Sitting device for prevention of spinal diseases

Abstract

A sitting device for prevention of spinal diseases comprises a padded member, a thin pad extended forwardly from the padded member, and a hard block fully inserted inside the padded member. The padded member has a generally hexagonal shape, and is made of resilient materials. The hypotenuse surface of the padded member is undulating economically. The hard block is made of a non-resilient material, and is able to tolerate, without rupturing, the gravity force on a mass of an adult's body with a shape and size similar to those of the adult's buttocks. The hard block is inserted completely inside the right angle area of the padded member. The height of the front side of the hard block is greater than the distance from the lowest point of the sitter's coccyx to the lowest point of his tuberosity of the sacrum. This will always keep the sacrum in a position higher than that of two seating areas keeping the pelvis upright and symmetric. Both the padded member and the hard block have a flat bottom side to ensure stability.

Claims

1. A sitting device for prevention of spinal diseases while sitting on the floor comprising: a padded member to support a user's buttocks and upper legs; wherein the padded member has a left side, a right side, a front side, a rear side, an undulating or wavy hypotenuse surface, and flat bottom; the undulating or wavy hypotenuse surface configured to correspond with hierarchical structure, from high to low, of a user's sacrum, coccyx, and sitting tuberosities; a thin pad extended forwardly from the padded member, wherein the thin pad provides cushioning under the knees of the user and helps keep the user's knees clean during use; and a hard block fully inserted inside the padded member, wherein the hard block is configured to assist in keeping the user's pelvis in an upright position and symmetrical during use; wherein the hard block, has a hexagonal shape that has a rear side taller than a front side; wherein the rear side is parallel to the front side; wherein the hard block is a homogeneous block made of a non-resilient material, wherein the hard block does not change rigidity, and does not tilt under impact of the user's body weight, thereby keeping the user's pelvis in the upright and symmetrical position; wherein the hard block is capable of resisting the user's body weight, without deformation; and wherein the hard block is configured so that the height of a rear portion of the hard block can fill-in the distance from the lowest point of the user's sacrum to the lowest point of the user's sitting tuberosities; and wherein the height of a front portion of the hard block is higher than the distance from the lowest point of the user's coccyx to the lowest point of the user's tuberosities of the sacrum, to ensure each part of the user's sacrum, coccyx, and sitting tuberosities is supported in order to keep the user's pelvis and sacrum upright and symmetrical, thereby preventing spinal diseases.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will be better understood when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 is a left perspective view of a sitting device for prevention of spinal diseases according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a right perspective view of the sitting device shown in FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the sitting device of FIG. 1 along the line A-A shown in FIG. 2;

(5) FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the sitting device of FIG. 1 along the line B-B shown in FIG. 2;

(6) FIGS. 5-7 illustrates how to use the pillow of FIG. 1; and

(7) FIGS. 8A-8C show the energy efficient sitting posture, severe exhaustion sitting posture, and degenerative exhaustion sitting posture, respectively.

(8) While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. The drawings may not be to scale. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(9) The present invention provides a sitting device that is used for sitting on flat surfaces. The sitting device is able to keep the sitter in a upright sitting posture, preventing the head, neck, lumbar, spine from being humpbacked, distorted by keeping his pelvis always in its neutral position.

(10) According to the invention, as shown in FIGS. 1-5, the sitting device 100, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a padded member 200, a thin pad 300 extended forwardly from the padded member 200, and a hard block 400 fully inserted inside the padded member 200. Looked from the left side 202L, indicated in FIG. 1, or the right side 202R, indicated in FIG. 2, the padded member 200 has a generally hexagonal shape, and is made of resilient materials such as foam, rubber, or cotton to make the device 100 comfortable to sit on. The hypotenuse surface 201 of the padded member 200 is undulating ergonomically to ensure extra comfort for the sitter. The area of the hypotenuse surface 201 of the padded member 200 together with the area of the thin pad 300 is wider than the total area of a sitter's buttocks, upper legs, and knees, so that the sitter can sit fully on the sitting device 100 without any part of his body touching the fiat surface. The hard block 400 is made of a non-resilient material such as wood, polystyrene foam, or hard rubber, etc. The hard block having a terraced shape 400 is able to tolerate, without deformation, the gravity force on a mass of an adult's body and this hard block is computed so that its height can fill-in the distance from the lowest point of the sacrum to the lowest point of the sitting tuberosity, and the height H, indicated in FIG. 3, of the front side 403 of the hard block 400, is greater than the distance from the lowest point of the sitter's coccyx to the lowest point of his sitting tuberosities of the sacrum, thereby always raising the sacrum, coccyx above two sitting tuberosities of the pelvis in order to occupy this entire distance, assisting the coccyx always being in a position higher than that of the sitting tuberosities, therefore this hard block can tightly keep the pelvis, sacrum in a upright and symmetric posture, this property of the hard block can ensure the pelvis, sacrum being in a upright and symmetric posture, and the hard block of this height has a terraced shape in the top to bottom according to anatomical proportion, thereby preventing the spine from being humpbaked, bent, distorted when directly sit on the hard floor, the hard block is disposed inside the soft padded member having dimensions similar to those of an adult's buttocks. The hard block 400 is inserted completely inside the highest area of the padded member 200. Both the padded member 200 and the hard block 400 have a flat bottom side to ensure stability.

(11) According to FIGS. 5-7, to use the sitting device 100 properly, a sitter needs to sit in a leg-folding sitting posture in which, his buttocks are on top of the highest portion T, indicated in FIG. 3, of the padded member 200, his upper legs lie along the hypotenuse surface 201 of the padded member 200, and both of his left and right lower legs must rest inside the thin pad 300 and fold along the long side L, indicated in FIG. 2, of the thin pad 300, and the foot of one leg is adjacent to the knee of the other leg. Instead, the sitter can also sits in a cross-legged sitting posture a.k.a. Lotus sitting posture (see FIG. 7). Importantly, the sitter needs to adjust his buttocks so that his sacrum is elevated by the highest area 401 of the hard block 400, his coccyx rests on the plateau area 402 of the hard block 400, and his ischium stays close to the front side 403 of the hard block 400.

(12) That way, his pelvis is always locked in its neutral position, making the sitter sit in a correct posture which prevents spinal diseases related to wrong sitting postures including cervical, thoracic, and lumbar diseases to occur. If there were no hard block 400 inserted inside the padded member 200 as described, the sitter's pelvis would tilt freely, leading to the asymmetry of the sacrum, coccyx and the spine being distorted, humpbacked, loss of the normal curvature.

(13) Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of this description. Accordingly, this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the general manner of carrying out the invention. It is to be understood that the forms of the invention shown and described herein are to be taken as examples of embodiments. Elements and materials may be substituted for those illustrated and described herein, parts and processes may be reversed, and certain features of the invention may be utilized independently, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art after having the benefit of this description of the invention. Changes may be made in the elements described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the following claims.