Contoured Sleep Mask Structure for Eyelash-Safe Light Blocking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sleep masks lack refinement in features such as comfort, shape, weight, and material, often overlook dermatological concerns, and fail to accommodate diverse facial features, particularly for users with eyelash extensions, leading to potential damage and discomfort.
Innovation Solution
A sleep mask design featuring contoured recesses, padding parts, and a filler part made from silk or satin, with asymmetrical valley portions and varying padding densities to conform to different facial shapes, reducing contact with eyelashes and enhancing comfort while blocking light.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If traditional sleep mask designs are used to block light, then light-blocking functionality is achieved, but comfort and accommodation of diverse facial features (particularly eyelash extensions) deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The sleep mask incorporates contoured recesses at specific locations corresponding to the wearer's eyes, creating localized variations in the mask's surface topology. These recesses allow eyelashes to extend outward without contacting the mask body, while the rest of the mask maintains its light-blocking function. This local modification resolves the contradiction by preserving light-blocking capability while improving comfort and eyelash accommodation.
Solution Approach 2:
The mask employs curved and contoured surfaces that follow the natural topology of the human face, including the curvature of the forehead, nose, and cheek areas. The contoured recesses around the eyes use smooth curved surfaces to accommodate eyelash extensions, allowing them to extend outward naturally. This curvature-based design improves comfort and fit while maintaining effective light blocking.
2Ease of operation
If finer materials are used to improve comfort and dermatological concerns, then comfort and skin health are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sleep mask is constructed from multiple separate components including the mask body, contoured recesses, padding layers, and retaining strap, which are manufactured separately and then assembled. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - using finer materials for comfort-critical areas like the eye contact surfaces while simplifying manufacturing of other parts. The modular assembly process reduces overall manufacturing complexity compared to creating a single complex piece.
Data Source
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AI summary
A sleep mask or eye mask (10) including a body (100) adapted to cover eyes of a wearer, the body having: an outer portion (500); a face portion (200); one or more padding parts (350); and two contoured recesses (300) to be associated with the eyes of a wearer when the mask is worn; and a retaining part (700) connected to the body, the retaining part being configured to retain the body to the wearer, wherein the one or more padding parts is located between the outer portion and face portion, and the contoured recesses are present in at least one of the or each padding part.