FR2773687A1 - LONG POSITION READING DEVICE - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a device (1) which enables a person lying on his back to read a book, magazine or even a newspaper open above him without having to hold it in his hand, the open book or magazine being. placed beyond the vertical, ie the face to be read inclined downwards. The device is composed of a first plate (2) on which is fixed a frame (3) on which are fixed two plates of magnetic material (4) and (5) separated by a slot (6). The book is placed in the thickness of the frame behind the plane of the two plates and the bundle (8) of pages to be read in the slot. We open the beam to the page we want to read. The page is kept open by a strip (11) provided with a magnet at each end, the magnets (12) and (13) sticking to the two magnetic plates (4) and (5). You can also place a newspaper in front of the plates (4) and (5) and behind two identical strips (11) at the top and bottom. The newspaper is prevented from slipping by placing one or two separate magnets (17) on the surface of the newspaper. The entire device is fixed on the top of a bed table or on a horizontal rod (25) connected to a base provided with casters or fixed to a wall or a partition.

Description

-1- The present invention relates to a device allowing a person

  lying on your back to read a book, magazine, magazine or even a newspaper open above it without having to hold it in your hand, the open book or magazine being placed beyond the vertical, it is to say the side to read tilted down. The device allows the person to turn the page in a very simple way and, once turned, to maintain it in the plane of the book or magazine without having to use the hands, which can then be extended along the body. This can be done very easily using both hands, but it can be done

  also using one hand.

  Several partial solutions to this problem are known, described in a certain number of patents, in particular: * French patent No. 2,660,535 describes a transparent inclined plate on which the open book is placed. If you want to turn the page, you have to lift the book behind the plate, turn the page and put the book back in place. It's a tedious operation, especially when you have to repeat it on every page. If the book is lit by

  the back, we are bothered by the reflection of the lamp on the plate.

  * French Patent No. 2,703,888 describes a device in which the open book is supported on an open frame provided with two taut wires. It is a slightly light device, especially if the book is large. Depending on the height of the book, the position of the wires is not necessarily suitable. You can't have a magazine, pages, too

fine, are not well maintained.

  * French patent n 2 312 213 describes a device where the book is fixed on a frame and held by a rod placed between two pages of the open book, the pages being held in place by a wire stretched horizontally by a counterweight. Again, the device is a bit light. If the paper is thick or the book is large, the pages are not well maintained. If on the contrary the paper is thin or if the pages are large, those of a magazine for example, the thread alone does not allow

keep them flat.

  * French patent no. 2 465 438 describes a device where the book is fixed open to a board provided with studs which hold the lower part of the pages, the

  upper part being held by a sliding stud in an oblique slot.

  * French Patent No. 2,260,068 describes a somewhat analogous but more complex device where the cover of the book is maintained by four pads and the pages opened by four other pads located on the sides and which are operated two by two. To turn a page you must use both hands and lift

  successively the left stud then the right stud.

  - European patent n EP 0 701 786 A1 describes a neighboring device

  with studs holding the pages at the top and bottom.

  * PCr patent WO 93/02592 describes a completely similar device

  o the studs are replaced by a kind of brush which clamps the pages.

  The previous four devices all have the same disadvantage to a greater or lesser degree: they only hold the pages by the sides

  lower and upper or lateral. The page will remain straight only if the paper is sufficient

  solidly rigid. In addition, the upper part of the device must be adjusted in height

  to adapt it to the size of each book.

  * European Patent No. EP 0 601 510 A1 describes a device where the cover of the open book is held on a plate by two uprights, all of the pages being free. We open the book on the desired page and we

  keep it open by applying a transparent plate which is translated perpendicular

  on the plan of the book thanks to two side racks. To turn the page it is necessary to advance the whole of the plate which can be noisy. In addition if the lighting is located behind the head of the reader, this one will always have more or less in the eye the reflection of the lamp coming from the reflection of this one on the plate

transparent.

  These achievements are complex and often expensive, they sometimes require a large number of parts to be implemented or are not very easy to use. In particular, installing the book always requires the use of two hands. It turns out that none of the devices described above, although they have been disclosed for varying lengths of time, are not

present on the market.

  The present invention aims in particular to overcome these various drawbacks. More specifically, the object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive device for manufacturing, in which a book, a magazine or a newspaper which can be read in position is inserted with a single hand. lying down, without having to hold it in your hand, while the book, the magazine

  or the newspaper is tilted beyond the vertical.

  A second objective of the invention is to hold open in a plane

  tilted beyond the vertical the book to the page you want to read.

  A third objective is to make it easy, if necessary by operating with a

  one hand, turning the page.

  A fourth objective is that the same device makes it possible to read a

  newspaper, also lying down, without having to hold it in your hand.

  3- A fifth objective is to avoid disturbing the person sleeping next door

  of the reader by the lighting necessary for the latter.

  A sixth objective of the invention is to make the device adaptable to existing bed tables or compatible with bed tables used for other purposes elsewhere. These objectives are achieved using a frame fixed on a plate and composed of three uprights, one horizontal and two perpendicular to the latter on which are fixed two rigid plates separated by a slot in which a beam of pages of the book that the person proposes to read. The plate and the frame being fixed on a horizontal rod with the possibility of rotation around

said rod.

  Advantageously, a strip is applied in front of the pages open approximately towards the middle of the book in height, this strip being maintained

pressed against said plates.

  Preferably, the plates are made of magnetic material, for example

  made of iron, and the strip is fitted with magnets at each of its ends.

  Advantageously, the slide is made of transparent material, for example plastic, which optionally makes it possible to read through without having to move it.

  while reading the same page.

  Preferably, a second strip identical to the one used is used.

  first to maintain the pages of a magazine or newspaper.

  Advantageously, one or more boards of suitable thickness are slid between the book or the magazine and the back plate to maintain the latter.

  pressed against the plates located at the front.

  Preferably, two independent magnets are applied to the plates

  magnetic when reading a newspaper to keep it in place.

  Preferably, a free board is placed in rotation along one or the other of the outer edges of the two plates so as to limit the

  light scattered towards the person next to the reader.

  Advantageously, the horizontal axis on which the device is fixed is

  supported by a leg fitted with casters.

  Advantageously, the frame supporting the magnetic plates is fixed

  directly on the top of a bed table.

  The invention will be better understood on reading the following description

  of an exemplary embodiment and of the appended figures in which * FIG. 1 presents a general view of the device, * FIG. 2 presents the device where a book is seen in place, the open page held by the slide. We also see the clipboard which allows - 4-

  limit the lighting of the person sleeping next to the reader.

  - Figure 3 shows the same device where we see a newspaper in place. We

  see also the frame fixings on the support plate.

  In the rest of the presentation, the term book is used which also applies to a magazine or magazine. The case of the newspaper is treated separately. The basic element is a frame 3 of wood, for example, or of plastic or any other suitable material, composed of three uprights, a horizontal 3.1 and two 3.2 and 3.3 respectively to the left and to the right and perpendicular to the previous one. The thickness of this frame is three to four centimeters so that you can place a book in its thickness. On this frame are fixed by gluing or screwing two iron plates 4 and 5 of seven to ten tenths of a millimeter thick. These plates can also be made of rigid plastic material including magnetic particles, or any other material having similar stiffness and magnetic properties. They are placed respectively on the left and right part of the frame so as to leave free a slot 6 of the order of one to two centimeters between them two. If necessary, to stiffen the plates 4 and 5, the upper edges can be folded in on themselves and opposite the

say plates.

  The whole of the frame 3 thus formed is fixed, in a manner which will be indicated later, against a plate 2 which can be a bed table like those usually used in hospitals and clinics. Plate 2 can also

  constitute the table itself dedicated specifically to the book support.

  We will follow the explanations below with reference to Figure 2. To place book 7, we open it by releasing a bundle 8 of the fifty to one hundred pages that we propose to read in succession, then we slide it between plates 4 and 5 and bottom plate 2 taking care to place the bundle of pages to be read in the slot 6 located between the two plates 4 and 5. The first cover and the first pages of the book are therefore kept in the volume 9 located between the left plate 4 and the bottom plate 2, while the last cover and the last pages are maintained in the volume 10 located between the right plate 5 and the bottom plate 2. In this way , when the device 1 is tilted beyond the vertical to read comfortably in the supine position, the book 7 is well maintained

  behind plates 4 and 5 and pages 8 that we intend to read are pending.

  It remains to discard these and keep them discarded. This is done by placing a strip 11 horizontally towards the middle of the book. This can be made of wood,

  metal or, preferably, transparent material, plastic or glass for example.

  This strip 11 is held pressed against the pages of the book by two permanent magnets 12 and 13 fixed by gluing or embedding at each of its ends -5- and which are attracted by the two magnetic plates 4 and 5. We can also ensure the connection between the magnets 12 and 13 and the strip 11 by semi plastic parts

  rigid in which the strip is fitted and which encloses each of the magnets.

  Advantageously, the surface of the magnets 12 and 13 facing the plates 4 and 5 respectively is coated with a varnish or any other protection which avoids scratching in the long term the surface of the plates 4 and 5 when the magnets 12 and 13 are slid. sure

said plates.

  For the fixing of the strip 11 to be effective, it is necessary to use relatively strong magnets 12 and 13 and that they themselves are in contact with the plates 4 and 5. For this, given the thickness of the page bundle 8, it is necessary that in the absence of book 7, the strip 11 itself is spaced from the plates 4 and 5 by a distance of the order of a few millimeters, typically between 2 and 4 millimeters. We can also take advantage of the flexibility of the strip 11. For this it must have a length which is approximately one and a half times the width of the open book, the simplest being that its length is a little less than the width of the

frame 3.

  When we want to turn a page, we slide the slide 11 outside the book 7, up or down, we turn the page and we slide the slide 11 on the book by pressing the largest beam of pages 8. You can also more simply remove the strip 11 with your hand and put it back in position

once the page is turned.

  These operations can be carried out with one hand. To do this, we remove the strip that we put on ourselves, we turn a page and we separate the two elements of the page bundle 8. We slide one end of the strip 11 in the middle of the two elements of the page bundle 8 and we continue the movement until the magnet 12 for example if one is right-handed, slides outside the pages of the book on

  plate 4, then gently apply magnet 13 to plate 5.

  Another way of operating smoothly and with one hand is to move aside, if one is right-handed for example, the magnet 13 of the plate 5 and to rotate the strip 11 around the edge of the magnet 12 which remains glued to plate 4 and then plays the role of hinge. The free end of the strip resting on the chest of the reader. A page is turned, then the strip 11 is raised with the hand, the fingers separating the pages of the bundle 8 at the desired location. We apply again

  gently magnet 13 on plate 5.

  When all the pages of bundle 8 have been read, the strip 11 is removed and the book 7 is slid upwards. A new bundle of pages 8 is then prepared and the book 7 is again slid as described above. These

  manipulations can be carried out with one hand.

  -6- It often happens that the binding 14 of the book is rigid and that it does not open well. In this case, the page bundle 8 does not come completely out of the slot 6. To remedy this, a board 15 of rectangular section is inserted.

  in line with the central slot 6 between the bottom plate 2 and the binding 14 of the book.

  This board 15 presses the book against the two plates 4 and 5. This operation can be carried out with one hand. To take into account the variable thicknesses of the different books and the fact that the thickness remaining in volumes 9 and 10 varies depending on whether the first / last pages of the book or the central pages are read, small boards 15 of different thicknesses are used . One can use n boards 15 used separately or placed one on the other so that their combination makes it possible to adjust the total thickness of the shim thus formed and to press the book 7 firmly against the plates 4 and 5. L 'thickness of the boards 15 is respectively equal to 1 / 2j times the thickness of the frame 3 (oj = 1, ..., n), so as to finely adjust the pitch of the possible thicknesses. For two boards these

  figures are respectively 0.5 and 0.25. For three boards they are 0.5 -

  0.25 and 0.125. The plates 15 which are not used can be stored in the space 9 to the left or 10 to the right of the book 7. The material of the boards can be wood, hollow plastic, expanded polystyrene covered or not with a

  harder surface or other suitable material.

  Another advantage of the boards 15 is to allow the book 7 to be fixed by wedging between the plates 4 and 5 and the plate 2 along the slot 6, so as to place it at eye level with the reader when the book is small, pocket book for example, and you don't want to change the height of

  the entire device 1 relative to the reader.

  The present device 1 can also be used to read journals or magazines in the same way as books. The interior width of the frame 3 must be at least equal to that of the fully deployed magazine, or approximately 46 centimeters for almost all of the magazines existing on the market. In this case, the strip 11 may not exceed the width of the pages of the magazine. The magnets 12 and 13, if they are strong enough, can remain fixed on the plates 4 and 5 respectively, even above a thickness of several tens of pages, ie one to two millimeters. Insofar as the review is relatively high and the paper which constitutes it flexible, a second strip 11 is advantageously used placed towards the top of the review, it makes it possible to maintain all of the two pages

  deployed well glued to plates 4 and 5.

  The explanations below will be followed with reference to FIG. 3. The device 1 also makes it possible to comfortably read a newspaper 16. In this case, it is simply placed in front of the plates 4 and 5 and it is maintained using two -7-

  strips 11 one placed upwards and the other downwards of plates 4 and 5.

  Advantageously, one or two additional independent magnets 17 are also used, analogous to those used in magnetic boards to prevent the newspaper from slipping, since it is not necessarily pressed against the strips 11 against the plates 4 and 5. On will follow the explanations below with reference to FIG. 2. In order for the device 1 to be usable by a person lying on a bed or a sofa, it must be placed above it. A dedicated device can be provided for this, which conventionally comprises a foot forming a rectangle equipped with four rollers and a vertical rod starting from the middle of one of the short sides of the rectangle extended by a rod 25 folded horizontally above the rectangle. . As in a bed table, the support plate of the reading device can be more or less inclined by rotation around the horizontal rod 25. The height of the table being adjustable to adapt to the height of the bed or the sofa. This adaptation is made, as in a conventional bed table, by sliding two tubes one inside the other, the first is secured to the base on casters, the second to the horizontal rod 25 support of

reading device 1.

  For aesthetic reasons, we may wish to store the entire device discreetly in the room where it is used. This is possible in the version of the device dedicated to reading. For that we dissociate the two tubes and we

  place the reading device 1 above the roller stand.

  If a bed table is available, the reading device can be fixed to this table in a removable manner. In this case it is the bed table top which replaces the plate 2 mentioned above. There are several ways to do this.

  possible, without the following descriptions being a limiting list:

  * By ACLÉ type pliers (registered trademark) 18 or drawing pliers applied to lugs 19 integral with the three uprights respectively 3.1, 3.2,

  3.3. The thickness of the legs 18 is of the order of a centimeter.

  * By three suction cups 20 applied on the table itself. Each of the suction cups 19 and the uprights 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 is made integral. of the frame by any suitable means, for example by using a metal plate 21 integral with the frame and which covers the top of the suction cup under the cam which adheres

  this one on the bed table top.

  One can also permanently fix the reading device 1 on the side opposite the bed table with respect to the horizontal axis which supports it. Any suitable means of fixing is used for this, for example studs glued or screwed on one side on the plate 2 and on the other on the back of the bed table top. In this case, the fixing handle which blocks rotation about said horizontal axis must be -8-

  placed outside the volume located between the bed table top and the plate 2.

  To be able to read comfortably in bed using this device, the open pages of the book must be lit. This can be done conventionally by using an ordinary bedside lamp placed near the head of the bed or the sofa behind the head of the reader. If you wish not to disturb the person lying next to you, you can use various lamps whose light field is limited to the surface of the book to be read: it can be conventionally a bedside lamp provided with a converging lens which delivers an approximately parallel light beam or a lamp as used in pleasure boats to read charts, it is fixed either on the bedside table, or on the plate 2 itself or on the plate of the bed table, by any suitable means, clamp for example. It can also be a headlamp attached to the reader head by straps

  elastic bands, or any other suitable means of lighting.

  We will refer to Figure 2 to follow the description below:

  When it is desired to further limit the gene caused to the person sleeping next to you by the light reflected or scattered by the book and the surface of the plates 4 and, it is useful to place in a vertical plane on the edge of the part of the frame 3 located on the side of said person, that is to say along the amount 3.2 or 3.3 as the case may be, a board 22 having the height of said amounts and 10 to 15 cm in width. The fixing is carried out by any suitable means, for example a hinge 23 thus makes it possible to fold the board 22 onto the plate 4 or 5 when the appliance is not being used. The fixing of this board during periods of non-use can be carried out by a magnet 24 secured to its end and which sticks to the

plate 4 or 5 depending on the case.

  The foregoing description of an embodiment of the invention is not

  not limiting, it is made only to help its understanding. Any other embodiment implementing the principles described falls within the scope of the

present device.

-9-

Claims (11)

Claims   1- Device for reading a book, magazine or newspaper by a person lying on his back, characterized in that it comprises a frame (3) fixed on a plate (2) and composed of three uprights, one horizontal and two perpendicular to the latter on which are fixed two rigid plates (4) and (5) separated by a slot (6) in which one engages a bundle of pages (8) of the book   or the magazine (7) that the person proposes to read.   2 - Device according to claim 1 characterized in that one applies a strip (11) in front of the pages open approximately towards the middle of the   height of the book, this strip being kept pressed against said plates.   3 - Device according to one of claims 1 or 2 characterized in that   the plates (4) and (5) are made of magnetic material and that the strip (11) is provided   magnets (12) and (13) at each of its ends.   4 - Device according to one of claims 2 or 3 characterized in that the   strip (11) is made of rigid transparent material.   5 - Device according to one of claims 1 to 4 characterized in that   that a second strip (11) is pressed against the book, magazine or newspaper.   6 - Device according to one of claims from 1 to 5 characterized in that   that one or more boards (15) of suitable thickness be slid between the book or magazine and the back plate (2) to keep the latter pressed against the   plates (4) and (5) located at the front.   7 - Device according to claim 6 characterized in that there are n boards (15) of thickness respectively equal to that of the frame (3) multiplied by (1/2) i oj = 1, ..., n.   8 - Device according to one of claims from 1 to 6 characterized in that   at least two independent magnets (17) are applied to the plates   magnetic to keep a log in place.   9 - Device according to one of claims 1 to 8 characterized in that a   board (22) is fixed freely in rotation along one or the other of the external edges of the two plates (4) or (5) and that it comprises a magnet (24) which   allows it to be held against one or other of the plates (4) or (5).   - Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that   that the plate (2) supporting the device is fixed with the possibility of rotation around   a horizontal axis (25) held above the person reading. -10-   11 - Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that   that the plate (2) is: * the tray of a bed table, * or fixed on the back of the tray of a bed table, * or fixed on a horizontal axis secured to a foot fitted with casters, * or fixed on a horizontal axis integral with the head of the bed, a wall or of a partition.