Bath Towel Bib Release Collar for Hands-Free Infant Bathing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Bathing infants and pets often results in the bather becoming soaked, requiring both hands to manage them, while maintaining dryness is challenging, leading to discomfort and potentially negative associations for the infant or pet.
Innovation Solution
A bath towel bib with a collar that forms a releasable loop around the user's neck, featuring an actuatable mechanism to release the loop when the absorbent cloth is pulled away, allowing hands-free bathing and a built-in tote bag for easy carrying.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the user uses a traditional towel to dry themselves during bathing, then they can maintain dryness, but they lose hand freedom and cannot properly handle the infant or pet
Solution Approach 1:
The bathing system is segmented into two separate functional components: a wearable bib that protects the user's torso from water, and a separate towel for drying. This segmentation allows the user to maintain hand freedom while preventing wetness, as the bib provides passive protection without requiring the user to hold a towel.
Solution Approach 2:
The bib acts as an intermediary protective layer between the water source and the user's clothing/body. Instead of directly exposing the user to water or requiring them to constantly manage a towel, the bib mediates by providing continuous passive protection, freeing the hands to handle the infant or pet.
2Ease of manufacture
If the user wraps the infant in a towel after bathing, then the infant is dried, but the process requires laying the infant down which can chill them
Solution Approach 1:
The user prepares the drying towel in advance by placing it over their shoulder or positioning it within easy reach before the bathing process begins. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the infant needs to be dried, the towel is already in place and can be quickly applied without requiring the infant to be laid down on a changing table or bed, thereby preventing chilling.
3Reliability
If the bib uses a traditional securement method, then it stays on the user, but it requires manual adjustment and cannot be easily removed
Solution Approach 1:
The bib incorporates a drawstring mechanism that allows the user to automatically adjust and secure the bib to their own body measurements by pulling the drawstring and tying it. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for manual adjustment by another person and enables easy removal by simply untying the knot, providing both reliable retention and ease of operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the user to keep both hands free while bathing, maintaining dryness and facilitating the wrapping of the infant or pet, reducing the risk of chilling and enhancing the bonding experience, while the tote bag allows convenient carrying.
Implementation Method 1
an absorbent cloth fixedly attached to the collar and operatively arranged to hang from the collar in front of the user's torso
Data Source
AI summary
A bath towel bib including a collar adapted to form a releasably securable loop around a user's neck, an actuatable means for releasing the loop from around the user's neck, and an absorbent cloth fixedly attached to the collar and operatively arranged to hang from the collar in front of the user's torso when the loop is releasably secured around the user's neck, wherein the actuatable means for releasing the loop from around the user's neck is operatively arranged to actuate when the absorbent cloth is pulled in a direction away from the user's neck. Further, the invention relates to a combination bath towel and bib with a built-in tote bag that allows a user to easily fold and carry the combination bath towel and bib with built-in tote bag in the nature of a backpack.