US20170189825A1

US20170189825A1 - Ball pool for infants

Info

Publication number: US20170189825A1
Application number: US15/313,322
Authority: US
Inventors: Young Ju Lee
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-06-25
Filing date: 2014-12-19
Publication date: 2017-07-06
Also published as: WO2015199300A1; KR101437536B1

Abstract

Disclosed is a ball pool for infants includes a wall body and a bottom body, the inside of a space formed therein is filled with balls, the wall body includes compartments arranged in a rounded shape, an opening is formed at the lower portion of each compartment such that an interior member may be inserted into or taken out of the compartment through the opening, and at least one cut part opened and closed by a fastening unit is formed at the wall body. Thereby, the ball pool for infants may be easily washable, and the wall body, from which bottom is removed, may used as a cushion having various shapes. Further, the wall body may be spread through the cut part so as to be used as a cushion, and or a plurality of wall bodies may be connected so as to be used as a bumper cushion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball pool and, more particularly, to a ball pool for infants which has an excellent cushioning effect, is easily washable, and is usable as a bumper cushion or other cushions.
Description of the Related Art
A ball pool for infants is equipment including a wall body and a bottom body, in which the inside of a space formed by combining the wall body and the bottom body is filled with balls so that infants may enjoy play in the space.
In general, ball pool for infants is bulky and elements thereof are closely connected, thus having a difficulty in keeping and washing and being restricted in shape change and purpose thereof.
Safety mats to prevent accidents are placed on the floor in a living room of a home having infants or a children daycare center.
The safety mats placed on the floor serve to prevent occurrence of accidents due to impact when infants hop or fall down on the floor. However, unless a protector always keeps an eye on an infant, the infant may deviate from the mats anytime and, in this case, an accident may occur.
Therefore, a bumper cushion to prevent infants from deviating from a safety mat without permission is additionally installed at the edge of the safety mat.
However, a ball pool for infants and a bumper cushion have different functions and, thus, both thereof need to be purchased as occasion demands.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a ball pool for infants which has an excellent cushioning effect and a changeable shape, is easily washable, and is usable as a bumper cushion or other cushions.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of ball pool for infants including a wall body and a bottom body, the inside of a space formed by combining the wall body and the bottom body being filled with balls so that children can play in the space, wherein the wall body includes a plurality of compartments arranged in a rounded shape, an opening is formed at the lower portion of each of the compartments such that an interior member to maintain the shape of the compartment and to have a shock-absorbing effect and a cushioning effect may be inserted into or taken out of the compartment through the opening, and at least one cut part opened and closed by a fastening unit is formed at the wall body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) are perspective views of a ball pool in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the ball pool shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b);

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a wall body in detail;

FIG. 4 is a view of the ball pool in a state in which an upper body is combined with the wall body; and

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view illustrating a bumper cushion formed by connecting a plurality of wall bodies.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
With reference to FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), a ball pool for infants 2 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention includes a wall body 10 and a bottom body 20, in which the inside of a space formed by combining the wall body and the bottom body 20 is filled with balls so that children may enjoy play in the space.
With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the wall body 10 is includes a plurality of compartments 12 arranged in a rounded shape and extended in the length direction, and each compartment 12 includes an opening 14 formed at the lower portion thereof such that an interior member 16 to maintain the shape of the compartment 12 and to have a shock-absorbing effect and a cushioning effect may be inserted into or taken out of the compartment 12 through the opening 14. Although the present invention describes that the opening 14 is formed at the lower portion of each compartment 12, the opening 14 may be formed at the upper portion or the central portion of each compartment 12.
The inside of the interior member 16 is filled with cotton or fabric and, thus, the interior member 16 has an excellent cushioning effect and may implement the wall body 10 which is safe even if playing infants collide with the wall body 10.
Further, the ball pool for infants 2 easily gets dirty due to infants playing therein and thus needs to be frequently washed for cleanliness. However, since the inside of the interior member 16 is filled with cotton or fabric, as described above, if the wall body 10 is washed under the condition that the interior members 16 is integrally inserted into the compartments 12 of the wall body 10, the wall body 10 has a large volume and it takes a long time to dry the wet wall body 10.
In the present invention, in consideration of the above aspect, for convenience of washing, the wall body 10 is configured such that the interior members 16 inserted into the respective compartments 12 may be removed from the compartments 12 through the openings 14 and, thus, may be washed under the condition that the interior members 16 are removed from the compartments 12.
Since the interior members 16 are inserted into the respective compartments 12 of the wall body 10, the interior members 16 may play the most important role in maintaining the shape of the wall body 10 and to have a shock-absorbing effect and the interior members 16 taken out of the compartments 12 may be individually used as separate cushions.
Considering that the interior members 16 may be used as separate cushions, the interior members 16 may have various desired sizes or shapes and, thereby, the compartments 12 of the wall body 10 may have shapes and sizes which may accommodate the interior members 16.
With reference to FIG. 2, the bottom body 20 may be attached to and detached from the edge of the lower portion of the wall body 10 by a fastening unit, such as a zipper 5. Further, an upper body 30 may be attached to and detached from the edge of the upper portion of the wall body 10 by a fastening unit, such as a zipper 5.
The bottom body 20 and the upper body 30 may be formed in various shapes, such as a circular shape, a rectangular shape and a polygonal shape, so as to correspond to each other and be combined with the wall body 10. Here, since the wall body 10 is combined with the bottom body 20 and the upper body 30, the ball pool for infants 2 may have various shapes due to such combination.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the bottom body 20 and the upper body 30 exemplarily have a decagonal shape.
FIG. 4 is a view of the ball pool for infants 2 in a state in which the upper body 30 is combined with the wall body 10 by the zipper 5. If the ball pool for infants 2 is not used for a long period of time, balls 40 filling the inside of the wall body 10 may be covered with the upper body so as to prevent accumulation of dust or other foreign substances, thereby allowing the balls 40 or other objects filling the inside of the wall body 10 to be hygienically maintained.
Further, if the balls 40 fill the inside of the wall body 10, a cushioning effect may be acquired and, if the upper body 30 is disposed on the wall body 10, the ball pool for infants 2 may be formed to have a circular sofa shape.
With reference to FIG. 3, the wall body 10 includes a cut part 18 which is opened and closed by a fastening unit, such as a zipper 5.
The cut part 18 allows the wall body 10 to be spread out in the length direction under the condition that both the bottom body 20 and the upper body 30 are removed from the upper and lower portions of the wall body 10 and, thus, the wall body 10 may be placed on the wall of a room or a living room so as to prevent crawling infants from colliding with the wall. Further, as exemplarily shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of wall bodies 10 may be connected, thus being used as a bumper cushion.
In the ball pool for infants 2 of the present invention having the above-described configuration, the interior members 16 may be inserted into or taken out of the compartments 12 of the wall body 10 through the openings 14 and thus the ball pool for infants 2 may be easily washed, and the wall body 10 may be individually used alone or connected to other wall bodies 10 so as to be used as a bumper cushion.
Further, if the bottom body 20 and the upper body 30 are formed to have various shapes, the wall body 10 may be formed to have the corresponding shape and, when the upper body 30 is combined with the wall body 10, the ball pool for infants 2 may be used in place of a circular sofa.
As apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a ball pool for infants in which openings are formed at a plurality of compartments arranged in a wall body and thus interior members may be simply assembled with or disassembled from the compartments through the openings so as to have an excellent cushioning effect and to be easily washable, and a bottom body is removed from the wall body and thus the wall body alone may be used as a cushion having an arbitrary shape.
Further, since the bottom body may have an arbitrary shape and the wall body combined with the bottom body may have the corresponding shape, the overall shape of the ball pool for infants may be transformed. Moreover, the wall body may be spread in the length direction through a cut part formed at the wall body so as to be used as a cushion, or a plurality of wall bodies may be connected so as to be used as a bumper cushion.
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A ball pool for infants comprising a wall body and a bottom body, the inside of a space formed by combining the wall body and the bottom body being filled with balls so that children can play in the space,

wherein the wall body includes a plurality of compartments arranged in a rounded shape, an opening is formed at the lower portion of each of the compartments such that an interior member to maintain the shape of the compartment and to have a shock-absorbing effect and a cushioning effect may be inserted into or taken out of the compartment through the opening, and at least one cut part opened and closed by a fastening unit is formed at the wall body.

2. The ball pool for infants according to claim 1, wherein the bottom body is detachably attached to the edge of the lower portion of the wall body by a fastening unit, and the bottom body is formed to have any one of a circular shape, a rectangular shape and a polygonal shape.

3. The ball pool for infants according to claim 2, wherein an upper body is detachably attached to the edge of the upper portion of the wall body by a fastening unit, and the upper body is formed to have any one of a circular shape, a rectangular shape and a polygonal shape so as to correspond to the shape of the bottom body.