Modern, tubeless automobile tires are far more reliable and puncture resistant than their tube based predecessors. Thus, chronic under inflation of automobile tires is less of a problem. Nevertheless, the increased demand for high mileage efficiency and the prevalence of multi-car families has created a consumer demand for portable inflation devices capable of maintaining an automobile's tires at an optimal inflation (i.e. neither over inflated nor under inflated). Various methods and systems of inflating objects (e.g. automobile tires) exist to meet this demand, but they are limited in their portability, programmability, and/or reliance on external air compressors. The DriveGreen™ one-shot tire inflator by Drive Green, Inc. is a portable automatic inflator with a manual preset, but it does not store more than one preset at a time and requires a separate, external air compressor in order to function. In addition, the DriveGreen™ one-shot tire inflator does not have deflation or electronic numeric readout capabilities. The PT-702 programmable tire have deflation or electronic numeric readout capabilities. The PT-702 programmable tire inflator/deflator by Protech is a stationary system and is not portable. In addition, the PT-702 device does not store more than one preset at a time and does not use a 12 Volt power supply. The 12-Volt Jumpstart & Tire Inflator by Nocord uses a 12 Volt power supply, but is not suitable for automatic inflation of multiple sets of tires from multiple cars and does not automatically inflate and deflate to a selected preset air pressure. Accordingly, there is a need for a method of inflating and/or deflating an object to a desired air pressure using a portable, programmable inflation system.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds