Wireless earring assembly

• US 20090202096A1
• Filed: 04/09/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: William Frederick Ryann
• Original Assignee: William Frederick Ryann
• Inventors: Ryann, William Frederick
• Application Number:
  US12/384,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20090202096A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/374
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 7/00 Ear-rings; Devices for piercing the ear-lobes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/05 specially adapted for use on head, throat or breast
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6066 including a wireless connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1016 Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/105 Earpiece supports, e.g. ear hooks for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones

Abstract

A wireless or “Bluetooth” earpiece assembly configured to physically contact a user substantially exclusively at an outer ear location of a user'"'"'s ear when in use. For example, the outer ear location may be an ear lobe providing the assembly with an appearance of an earring. The assembly is configured to distribute a significant portion of its bulk away from the isolated location of a user'"'"'s ear for long term user comfort without sacrifice of audio or communicational integrity. The wireless earpiece assembly simultaneously eliminates extraneous wiring in order to optimize the un-encumbering user-friendly advantages afforded by wireless technology.

Claims

1. A wireless earpiece assembly comprising:

a speaker for delivering sound to an ear of a user;

a casing for housing a component of the wireless earpiece assembly;

a fastening mechanism for securing the wireless earpiece assembly to an outer ear location of the ear and accommodating said speaker; and

a casing support coupled to said fastening mechanism and said casing to displace said casing from said fastening mechanism to a location below the ear.

2. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 1 wherein said fastening mechanism is one of a piercing, a clamp, a cuff, a wrap.

3. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 1 wherein the outer ear location is one of an ear lobe of the ear, cartilage at the back of the ear, and cartilage at the front of the ear.

4. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 1 wherein said casing is positioned along said fastening mechanism relative to said speaker as a counterbalance thereto.

5. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 1 wherein the component is one of a microprocessor, a microphone, an actuator, a power source, a light emitting diode, and a transceiver and antenna assembly.

6. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 5 wherein the actuator is an electronic reader for actuation by a manual touching thereof.

7. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 1 wherein the location below the ear is a location between the ear and a neckline of the user.

8. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 7 wherein said casing support is of a pliant conformation for loosely suspending said casing from said coupling mechanism.

9. The wireless earpiece assembly of claim 8 wherein the microphone is a focused microphone.

10. An earpiece comprising:

a fastening mechanism for securing the earpiece to an outer ear location of an ear of a user;

a speaker for delivering sound to the ear; and

a speaker support for electrical and physical coupling of said speaker to said fastening mechanism, said speaker support to provide a stable separation between said speaker and the user'"'"'s ear, said speaker equipped with directional sound delivery capacity to focus the sound across the separation to the user'"'"'s ear during the delivering while maintaining substantial personal integrity of the sound.

11. The earpiece of claim 10 wherein said speaker support is of conformable wiring configured to stably retain a user-defined shape.

13. The earpiece of claim 10 wherein the separation is up to about 0.5 inches.

14. A method of employing a wireless earpiece assembly, the method comprising:

securing a wireless earpiece assembly to an outer ear location of a user'"'"'s ear with a fastening mechanism which accommodates a speaker, a casing support coupled to the fastening mechanism to displace a casing housing a component of the assembly to a location between the ear and a neckline of the user; and

wirelessly coupling the wireless earpiece assembly to an audio device.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the audio device is a mobile cell phone.