Accessory for holding a contact lens

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Shown in FIGS.
1 and 2 is an accessory 10 for holding a contact lens as a user inserts the lens into his eye or removes the lens from his eye.
The accessory also includes a means for guiding the user in such process, and can be used to immerse the lens in soaking or cleaning solution without requiring the user to touch the lens with his or her hands.
The accessory 10 includes a cup element 12 that is shaped and sized to hold a contact lens on a concave surface 14 thereof.
The cup element includes a rear surface 16 which is convex, and the cup has an air passage 18 defined therethrough.
The cup element is made of material that can be cleaned in water or in contact lens cleaning and soaking solution so that germs are not likely to be passed to the lens from the cup element.
The cup element is used to hold and control the contact lens in place of the user's fingers, and can be cleaned easier and faster than the user's fingers or hands.
The cup can also be used to move a contact lens in the user's eye to re-locate such lens, or the like.
The cup element includes a rim 19 which is in a plane.
The cup element 12 is supported in position to move against a user's cornea or against a contact lens by a fluid circuit and support means 20.
The means 20 includes an L-shaped bracket 22 having a long leg 24 and a short leg 26.
The short leg 26 has one end thereof attached to the cup element, and the long leg has one end thereof mounted on a flexible ball 28.
The bracket 22 is hollow and includes an air passage 30 therethrough, with the ball being hollow.
The bracket is fluidically connected to the inside of the ball and to the air passage 18 so that air is moved from the ball out of the fluid passage as the ball is collapsed from the undistorted configuration shown in FIG.
1 towards the collapsed and distorted configuration shown in FIG.
2.
Air then moves through the air passage 18 as the ball moves back to the undistorted FIG.
1 configuration from the FIG