Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/60—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers including speech amplifiers
  • H04M1/6033—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers including speech amplifiers for providing handsfree use or a loudspeaker mode in telephone sets
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/02—Constructional features of telephone sets
  • H04M1/03—Constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. telephone hand-sets
  • H04M1/035—Improving the acoustic characteristics by means of constructional features of the housing, e.g. ribs, walls, resonating chambers or cavities
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
  • H04M1/60—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers including speech amplifiers
  • H04M1/62—Constructional arrangements

Definitions

• Embodiments are directed to providing an acoustic pass through in telephone handsets for sounds transmitted from a speaker laid out underneath the handset.
• a cutout in a middle portion of the handset in various shapes such as rectangular, round, elliptical, and similar allows enhanced sound quality when the speakerphone feature is used and flexibility in handset design. According to some embodiments, multiple cutouts in various shapes may be provided in place of a single larger cutout.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a telephone with a base unit and a handset including an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment
• FIG. 2 illustrates a top view of the phone of FIG. 1 with the handset placed over the speakerphone speaker;
• FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of another telephone with a different handset placement including an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment
• FIG. 4 is a side view of a conventional handset over a base unit without an acoustic pass through;
• FIG. 5 is a side view of a handset with an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment illustrating the design flexibilities enabled by the presence of the acoustic pass through;
• FIG. 6 illustrates two example handset designs according to some embodiments
• FIG. 7 illustrates two more example handset designs according to other embodiments
• FIG. 8 illustrates side views of various example cutouts according to further embodiments; and [0014] FIG. 9 illustrates side views of two example cutout sets with varying inner wall angles and shapes.
• an acoustic pass through in form of a single or multiple cutouts in a middle portion of a handset may be used to provide enhanced acoustic performance for hands free operation of a telephone base unit and enable flexibility in handset and base unit designs.
• references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects may be combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the embodiments is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
• FIG. 1 a telephone with a base unit and a handset including an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment are illustrated.
• embodiments may be implemented in communication devices facilitating a variety of advanced communication technologies. Examples of such communication technologies include, but are not limited to, voice telephony, video telephony, instant messaging, data exchange, and similar technologies.
• a communication device facilitating those technologies may include specific elements such as a display, special buttons, and the like, depending on the facilitated communication techno logy(ies).
• a basic telephone as shown in the figure includes base unit 112 and handset 102.
• Handset 102 may be coupled to the base unit 112 through wired or wireless means.
• Cable 108 is an example of wired connection.
• Many phones include a speaker 114 as part of a hands free operation. In a majority of phone designs, the speaker 114 is placed along one side of the phone underneath the handset 102, when the handset is cradled on the base unit 112. This presents two main challenges: first, the quality of sound in hands free operation is degraded by the presence of the handset 102 over the speaker 114; second, the design of the handset 102 is restricted to accommodate the acoustic transmission from the speaker 114.
• Handset 102 includes a microphone 106 in its lower portion and regular handset speaker 104 in its upper portion. Regular handset speaker 104 is for close-to-ear transmission and its sound levels are significantly lower than those of speaker 114. Handset 102, shown in the figure, has a classical handset shape preferred for speakerphones. A middle portion of the handset is narrower than the lower and upper portions and when placed over the base unit 112, the middle portion is elevated to allow enhanced acoustic transmission from the hands free operation speaker 114. [0021] Despite having a classical shape, handset 102 includes a cutout in its middle portion acting as an acoustic pass through 110 for the hands free operation speaker 114.
• the acoustic pass through 110 may have a variety of shapes - some examples are illustrated below - such as rectangular, circular, elliptical, and so on.
• a main purpose of the acoustic pass through 110 is to enable enhanced transmission of sound waves from the hands free operation speaker 114 when the handset is placed over the speaker on the base unit. This also results in increased flexibility in handset design, since the middle portion of the handset 102 does no longer have to be designed narrower than the upper and lower portions or in an elevated manner compared to the upper and lower portions.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a top view of the phone of FIG. 1 with the handset placed over the speakerphone speaker.
• hands free operation speaker 114 in base unit 112 is placed underneath the handset 102 about a middle portion of the handset.
• handset 102 includes acoustic pass through 110, which allows speaker 114 to transmit sound wave unhampered through the middle portion of the handset.
• Base unit 112 of the telephone also includes additional elements such as Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) dialing buttons 120, special function buttons 118, and display 116.
• DTMF Dual Tone Multi Frequency
• a telecommunication device for implementing embodiments may facilitate other communication methods in addition to voice telephony such as instant messaging, video telephony, etc.
• the additional elements, such as display 116 may accommodate the other communication methods, as well as complementing voice telephony (e.g. display caller ID numbers, date and time, and similar information).
• FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of another telephone with a different handset placement including an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment. While typical telephone devices have the handset placement along a right or left side of the base unit (as shown in FIG. 1 or 2), a position of the handset 102 or the other elements of the base unit 112 are not limited to those two places.
• base unit 112 may include display 116, special buttons, 118, and DTMF dialing buttons 120 at a lower portion with the hands free operation speaker 114 being placed on an upper portion of the base unit.
• handset 102 may be placed horizontally along the upper side of the base unit 112 with its acoustic pass through 110 over the speaker 114.
• FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side view of a conventional handset over a base unit without an acoustic pass through. For simplicity purposes, elements such as dialing buttons and bottom parts of the base unit 412 are not shown in FIG. 4.
• a surface of the hands free operation speaker is indicated by reference numeral 414.
• a minimum amount of space 426 is required over the surface 414 of the hands free operation speaker for audible transmission of sound waves when the phone is in hand free mode.
• handset 402 has to be designed with a curvature allowing the middle portion 424 to be elevated in comparison to the lower and upper portions of the handset housing the microphone and speaker of the handset, respectively.
• middle portion 424 of the handset 402 is also designed narrower than the upper and lower portions in a plane perpendicular to the cross-sectional plane illustrated in the figure.
• FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of a handset with an acoustic pass through according to one embodiment illustrating the design flexibilities enabled by the presence of the acoustic pass through.
• Two visible differences between the conventional handset of FIG. 4 and the handset of FIG. 5 are a thickness of the handset and a lack of air space between the handset and the surface of the base unit in the phone of FIG. 5.
• the acoustic pass through 110 of handset 502 enables use of any audio bandwidth with increased efficiency regardless of a position of the handset. Furthermore, the elimination of restrictions on the handset shape enable not only lighter and thinner handset designs, but the handset's layout may be designed in such a way that additional elements such as dialing buttons, special function buttons, or even a small display may be placed on the back side of the handset, which may be designed flatter and wider according to some embodiments. [0034] A shape, position, type of the acoustic pass through 110 and a material used to manufacture the housing of the handset 502 may still have an effect on the sound quality of the hands free operation speaker.
• FIG. 6 illustrates two example handset designs according to some embodiments.
• Handset 632-1 includes a plurality of circularly shaped cutouts 634 as acoustic pass through for the hands free operation speaker.
• a number, shape, and size of the cutouts 634 may be adjusted depending on a size of the handset, a size of the speaker, an audio bandwidth of the speaker, as well as other design considerations.
• the shape of each individual cutout may be other than circular.
• the cutouts do not have to be uniformly shaped.
• the shape and size of the cutouts may also vary on the same handset as long as the acoustic pass through is accomplished.
• Handset 632-2 of FIG. 6 illustrates a single piece acoustic pass through cutout 636.
• the cutout is rectangularly shaped with rounded corners. Again, a size, a shape (ratio of longer side to the shorter side), and a rounding radius of the corners may be adjusted to accommodate optimum acoustic pass through and handset design considerations.
• the cutout may have a circular, elliptical, square, or polygonal shape that is less or more oblong depending on the handset design and hands free operation speaker size/shape.
• FIG. 7 illustrates two more example handset designs according to other embodiments.
• a plurality of cutouts may be used instead of a single larger cutout for acoustic pass through.
• Example handset 732-1 includes four rectangularly shaped cutouts 738 with their longer axes along a shorter axis if the handset. Once again, a size and shape of each of the cutouts may be defined differently depending on design considerations.
• Handset 732-2 includes rectangular cutouts 740 laid out along the longer axis of the handset. [0038] While a size, shape, and type of cutouts have been discussed above, the acoustic pass through cutouts are three dimensional structures.
• a shape of their third dimension, their depth may also influence their acoustic pass through properties.
• a simple approach may be a straight wall perpendicular to the cutout plane.
• other shapes and angles may also be utilized to improve acoustic pass through for given cutout shapes as illustrated in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9.
• FIG. 8 illustrates side views of various example cutouts according to further embodiments.
• a basic approach to acoustic pass through cutout design may be a straight inner wall 854 perpendicular to an opening plane 852 of the cutout as shown in example cutout 810-1. This results in a rectangular third dimension cross section.
• Another example cutout wall includes curved inner wall 858, which allows a larger opening on the side of the handset away from the hands free operation speaker (856) as shown in cutout 810-2.
• a further example shape is a fully curved inner wall 864 between the lower and upper opening planes (861, 862) of the cutout as shown in cutout 810-3.
• the inner walls of the cutouts are not limited to symmetric or same type along all edges of the cutout. Each inner wall of a cutout may have a different shape or angle to the opening plane(s).
• FIG. 9 illustrates side views of two example cutout sets with varying inner wall angles and shapes.
• the cutouts may be designed with inner walls (974) in varying angles to the opening planes (971, 972). This may help prevent a channeling effect on the transmitted sound waves. A similar effect may be achieved using curved inner walls (978) with variable angles to the opening planes (976, 977) as displayed in cutouts 970-2.
• An acoustic pass through cutout according to embodiments may be implemented in any shape, angle, and type using the principles described above.
• Example embodiments may be designed and manufactures through a variety of methods. These methods can be implemented in any number of ways, including the structures described in this document. One such way is by machine operations, combining software programs and hardware of various sorts.
• Another optional way is for one or more of the individual operations of the methods to be performed in conjunction with one or more human operators performing some. These human operators need not be collocated with each other, but each can be only with a machine that performs a portion of the program.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Telephone Set Structure (AREA)
• Telephone Function (AREA)

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Citations (4)

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• 2008
  • 2008-11-20 US US12/274,733 patent/US7720216B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2009
  • 2009-10-23 RU RU2011120137/07A patent/RU2518527C2/ru not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2009-10-23 EP EP09827954.0A patent/EP2356804B1/en not_active Not-in-force
  • 2009-10-23 CN CN200980146842.5A patent/CN102217290B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-10-23 JP JP2011537479A patent/JP5615835B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-10-23 WO PCT/US2009/061800 patent/WO2010059330A2/en active Application Filing
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  • 2009-10-23 CA CA2739556A patent/CA2739556A1/en not_active Abandoned
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• 2012
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