Passive audio ear filters with multiple filter elements

• US 9,131,308 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2015
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dopler Labs Incorporated
• Inventors: Oswaks, Jonathan, Wiggins, Dan, Lanman, Richard Fritz, Kraft, Noah, Palmborg, Nils Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): LUKS, JEREMY AUSTIN
• Application Number:
  US14/601,901
• Publication Number:
  US 20150208170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 230 Days
• Field of Search: 181/135, 128/867, 128/868
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 11/08 internal, e.g. earplugs
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 11/085 including an inner channel
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/04 Acoustic filters ; Acoustic resonators
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/16 Methods or devices for protecting against, or for damping, noise or other acoustic waves in general G10K11/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0232 Processing in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/32 the control being dependent upon ambient noise level or sound level
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 5/165 Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 9/025 frequency-dependent volume compression or expansion, e.g. multiple-band systems H03G9/10, H03G9/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1008 Earpieces of the supra-aural or circum-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1016 Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1083 Reduction of ambient noise active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/22 for obtaining desired frequency characteristic only circuit for combining transducers having different responses H04R3/00; for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response

Abstract

There is disclosed a passive acoustical filter including two or more filter elements coupled between an ambient and a listener'"'"'s ear, each of the filter elements selected from the group consisting of a low pass filter element, a high pass filter element, a band reject filter element, and a band pass filter element.

Claims

1. A passive acoustical filter to be coupled between an ambient and an ear of a listener, comprising:

a high-pass filter element; and

a series combination of two low-pass filter elements in parallel with the high-pass filter element.

2. The passive acoustical filter of claim 1, further comprising:

an earbud enclosing the high-pass filter element and the series combination of two low-pass filter elements.

3. The passive acoustical filter of claim 1, wherein

each of the two low-pass filter elements has a cutoff frequency of 160 Hz to 240 Hz, and

the high-pass filter element has a cutoff frequency of 14,600 Hz to 21,800 Hz.

4. The passive acoustical filter of claim 1, further comprising:

a housing having a length and first and second open ends;

a center divider running along the length of the housing to form two expansion chambers;

a first end cap closing the first end of the housing; and

a second end cap closing the second end of the housing,

wherein the center divider, the first end cap, and the second end cap collectively include channels to connect the two expansion chambers to form the series combination of two low-pass filter elements.

5. The passive acoustical filter of claim 4, further comprising:

two reticulated inserts that substantially fill the two expansion chambers.

6. The passive acoustical filter of claim 4, wherein

the center divider includes first and second longitudinal channels running parallel to the length of the housing, the first longitudinal channel being part of a connection between the two expansion chambers, and the second longitudinal channel being part of a main branch of the high-pass filter element.

7. The passive acoustical filter of claim 6, wherein the first end cap comprises:

a first aperture open to a environment; and

channels to connect the first aperture to the first expansion chamber, to connect the first aperture to the second longitudinal channel, and to connect the second expansion chamber to the first longitudinal channel.

8. The passive acoustical filter of claim 7, wherein the second end cap comprises:

a second aperture open to a environment;

a high-pass filter side branch connected to the second longitudinal channel; and

channels to connect the second aperture to the second expansion chamber, to connect the second aperture to the second longitudinal channel, and to connect the first expansion chamber to the first longitudinal channel.

9. The passive acoustical filter of claim 4, wherein the housing is a cylindrical tube.

10. The passive acoustical filter of claim 1, further comprising:

a first body piece having a first face;

a second body piece having a cavity and a second face in contact with the first face; and

an insert disposed to partially fill the cavity, wherein

the first face and the second face have recesses forming the series combination of two low-pass filter elements, and

an interstitial space between the insert and the second body piece forms a main branch of the high-pass filter element and one or more holes in the insert form a side branch of the high-pass filter element.

11. The passive acoustical filter of claim 10, wherein

the recesses in the first face include two half-cylindrical expansion chamber portions and connecting channel portions disposed in an “

S”

pattern; and

the recesses in the second face are a mirror image of the recesses in the first face.

12. The passive acoustical filter of claim 10, further comprising:

an end cap to hold the first body piece and the second body piece in alignment.