The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 03, 1994
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1992
Masaharu Senoue, Yokkaichi, JP;
Haruhiko Naruse, Hikone, JP;
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An air massaging device having at least one inflatable air bag adapted to be laid against a portion of the human body. The device includes an air pump generating a pressurized air and a distributor valve which has an open position of feeding the pressurized air to the air bag and a closed position of allowing the pressurized air to be discharged from the air bag to the atmosphere in order to repeat inflating and deflating the air bag. A single pressure sensor is disposed upstream of the distributor valve to monitor a pressure level developed on the side of the air pump. A control circuit is included to activate the air pump on a time-period basis in order to give a desired pressure level to which the air bag is inflated. The control circuit operates to provide one or more initial inflation cycle and subsequent inflation cycles alternated by deflating cycles. During the initial inflating cycle, the air pump is activated for a pre-determined standard inflation time period to inflate the air bag and then stops while keeping the air bag inflated for a short time interval in which the pressure level of the air bag is monitored. In the subsequent inflating cycles, the air pump is activated for a varying inflation time period which is a function of the previous inflation time period, a desired target pressure level selected by a user, and the pressure level monitored in the previous inflation cycle.