Hand operated gyroscope device
View Patent ↗A hand-held gyroscope toy or gyroscopic muscle conditioning device with an outer shell containing a drive assembly with a spring-loaded drive button at one end that charges and discharges the gearing inside to provide an accelerated rate of rotation to a flywheel inside the outer shell. The resulting high-speed rotation causes a gyro effect that can be employed as either a fidget-type toy or a resistance device for fine motor or muscle development.
1 . A gyroscope device comprising:
an outer shell housing having a cutout at a topmost point and having an ovoid shape adapted to be held in a hand of a user;
an engine assembly housed within the outer shell housing;
a manually actuatable drive button extending through a cutout at the topmost point of the outer shell housing and mechanically communicating with the engine assembly to induce a gyroscopic effect by rotating a flywheel;
wherein the manually actuatable drive button has a surface exposed from the outer shell housing adapted to be pressed by a finger of the hand of the user holding the outer shell housing toward the outer shell housing; and
wherein the engine assembly has an input set of gears operatively connected to an output set of gears and a spring gear such that induces rotation of the flywheel with repeated successive pressings of the manually actuatable drive button.
2 . The gyroscope device of claim 1 wherein the outer shell housing has an upper outer shell and a lower outer shell.
3 . The gyroscope device of claim 2 wherein the upper outer shell and the lower outer shell are joined by a center collar.
4 . The gyroscope device of claim 1 wherein the outer shell housing includes a set of rotation buttons diametrically opposed along a spherical axis of the outer shell housing and adapted to allow the hand of the user to hold the gyroscope device.
5 . The gyroscopic device of claim 4 wherein the set of rotation buttons are aligned on an axis perpendicular to a rotational plane of the flywheel.
6 . The gyroscopic device of claim 1 wherein the spring gear is a coil spring.
7 . The gyroscopic device of claim 1 whereby wherein a rack and pinion gear set provides a rotational spring bias to the spring gear.
8 . The gyroscopic device of claim 7 wherein the rotational spring bias of the spring gear resets the drive button to a non-actuated initial position.