FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a support member, a relative method for supporting a camera inside a helmet, as well as the relative helmet, which can be applied, for example but without limitation to the generality, in the entertainment sector, for example to allow recording and broadcasting images taken by a camera inserted in the helmet, for example, of a sportsperson.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Devices are known for recording and broadcasting live TV, via streaming, or on the Internet through special channels, images taken from a point of view positioned inside a helmet.

Typically, such devices are used to provide a viewer with real-time images taken from the viewpoint of a sportsperson participating in sporting events such as, for example, motor racing, motorcycling and cycling, skiing or winter sports in general, or American football or other competitive activities.

An example of such known devices is described in patent application W02020/173555 on behalf of the Applicant and provides for attaching a camera to the padding of the helmet, at the front aperture of the latter.

Although the known devices are very appreciated by the market and widely used, they have some drawbacks.

A first drawback is that, sometimes, it is particularly complicated to mount the camera inside the helmet because, in order to film quality images, the camera must be positioned very precisely with respect to the visor of the helmet, to ensure that its field of view corresponds as closely as possible to the user's point of view.

Another drawback, connected to the previous one, consists in the fact that, due to the effect of the vibrations to which the helmet is subjected during use as sports practice, the camera can change its orientation with respect to the visor of the helmet. When this occurs, the images taken by the camera are crooked with respect to the horizon, deformed and not corresponding to the point of view of the sportsperson wearing the helmet.

Furthermore, the shape of the helmet padding varies depending on its model, so the orientation of the camera to be inserted must also be set taking into account the helmet model, greatly complicating the mounting operations of said camera.

There is therefore the need to perfect a support member and a method for supporting a camera in a helmet as well as the relative helmet, that can overcome at least one of the disadvantages of the state of the art.

To do this, it is necessary to solve the technical problem of stabilizing the position of the camera with respect to the helmet, in a fast, simple and repeatable manner.

In particular, one purpose of the present invention is to realize a support member for a camera which allows to facilitate the mounting and correct positioning of the camera inside the helmet.

Another purpose of the present invention is to realize a support member for a camera which allows the position of the camera inside the helmet to be maintained stable over time. A further object of the present invention is to realize a support member for a camera which can be easily adapted to any type, or model, of helmet.

Another object of the present invention is to realize a support member for a camera which is inexpensive and easy to produce.

The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is set forth and characterized in the independent claims.

The dependent claims describe other characteristics of the present invention or variants to the main inventive idea.

In accordance with the above purposes, and to resolve the technical problem disclosed above in a new and original way, a support member according to the present invention for supporting a camera inside a helmet comprises a containing body having both a seating configured to contain said camera and defining a rest plane for the same, and an attachment portion underneath said seating, and defining an attachment surface which is inclined with respect to said rest plane.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, said attachment surface is inclined with respect to said rest plane by an angle comprised between about 0° and about 20°, preferably between about 5° and about 15°.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, said body comprises a plurality of lateral walls which surround said seating.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, said camera also comprises a cable, and at least one of said lateral walls comprises an aperture configured to be passed through by said cable.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, said attachment portion has a variable thickness and comprises a first end that has a maximum thickness and a second end opposite said first end, which has a minimum thickness.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, at least said seating and said attachment portion are made in single body by means of additive printing technology.

The present invention further relates to a helmet comprising a both a shell having a front aperture and a padding disposed inside said shell and having a front portion side by side with at least one portion of the perimeter of said front aperture.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the helmet further comprises said support member disposed with said attachment surface in contact with said front portion of said padding.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, said padding has an external surface facing toward said shell and an internal surface facing toward the inside of said helmet and said first end of said attachment portion faces toward said internal surface of said padding and said second end of said attachment portion faces toward said external surface of said padding.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the perimeter of said front aperture has at least two substantially horizontal sides and two substantially vertical sides, and said support member is positioned in proximity to one of said vertical sides.

The present invention also relates to a method for supporting a camera and which comprises:

- inserting said camera inside said seating of said support member;

- attaching said support member to said padding in such a way as to have said attachment surface in contact with said front portion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other aspects, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of some embodiments, given as a non-restrictive example with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

- fig. 1 is a front view of a helmet provided with a support member in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

- fig. 2 is a sectional view of fig. 1 in accordance with the plane II-II;

- fig. 3 is an axonometric view of a support member in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

- fig. 4 is a top view of the support member of fig. 3 ; - fig. 5 is a sectional view of fig. 4 according to the plane V-V.

We must clarify that in the present description the phraseology and terminology used, as well as the figures in the attached drawings also as described, have the sole function of better illustrating and explaining the present invention, their function being to provide a non-limiting example of the invention itself, since the scope of protection is defined by the claims.

To facilitate comprehension, the same reference numbers have been used, where possible, to identify identical common elements in the drawings. It is understood that elements and characteristics of one embodiment can be conveniently combined or incorporated into other embodiments without further clarifications. DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

With reference to figure 1, a support member 10 is configured to allow the mounting and correct positioning of a camera 40 inside a helmet 50.

A camera 40 of the type discussed comprises a sensor 41 (fig. 2) having a lens 42 and a support body 43 for the lens 42 having a rear side 45 opposite the side where the lens 42 is present. Furthermore, a cable 46, preferably of the flat type, suitable for transmitting the images captured by the lens 42, is also connected to the sensor 41.

The camera 40 has a footprint of less than 20 mm x 20 mm x 20 mm, preferably less than 13 mm x 13 mm x 13 mm. Furthermore, a helmet 50 of the type discussed comprises a shell 51 and a padding 52 disposed inside the shell 51.

The shell 51 also comprises a front aperture 53 (fig. 1) normally positioned at the eye level of a user wearing the helmet 50. Said front aperture 53 has a perimeter 54 having two substantially horizontal sides 54a and two substantially vertical sides 54b.

It is readily understood by the person skilled in the art that the two substantially horizontal sides 54a may not be perfectly horizontal and may comprise curved or inclined sections. Likewise, the person skilled in the art also understands that the substantially vertical sides 54b may not be perfectly vertical and may comprise curved or inclined sections.

The padding 52 comprises one or more layers of materials that are even different from each other and has an external surface 55 turned towards the shell 51 and an internal surface 56 turned towards the inside of the helmet 50. The padding 52 has a thickness that is not necessarily constant throughout its extension and is defined by the minimum distance separating a certain point of the internal surface 56 from the external surface 55.

The padding 52 is interrupted at the front aperture 53 and comprises a front portion 57 (fig. 1 or 2), which joins the internal surface 56 and the external surface 55, and which is next to at least one portion of said perimeter 54.

Optionally, the padding 52 comprises two front portions 57 each of which is side by side with one respective said vertical side 54b.

In this context, the camera 40 must be positioned at a front portion 57 of the padding 52, preferably in a position lying at the same height at which, in use, the eyes of the user wearing the helmet 50 are located. This allows images to be acquired which are substantially at the level of the user's eyes.

The support member 10 comprises a containing body 11 , hereinafter body 11 , on which a seating 12 is obtained which is configured to contain the camera 40. Said seating 12 defines a rest plane 14 for the camera 40 shaped to be adherent to the rear side 45 of the camera 40, i.e. to the side opposite that where the lens 42 thereof is present.

In the example of figure 3, the rest plane 14 comprises a cavity 17 into which the rear portion of the camera 40 may be inserted. Preferably, the seating 12 is surrounded by a plurality of lateral walls 19 disposed at its perimeter and configured to prevent the camera 40 from shifting laterally on the rest plane 14 when it is inserted in the seating 12 (figures 3 to 5).

The body 11 also comprises an attachment portion 20, underneath the seating 12, defining an atachment surface 21 inclined by an angle a with respect to the rest plane 14 of the seating 12.

The atachment surface 21 is configured to be placed in contact with the front portion 57 of the padding 52 of the helmet 50 so as to effectively compensate for any inclination of the front portion 57 of the padding 52 with respect to an ideal plane I (fig. 2) on which the lens 42 must lie to correctly capture the images.

It should be noted that the support member 10 can be atached to the front portion 57 of the padding 52 by intermediate atachment means such as, for example, glue, adhesive or double-sided adhesive tapes or other means that can be similar or equivalent. In addition, here and hereinafter the expression "in contact" is also intended to mean the possibility that between the atachment surface 21 and the front portion 57 there are the aforesaid atachment means.

It is readily understood by the person skilled in the art that the choice of the angle a may vary depending on the shape of the padding 52 of the specific model of helmet 50 in which the support member 10 must be mounted. Furthermore, the angle a may depend on the inclination of the front portion 57 of the padding 52 with respect to the shell 51 and also on the desired final orientation for the lens 42 of the camera 40.

Exemplarily, said angle a can be comprised between about 0° and about 20°, more preferably between about 5° and about 15°. However, other values for the angle a are not excluded.

The inclined atachment surface 21 gives the atachment portion 20 a wedge shape, having a thickness varying from a maximum value Smax at a first end 22 thereof up to a minimum value Smin at a second end 23 thereof, opposite the first one 22.

Preferably, the seating 12 and the atachment portion 21 are made as a single body by means of additive printing technology. This makes it possible to easily produce the support member 10 and to give the desired inclination to the atachment surface 21 with extreme precision. In some embodiments, a through aperture 25 may also be obtained on the lateral walls 19 of the body 11 to allow the passage of the cable 46 connected to the sensor 41 of the camera 40. This allows keeping stable the position of the cable 46 with respect to the camera 40 and to the helmet 50 so as to prevent it from interfering with the view of the user wearing the helmet 50.

The present invention also relates to a helmet 50 of the type substantially as described above and also comprising a support member 10 in accordance with the present invention.

In this case, the support member 10 is attached to a front portion 57 of the padding 52 and is preferably disposed at a height corresponding to the level at which the user's eyes are located when wearing the helmet 50.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the attachment surface 21 of the support member 10 is in contact with the front portion 57 of the padding 52.

The fact that the attachment surface 21 is inclined with respect to the rest plane 14 of the seating 12 of the support member 10 allows to attach the support member 10 to the padding 52, effectively compensating for the inclination of the front portion 57 of the padding 52 with respect to an ideal plane I on which the lens 42 must lie to capture the images in the desired manner.

By way of example, the ideal plane I may be a plane tangent to the centre of a visor closing the front aperture 53 of the helmet 50.

The present invention further relates to a method for supporting a camera 40 inside a helmet 50 comprising an insertion step in which the camera 40 is inserted inside the seating 12 of the support member 10.

The method further comprises an attachment step in which the support member 10 is attached to the padding 52 of the helmet 50, so as to have the attachment surface 21 in contact with the front portion 57 of the padding 52.

It should be noted that known intermediate attachment means such as, for example, glue, adhesive or double-sided tapes or other similar or assimilable means may be used to attach the support member 10 to the front portion 57 of the padding 52.

Preferably, the support member 10 is positioned with the first end 22 of the attachment portion 20 facing toward the internal surface 55 of the padding 52 and the second end 23 of the attachment portion 20 facing toward the external surface 55 of the padding 52.

It is clear that modifications and/or additions of parts can be made to the support member 10, to the method and to the helmet 50 without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the claims. It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person skilled in the art will be able to make many other equivalent forms of support member 10 having the features expressed in the claims and therefore all of which falling within the scope of protection defined thereby.

In the following claims, the sole purpose of the references in brackets is to facilitate their reading and they must not be considered as restrictive factors with regard to the field of protection defined by the claims.