lock connective fitting (“plug”) (11,13) is molded or inserted into the base of the costume component (41-44). The plug connector may be attached to the base of the costume component through the molding or 3-D printing process, or via insertion into base and connection via screw and threaded insert, epoxy, or similar method. In the preferred embodiment, the plug has flanges on the side (13) that line up with corresponding gaps on the receptacle (14). The costume component is locked into the correct front-facing position by twisting its base (the plug) in the receptacle on headband or hat insert until the locked position is achieved (15, 57). In other embodiments, the configuration of the interlocking mechanism in this system is reversed, in that the male plug connector is located on the headband or hat insert, and the corresponding female receptacle is located on the base of the costume components. Other embodiments of the interlocking system include any and every method that secures the two components (costume component and headband and/or hat insert) in a secure, interlocked or connected position, including screw-on, press-on, snap-on, plug-in, clip-on, magnetic force, and the like, and is not limited to a twist-lock connective mechanism.

In preferred embodiments of the specialized receiving headband construction, a flexible strip of HDPE polyethylene, plastic or similar (32) is fitted with two receptacle connectors (12, 37, 54) by attachment via rivet (53,55), screw (59.3, 59.2), or via the molding process. The strip is encased in fabric (31,33). Two holes or grommets (38) in the fabric on the top of the headband allow for access to the receptacles. Costume components are then attached to the headband via the corresponding interlocking connective mechanism (11, 44, 52). The specialized, fabric-encased headband is secured on to the head of the wearer by an adjustable elastic strap, which is sewn into each end of the headband fabric casing (34) and made adjustable with bra strap rings and adjuster parts (34). In another embodiment, a simple U-shaped headband made of molded plastic or acrylic or similar (56) may be used as a substrate for the system, with the receptacle (54) molded directly into the headband or attached with a rivet (53,55), screw (59.3, 59.2), epoxy, and the like. In another embodiment of the invention, similar methods are applied to construct a headband for animals (58). A flexible plastic insert with holes (58.1) makes the headband receptive for use with the system described herein.

In preferred embodiments of the specialized hat insert system adaptor, a flexible strip of HDPE polyethylene, plastic or similar (76) with two holes corresponding to the two top/side grommets (75) on the crown of a standard baseball hat (79) or similar is fit underneath the crown of a hat in such a way that the holes in the hat insert (78) line up with the grommets (75) in the baseball hat (where applicable). If another type of hat is used (FIG. 9) and grommets or perforations do not already exist, two small holes may be poked into the fabric of the hat or cap corresponding with the existing holes in the hat insert. The receptacle connector (73) is attached to the top of the hat by a rivet (74,77), long prong snap, epoxy, screw or similar attaching from the underside of the hat insert (76), through the hole or grommet (78, 75) to the bottom of the receptacle (73), securing it to the top of the hat. Costume components (71) are then inserted into the receptacle and locked into place via the interlocking connecting mechanism (FIGS. 8-10).

In preferred embodiments of the system, the non-hollow costume components (41) are molded with a low-density urethane casting resin or casting foam. To preserve internal lighting capability, non-hollow costume components that are intended to light up will be cast with a slightly translucent resin material (milky white resin/plastic), allowing for light to pass through to the surface. Small addressable and programmable LED light strips (61) will be placed into the hollow mold, and will become embedded inside the casting resin once the molding process has taken place and the resin/plastic has cured. Wiring (63) to the coin cell battery, sound sensor, and on/off switch (66) will exit the costume component through the bottom of the component base attachment fitting (62) and through the bottom or side of the corresponding attachment fitting (66) and will be concealed in a small pocket in the headband (64), tucked into the cuff of a hat, or attached with Velcro, snap, strap or similar. Hollow costume components are made through a rotational molding process, or similar. In the preferred embodiment, small addressable and programmable RGB LED light strips (61) are threaded into the hollow costume component (67). The LED circuit is soldered to a real-time microcontroller and to the breakout pins of a sound sensor. A rechargeable power supply is supplied by a coin cell battery or the like, and wired to supply the components. The electronic components are bundled into a small packet which is held and concealed in a small pocket (64) built into the fabric-encased headband, or attached with Velcro, snap, strap, or similar to the headband, hat and the like.

Claims

1. A detachable costume head ornament, which attaches to a headband, hat, and the like through an interlocking, twist-lock attachment mechanism (or similar connective fitting) wherein the decorative costume component includes a male or female fitting that connects via said attachment mechanism to a corresponding male or female fitting on a specialized receiving headband, hat insert, helmet and the like.

2. The two-piece interlocking costume headwear system of claim 1 further comprising realistic facsimiles of animal antlers, animal horns, other animal features, or other wearable holiday and seasonal décor that are produced by using the method of 3D scanning an object, scaling to the desired size, adding a connective fitting part to the base of the object within the 3D model, and printing a 3D replica with a male/female connective fitting in its base; the costume component is then either replicated further through continued 3D printing, or the printed replica is used to produce a mold for mass production. Mass produced costume component pieces that are plastic injection molded will be cast with either a lightweight resin, foam, or the like (for a non-hollow but feather light piece) or by a rotational molding process (or similar) for a lightweight, hollow piece.

3. The two-piece interlocking costume headwear system of claim 1 further comprising costume components exhibiting three-dimensional features of mascots or logos that express affiliation with a sports team or other organization.

4. The two-piece interlocking costume headwear system of claim 1 further comprising a U-shaped headband made of plastic or acrylic (or similar material) or a flexible strip of plastic encased in fabric with an adjustable elastic band attached, which features a male or female fitting where the ornamental pieces will connect, to be either molded into the headband itself or attached via screw, rivet, snap, glue or the like.

5. The two-piece interlocking costume headwear system of claim 1 further comprising an insert for a baseball cap, hat, hood, and the like to be made of a flexible plastic strip (or similar) that fits under the crown of the hat or headwear and includes holes to line up with grommets or small holes punched in the top of the hat or headwear. Inserts under the hat or headwear will attach to the male or female fitting of a twist-lock or similar mechanism by a screw, rivet, or similar through a hole or grommet in hat or headwear, to make the hat or headwear receptive to attachable costume components of the same system.

6. The invention of claims 1-5, wherein the ornamental costume pieces contain internal addressable and programmable LED lights and a sensor capable of responding to external stimuli to produce a result (e.g. a sensor that is programmed to respond to the sound of music or cheering in a stadium by producing flashing LED light patterns).

7. The invention of claims 2, 3 and 6 without the twist-lock (or similar) attachment mechanism (i.e.: a one-piece costume headband or hat with lightweight realistic facsimiles of three-dimensional animal antlers, animal horns, and the like, that are permanently affixed to a headband or hat and that are produced using the method described in claim 2, and that contain programmable LED lights and a sound responsive sensor.

8. I claim the product comprising any feature described above, either individually or in combination with any feature, in any configuration.