Multiregion heated eye shield

• US 9,210,737 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2013
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Abominable Labs, LLC (Abom, Inc.), Tempest Optics LLC
• Original Assignee: Abominable Labs, LLC (Abom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cornelius, Jack
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Tejash
• Application Number:
  US14/040,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20140027436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 800 Days
• Field of Search: 2 1/5, 2/63, 242/5, 242/6, 242/7, 243/2, 243/5, 219/203, 219/211, 351/41, 351/62, 351/158, 359/512
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A42B 3/245 using means for heating, e.g. electric heating of the visor
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/022 Use of special optical filters, e.g. multiple layers, filters for protection against laser light or light from nuclear explosions, screens with different filter properties on different parts of the screen; Rotating slit-discs optical filters per se G02B5/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/028 Ventilation means
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/04 Eye-masks ; Devices to be worn on the face, not intended for looking through; Eye-pads for sunbathing eye-bandages A61F13/12; protective face-masks A41D13/11; protectors for shampooing A45D
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/12 Diving masks
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/28 Heating, e.g. of divers' suits, of breathing air
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 11/08 Anti-misting means, e.g. ventilating, heating H05B3/84 takes precedence; Wipers
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 1/00 Details of electric heating devices

Abstract

Eye shield device adapted for fog prevention for use in a ski goggle, dive mask, medical or testing face shield or the like, while preventing undesirable hot spots on the eye shield, comprising an optically-transparent substrate, a plurality of conductive regions defined on the substrate and connected to a powered circuit of one or more channels. The regions on the substrate are electrically isolated from each other in a first embodiment, and the regions on the substrate are not electrically isolated, or contiguous with adjacent regions on the substrate, in a second embodiment. The regions may be uniformly-sized or of varying sizes and shapes from one region to the next region, and resistivity per square of heating material applied to the regions may be selected based on formulation of the heating material and/or thickness of the heating material.

Claims

1. An eye shield adapted for use with a powered circuit having a given voltage, for preventing fogging of the eye shield and for preventing hot spots on the eye shield, comprising:

an optically-transparent substrate adapted for protecting at least one of a user'"'"'s eyes and adapted for defining at least a partially-enclosed space between at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes and said substrate;

a plurality of electrically-conductive regions of optically-transparent electrically-resistive thin-film conductive heating material on said substrate, wherein the number of conductive regions and the size of each conductive region is determined in accordance with predetermined power densities, and wherein the power density of at least one conductive region is different than the power density of another conductive region.

2. The eye shield of claim 1, further comprising at least two bus bars connected to said conductive regions and adapted for interconnecting said conductive regions with the powered circuit.

3. The eye shield of claim 1, wherein each conductive region is isolated by an electrically nonconductive area on said substrate.

4. The eye shield of claim 3, further comprising a plurality of conductive bus-bars connected to each of said conductive regions and adapted for interconnecting each said conductive region with the powered circuit.

6. The eye shield of claim 3, wherein the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions has a specified resistivity per square that is different from the specified resistivity per square of the heating material of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

8. The eye shield of claim 6, wherein the formulation of the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is selected in accordance with a given resistivity per square for the heating material.

12. The eye shield of claim 1, wherein said substrate is of an irregular shape.

14. The eye shield of claim 6, wherein at least one region of said plurality of conductive regions has a power density that is different than the power density of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

5. An eye shield adapted for use with a powered circuit having a given voltage, for preventing fogging of the eye shield and for preventing hot spots on the eye shield, comprising:

an optically-transparent substrate adapted for protecting at least one of a user'"'"'s eyes and adapted for defining at least a partially-enclosed space between at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes and said substrate;

a plurality of electrically conductive regions of optically-transparent electrically-resistive thin-film conductive heating material on said substrate, wherein the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions has a specified resistivity per square that is different from the specified resistivity per square of the heating material of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

7. The eye shield of claim 5, wherein the formulation of the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is selected in accordance with a given resistivity per square for the heating material.

9. The eye shield of claim 5, wherein the resistivity per square of the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is determined at least in part by varying the thickness of application of the heating material to said substrate.

10. The eye shield of claim 5, wherein the resistivity per square of the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is determined at least in part by varying the thickness of application of the heating material to said substrate.

11. The eye shield of claim 5, wherein the power density of each said conductive region is balanced relative to each other said conductive region for even heating across said substrate.

13. The eye shield of claim 5, wherein at least one region of said plurality of conductive regions has a power density that is different than the power density of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

15. An eye shield adapted for use with a powered circuit having a given voltage, for preventing fogging of the eye shield and for preventing hot spots on the eye shield, comprising:

An optically-transparent substrate adapted for protecting a user'"'"'s eyes and adapted for defining at least a partially-enclosed space between the user'"'"'s eye'"'"'s and said substrate; and

A plurality of electrically-isolated conductive regions of optically-transparent electrically-resistive thin-film conductive heating material on said substrate, wherein the power density of each region is the same as the power density of each other region and wherein the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions has a specified resistivity per square that is different from the specified resistivity per square of the heating material of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

17. The eye shield of claim 15, wherein the resistivity per square of said heating material of said at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is determined at least in part by varying the thickness of application of said heating material to said substrate.

19. The eye shield of claim 15, wherein the formulation of said heating material of said at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is selected in accordance with a given resistivity per square for said heating material.

16. An eye shield adapted for use with a powered circuit having a given voltage, for preventing fogging of the eye shield and for preventing hot spots on the eye shield, comprising:

An optically-transparent substrate adapted for protecting a user'"'"'s eyes and adapted for defining at least a partially-enclosed space between the user'"'"'s eye'"'"'s and said substrate; and

A plurality of contiguous conductive regions of optically-transparent electrically-resistive thin-film conductive heating material on said substrate, wherein the power density of each region is the same as the power density of each other region and wherein the heating material of at least one of said plurality of conductive regions has a specified resistivity per square that is different from the specified resistivity per square of the heating material of another of said plurality of conductive regions.

18. The eye shield of claim 16, wherein the resistivity per square of said heating material of said at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is determined at least in part by varying the thickness of application of said heating material to said substrate.

20. The eye shield of claim 16, wherein the formulation of said heating material of said at least one of said plurality of conductive regions is selected in accordance with a given resistivity per square for said heating material.