JP2005184578A - Ear mount type sound information transmission apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an effective and compact structure for a sound information transmission apparatus adopting bone conduction wherein not only vibration of an earphone speaker but also environmental noise picked up by a housing is hardly delivered to a microphone. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus is supported by inserting an earphone part into a cavity of an ear concha, and a box part for supporting an earphone head and a microphone for stably picking up bone conduction sound vibration via an elastic material is integrated with the earphone part, and the box part is stored in a housing via a flexible elastomer material with an excellent damping characteristic. Further, an earphone speaker is separated from the earphone head and supported to the housing side by a vibration proof structure. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to the structure of an ear-mounted sound information transmitter that uses bone conduction vibration of sound.

  In this technical field, there are structures found in JP-A-9-163476 and JP-A-2000-261875, but due to the downsizing of signal processing circuits and the advancement of wireless technology, not only the microphone and earphone units but also the necessary peripheral circuits It is becoming possible to integrate the device as a device that takes in a power source and attaches it to the ear. There is a demand for an optimum structure for ensuring the performance of the bone conduction microphone in this form.

  In the conventional example, the input / output lines are drawn from the microphone unit and the earphone unit and connected to a separate signal processing unit. However, the structure in which these are miniaturized and integrated as it is is a signal processing circuit and a power supply unit. The housing part which accommodates and holds it becomes a form arrange | positioned outside the ear | edge part. In this configuration, the housing part is directly exposed to the external noise environment, so the level at which the vibration due to the external noise picked up by this is transmitted to the microphone is sufficiently small compared to the level at which the microphone picks up the sound vibration of bone conduction that is the original function. As a result, external noise is added at a considerable level, resulting in problems such as poor call quality. Therefore, a structure that reduces this phenomenon is required.

JP-A-9-163476 JP 2000-261875 A

  In the ear-mounted bone conduction sound information transmitter that integrates the signal processing unit, microphone unit, and earphone unit of the above-mentioned form, external noise is added at a considerable level, and the drawbacks such as poor communication quality are solved. It provides a structure that is sufficiently resistant to external noise that sufficiently attenuates the vibration of external noise picked up by the housing and ensures good performance as an originally functioning bone conduction microphone.

  An ear-mounted sound information transmitter according to the present invention includes a main body part, an earphone part protruding from the main body part and inserted into a human concha cavity part, and a microphone part, and the earphone speaker part accommodated in the earphone part This is an ear-mounted sound information transmitter having a structure in which the front and rear are held by a main body via a viscoelastic member. Thereby, it is possible to realize a structure that effectively blocks and attenuates external noise vibration.

  Also, a structure in which external noise vibrations are effectively blocked and attenuated can be realized by adopting a structure in which the front and rear of the support part of the microphone part are held by the main body via the viscoelastic member.

  It is possible to realize a structure in which the vibration generated by the earphone speaker, the operation vibration picked up by the housing and the external noise vibration due to the environmental sound that is a disturbance element for the bone conduction microphone are effectively blocked and attenuated. As a result, it is possible to provide a compact sound information transmitter that is resistant to external noise and has good call quality.

Fig. 1 shows the appearance of an ear-mounted sound information transmitter that implements this scheme.
On the ventral side of the signal processing circuit board storage part A that mainly stores the signal processing circuit board and the battery, the earphone part B that outputs an electrical signal of sound information as a sound wave and the sound vibration transmitted through the bone of the head A microphone part C, which is a so-called bone conduction microphone that picks up and converts it into an electric signal, protrudes.

  The earphone tip 1 of the earphone part B and the microphone tip 2 of the microphone part C are both inserted into the concha cavity part of the ear and emit sound waves from the tip hole of the earphone tip 1 and the microphone tip part. 2 is applied to the lower part of the concha cavity to pick up sound vibration.

  In addition, the entire device is hooked and held on the ear by the earphone tip 1, the microphone tip 2 and the mounting holder 3 held by the earphone tip 1.

  The signal processing circuit board housing part A is located outside the ear, a circuit that amplifies the electrical signal from the microphone part C and transmits it as a radio wave, and amplifies the radio wave received from the outside and outputs it to the earphone speaker. It has a circuit, a battery as a power source, operation buttons, a charging terminal, and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which this device is worn on the ear.
The human body portion D has a substantially vertical cross section passing through the center of the ear canal. The wearing aid 3 is elastically deformed so that its tip is applied to the upper wall of the concha cavity, and the force that applies the microphone tip 2 to the lower part of the concha cavity with an appropriate pressing force is applied. It occurs in cooperation with its own weight. Furthermore, stable mounting to the ears of the device has been realized.

  The structure of the present embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the device according to the embodiment cut longitudinally at the center.

  A radio wave received from the outside is received by an antenna (not shown), processed by the signal processing circuit board 4, and transmitted to the earphone speaker 5 through an output line as a received audio electrical signal. The earphone speaker 5 converts an electric signal into a sound wave and emits it into the funnel-shaped sound conduit 6 covering the front surface of the earphone speaker 5, and the sound wave is guided by the sound conduit 6 and passes through the hole in the earphone tip portion 1. It propagates toward the ear canal entrance.

  Here, in the earphone speaker 5, the earphone speaker 5 itself vibrates as a reaction of the force that oscillates the sound wave, and this vibration is transmitted to the surrounding members supporting it and attenuated. If no active anti-vibration and damping means are used here, the vibration will not be sufficiently attenuated and will be transmitted to the vibration pickup sensor 9 at the microphone tip 2 and the vibration pickup sensor 9 will be transmitted to the bone of the head. It is detected in the same way as voice vibration. At this time, if the vibration transmitted from the earphone speaker 5 is not sufficiently smaller than the voice vibration transmitted from the vocal cords through the head, the so-called echo phenomenon in which the caller's own voice returns to the other party in a call at a high level. Increases the call quality as a disturbing element of the call.

  In this embodiment, in order to reduce the amplitude of vibration of the earphone speaker 5, first, the sound conduit 6 integrated with the earphone speaker 5 by adhesive bonding is connected to one end of the main body housing with the tip holding member 7 and the rear holding member 8 made of viscoelastic material. It is held by the lower case 10 which is a member to attenuate the vibration of the earphone speaker 5 being transmitted to the housing. The original purpose of the sound conduit 6 is to place the earphone speaker 5 in the outer part far from the ear canal opening because it is difficult to place the earphone speaker 5 together with the microphone 2 in the concha cavity part because of the size of the earphone speaker 5. Therefore, the sound wave generated by the earphone speaker 5 is guided to the vicinity of the ear canal mouth without leaking aside. If sound waves are emitted directly toward the hole of the earphone head 1 without constituting the sound conduit, the housing is vibrated before reaching the ear canal, which is transmitted to the microphone and causes the echo level to deteriorate.

  The front holding member 7 and the rear holding member 8 are made of a plate-like viscoelastic material, and the support by this is flexible in the vibration direction of the earphone, and is relatively rigid in the direction perpendicular to this, The structure is suitable for supporting the weight of the earphone speaker 5 and the sound conduit 6 in the usage posture and lowering the cut-off frequency that interrupts vibration transmission. Further, by using this as a viscoelastic material, the vibration energy transmitted is greatly attenuated.

  The vibration of the reaction force of the earphone speaker 5 is vibration-damped and greatly attenuated by the above structure, but the sound vibration transmitted through the head that can be picked up by the microphone 2 is very weak. The effect may not be obtained. In addition, the operation vibration generated when operating the device, the sliding vibration generated when the main body rubs against the skin around the fingers and the ears, and the ambient sound that is a disturbance element for the bone conduction microphone, that is, the external noise vibrates the housing and the microphone 2 It is difficult to attenuate the amount transmitted to.

  In view of this, it is necessary to adopt means for blocking and attenuating vibration in the path from the housing, which is also a holding structure material of the earphone speaker 5, to the microphone 2. The structure will be described below.

  The microphone that houses and holds the vibration pickup sensor 9 has a holding foot 2a sandwiched between a microphone gel top 11 and a microphone gel bottom 12 of a viscoelastic material. Further, a box body portion 1a for storing and holding the holding foot portion 2a, the microphone gel upper portion 11 and the microphone gel lower portion 12 is integrally formed with the earphone 1. In addition, the earphone tip 1 holds a wearing aid 3 made of an elastic material. With these structures, the device can be stably held in the ear of the device, and the microphone 2 can be properly attached to the lower part of the concha cavity. Realizing the pressing. The upper microphone gel 11 and the lower microphone gel 12 have an effect of attenuating disturbance vibrations transmitted to the box body 1a.

  Further, as described above, since the box body 1a is a member that supports the microphone tip 2, the vibration that is effective by further adopting a structure in which the operation vibration generated in the housing and the external noise vibration are not easily transmitted thereto. Blocking is possible. The microphone earphone head holder 13 is held by a bowl-shaped part 13a that is joined and spreads around the box 1a, and the outer periphery of the bowl-like part 13a is joined to the lower case 10 and held. The hook-shaped portion 13a has a wave-shaped cross section and is made of an elastomer material having a relatively good damping characteristic. Due to its structure and material, it is caused by operation vibration and external noise transmitted to the lower case 10 which is a member of the housing. It has the effect of damping vibrations such as. Moreover, the holding effect of the microphone earphone head holder 13 on the lower case 10 in the box body 1a is as flexible as possible within the range that can fulfill the purpose of supporting the weight of the device, and the vibration blocking effect is as large as possible.

It is an external view of an Example apparatus. It is the figure which mounted the Example equipment to the ear part. It is a center part longitudinal cross-sectional view of an Example apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Earphone front-end | tip part 2 Microphone front-end | tip part 3 Mounting aid 4 Signal processing circuit board 5 Earphone speaker 6 Sound conduit | pipe 7 Tip holding member 8 Rear holding member 9 Vibration pick-up sensor 10 Lower case 11 Microphone top 12 Microphone gel bottom 13 Microphone headphone head holder

Claims (2)

  An ear-mounted sound information transmitter having a main body part, an earphone part protruding from the main body part and inserted into a human concha cavity part, and a microphone part, wherein the earphone speaker part accommodated in the earphone part An ear-mounted sound information transmitter characterized in that the front and rear are held in the main body via a viscoelastic member. An ear-mounted sound information transmitter having a main body part, an earphone part protruding from the main body part and inserted into a human concha cavity part, and a microphone part, wherein the front and back of the support part of the microphone part are viscoelastic An ear-mounted sound information transmitter characterized in that it is held in the main body via a member.

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