Helmet with two-way radio communication faculty

• US 4,833,726 A
• Filed: 03/02/1987
• Issued: 05/23/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/1986
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NGK Insulators Limited 2-56 Suda-Cho Mizuho-Ku Nagoya City Aichi PREF Japan
• Original Assignee: NGK Insulators Limited
• Inventors: Tanaka, Naoki, Katsukawa, Hiroyuki, Kawaguchi, Toshiyuki, Shinoda, Katsuro
• Primary Examiner(s): Griffin, Robert L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KUNTZ, CURTIS A
• Application Number:
  US07/020,954
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 455/89, 455/90, 455/351, 455/95, 455/128, 455/127, 338/68, 2/422-425, 379/428, 379/430-431, 381/111-114, 381/122, 381/169, 381/183
• US Class Current: 455/90.3
• CPC Class Codes: A42B 3/30 Mounting radio sets or communication systems
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/276 for mounting on helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3866 carried on the head

Abstract

A helmet with two-way radio communication faculty including a cap-like outer shell made of hard and electrically insulating plastic material, a cap-like shock absorbing member arranged within the outer shell, an ear-pad member secured to one side edge of the outer shell, a transmitter unit arranged in a top recess formed in an outer surface of the shock absorbing member at its top portion, a receiver unit arranged on an inner surface of the ear-pad member, a battery unit arranged in a side recess formed in the outer surface of the shock absorbing member at its side which is opposite to a side on which the ear-pad member is secured to the outer shell, a transmitting dipole antenna made of a metal foil secured on an inner surface of the outer shell at its one side with the aid of an electrically insulating adhesive tape, and a receiving dipole antenna made of a metal foil secured on the inner surface of the outer shell at its other side with the aid of an electrically insulating adhesive tape.

Claims

1. A helmet with two-way radio communication faculty, comprising:

a cap-like outer shell made of hard and electrically insulating material;

an ear-pad member made of hard and electrically insulating material and secured to a side edge of said outer shell;

a cap-like shock absorbing member made of electrically insulating and shock absorbing material, said shock absorbing member being arranged within said outer shell and having a plurality of recesses formed in an outer surface thereof;

a sound converting means for converting sound into an audio signal;

a transmitter unit for converting said audio signal into a high frequency signal;

a transmitting antenna for transmitting said high frequency signal as electromagnetic waves;

a receiving antenna for receiving electromagnetic waves transmitted from other transmitting antennas to regenerate a high frequency signal therein;

a receiver unit for receiving said high frequency signal regenerated in said receiving antenna and generating an audio signal;

a sound reproducing means for receiving said audio signal generated by said receiver unit and reproducing sound; and

a battery unit for energizing said transmitter unit and receiver unit;

whereby one of said transmitter unit, receiver unit and battery unit is provided on an inner surface of said ear-pad member and the remaining units are arranged separately in said recesses formed in the outer surface of the shock absorbing member, and said transmitting antenna and receiving antenna are secured to an inner surface of said outer shell at side portions opposite to each other.

2. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said shock absorbing member has a top recess formed in the outer surface at its top portion and a side recess formed in the outer surface at its side portion which is opposite to a side portion on which said ear-pad member is secured to said outer shell.

3. A helmet according to claim 2, wherein said receiving unit is arranged on the inner surface of the ear-pad member, said transmitter unit and battery unit are arranged in said top and side recesses, respectively, of the shock absorbing member.

4. A helmet according to claim 2, wherein said battery unit is arranged on the inner surface of the ear-pad member, and said transmitter and receiver units are arranged in said top and side recesses, respectively, of the shock absorbing member.

5. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said shock absorbing member has grooves formed in the outer surface thereof for accommodating electric wiring means for electrically connecting the battery unit with the transmitter and receiver units.

6. A helmet according to claim 1, further comprising a supporting member provided within said shock absorbing member for supporting the helmet on a head of a user.

7. A helmet according to claim 6, further comprising a fitting member secured to said ear-pad member, said fitting member being coupled with said outer shell with the aid of rivets which are provided for securing said supporting member to the outer shell.

8. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said sound reproducing means comprises a speaker provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member.

9. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said sound converting means comprises a microphone which is clamped into a recess formed in said shock absorbing member at its forehead edge.

10. A helmet according to any one of claims 3 or 4, wherein said shock absorbing member has a thickness of 30 to 55 mm near its top portion and a sum of a distance from the outer surface of the shock absorbing member to an upper surface of the transmitter unit arranged in the top recess and a distance from a bottom of the top recess to an inner surface of the shock absorbing member is set within a range of 9 to 25 mm.

11. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter unit provided in the top recess has a width smaller than 60 mm, a length smaller than 90 mm, and a thickness smaller than 30 mm.

12. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter unit is arranged in said top recess together with cushion material.

13. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter unit is firmly clamped into said top recess such that a bottom surface of the transmitter unit is brought into contact with a bottom surface of the top recess.

14. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter unit is placed in a casing and the casing is placed in the top recess.

15. A helmet according to claim 14, wherein said casing has a plurality of leg portions with folded lags and the shock absorbing member has a plurality of ventilation holes through which said lags of leg portions are projected over the inner surface of the shock absorbing member.

16. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter unit is placed in the top recess and an opening of the top recess is covered with an adhesive tape made of electrically insulating material.

17. A helmet according to claim 10, wherein a heat-shrinkable film made of electrically insulating plastic material is provided on the outer surface of the shock absorbing member so that the transmitter and battery units and electric conductors are placed in position on the outer surface of the shock absorbing member.

18. A helmet according to claim 1, further comprising a cap-like holding member made of electrically insulating material and having a plurality of recesses corresponding to said plurality of recesses formed in said shock absorbing member, said transmitter, receiver and battery units being arranged in the recesses of the holding member and the holding member being placed on the shock absorbing member such that said recesses of the holding member are fitted in said recesses of the shock absorbing member.

19. A helmet according to claim 1, further comprising a power switch for switching an energy supply to the transmitter and receiver units, said power switch being provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member.

20. A helmet according to claim 19, wherein said receiver unit comprises a volume control knob provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member.

21. A helmet according to claim 19, wherein said battery unit comprises at least one rechargeable battery and a battery recharging jack provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member.

22. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter unit is arranged in a top recess formed in the outer surface of the shock absorbing member at its top portion, the receiver unit is arranged on the inner surface of the ear-pad member, said transmitting antenna is provided on the inner surface of the outer shell at its side portion which is remote from said ear-pad member, and said receiving antenna is provided on the inner surface of the outer shell at its side portion on which side portion said ear-pad member is secured to the outer shell.

23. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein each of said transmitting and receiving antennas is formed by a dipole antenna having an antenna length of a half wavelength.

24. A helmet according to claim 23, wherein each of said transmitting and receiving antennas is formed by a metal foil made of a metal selected from a group consisting of copper, aluminum and brass.

25. A helmet according to claim 24, wherein said transmitting and receiving antennas are secured on the inner surface of the outer shell by means of adhesive tapes made of electrically insulating synthetic resin selected from a group consisting of silicone resin, epoxy resin, polyethylene resin and polypropylene resin.

26. A helmet according to claim 23, wherein each of said transmitting and receiving antennas has a ratio of width to length within a range of 0.02 to 0.1.

27. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said sound converting means comprises a microphone provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member, a hollow tube made of electrically insulating material and coupled with said ear-pad member at its one end, the other end of the hollow tube being extended near a mouth of a user, and a sound collecting piece made of electrically insulating material and provided at the other end of the hollow tube.

28. A helmet according to claim 27, wherein said hollow tube comprises a semi-flexible tube made of electrically insulating plastics and an insulating rubber coating applied on said semi-flexible tube.

29. A helmet according to claim 27, wherein said hollow tube is secured to the ear-pad member movably between an upper position and a lower position in which the sound collecting piece is faced with the mouth of the user.

30. A helmet according to claim 29, wherein said transmitting unit comprises an on-off switch which is driven to an on-condition by the movement of the hollow tube into said lower position, whereby said transmitter unit is energized when said on-off switch is in the on-condition.

32. A helmet according to claim 29 further comprises a microphone switch which is driven to an on-condition by the movement of the hollow tube into the lower position.

33. A helmet according to claim 32, wherein said microphone switch comprises a first opening formed in the hollow tube at its root portion, and a fixed pipe having a second opening, said microphone being arranged in said fixed pipe, whereby said first opening of the hollow tube is aligned with said second opening of the fixed pipe when said hollow tube is driven into the lower position.

34. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said sound converting means comprises a hollow tube having one end secured to the ear-pad member, a sound collecting piece arranged at the other end of the hollow tube, an optical microphone provided in said sound collecting piece, first and second optical fiber cables both extending from said optical microphone to said transmitter unit through said hollow tube, a light source arranged in the transmitter unit for emitting light having a constant intensity, said light being conducted through said first optical fiber cable to said optical microphone, and an audio signal detector arranged in the transmitter unit for receiving light modulated by sound in said optical microphone and transmitted through said second optical fiber cable to detect an audio signal.

35. A helmet according to claim 1, wherein said cap-like outer shell and ear-pad member are made of material selected from a group consisting of polycarbonate, polyethylene, vinyl chloride, epoxy, urethane and fiber reinforced plastics.

36. A helmet according to claim 35, wherein said shock absorbing member is made of foamed polystyrene.

31. A helmet according to claim 31, wherein said on-off switch is formed by a self-return switch which is biased into off-condition.

37. A two-way radio communication system with a helmet having a hard and electrically insulating outer shell and a hard and electrically insulating ear-pad member secured to one side edge of the outer shell, comprising:

a housing means for accommodating a transmitter unit, a receiver unit, a battery unit, a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna, said battery unit electrically coupled to said transmitter and receiver units, said transmitting antenna and receiving antenna being secured to an inner surface of said outer shell;

a sound reproducing means arranged on an inner surface of the ear-pad member for generating sound;

a sound collecting means secured to the helmet for collecting sound;

a first communication cable means for coupling the sound reproducing means with the receiver unit; and

a second communicating cable means for coupling the sound collecting means with the transmitter unit;

wherein said sound collecting means comprises a sound collecting piece and a hollow tube having one end coupled with said sound collecting piece and the other end secured to said ear-pad member, and said second communication cable means comprises a second flexible tube having one end communicated with the other end of said hollow tube and the other end coupled with a microphone provided in said housing means.

38. The system according to claim 37, wherein said sound reproducing means comprises a cone-like portion provided on the inner surface of the ear-pad member and said first communication cable means comprises a first flexible tube having one end electrically connecting said cone-like portion and the other end electrically connecting a speaker provided in said housing means.

39. A system according to claim 37, wherein said hollow tube is secured to the ear-pad member movably between an upper position and a lower position at which said sound collecting piece is faced with a mouth of a user.

40. A system according to claim 39, wherein said sound collecting means further comprises a switching mean for electrically connecting the other end of said hollow tube with the one end of said second flexible tube only when said hollow tube is driven into said lower position.

41. A system according to claim 40, wherein said switching means comprises a first opening formed in said hollow tube at its root portion and a second opening formed in said second flexible tube at its one end, whereby said first opening is aligned with said second opening when said hollow tube is driven into said lower position.