Sports ball collector and dispenser apparatus
Inactive Publication Date: 2016-09-08
BARANDAO MOSSA +1
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- Abstract
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AI Technical Summary
Benefits of technology
The present invention provides a ball collector and dispenser apparatus that is easy to use, doesn't require bending down, and makes the dispensing and emptying processes easy to control. This overcomes the limitations of existing ball-collector apparatuses.
Problems solved by technology
First, its single-tube design makes it impossible for the ball collector to collect more than one ball at a time.
Second, bending down is required to pick up a ball collector of this type when the ball collector is resting on the floor, as the ball collector cannot stand alone, and thus requires a supporting wall, a column, or a flat surface to rest (lean or lie) against, thereby causing repeated physical stresses and strains onto the user every time the user needs to bend lower his / her back to reach for the ball collector.
Also, the nature of not being able to stand alone, which is apparently caused by its lacking of sustainable center of activity to support its entire structure, also renders a ball collector of this type unsuitable to be a storage unit even though such a ball collector can collect and hold around 23 balls.
Third, when it comes to collecting balls scattered across a floor in a heavy usage environment, a ball collector of this or similar type can only picks up one ball at a time and requires proper aligning of its tube nozzle over an aimed ball and applying a downward force or pressure to cause to the aimed ball to enter and be retained inside the single tube.
Thus, the ball-collecting process is rather inefficient, slow, and requires a high level of steady hand eye coordination, which can be stressful for many users.
Fourth, when it comes to dispensing and emptying collected balls, a ball collector of this type only allows one ball at a time to exit one end of the single tube, thereby rendering a dispensing or emptying process relatively unsmooth inefficient, and relatively slow.
Also, for sports like table-tennis or tennis, there is no convenient way for the user to reach the inside of the single-tube for a retained ball, thereby not being able to function as a “serve practice buddy” to facilitate the training of serving (which may be considered one of the most important area of sports like table-tennis or tennis).
Briefly, bending down is once again required to pick up a ball collector of this type when the ball collector is resting on the floor, as the ball collector cannot standalone due to its lacking of a solid base.
The repeated motions of bending down inevitably causes stress and discomfort onto the user.
Due to this nature of not being able to stand alone by itself, a ball collector of this type is not suitable to be an effective storage unit.
Further, when it comes to collecting scattered balls, a good net-scooping motion and technique (with the long handle which extends laterally away from the net) is required, lacking of which would often causes aimed balls being pushed away from the ball collector.
Also, when the net is close to two-thirds (⅔) of its capacity, continuous scooping motion used to collect more balls becomes less and less efficient as the scooping motion tends to send balls already in the net flying out.
These limitations render the ball-collecting process rather inefficient, slow and difficult for many users.
Also, repeated scooping can quickly wear out the frame of the netting and compromise its structural integrity, thus making the ball collector less durable.
Specifically, the emptying is usually achieved by first having one hand on the handle and another hand pulling the bottom of the net to form a funnel-like shape and then inverting the “funnel”, which doe cause the collected balls to be emptied but in such a highly scattered or unorderly manner that a good portion of collected balls can miss the beneath container and fall and become scattered on the floor.
First, Bulatao's ball-collector apparatus uses an elongated bar handle that laterally extends away from the ball-collector frame. This causes Bulatao's apparatus to be not capable of standing alone with its elongated bar handle disposed and extended in its upright direction, since this elongated bar handle design, when paired with its away-situated ball-collector frame, simply lacks a center of gravity to support the elongated bar handle to stand in its upright direction. In fact, even if there is a wall or column which the elongated bar handle can lean against in its upright direction, the leaning is largely unreliable and unstable, causing the elongated bar handle to eventually fall from its upright direction to its natural generally lateral direction. As such, bending down is still mostly required to pick up Bulatao's ball-collector apparatus (as the ball-collector apparatus usually ends up resting on the floor in its natural lateral resting position with the ball-collector frame sitting on the floor and the elongated bar handle extending laterally away from the ball-collector frame). Such a bending down to pick up the ball-collector apparatus, when repeated times after times, can, as discussed above in connection with the ball collectors shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, cause physical stress, strains and discomfort onto the user.
Second, Bulatao's elongated bar handle design, when paired with its away-situated ball-collector frame, may present some safety challenges. Briefly, its elongated bar handle extending away from the ball-collector frame essentially causes the elongated bar handle to protrude across the floor at a relatively low height, which can easily cause a passer-by (not aware of the handle situated beneath him / her) to be tripped when a Bulatao's apparatus is resting on the floor in its natural resting position of its ball-collector frame resting on the floor.
Third, when it comes to collecting balls scattered on the floor, Bulatao's elongated bar handle design, when paired with its away-situated ball-collector frame, requires an excretion of additional force or pressure from the user via the elongated bar handle, when compared to a ball-collector apparatus with a same or similar bottom-level ball-collector frame but with a handle immediately and directly elevated above the ball-collector frame, due to apparent physics principles, thereby making the capturing of scattered balls with its ball-collector frame more difficult and less efficient for a user. Also, the use of its elongated bar handle requires lowering of a user's hands, and therefore body frame, which causes more stress and discomfort onto the user.
Fourth, when it comes to dispensing or emptying collected balls (contained in the ball-container receptacle above the elastic-members-based ball-collector frame), due to its tapered and relatively narrow dispensing end, a user has to squeeze on the dispensing end to make collected balls to be dispensed one ball at a time, especially causing the operation of getting the last few contained balls to become rather difficult and inconvenient. In addition, due to its tapered and relatively narrow dispensing end, it is also difficult for a user to reach a ball contained inside the ball-container receptacle, a characteristics which makes a Bulatao's apparatus unsuitable to be a serve practice buddy. Further, Bulatao's apparatus simply lacks a rather smooth and fast way of emptying collected balls (contained in the ball-container receptacle) into a container lying beneath the apparatus.
First, Beavin's design still requires some transformation before the handle (for exerting downward force or pressure on the ball-collector frame) can be formed. As such, Beavin's apparatus is not a “pick-and-use” type of conveniently accessible ball-collector apparatus.
Second, Beavin's apparatus requires a relatively oversize design, since the apparatus is designed to transform a collector apparatus into a seat where an adult user of a reasonable weight can sit. As such, Beavin's apparatus most likely requires a steel frame, and is inevitably relatively bigger and heavier (compared to a typical ball-collector apparatus), which is not convenient and optimal for a user to carry the apparatus as the user moves around to collect balls scattered on the floor, ground or field.
Third, the handle, when not used for exerting downward force or pressure on the ball-collector frame to collect scattered balls, is designed to be also used as two legs in the seating mode, which can weaken and wear out the handle (formed of the two legs) over a relatively shorter passage of time (compared to a ball-collector apparatus which does not require such a dual use of the grabbing handle).
Fourth, when it comes to the process of emptying the collected balls into a container (typically lying underneath its ball-container receptacle), Beavin's apparatus requires the user to go through a series of transformation steps, such as, e.g., retracting the two legs (which can be doubly used to form the grabbing handle for ball-collecting). Besides, there is no defined path way for the otherwise retained balls (retained in the ball-container receptacle) to exit the ball-container receptacle, and as a result, the retained balls may flow out of the receptacle scattered without order, which, similar to the emptying process of the net-scooper apparatus shown in FIG. 1B, may cause a few otherwise retained balls miss the beneath container and fall and become scattered on the floor or on the field.
Briefly, although Tucker's apparatus also employs an elastic-members-based ball-collector frame and a handle (for exerting downward force or pressure on the ball-collector frame) which may be held during a ball-collecting process without requiring a user to bend down, the handle of Tucker's apparatus nonetheless has no other meaningful use.
Thus, when it comes to the ball-dispensing and the ball-emptying processes, a user has to bend down to reach the ball-container receptacle immediately above the ball-collector frame, unzip a zip lock, and let the balls retained in the ball-container receptacle roll out, which renders either process inconvenient to carry out and which certainly renders Tucker's apparatus unsuitable to be a serve practice buddy.
Method used
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[0031]In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, specific exemplary embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosed embodiments. For example, specific details such as specific method orders, structures, elements, and connections have been presented herein. However, it is to be understood that the specific details presented need not be utilized to practice embodiments of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
[0032]References within the specification to “one embodiment,”“an embodiment,”“embodiments”, and “one or more embodiments” are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one...
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A sporting ball collector and apparatus is provided to overcome undesirable issues in the existing ball-collector apparatuses. The disclosed apparatus is structured and configured to achieve, among many other advantages, a realizing of the pick-and-use type of ease to use, an obviating of any need for bending down when it comes to ball-collecting, and a rendering of the dispensing process easy and defined and the emptying process easy and controlled. The disclosed apparatus comprises a receptacle-collector part, a multi-purpose tray part and a handle-bracket part.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 129,013, filed Mar. 5, 2015, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The present disclosure generally relates to a sports ball collector apparatus. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a light-weight and durable sports ball collector apparatus which is easy-to-operate and pretty much stress-and-discomfort-free when it comes to collecting sports balls scattered on a ground or floor as the apparatus does not require a user to bend the user's back during the collecting operation, and which can be quickly, easily and conveniently turned into a ball-dispenser or ball-emptier without any need for the user to go through steps that may incur stress, difficulty or inconvenience.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]There are quite a few different types of sport...
Claims
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IPC IPC(8): A63B47/02A63B47/00
CPCA63B47/002A63B47/02A63B2102/02A63B2102/16A63B2102/32
InventorBARANDAO, MOSSATSAI, MIIN-JY
OwnerBARANDAO MOSSA