Earphones

• US 20080002835A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Inventors: Sapiejewski, Roman, Tice, William W., Collier, Ian M., Annunziato, Kevin P., Harlow, Jason M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,916,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/71.6
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/202 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1016 Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1058 Manufacture or assembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1066 Constructional aspects of the interconnection between earpiece and earpiece support earpiece support for monophonic headphones H04R1/105; earpiece support for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/2842 for loudspeaker transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/2849 for loudspeaker transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/288 for loudspeaker transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/11 Aspects relating to vents, e.g. shape, orientation, acoustic properties in ear tips of hearing devices to prevent occlusion
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's

Abstract

An earphone includes a first acoustic chamber including a reactive element and a resistive element in parallel, a second acoustic chamber separated from the first acoustic chamber by an acoustic transducer, and a housing to support the apparatus from the concha of a wearer'"'"'s ear and to extend the second acoustic chamber into the ear canal of the wearer'"'"'s ear.

A cushion includes a first material and a second material and is formed into a first region and a second region. The first region defines an exterior surface shaped to fit the concha of a human ear. The second region defines an exterior surface shaped to fit the ear canal of a human ear. The first and second regions together define an interior surface shaped to accommodate an earphone. The first material occupies a volume adjacent to the interior surface. The second material occupies a volume between the first material and the first and second outer surfaces. The first and second materials are of different hardnesses.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a first acoustic chamber including a reactive element and a resistive element in parallel,

a second acoustic chamber separated from the first acoustic chamber by an acoustic transducer, and

a housing to support the apparatus from the concha of a wearer'"'"'s ear and to extend the second acoustic chamber into the ear canal of the wearer'"'"'s ear.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising an acoustic damper in the second acoustic chamber.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the acoustic damper covers an opening in the second acoustic chamber.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 in which a portion of the acoustic damper defines a hole.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which a wall of the second acoustic chamber defines a hole that couples the second acoustic chamber to free space.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising a cushion surrounding a portion of the housing to couple the housing to the concha and ear canal of the users ear.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 in which the cushion comprises an outer region formed of a first material having a first hardness, and an inner region formed of a second material having a second hardness.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 in which the first material has a hardness of around 3 shore A to 12 shore A.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 in which the first material has a hardness of around 8 shore A.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 in which the second material has a hardness of around 30 shore A to 90 shore A.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 in which the second material has a hardness of around 40 shore A.

12. The apparatus of claim 6 in which a first region of the cushion is shaped to couple the second acoustic chamber to the ear canal, and in which a second region of the cushion is shaped to retain the apparatus to the ear, the second region not extending into the ear canal.

13. The apparatus of claim 6 in which the cushion is removable.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 also comprising a set of cushions of different sizes.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the reactive element and the resistive element cause the first acoustic chamber to have a resonance of between around 30 Hz and around 100 Hz.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the resistance element comprises a resistive port.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the reactive element comprises a reactive port.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 in which the reactive port comprises a tube coupling the first acoustic chamber to free space.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 in which the reactive port has a diameter of between around 1.0 to around 1.5 mm and a length of between around 10 to around 20 mm.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 in which the reactive port has a diameter of around 1.2 mm.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the reactive port and the resistive port couple to the first acoustic chamber at about radially opposite positions.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the reactive port and the resistive port are positioned to reduce pressure variation on a face of the transducer exposed to the first acoustic chamber.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising a plurality of reactive or resistive ports, about evenly radially distributed around a center of the acoustic transducer.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising a plurality of resistive ports about evenly radially distributed around a center of the acoustic transducer, and in which the reactive port couples to the first acoustic chamber at about the center of the acoustic transducer.

25. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising a plurality of reactive ports about evenly radially distributed around a center of the acoustic transducer, and in which the resistive port couples to the first acoustic chamber at about the center of the acoustic transducer.

26. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the first acoustic chamber is defined by a wall conforming to a basket of the acoustic transducer.

27. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the first acoustic chamber has a volume less than about 0.4 cm3, including volume occupied by the transducer.

28. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the first acoustic chamber has a volume less than about 0.2 cm3, excluding volume occupied by the transducer.

29. The apparatus of claim 1 in which

the second acoustic chamber is defined by the transducer and the housing,

the housing defines a first and a second hole,

the first hole being at an extremity of the wall extending into the wearer'"'"'s ear canal, and

the second hole being positioned to couple the acoustic chamber to free space when the apparatus is positioned in the wearer'"'"'s ear;

and

an acoustic damper is positioned across the first hole and defines a third hole having a smaller diameter than the first hole.

30. The apparatus of claim 1 also comprising a circuit to adjust a characteristic of signals provided to the acoustic transducer.

31. A set of earphones comprising a pair of apparatuses according to claim 1.

37. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a passive equalization circuit, the circuit frequency response shaping an input audio signal, the shaped audio signal driving the acoustic transducer.

38. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the passive equalization circuit is a second order filter.

39. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the passive equalization circuit is a bridged-T circuit.

32. A cushion comprising a first material and a second material, and formed into a first region and a second region, in which

the first region defines an exterior surface shaped to fit the concha of a human ear,

the second region defines an exterior surface shaped to fit the ear canal of a human ear,

the first and second regions together define an interior surface shaped to accommodate an earphone,

the first material occupies a volume adjacent to the interior surface,

the second material occupies a volume between the first material and the first and second outer surfaces, and

the first and second materials are of different hardnesses.

33. The cushion of claim 32 in which the first material has a hardness in the range of about 3 shore A to about 12 shore A.

34. The cushion of claim 33 in which the first material has a hardness of about 8 shore A.

35. The cushion of claim 32 in which the second material has a hardness in the range of about 30 shore A to about 90 shore A.

36. The cushion of claim 35 in which the first material has a hardness of about 40 shore A.