1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a handrail mounted on a wall, a hallway, a staircase or other structure.
Conventionally handrails have been mounted on walls, hallways, staircases and other structures, and various forms of handrails have been developed to assist movement of people with walking difficulty such as elderly people.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a handrail having a flat top surface capable of supporting the body of a user while the user is sliding a hand or an elbow part thereof (FIG. 8). Unfortunately, the handrail in FIG. 8 does not assume a case where the handrail is grasped with fingers of the user, and thus the fingers cannot be smoothly guided when the user of the handrail walks while grasping the handrail from various directions depending on the position and muscle strength of the body of the user. Patent Literature 2 discloses a handrail assuming that the handrail is grasped by a hand of a user (FIG. 9), but unfortunately the handrail in FIG. 9 is not devised to guide the fingers of the hand smoothly and safely when the user walks while grasping the handrail. The handrails disclosed in Patent Literature 3 and Patent Literature 4 have the same problem as described above.
It is often difficult for people with walking difficulty such as elderly people, physically challenged people, and healthy people in poor physical condition to grasp a handrail and thus the handrail is required to be easily grasped. In addition, when a person walks using a handrail, the person needs to re-grasp the handrail and change the direction of grasping according to the movement of the body of the person, and thus the handrail is preferably formed so as to smoothly guide the fingers of the person, but conventionally such a handrail is not found.
2. Description of Related Art
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-218327
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-274040
Patent Literature 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-240250
Patent Literature 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-220270
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds