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US 6,009,577 AGranted
Transformable travel pillow
OwnerJudy A. Dayinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A transformable travel (neck) pillow is disclosed having two configurations: one, where the granular fill contents of the pillow are positioned in a collar end of a pillowcase to form a horseshoe-shaped type of pillow enclosure similar to neck pillows known at this time. Alternately, a flap of the pillowcase may be released and fill material allowed to move to a plain end of the pillow so that two tubular end sections which formerly formed the collars of the neck pillow are now empty and can be folded over the side of the pillowcase to form a rectangular-type pillow. It is expected that such a pillow would be used with organic granular-type fill materials, such as buckwheat husks (hulls).
Claims20
A convertible neck pillow comprising:
- a pillowcase enclosing a particular volume of a granular fill material;
- wherein said pillowcase includes a collar end and plain end;
- wherein said pillowcase at said collar end includes two tubular collar sections extending approximately in the same direction with a saddle section sized to receive the neck of a person extending between the two tubular collar sections;
- wherein the size of said pillowcase is such that
- when said granular fill material is positioned to substantially fill said collar end of said pillowcase, said two tubular collar sections of said pillowcase and a middle portion of said pillowcase, including said saddle section, are substantially full of granular material, while granular fill material is substantially absent from said plain end of said pillowcase, such that a plain end flap of said pillowcase can be folded over a side of said pillowcase to capture and hold the granular fill material in said collar end of said pillowcase;
- when said granular fill material is positioned to substantially fill said plain end of said pillowcase, said plain end of said pillowcase and said middle portion of said pillowcase, are substantially full of granular material, while granular fill material is substantially absent from said two tubular collar sections at said collar end of said pillowcase, such that said two tubular collar sections of said pillowcase can be folded over a side of said pillowcase to capture and hold the granular fill material in said plain end of said pillowcase.
3 more elements
A convertible neck pillow comprising:
- a pillowcase enclosing a particular volume of flowable fill material;
- wherein said pillowcase includes a collar end and plain end;
- wherein said pillowcase at said collar end includes two tubular collar sections extending approximately in the same direction with a saddle section sized to receive the neck of a person extending between the two tubular collar sections;
- wherein the size of said pillowcase is such that
- in a first configuration when said particular volume of flowable fill material is positioned to substantially fill said collar end of said pillowcase, said two tubular collar sections of said pillowcase and a middle portion of said pillowcase, including said saddle section, are substantially full of flowable material, while flowable fill material is substantially absent from said plain end of said pillowcase, such that a plain end flap of said pillowcase can be folded over a side of said pillowcase to capture and hold the flowable fill material in said collar end of said pillowcase;
- in a second configuration when said particular volume of flowable fill material is positioned to substantially fill said plain end of said pillowcase, said plain end of said pillowcase and said middle portion of said pillowcase, are substantially full of flowable material, while flowable fill material is substantially absent from said two tubular collar sections at said collar end of said pillowcase, such that said two tubular collar sections of said pillowcase can be folded over a side of said pillowcase to capture and hold the flowable fill material in said plain end of said pillowcase.
3 more elements
A method of converting a neck pillow to a plain pillow comprising the steps of:
- releasing a plain end flap of a pillowcase from a side of said pillowcase;
- causing a fill of said pillow to flow from a set of two tubular collar sections which extend approximately in the same direction on two sides of a neck saddle portion of said pillowcase in a collar end of said pillowcase to a plain end of said pillowcase, thus leaving the two tubular collar sections substantially empty of fill and said plain end flap full of fill;
- folding the now substantially empty two tubular collar sections onto the side of the pillowcase and attaching them to the side of the pillowcase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.