JP7520281B2 - earphone - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to earphones, and is suitable for use in earplug-type earphones, for example.

Conventionally, earphone devices vibrate a diaphragm inside a driver unit housed in a housing of the case in response to an audio signal supplied from a portable music player or the like, changing the density of the air to generate sound in response to the audio signal.

For example, in a lateral-in-the-ear type earphone device, the housing of the earphone device is supported by the user's tragus and antitragus, allowing the earphone device to be worn in the user's ear (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

In earphone devices with this configuration, because the shape of the pinna varies from user to user, when a user wears the earphone device, a gap forms between the housing and the ear canal, causing sound to leak into the gap.

Furthermore, in earphone devices with this configuration, because the shape and size of the tragus and antitragus differ from user to user, some users are unable to support the housing with the tragus and antitragus, and are therefore unable to maintain the earphones in a worn state for long periods of time, resulting in poor fit.

On the other hand, in vertical in-the-ear type earphone devices, the diaphragm is placed directly facing the entrance of the user's ear canal, and is relatively less affected by the shape of the area around the entrance of the ear canal, making it possible to provide the user with sound of stable quality (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

Earphone devices with this configuration require a holder, such as a headband or ear hanger, to hold the device in place on the ear when worn by the user, which can lead to problems such as poor portability and messing up the user's hairstyle when the headband is placed on the head.

As a solution to the problems with lateral-in-the-ear and vertical-in-the-ear earphone devices, as shown in Figures 15(A), (B), and (C), there is an earplug-type earphone device 30, which is composed of an earpiece 31 that conforms to the ear canal when worn, a roughly cylindrical sound guide tube 32 provided inside the earpiece 31, a roughly spherical housing 33 to which the sound guide tube 32 is attached, a wire 34 that is integrally formed with the housing 33, and a cord 7 connected to a driver unit (not shown) inside the housing 33.

Here, FIG. 15(A) is a side view of the earphone device 30 as viewed from the Y-Z plane, FIG. 15(B) is a rear view of the earphone device 30 as viewed from the X-Z plane, and FIG. 15(C) is a top view of the earphone device 30 as viewed from the X-Y plane.

The housing 33 is designed to vibrate a diaphragm in the driver unit in response to an audio signal supplied via the cord 7, thereby generating sound in accordance with the audio signal.

The sound guide tube 32 protrudes from the center of the front side of the housing 33, and when worn, is inserted into the ear canal via the earpiece 31, so that the sound output through the driver unit of the housing 33 is guided to the ear canal.

The earpiece 31 is made of an elastic material and is designed to be freely deformable, so that when inserted into the ear canal, it fits snugly against the ear canal, maintaining a snug fit against the user's ear while providing a soft fit.

Special Publication No. 6-81351 Special Publication No. 6-59120

In the earphone device 30 having such a configuration, as shown in top view diagram 16(A) of a user wearing the earphone device 30 at cross section A1-A1', the width W2 of the housing 33 is limited so that the housing 33 does not come into contact with the tragus 22. As a result, the size of the diaphragm (not shown) stored inside the housing 33 is also limited, resulting in a small diaphragm.

As a result, the earphone device 30 not only has a small amount of air in front of the diaphragm that can be compressed or stretched to output bass tones, but the air itself often escapes to the side of the diaphragm, meaning that the air density cannot be sufficiently changed and bass tones cannot be output efficiently.

As shown in top view 16(B) of a user wearing earphone device 30 at cross section A1-A1', earphone device 35 uses housing 34 with a width W3 that is wider than width W2 of housing 33. By widening width W3 of housing 34, the diaphragm housed therein can be made larger, but when the earphone device is worn in the user's ear, housing 34 comes into contact with tragus 22, making it difficult to maintain the earphone device in place or even to wear it at all.

As a result, in order to improve the fit of the earplug-type earphone device 30, the size of the diaphragm is inevitably limited, making it difficult to provide sound of sufficiently good quality, and conversely, making the diaphragm larger results in poor fit.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above points, and aims to propose earphones that are comfortable to wear and can provide good quality sound.

In order to solve this problem, the earphone of the present invention has a housing that houses a driver unit that converts input electrical signals into vibrations, a sound guide tube that is attached outside the center position on the front surface of the housing with its tip protruding in a direction away from the center position of the housing, an earpiece that is formed with a maximum diameter smaller than the maximum diameter of the housing and is attached to the tip of the sound guide tube and is made of an elastic member and holds the housing to the auricle by deforming to fit the shape of the ear canal, and a cord holding section that is approximately cylindrical in shape and has an outer diameter that is smaller than the maximum diameter of the housing and the maximum diameter of the earpiece from the end close to the housing to the end away from the housing , the cord holding section being connected to the rear of the housing with its center aligned with the center of the housing, and pulling the cord connected to the driver unit from the housing to the outside.

This allows the housing to be wider than before without touching the tragus when the user wears the earphones in their ears, and it also allows the diameter of the diaphragm inside the driver unit housed in the housing to be wider, allowing the user to enjoy high quality sound while still feeling comfortable when wearing the earphones.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a housing that houses a driver unit that converts an input electrical signal into vibrations, a sound guide tube that is attached outside the center position on the front surface of the housing with its tip portion protruding in a direction away from the center position of the housing, an earpiece that is formed with a maximum diameter smaller than the maximum diameter of the housing, is attached to the tip of the sound guide tube, and is made of an elastic member and holds the housing on the auricle by deforming to fit the shape of the ear canal, and an outer diameter extending from the end close to the housing to the end away from the housing is smaller than the maximum diameter of the housing and the maximum diameter of the earpiece. The earphone has a roughly cylindrical shape formed in a wide area, is connected to the rear of the housing with its center aligned with the center of the housing, and has a cord holding section that pulls the cord connected to the driver unit out from the housing to the outside.By providing a cord holding section, when a user wears the earphone in their ear, the housing does not come into contact with the tragus, and the width of the housing can be made wider than before.This allows the diameter of the diaphragm inside the driver unit stored in the housing to be increased, allowing the user to hear high quality sound in a comfortable fit.Thus, an earphone can be realized that is comfortable to wear and can provide good quality sound.

1 is a side view showing an earphone device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a rear view showing the earphone device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a bottom view of an earphone device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a top view showing the left ear mounting portion of the earphone device according to the present invention. 1 is a side view showing a left ear mounting portion of an earphone device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a rear view showing the left ear mounting portion of the earphone device according to the present invention. 11A and 11B are schematic diagrams illustrating the offset and inclination of the earphone device. FIG. 2 is a top view showing a measurement earphone device. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the measurement earphone device when worn. FIG. 2 is a top view showing the measurement earphone device when worn. FIG. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the earphone device in a worn state. FIG. 2 is a top view showing the earphone device in a worn state. 13A and 13B are schematic diagrams illustrating the offset and inclination of a sound guide tube in another embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of a conventional earphone device. FIG. 1 is a top view showing a conventional earphone when worn.

Below, one embodiment of the present invention is described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(1) External configuration of the earphone device As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 15 are given the same reference numerals, reference numeral 1 indicates the earphone device of the present invention as a whole, and is composed of an earpiece 3 which takes a shape that matches the user's ear canal when worn, a substantially cylindrical sound guide tube 4 provided inside the earpiece 3, a substantially spherical housing 5 to which the sound guide tube 4 is attached, a substantially cylindrical cord holder 6 formed integrally with the housing 5, and a cord 7 connected to a driver unit inside the housing 5.

Here, FIG. 1 is a side view of the earphone device 1 as viewed from the Y-Z plane, FIG. 2 is a rear view of the earphone device 1 as viewed from the X-Z plane, and FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the earphone device 1 as viewed from the X-Y plane.

As shown in FIG. 1, the earphone device 1 vibrates a diaphragm (not shown) in a driver unit (not shown) housed inside a housing 5 in response to an audio signal supplied from a portable music player or the like (not shown) via a cord 7 connected to the device, thereby changing the density of the air in front of the diaphragm and generating sound in response to the audio signal.

The cord holder 6 of the earphone device 1 fixes the position at which the cord 7 is pulled out from the housing 5, and also allows the user to grasp the cord holder 6 with their fingertips when wearing the earphone device.

As shown in Figures 1 and 3, the sound guide tube 4 protrudes from the front side of the housing 5 integrally with the surface of the housing 5, and when the earphone device 1 is attached to the user's ear, sound is guided from the sound guide tube tip 4A to the ear canal 23 (Figure 16).

In addition, the sound guide tube 4 is made of ABS (Acrylonitril Butadiene Styrene) resin, which allows the sound output from the housing 5 to be guided to the ear canal 23 without leaking out.

The earpiece 3 is made of silicone rubber, which gives it elasticity. When the earphone device 1 is placed in the user's ear, it can deform to fit the shape of the ear canal 23 and form a tight seal, preventing sound from leaking out of the sound guide tube 4.

(2) Internal Configuration of Earphone Device Next, the internal configuration of the earphone device 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6 in which the same reference numerals are used to denote parts corresponding to those in FIG.

Figure 4 is a top view of the earphone device 1 when cross-sectionally taken along the A2-A2' line, Figure 5 is a side view of the earphone device 1 when cross-sectionally taken along the A3-A3' line, and Figure 6 is a rear view of the earphone device 1 when cross-sectionally taken along the A4-A4' line.

As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the housing 5 is made of plastic, with the front housing part 5A and the rear housing part 5B ultrasonically welded together to keep the internal space sufficiently airtight.

The housing 5 is formed by ultrasonically welding the front housing part 5A and the rear housing part 5B together. During this process, the resin melts and leaks to the outside, so the housing is sealed with a rubber ring 16 to protect and conceal the resin.

Furthermore, the housing 5 is formed with a width W1 larger than the width W2 (FIG. 16(A)) of the conventional housing 33, and accordingly, it is possible to accommodate a diaphragm 15 larger than the diaphragm (not shown) accommodated in the conventional housing 33.

As shown in Figures 5 and 6, the cord holding portion 6 contains a cord knot 11 for the cord 7, which serves as a stopper to prevent the cord 7 from falling out of the housing 5 when the cord 7 is pulled by the user.

As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the driver unit 12 housed in the housing 5 is composed of a magnet 13, a voice coil 14, and a diaphragm 15. The diaphragm 15 with the voice coil 14 is arranged in the magnetic circuit formed by the magnet 13. The diaphragm 15 is driven according to the audio signal input to the voice coil 14 via the cord 7, and the air in front of the diaphragm 15 is changed in density, so that the sound corresponding to the audio signal is guided to the outside through the sound guide tube 4.

(3) Method of Setting the Offset and Angle of the Sound Conduit Compared to a conventional earphone device 30 (FIG. 15C), the earphone device 1 (FIG. 3) has the sound conduit 4 protruding from the front side of the housing 5 attached on the X-direction side of the center line L1 of the housing 5; in other words, the sound conduit 4 is offset by a predetermined offset amount with respect to the center line L1 of the housing 5.

In addition, compared to the conventional earphone device 30, the sound conduit tip 4A of the earphone device 1 faces away from the center line L1 of the housing 5, meaning that the sound conduit 4 is tilted at a predetermined angle (hereinafter referred to as the inclination angle) with respect to the Y axis.

As shown in Figure 7, the offset amount and inclination angle of the sound guide tube 4 will be explained using a top view of the earphone device 1 taken along the A2-A2' cross section.

The center line L1 of the housing 5 is drawn by connecting the center point on the front surface of the housing front part 5A (hereinafter referred to as the housing front midpoint P1) with the center point on the back surface of the cord holder 6 (hereinafter referred to as the cord holder midpoint P2). The inclination angle AR1 centered on the intersection point P5 between the central axis L2 of the sound conduit 4 and the center line L1 of the housing 5, which passes through the center point of the sound conduit tip part 4A (hereinafter referred to as the sound conduit tip midpoint P3), is defined as the inclination of the sound conduit 4 with respect to the housing 5, and the distance in the X-axis direction from the center line L1 on the X-Y plane to the intersection point of the central axis L2 of the sound conduit 4 and the housing front part 5A (hereinafter referred to as the sound conduit root point P4) is defined as the offset amount OF1.

(3-1) Method for Setting the Offset of the Sound Conduit In this method for setting the offset, the offset amount OF1 is determined by measuring a dummy ear that has been made by taking a mold of an actual human ear. In this embodiment, this is set to 5 mm, for example.

(3-2) Method of Setting the Inclination Angle of the Sound Conduit Next, a procedure for setting the inclination angle AR1 of the sound conduit 4 with respect to the front surface of the housing 5 will be explained below.

In this tilt angle setting method, first prepare a measurement earphone device 8 with a measuring rod 17 attached to the back side of the cord holder 6, as shown in Figure 8. Set the offset amount OF1 of the measurement earphone device 8 to 5 mm, and the tilt angle of the sound conduit 4 with respect to the front surface of the housing 5 to, for example, 40°.

Next, in this inclination angle setting method, an arbitrary person is selected as the measurement subject, and the measurement earphone device 8 is worn by the subject as shown in FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 10, the inclination angle AR2 of the measurement rod 17 relative to the side of the head is measured while the measurement earphone device 8 is worn.

Furthermore, in the inclination angle setting method, the measurement results of the inclination angle AR2 are tallied, the average inclination angle AR2 is calculated, and then the average inclination angle AR2 is subtracted from 40°, which is the inclination angle of the sound conduit 4 of the measurement earphone device 8 relative to the front surface of the housing 5, to determine the inclination angle AR1 of the sound conduit 4.

In this tilt angle setting method, the above-mentioned tilt angle AR2 is measured for 33 random people, the measurement results are compiled in the table shown in FIG. 11, and the average tilt angle AR2 is calculated. As a result, the average tilt angle AR2 is 7°. The average tilt angle AR2 of 7° is then subtracted from the tilt angle of 40° of the measurement earphone device 8, and the tilt angle AR1 of the sound conduit 4 is set to 33°.

Incidentally, in this embodiment, the above-mentioned measurement of the inclination angle AR2 was performed on 33 people, but it may be performed on various other numbers of people.

The earphone device 1 is therefore designed to provide a comfortable fit for users with typical ear shapes, by determining the position and inclination angle at which the sound guide tube 4 protrudes from the housing 5 based on the offset setting method and inclination angle setting method described above, even when the width W1 of the housing 5 is larger than the width W2 of the conventional housing 33.

(4) Wearing the Earphone Device The earphone device 1 can be worn in the user's ear by inserting the earpiece 3 into the ear canal 23 (FIG. 16). Fig. 12 shows a state in which the user is wearing the earphone device 1, and Fig. 13 shows a top view of the user wearing the earphone device 1, taken along the A1-A1' cross section.

As shown in FIG. 13, when the earphone device 1 is worn, the housing 5 is located within the concha 21, indicated by the thick dashed line, and when the elastic earpiece 3 is inserted into the ear canal 23, it deforms to fit the shape of the ear canal 23, thereby fitting closely to the ear canal 23 and allowing the earphone device 1 to remain worn for a long period of time.

In this earphone device 1, the width W1 of the housing 5 is larger than the width W2 of the housing 33 of the conventional earphone device 30 (FIG. 16(A)), and therefore the diaphragm 15 (FIG. 4) inside the driver unit housed in the housing 5 can also be made larger than before. Specifically, while the diameter of the diaphragm of the conventional earphone device 30 is 9 mm, the diameter K (FIG. 4) of the diaphragm 15 of the earphone device 1 can be made 13.5 mm. As a result, it was found that when a sound of 1 kHz is output with a power of 1 mW, the sensitivity can be improved by about 6 to 8 dB compared to the conventional earphone device 30.

(5) Operation and Effects In the above configuration, the earphone device 1 has the center line L1 of the housing 5 as a reference line, the sound conduit 4 ( FIG. 7 ) offset in the X-axis direction by an offset amount OF1, and the midpoint P3 of the tip of the sound conduit is oriented in a direction away from the center line L1. As a result, even if a housing 5 with a width W1 larger than the width W2 of the housing 33 in the conventional earphone device 30 is used, the housing 5 can be worn by the user without coming into contact with the tragus 22 ( FIG. 13 ).

In addition, in the earphone device 1, the offset amount OF1 and the tilt angle AR1 are set based on the average value of actual measurement results, so when worn by a user with a typical ear shape, the housing 5 does not come into contact with the tragus 22, eliminating the problem of the earphone device being impossible or difficult to wear for the user and providing a comfortable fit.

In addition, the earphone device 1 has a width W1 (FIG. 13) of the housing 5 that is larger than the width W2 (FIG. 16(A)) of the housing 33 in the conventional earphone device 30, which makes it possible to enlarge the diaphragm 15 (FIG. 4) housed in the housing 5, thereby providing higher quality sound with more bass than ever before.

Furthermore, in the earphone device 1, the sound guide tube 4 is offset from the housing and inclined by an inclination angle AR1, so that even if the housing 5 and diaphragm 15 are enlarged, the earpiece 3 can be kept in close contact with the ear canal 23 (Figure 13) and maintained in a worn state, providing the user with a comfortable fit and providing high quality sound.

The earphone device 1 does not have a headband or ear hanger, so the headband portion is located on the head as shown in Patent Document 2 above, eliminating problems such as messing up the user's hairstyle and making it difficult to carry, further improving usability.

With the above configuration, the earphone device 1 is comfortable to wear and can provide sound with improved sound quality.

(6) Other Embodiments In the above embodiment, the earpiece 3 is made of silicone rubber. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, various materials such as urethane resin or acrylic resin may be used.

In the above embodiment, ABS resin is used as the material for the sound conduit 4, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various other resins such as polypropylene and polystyrene may be used.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the case where only ABS resin is used as the material for the sound conduit 4 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to use an elastomer resin as the material for the base of the sound conduit, and a flexible resin such as ABS as the material for the rest of the sound conduit, and to use a so-called two-color molding material as the material for the sound conduit 4.

In this case, the sound conduit 4 has flexibility in parts other than the base of the sound conduit, making it possible to bend the sound conduit tip 4A, and when fitting the sound conduit 4 to the user's ear, the sound conduit 4 and the earpiece 3 can be bent in a direction that provides a more comfortable fit.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the aperture K (FIG. 4) of the diaphragm 15 is described as being 13.5 mm, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the aperture K may be various apertures K such as 13.6 mm, 13.4 mm, etc., as long as the housing 5 can be positioned within the range of the concha 21 (FIG. 13). In this case, the earphone device 1 allows the user to hear high quality sound while being comfortably worn, almost in the same way as when the aperture K of the diaphragm 15 is 13.5 mm.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the inclination angle AR1 of the sound conduit 4 is set to 33°, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be adapted to a range of 10° to 60° depending on the number of subjects and the measurement results. However, for many subjects, a good fit was achieved when wearing the headphones at 30° to 50°.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the offset amount OF1 is set to 5 mm, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be set to, for example, 3 to 7 mm when the measurement subject is a foreigner.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the inclination angle AR1 is described as an angle centered on the intersection point P5 between the central axis L2 of the sound conduit 4 and the center line L1 of the housing 5, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in the top view of the earphone device 1 when it is in the A2-A2' cross section shown in Figure 14, the inclination angle AR1 may be centered on the intersection point P6 between the straight line L3 passing through the midpoint P3 at the tip of the sound conduit and the center line L1 of the housing 5.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the offset amount OF1 is described as the distance from the center line L1 to the root point P4 of the sound conduit in the X-axis direction, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in the top view of the A2-A2' cross section of the earphone device 1 shown in FIG. 14, the offset amount OF1 may be the distance from the center line L1 to various constituent points within the sound conduit 4 in the X-axis direction, such as the distance from the center line L1 to the midpoint P3 at the tip of the sound conduit in the X-axis direction.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the earphone device 1 is configured as an earphone using the housing 5 as a housing and the sound guide tube 4 as a sound guide tube, but the present invention is not limited to this, and earphones may be configured using various other housings and sound guide tubes.

The present invention can be applied to earphone devices used in portable music players, radios, televisions, and personal computers.

1...earphone device, 3...earpiece, 4...sound guide tube, 5...housing, 30...conventional earphone device.

Claims (1)

A housing that houses a driver unit that converts input electrical signals into vibrations;
a sound guide tube attached to the front surface of the housing outside the center position with a tip portion protruding in a direction away from the center position of the housing;
an earpiece having a maximum diameter smaller than that of the housing, attached to the tip of the sound conduit, and made of an elastic material, which is deformed to fit the shape of the ear canal and thereby holds the housing on the auricle;
an earphone having a generally cylindrical shape with an outer diameter extending from an end close to the housing to an end away from the housing that is smaller than the maximum diameter of the housing and the maximum diameter of the earpiece, the earphone being connected to a rear part of the housing with its center aligned with the center of the housing, and a cord holding part that pulls out a cord connected to the driver unit from the housing to the outside.

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