US 6,037,723 · Granted 2000-03-14
The Remote-Control Air Bed Patent That Made Sleep Customizable
Imagine a mattress where you can dial up or down how firm it feels—using a remote control, like your TV. This patent covers the whole system: the electric pump, the wireless remote, and the brains that let each side of a couple's bed have its own firmness level without bothering the other person.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers an automatic control system for air mattresses that includes a motorized pump controlled by a wireless handheld remote. What's protected here is the combination of the remote transceiver system, the pump mechanism designed to run quietly, and the control unit that manages independent firmness adjustment for each air bladder in a dual-chamber mattress. Someone making an unlicensed air bed with wireless remote firmness control would likely infringe this patent.
Why it matters
This patent belongs to Select Comfort Corporation and represents a key innovation in the premium air mattress market. By enabling users to adjust firmness on demand and independently for each side of the bed, it solved a real consumer problem: couples with different comfort preferences no longer had to compromise. The wireless remote and noise-reduction design made the product genuinely user-friendly rather than just a gimmick, creating a category that still dominates the adjustable mattress market today.
Real-world use
Every time someone reaches for the remote on their Sleep Number bed and adjusts the firmness while their partner sleeps undisturbed, they're using the exact technology this patent locked down in 2000.
Original USPTO abstract
An automatic control system for controlling the firmness of a fluid supported mattress of a bed assembly. The control system includes a motorized fluid pump, a control unit for operating the pump to adjust the firmness of the air mattress, a hand held remote control unit for actuating the control unit, and a transceiver system for transmitting information signals between the hand held unit and the control unit. The air control system provides for independent control of both bladders in a two bladder air mattress from a single unit, and allows a user to consistently set the firmness of each mattress air bladder to a desired value. The air control system includes an air pump specially designed to minimize transmission of motor noise into the environment.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,037,723
- Filing date
- 1999-02-19
- Grant date
- 2000-03-14
- Assignee
- Select Comfort Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- SHAFER; DAVID C., DUVAL; EUGENE P.
- CPC class
- A47C27/083
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