Wireless speaker footwear

• US 20110306299A1
• Filed: 04/19/2011
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: J A Wells and Associates LLC
• Original Assignee: J A Wells and Associates LLC
• Inventors: Wells, John Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,759 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.3
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 1/0072 made at least partially of transparent or translucent materials
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 23/08 Heel stiffeners; Toe stiffeners
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/38 with power sources
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/40 Batteries
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/50 with sound or music sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/028 associated with devices performing functions other than acoustics, e.g. electric candles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/023 Transducers incorporated in garment, rucksacks or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones

Abstract

Digital musical footwear is disclosed having hidden compartments which house a thin integrated multi-plane electronic circuit board assembly (2) and a rechargeable lithium ion battery pack. A transmitter antenna is attached to a hand held device such as a smart phone which antenna sends wireless short wave sound signals to a receiving antenna part of the circuit board assembly. Multiple mini-speakers (6, 7) are footwear mounted to play the music. Bluetooth® version 4.0 wireless protocol technology is employed in the circuit board assembly. The circuit board can be flat and hidden in a recess of a heel or curved and hidden in a wall recess of the footwear as can the battery pack. Advanced lithium ion batteries such as silicon wafer or silicon core-shell nanowire batteries may be used to reduce battery weight. Flexible flat speakers (65) such as the FleXpeaker® may also be used to further reduce weight.

Claims

1. A pair of footwear comprising plural mini-speakers mounted on at least one of the footwear of the pair, an integrated multi-planar thin circuit board assembly mounted in a hidden recess in at least one of the footwear of the pair, a thin rechargeable battery pack mounted in a hidden recess adjacent the circuit board assembly hidden recess, an amplifier integral with the circuit board assembly, a digital signal wireless receiver antenna integral with the circuit board assembly, a battery power on/off switch forming part of the circuit board assembly, a USB power access port forming part of the circuit board assembly to permit recharging the battery pack while in the battery pack recess of the footwear, Bluetooth protocol enabled circuitry forming part of the circuit board assembly which Bluetooth circuitry processes wireless digital sound signals received by the receiver antenna from a source external to the footwear and which Bluetooth circuitry sends an amplified digital sound signal from the amplifier to the mini-speakers.

2. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the recess mounting the integrated multi-planar thin circuit board assembly is formed to vertically accommodate the circuit board assembly and is located in a rear curved heel wall located above a sole of the footwear.

3. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the recess mounting the battery pack is formed to vertically accommodate the thin battery pack and is located in a curved heel wall located above a sole of the footwear.

4. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the hidden recess for the circuit board assembly is within a curved vertical heel wall extending above a sole of the footwear.

5. The footwear of claim 4 wherein the circuit board assembly is curved to conform to the curvature of the heel wall.

6. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the rechargeable battery pack is a lithium ion battery pack.

7. The footwear of claim 6 wherein each battery of the battery pack has an anode consisting of silicon wafers having nano pores therein to increase the number of charge/discharge cycles of each battery.

8. The footwear of claim 6 wherein each battery of the battery pack has an anode consisting of a silicon core-shell nano wire structure having crystalline silicon as the core and amorphous silicon wires as the shell.

9. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the footwear is in the form of a woman'"'"'s high heel shoe with the hidden recess of the circuit board assembly located beneath an angled sole portion of a heel of the shoe and the hidden recess mounting the battery pack is elongated and located in a spiked heel of the shoe with the batteries of the battery pack stacked on top of each other in the elongated recess.

10. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the footwear is in the form of a woman'"'"'s shoe having a raised block toe support mounted to the underside of a sole of the shoe with the hidden recess of the circuit board assembly located within the raised block toe support and the hidden recess mounting the battery pack also located within the raised block toe support.

11. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the Bluetooth protocol enabled circuitry uses Bluetooth version 4.0 protocol.

12. The footwear of claim 1 wherein one of the footwear has hidden weights distributed throughout the one footwear so as to give a comfortable balanced feel to the one footwear as compared with the other footwear of the pair.

13. The footwear of claim 1 wherein the circuit board assembly is encased in a protective shock resistant and waterproof material when mounted in the recess for the circuit board assembly.

14. A pair of footwear comprising at least one thin flexible flat speaker mounted on at least one of the footwear of the pair, an integrated multi-planar thin circuit board assembly mounted in a hidden recess in at least one of the footwear of the pair, a thin rechargeable battery pack mounted in a hidden recess adjacent the circuit board assembly hidden recess, an amplifier integral with the circuit board assembly, a digital signal wireless receiver antenna integral with the circuit board assembly, a battery power on/off switch forming part of the circuit board assembly, a USB power access port forming part of the circuit board assembly to permit recharging the battery pack while in the battery pack recess of the footwear, Bluetooth protocol enabled circuitry forming part of the circuit board assembly which Bluetooth circuitry processes digital wireless sound signals received by the receiver antenna from a source external to the footwear and which Bluetooth circuitry sends to the amplifier a digital sound signal for use by the at least one flat flexible speaker.

15. The pair of footwear of claim 14 wherein the thin flexible flat speaker uses an electret vibrating diaphragm film having pores of micro meter or nanometer diameter to generate sound waves.

16. The pair of footwear of claim 14 wherein each speaker includes a thin membrane having micron to nano sized pores and the circuit board assembly includes circuitry to control voltage signals applied to electrodes within each speaker to vibrate the pores of the membrane to produce digital sound.

17. The pair of footwear of claim 14 wherein the Bluetooth protocol circuitry uses Bluetooth version 4.0 protocol.

18. The pair of footwear of claim 14 wherein the hidden recess for the circuit board assembly is within a curved vertical heel wall extending above a sole of the footwear and the circuit board assembly conforms to the curvature of the heel wall.

19. The pair of footwear of claim 14 wherein each battery of the battery pack has an anode consisting of either silicon wafers having nano pores for lithium ion storage or a silicon core-shell nano wire structure having crystalline silicon as the core and amorphous silicon nano wires as the shell.

20. An audio distribution system including a Bluetooth piconet comprising the combination of a hand held Bluetooth enabled digital music source having a wireless Bluetooth signal transmitter antenna and a footwear mini-speaker system wherein the footwear mini-speaker system comprises a pair of footwear mounting plural mini-speakers thereon, an integrated thin multi-planar circuit board assembly mounted in a hidden recess of at least one of the footwear of the pair, a thin rechargeable battery pack mounted in a hidden recess adjacent the hidden recess for the circuit board assembly, an amplifier integral with the circuit board assembly, a digital signal wireless Bluetooth transceiver antenna integral with the circuit board assembly, a battery power on/off switch integral with the circuit board assembly, a USB power access port forming part of the circuit board assembly permitting recharging the battery pack while in the battery pack recess of the footwear, Bluetooth protocol enabled circuitry forming part of the circuit board assembly which Bluetooth circuitry processes wireless digital sound signals transmitted by the transmitter antenna from the hand held source to the transceiver antenna and which Bluetooth circuitry sends an amplified digital sound signal from the amplifier to the mini-speakers and a local time delay clock circuit integral with the Bluetooth circuitry to maintain periodic synchronization of the start of data received by the Bluetooth transceiver in each mini-speaker circuit board assembly and compensate for relative skew over time of each clock circuit.