Lever-Activated Contact Lens Support for Single-Touch Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional contact lens packaging requires multiple touches and manipulations, leading to unsanitary conditions, potential lens damage, and inconvenience, while existing single-touch designs fail to consistently achieve seamless transfer without inverting or dropping the lens.
Innovation Solution
A contact lens package with a lever-activated lens support system that lifts the lens out of the solution in a convex orientation, allowing single-touch transfer to the wearer's finger, featuring a pivot mechanism, lens support, and air egress channels to minimize optical damage and solution drainage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional molded plastic base with cavity is used to house contact lens, then lens can be stored in package, but user must fish lens out and flip it requiring multiple touches which is unsanitary and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The contact lens is positioned convex-side-up (inverted orientation from conventional concave-side-up) in the package, allowing the lens to be picked up directly with the correct orientation for eye placement, eliminating the need to fish and flip the lens
Solution Approach 2:
The lens is pre-positioned in the package with the correct convex-side-up orientation and attached to the lens support, so that when the user opens the package, the lens is already ready for single-touch transfer without requiring additional manipulation or flipping
2Ease of operation
If lens is positioned convex-side-up to eliminate flipping, then single touch transfer becomes possible, but lens may still require fishing from packaging solution or manipulation
Solution Approach 1:
A lens support structure acts as an intermediary between the contact lens and the user's finger, holding the lens in place and enabling reliable single-touch transfer by allowing the lens to be dabbed off the support onto the finger with consistent success
Solution Approach 2:
The lens support structure is extracted from the conventional molded base design, providing a dedicated mechanism that separates lens holding functions from the packaging container, enabling more reliable and controlled lens transfer
3Ease of operation
If multiple touches and manipulations are required, then lens can be transferred to eye, but contaminants or pathogens can be transferred from hand to lens and ultimately to eye
Solution Approach 1:
The lens is pre-positioned and pre-oriented in the package, so that the user performs only a single clean dabbing motion to transfer the lens, minimizing the time the lens is exposed to potential contaminants and reducing the number of times the user's fingers contact the lens or surrounding surfaces
4Ease of operation
If lens is overly manipulated during transfer, then lens can be positioned on eye, but lens can tear, rip, or distort
Solution Approach 1:
By positioning the lens convex-side-up in the package, the lens is presented in the correct orientation for eye placement from the start, eliminating the flipping and repositioning maneuvers that can cause mechanical stress, tearing, or distortion of the lens
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to improved contact lens packages and lens supports for use therein. A contact lens package may have a lid, a base having a cavity that houses a contact lens and packaging solution and a lever. A lens support configured lift the contact lens out of the packaging solution in a position on the lens support capable of single-touch transfer by a user. The package may include a locking mechanism configured to lock the lever in place when the lens support is lifted to a predetermined lift angle.