US 6,804,848 · Granted 2004-10-19
The Air Chamber Mattress That Adjusts While You Sleep
Imagine a mattress that's not solid all the way through—it has air-filled chambers built into the middle layer that you can adjust to support different parts of your body. By pumping air in or letting it out, sleepers can customize how firm or soft the mattress feels under their head, back, and legs, kind of like having a bed that molds itself to your exact comfort preference.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a multilayer mattress design with a specific sandwich structure: a base fabric layer, foam blocks, a middle fabric layer, adjustable air chambers on top of that, a resilient pad, and a top fabric layer. The innovation protected here is the arrangement of those side-by-side air chambers that run the full width of the mattress and can be inflated or deflated independently to change support and firmness. Anyone making a competing air mattress with this exact layering system and adjustable chamber layout would infringe.
Why it matters
This patent represents an attempt to commercialize customizable air-based sleep surfaces in the mid-2000s, when memory foam was gaining ground but adjustable firmness was still a premium feature. By combining passive foam support with active air posturing, the design aimed to offer sleepers a way to fine-tune comfort without buying multiple mattresses. While air mattresses have been around for decades, this specific modular air-chamber approach with multiple adjustable zones was designed to differentiate a product in a competitive furniture market.
Real-world use
When you lie down on certain premium adjustable air mattresses and use the pump or app to increase firmness under your lower back, you're interacting with the kind of zoned air-chamber system this patent describes.
Original USPTO abstract
A high-profile air sleep system is disclosed having an air posturizing sleep surface wherein the system comprises a base fabric cover layer, a plurality of resilient blocks overlying the base fabric cover layer, and a middle fabric cover layer overlying resilient blocks. A plurality of air chambers is carried above the middle fabric cover layer, and a resilient pad overlies the air chambers. A top fabric cover layer overlies the resilient pad. The foam blocks provide a cushion for the air chambers and the air chambers provide an upper air posturizing sleep surface. A first closure fasts the base cover layer and the middle cover layer; and a second closure fasts the middle cover layer and the top cover layer together whereby an integral high-profile sleep system is provided with an upper air sleep surface which can be adjusted to provide optimum sleep posture. The air posturizing air chambers are arranged side-by-side and generally coextend with the entirety of the middle, top, and base fabric cover layers.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,804,848
- Filing date
- 2003-03-14
- Grant date
- 2004-10-19
- Assignee
- Comfortaire Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- ROSE ERIC
- CPC class
- A47C27/082
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