GB2197158A

GB2197158A - Earphone

Info

Publication number: GB2197158A
Application number: GB08718117A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jiro Nawa; Hiroaki Yanagisawa
Original assignee: Temco Japan Co Ltd
Current assignee: Temco Japan Co Ltd
Priority date: 1986-09-25
Filing date: 1987-07-30
Publication date: 1988-05-11
Anticipated expiration: 2007-07-30
Also published as: KR880004712A; FR2604589B1; GB2197158B; DE3723275A1; GB8718117D0; AU609413B2; AU7799487A; FR2604589A1

Description

1 GB2197158A 1

SPECIFICATION

Ear microphone BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an ear microphone and, more particularly, to an ear microphone suitable for use under noisy circum- stances by providing a vibration pick-up mechanism for picking up a bone conductive voice signal from the external auditory canal wall of the ear and a speaker for converting the received signal to a voice.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

The ear microphone of the above-described type has been heretofore known. For example, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,150,262 and 4,334 315, and West Germany Patent No. 2 849 52 etc. disclose the conventional ear micro phones.

These ear microphones are all of the type that a vibration pick-up such as a piezo ele ment having a weight is attached through a support such as a spring to the ear micro phone to be inserted into an external auditory canal. When the ear microphone is inserted into the external auditory canal to generate a voice, the user's voice signal sounds vibrte as a bone conductive voice signal the external auditory canal wall. The vibration pick-up mechanism picks up the vibration to generate a voltage proportional to the vibration, the voltage is amplified by an amplifier connected to a pick-up cords, and is transmitted exter nally. The amplifier is attached into an ear piece.

A speaker for converting the received signal into a voice is disposed out of the earpiece, 105 and connected through a sound conductive tube to the earpiece.

In the abovementioned conventional ear mi crophone, the sound generated from the speaker is transmitted through the sound con ductive tube into the ear. Thus, when the sound conductive tube is bent in the midway, it has such disadvantages that the sound is hardly heard in the ear, and the sound con ductive tube feasibly picks up a noise so that 115 the voice is readily mixed with the noise.

The ear microphone is closely inserted into the external auditory canal. Since the conven tional ear microphone does not has a duct for communicating between the inside and the 120 outside of the ear in the earpiece, the external auditory canal is, when the ear microphone is inserted into the external auditory canal, com pletely closed. Thus, the sound generated from the speaker is enclosed in the external 125 auditory canal to become unnatural sound.

Since the external sound is not heard from the ear of the side into which the ear microphone is inserted, the directional feeling of the ear is lost to be dangerous. In addition, since the external auditory canal is closed as described above, it has such a disadvantage that the external auditory canal is readily sweat.

Further, the vibration pick-up mechanism in the conventional ear microphone is disposed in parallel with the external auditory canal at attaching time. In this arrangement, namely, when the pick-up mechanism is laterally disposed, the earpiece containing the pick- up mechanism must be disposed laterally in long length, with the result that the end of the earpiece to be inserted into the external auditory canal must be increased in length. However, since the vibration is picked up through the end of the earpiece inserted into the external auditory canal, the end portion of the earpiece cannot be softened. Since the end of the earpiece is inserted deeply into the external auditory canal, the user's attaching feeding of the earpiece is deteriorated to possibly cause the user's ear to feel a pain. Moreover, an ear discharge tends to be stored in the sound canal formed at the end of the earpiece, and there is a disadvantage that the ear discharge is hardly cleaned.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a bidirectional ear micro- phone suitable for use in a mass production by avoiding the mixture of a noise due to a sound conductive tube and the attenuation of a sound from a speaker, improving the clarity of the sound and reducing the number of parts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ear microphone which can eliminate an increase in sound pressure (sound enclosing feeling) in the ear at attaching time, can hear external sound, and can hardly generate an ear discharge in the ear.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an ear microphone which attains good attaching feeling without deeply inserting into the external auditory canal and can be composed of a soft material at the end of an earpiece.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an ear microphone which causes no pain even if deeply inserted into the ear and can be readily cleaned at the end thereof.

Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of an ear microphone according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of an earpiece of the ear microphone; Fig. 3 is a view showing the attaching state of the ear microphone to the ear; Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of another embodiment of the invention; and 2 GB2197158A 2 Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of still another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED

EMBODIMENTS The most preferable embodiment of the pre sent invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

An earpiece 1 is ordinarily formed of plastic, and an inserting portion 2 of the earpiece 1, to be inserted into an external auditory canal, is projected in a curved shape capable of closely inserting into the external auditory canal. A pick-up mechanism 4 and a speaker 5 are contained in the portion of an earpiece body 3 to be disposed outside the ear. In order to associate the pickup mechanism 4 and the speaker 5 in the earpiece 1, the ear piece 3 is capable of being split longitudinally as shown in Fig. 2. The pick-up mechanism 4 85 consists of a sensing portion for sensing a bone conductive voice signal (vibration) of a user himself to be transmitted to the external auditory canal wall, and a vibration pick-up element for converting the vibration sensed by the sensing portion into an electric signal. The vibration pick-up element ordinarily employs a piezo element, but may instead employ a sili con semiconductor to detect the variation in a resistance value upon changing of the pres sure to the silicon semiconductor. The pick-up mechanism may also employ as other type a system for generating a current by vibrating a coil in a magnetic field. A sound canal 6 which communicates with the end of the in- 100 serting portion 2 from the speaker 5, is formed in the earpiece 1. A duct 7 which communicates with the end of the inserting portion 2 from the rear surface of the body 3, is formed in the earpiece 1. The front half of the duct 7 may communicate with the sound canal 6 as shown in Fig. 2. The duct 7 is provided to communicate between the inside and the outside of the ear at the time of mounting the ear microphone to balance sound pressures between the outside and the inside of the ear. Thus, since an increase in the sound pressure in the ear is eliminated to obviate a sound enclosing feeling and the duct 7 does not disturb hearing of an external sound, user's sound direction feeling is not lost. Further, the ear is not readily sweat, and the arrangement of the earpiece containing the microphone and the speaker can various ad vantages such as preventing a howling. The earpiece 1 also comprises a cord 8 leading from the pick-up mechanism 4 and a cord 9 leading from the speaker 5.

The pick-up mechanism 4 may not always necessarily be disposed laterally as shown in Fig. 2, but may be disposed longitudinally in the earpiece body 3 as shown in Fig. 4.

When the pick-up mechanism 4 is disposed laterally, the inserting portion 2 must be that much increased in the length, but when the pick-up mechanism 4 is disposed longitudinally in the body 3, the inserting portion 2 may be shortened in the length. Even if the pick-up mechanism 4 is thus disposed longitudinally, the external auditory canal wall vibration is transmitted to the earpiece 1 and is picked up by the pick-up mechanism 4 in the same manner as that the pick-up mechanism is disposed laterally. With such an arrangement of the ear- piece 1, the inserting portion 2 is shortened in the length so that the earpiece 1 is not deeply inserted in the external auditory canal. Thus, preferable attaching feeling of the earpiece 1 is attained. Since the pick-up mechanism is not disposed in the inserting portion 2, the inserting portion 2 may be formed of a soft material.

Further, in the embodiments shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the end of the inserting portion 2 may be formed to be removably. More specifically, as shown in Fig. 5, a detachable piece 10 is formed at the end of the inserting portion 2 to be detachably attached to the inserting portion 2 by means such as snap-fitting.

A passage 9 which communicates with the sound canal 6 and the duct 7 (mostly formed commonly) is perforated in the detachable piece 10. Since the passage 11 is disposed at the end of the inserting portion 2, a ear dis- charge tends to be stored, but can be simply cleaned by removing the earpiece 1 and can also be maintained in a clean state at any time. The detachable piece 10 may be formed of an elastic material such as urethane or silicon. Thus, the user's feeling of a pain in case of inserting the earpiece 1 deeply into the external auditory canal can be alleviated.

Claims

CLAIMS 105 1. An ear microphone comprising a vibration pick-up mechanism

for picking up a bone conductive sound signal from an external auditory canal wall and a speaker for converting a received signal into a voice in an earpiece. 110
2. An ear microphone according to claim 1 wherein a vibration pick-up element in said vibration pick-up mechanism is a piezo element.
3. An ear microphone according to claim 1 wherein said vibration pick-up mechanism is disposed longitudinally to an earpiece body.
4. An ear microphone according to claim 1 wherein a duct is formed from the end of the inserting portion of said earpiece in the external auditory canal to the rear surface of the earpiece body.
5. An ear microphone according to claim 4 wherein the front half of said duct is arranged to communicate with a sound canal formed from said speaker to the end of the inserting portion of said earpiece in the external auditory canal.
6. An ear microphone according to claim 1 wherein the end of the inserting portion of said earpiece in the external auditory canal is formed of an elastic material such as urethane 3 1 GB2197158A 3 or silicon, and is detachably attached to the external auditory canal.

Published 1988 atThe PatentOffice, State House, 66/71 High Holborn, London WC1R 4TP. Further copies may be obtained from The Patent Office, Sales Branch, St Mary Cray, Orpington, KentBR53RD. Printed by Burgess & Son (Abingdon) Ltd. Con. 1/87.