Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices – Electro-acoustic audio transducer – Plural or compound reproducers
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-22
2002-03-26
Le, Huyen (Department: 2643)
Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices
Electro-acoustic audio transducer
Plural or compound reproducers
C381S374000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06363158
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to an adjustable hanging-type earphone, particularly one comprising a main unit fixed with a speaker seat, a slide unit serving to mount on the user's ear, and a spring wire for better fastening purpose of the earphone. The slide unit is assembled inside the main unit, thereby using the fixing shaft and fixing hole on the main unit as a pivot, and the positioning shaft and positioning slot as a freely adjustable fastening device, the position of the slide unit can be adjusted in relation to the main unit, to form an appropriate circle of tightness around the user's ear. The freely bendable spring wire is used to wind around the user's head or neck to aid the positioning purpose of the earphone on different sizes of the user's ear, to effectively upgrade its applicability and enhance wearing comfort.
2. Background of the invention
Earphones have been widely used in a wide variety of applications, such as communication, listening to music, teaching, etc. Earphones come in various types, styles and models. After a long period of development, earphones can be categorized into ear-hood type, earplug type, and ear-wrapping type. The ear-hood type involves a heavy and cumbersome headband, which causes high heat (especially in summer) after it has been worn on the user's ear for an extended period of time, so it is unpractical to wear it for a long time. The earplug type is inserted inside the user's ear hole, and can easily cause pain or discomfort because the user's ear is stuffed with the plug. Therefore, the introduction of ear-wrapping earphones in recent years has become the favorite of users. As shown in
FIG. 1
, a prior art of ear-wrapping earphone has an ear wrapper B at the rear of a main unit A, with a speaker C that is glued and fixed to the inside of the main unit A. To use such an ear-wrapping type of earphone, the user directly wraps the ear wrapper B onto the user's ear. Since human ear is a cartilage organ, the ear lobe is bent and compressed before the earphone can be fitted onto it. After the ear wrapper B is inserted in place, the ear lobe restores its original shape to keep the ear wrapper B on the ear. Then, the speaker C is aligned to the ear hole, so the sound emitted from the speaker can be transmitted into the ear. But such conventional ear-wrapping earphone involves its main unit A and ear wrapper B that are made of rigid materials as one unit. The size of the ear wrapper B is fixed and cannot be changed. Therefore, such a uniform sized earphone could not be adjusted to suit different users with different ear sizes. A user with a larger ear size could feel pain or discomfort after wearing such a fixed-size earphone for an extended period of time. On the other hand, a user with a smaller ear size could easily find the earphone slipping away, or the speaker C out of alignment with the ear hole. For that reason, the manufacturers have introduced a ear-hanging type of earphone with adjustable speaker position, as shown in FIG.
2
. That type of ear-hanging earphone has a speaker E at the front of a main unit D shaped like a “D” figure. The speaker E can be adjusted up or down to suit the user's ear shape and position of ear hole. Such type of ear-hanging earphone serves only one main function, that is, the height adjustment of the speaker E. So, with its main unit D still made of a rigid material in a fixed size, it involves the same inability to suit the different ear sizes of different users, as is found in the aforementioned ear-wrapping type earphone. In case the size of the main unit D is inconsistent with the user's ear size (too large or too small), the user could find it very uncomfortable, and the speaker E could easily be slipping out of position. Even if the position of its speaker E can be adjusted either up or down, but its axis is slipping away from the ear hole and could not be positioned properly, therefore the quality of the user's reception could be impaired.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, with a view to seek possible improvement on the aforementioned shortcomings found in conventional earphones of ear-wrapping or ear-hanging types, the inventor has dedicated in research and development, based on many years experience in the research and development of various types of earphones, microphones and peripherals, and after repeated conceptions, drafting, test production, tests and modifications, has finally come up with the subject “adjustable ear-hanging earphone” that comprises a main unit, a slide unit and a spring wire, wherein the slide unit can be moved in relation to the main unit for adjustment of the circle of tightness, and the spring wire can be easily pulled to wind around the user's head or neck, to suit different users with different ear sizes, upgrade the range of applications and better comfort and stability.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF NUMERALS
10
main unit
11
speaker seat
12
fixing shaft
13
positioning shaft
20
slide unit
21
front rack
22
rear rack
23
fixing hole
24
positioning slot
30
spring wire
40
speaker
41
signal cord
50
microphone
REFERENCES:
patent: 262921 (1882-08-01), Berliner
patent: 4529058 (1985-07-01), Emery
patent: 5761298 (1998-06-01), Davis et al.
Le Huyen
Rabin & Berdo P.C.
Wanstonic Electronics Ltd.
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