JP3247935B2 - Communication device using bone conduction voice - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a first housing mounted to be in contact with a human ear, and a piezoelectric device housed in the first housing for detecting bone conduction sound transmitted to the ear. A bone-conducting audio pickup unit provided with an element, a second housing mounted on the ear, and a receiving earphone housed in the second housing and emitting sound toward the inside of the ear. The present invention relates to a communication device using a bone conduction voice, in which an earphone part provided is provided, and the first housing and the second housing are configured to be connected in a forked manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Such a communication device using bone conduction voice converts a bone conduction voice transmitted to a human ear into an electric signal using a piezoelectric element such as a piezoelectric ceramic element, detects the signal, and uses the signal for transmission. In addition, it is a device for making a call with another person by using a receiving earphone for receiving. As a configuration for detecting human voice, it is common to place and detect a microphone such as an electret condenser type at the mouth of a person, but for example, it is used outdoors for use as a transceiver or a mobile phone. In such cases, it is often impossible to accurately detect human voice due to the mixing of external noise. Therefore, the bone conduction sound to the human ear is detected by converting the transmitted vibration into an electric signal using a piezoelectric element, and the sound is detected in a state where it is hardly affected by external noise. . In addition, the bone conduction voice pickup unit having the piezoelectric element provided in the first housing and the earphone unit having the receiving earphone provided in the second housing are connected to each other, and are integrally formed on the ear. By making it possible to attach it, the communication device is made more compact.

When the first housing accommodating the piezoelectric element and the second housing accommodating the earphone for reception are connected as described above, mechanical vibration of the earphone for reception based on a reception signal is transmitted to the piezoelectric element. Therefore, the call may be sent back to the other party of the call, and so-called echo or howling may occur. For this reason, conventionally, the first housing accommodating the piezoelectric element and the second housing accommodating the earphone for receiving have been configured so as to be connected in a forked manner, so that the micro vibration of the earphone for receiving is hardly transmitted to the piezoelectric element. Was.

[0004]

However, even in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, the transmission of the micro vibration of the earphone for reception to the piezoelectric element is suppressed, but the effect is not always sufficient, and an echo or the like is generated to deteriorate the communication quality. In some cases, improvement was desired. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to minimize transmission of micro-vibration of a receiving earphone to a piezoelectric element.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first housing is provided at the bottom of the concha cavity.
The first housing and the second housing
The vibration damping member is mounted in the concha of the ear, and the vibration damping member loaded in the second housing is in close contact with the inner surface of the second housing and the inner surface of the earphone for reception in the second housing. In addition, it absorbs mechanical micro-vibration of the receiving earphone due to the receiving signal. In other words, it is effective to increase the volume of the vibration damping member to absorb the micro-vibration in the receiving earphone, and the receiving earphone has a certain volume to secure the necessary volume. Focusing on the fact that the second housing has a relatively large space inside the receiving earphone in the second housing, while efficiently utilizing the originally existing space, the micro vibration of the receiving earphone itself and Micro vibration transmitted from the earphone for reception via the second housing can be effectively absorbed. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the transmission of the micro-vibration of the receiving earphone to the piezoelectric element, thereby improving the quality of the call.

[0006] With the above configuration, the damping member is formed by kneading the elastic resin member with metal powder having a large specific gravity of 2 or more.
Adhesion with the inner surface of the second housing and the like is improved, and the transmitted fine vibration causes each particle of the metal powder to vibrate and convert to thermal energy. Vibration can be absorbed more efficiently than absorbing vibration. In addition, by providing the configuration according to claim 3, the vibration damping member has the iron powder kneaded into the elastic resin member as a metal powder, and the weight ratio of the iron powder to the entire vibration damping member is as follows: 0.5 or more.
It is set to be 75 or less. That is, the vibration absorbing ability of the vibration damping member increases as the proportion of the iron powder to be kneaded increases, but if it is excessively large, the vibration damping member cannot maintain an appropriate shape. By setting the ratio, it is possible to maintain both an appropriate shape and improve the vibration absorbing ability.

[0007] Further, by providing the structure of the fourth aspect, when the vibration damping member is loaded into the second housing,
The position of the narrow groove forming portion formed on the contact surface with the inner surface of the second housing in the vibration damping member changes posture, thereby facilitating the smooth mounting of the vibration damping member in the second housing. In addition, after the loading, the adhesion of the vibration-controlling member to the inner surface of the second howing is improved by the restoring force of the narrow groove forming portion whose posture has changed to the original posture. Thus, the vibration can be efficiently absorbed by the vibration damping member while the vibration damping member is easily loaded into the second housing. or,
With the configuration according to the fifth aspect, the wiring of the earphone for reception is inserted through the through hole for wiring insertion formed in the vibration damping member, and the connection between the earphone for reception and the bone conduction voice pickup unit is connected. It is managed around the side. Therefore, the wiring of the receiving earphone goes out of the second housing,
The wire can be prevented from being damaged by being caught on another object, and the wiring work can be facilitated since the wire is inserted through the through hole for wiring.

[0008]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a communication apparatus using a bone conduction voice according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, the communication device mainly includes a bone conduction voice pickup unit V that detects a bone conduction voice transmitted to a human ear.
P and an earphone SP for converting the voice signal of the other party of the call into voice and emitting the voice to the inside of the ear. The bone conduction voice pickup unit VP includes a first housing 1 which is mounted in contact with a human ear as described later, and a bone conduction voice transmitted to the ear which is housed in the first housing 1. Piezoelectric ceramic element 1 as piezoelectric element to be detected
The earphone SP includes a second housing 6 attached to the ear, and a receiving earphone 8 housed in the second housing 6 and emitting sound toward the inside of the ear.
The first housing 1 and the second housing 6 are configured to be connected in a forked manner. This communication device is attached to the concha region Y of the human ear, which is hatched in FIG. The mounted state is as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 3, in which the first housing 1 comes into contact with the bottom of the concha cavity Y, and the bone conduction sound to the human ear is stored therein. To the piezoceramic element 12.

The first housing 1 is formed of urethane resin, vinyl chloride, or the like. Inside the first housing 1 is a sectional view taken along the line PP of FIGS. 1A and 1A.
As shown in (b), in addition to the piezoelectric ceramic element 12,
An electric field effect transistor 13 and a substrate 10 on which the electric field effect transistor 13 is mounted and which fixes and holds one end in the longitudinal direction of a piezoelectric ceramic element 12 formed in a strip shape are provided. In a posture along the bottom surface of the turbinate cavity Y, and the first housing 1
It is supported to be able to vibrate freely. Piezoelectric ceramic element 12 and field effect transistor 1 in first housing 1
3 and the like are covered by a shield case 11 to prevent external noise from entering the circuit. The shape of the first housing 1 around the location where the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 is present is also shaped to conform to such a posture of the piezoelectric ceramic element 12. Thereby, the first housing 1 near the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 and the bottom B and the side S of the concha cavity Y
The contact area with the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 can be effectively transmitted to the piezoelectric ceramic element 12.

The second housing 6 is also formed of urethane resin, vinyl chloride, or the like in the same manner as the first housing 1. Inside the second housing 6, in addition to the earphone 8 for receiving a sound, a vibration damping member VA is provided. It is loaded and equipped. The damping member VA is formed in the shape shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2A, the earphone 8 is loaded so as to be in close contact with the inner surface of the second housing 6 and the inner surface of the receiving earphone 8 on the inner side of the second housing 6. As shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of narrow grooves 30 are formed on a peripheral surface that comes into contact with the inner surface of the second housing 6, and a through hole 31 is formed so as to penetrate a substantially central portion of the vibration damping member VA. . The narrow groove 30 facilitates loading of the vibration damping member VA into the second housing 6 by elastic deformation in the vicinity of the narrow groove 30 and, after the vibration damping member VA and the inner surface of the second housing 6 are loaded. The through hole 31 is for inserting the wiring 9 from a communication device (not shown) or the like into the earphone 8 for reception. The material of the vibration damping member VA is a material obtained by kneading a metal powder into silicon rubber, which is an elastic resin member. And kneaded so that the weight ratio of iron powder to the total weight of the damping member VA is in the range of 0.5 or more and 0.75 or less. The metal powder to be kneaded with the elastic resin member may be a metal powder other than iron powder, but preferably has a specific gravity of 2 or more in the powder state in order to obtain a sufficient vibration absorbing effect.

The first housing 1 for accommodating the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 is provided with a vertical through-hole at an end opposite to the side on which the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 is accommodated, and the through-hole extends through the second housing 6. The portion 6a is inserted and is in a fitted state. As a result, the housing 1 is
a is pivotally supported about the axis of the vertical axis, and has a forked shape as described above. In addition, due to the presence of this fitting portion,
Vibration transmission from the receiving earphone 8 to the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 housed in the front end portion of the housing 1 that contacts the bottom of the concha cavity Y is suppressed, which contributes to maintaining a good communication state. The swing width of the first housing 1 is
As shown in FIG. 1B, the distance is defined by the distance between the stopper surface 21 formed on the extension 6a and the base-side outer surface 22 of the housing 1, and with the posture shown in FIG. A swing of about ± 20 ° is possible. The space in the extension 6a serving as the pivot axis of the first housing 1 is a passage for the wiring 7 to the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 and the wiring 9 to the receiving earphone 8.

As shown in FIG. 2, the circuit configuration of the communication device is such that the output voltage of the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 is converted and amplified by a field effect transistor 13 and then output. Element 1
One wire is used as a common line for the wire 7 to the wire 2 and the wire 9 to the earphone for receiving. When the user talks with the communication device having the above-mentioned configuration worn on the ear as shown in FIG. 3, the vibration caused by the voice is transmitted to the ear as bone conduction voice, and the vibration causes the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 to vibrate. Then, it is converted into an electric signal corresponding to the audio signal. The electric signal is transmitted to the other party of the conversation via the wiring 7 and a communication device (not shown), and the conversation made by the other party is transmitted to the receiving earphone 8 via the communication device and the wiring 9 (not shown). And the conversation between the two can be performed with the influence of external noise reduced.

[Other Embodiments] Other embodiments will be listed below. In the above embodiment, silicone rubber is used as the elastic resin member, but various elastic resin members such as urethane rubber may be used. In the above embodiment, the first housing 1 that houses the piezoelectric ceramic element 12 and the second housing 6 that houses the earphone 8 for receiving are formed so as to form a forked shape in a swingable fitting state. However, the first housing 1 and the second housing 1
The housing 6 and the housing 6 may be integrally formed and fixedly connected to each other to form a forked shape.

In the claims, reference numerals are provided for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the attached drawings.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit configuration diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a mounted state according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an ear according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the vibration damping member according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st housing 6 2nd housing 8 Reception earphone 12 Piezoelectric element 30 Narrow groove 31 Through hole SP Earphone part VP Bone conduction voice pickup part VA Vibration suppression member Y concha cavity

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first housing (1) mounted in contact with a human ear, and a piezoelectric member housed in the first housing (1) for detecting bone conduction sound transmitted to the ear. A bone conduction audio pickup unit (VP) provided with an element (12); a second housing (6) mounted on the ear; and a second housing (6) housed in the second housing (6). An earphone unit (SP) provided with a receiving earphone (8) for emitting voice to one side; and the first housing (1) and the second housing (6) are bifurcated. A communication device using a bone conduction voice configured in a state, wherein the first housing (1) is provided at the bottom of a concha region (Y).
The first housing (1) and the
A second housing (6) for the concha region of the ear (Y)
And the inner surface of the second housing (6) and the inner surface of the earphone (8) on the inner side of the second housing (6) in the second housing (6). In a state of close contact,
A communication device using a bone conduction voice, in which a vibration damping member (VA) for absorbing mechanical vibration is mounted. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein said vibration damping member (VA) is made of an elastic resin member kneaded with a metal powder having a specific gravity of 2 or more in a powder state. 3. The bone according to claim 2, wherein the metal powder is iron powder, and a weight ratio of the kneaded metal powder to the vibration damping member (VA) is 0.5 or more and 0.75 or less. A communication device using conduction voice. 4. The second member in the vibration damping member (VA).
4. The communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a narrow groove (30) is formed on a contact surface with the inner surface of the housing (6). 5. A through-hole for wiring insertion which connects the vibration-reducing member (VA) to a side on which the earphone for reception (8) is present and a connection side to the bone conduction voice pickup section (VP). The communication device using bone conduction voice according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein 31) is formed.