Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices – Hearing aids – electrical – Specified casing or housing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-01
2001-10-30
Le, Huyen (Department: 2643)
Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices
Hearing aids, electrical
Specified casing or housing
C381S330000, C181S130000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310961
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of this invention relates to disposable sleeve assemblies for providing contact between the inner surface of a person's ear canal and a sound control device (i.e., a device for wholly, partially, or selectively blocking, transmitting, or amplifying sound such as an ear plug, a stethoscope, and a hearing aid either of the type worn behind the ear or a CIC (completely in the canal) hearing aid, etc.). Another aspect of this invention relates to guards placed at the ends of sound delivery tubes inserted in the ear canal that restrict cerumen from entering those tubes. In yet another aspect, the invention relates to containers for holding unused and used sleeve assemblies and cerumen guards.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,880,076 and 5,002,151 both disclose hearing aids that are modified in various ways to accept complementary user-disposable foam sleeve adapted to mount on and fit around a distal end portion of the hearing aid to seal it to the user's ear canal. Although technically feasible, all of these combinations have thus far proved commercially unappealing, both because of their technical complexity and their relatively high cost. U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,020 describes another way of sealing a hearing aid to a user's ear canal, viz., by removably adhering a foam layer to the otherwise canal-contacting periphery of the hearing aid. Although this technique is quite effective, the process of adhering the foam to the proper location requires a degree of manual dexterity sometimes lacking in persons who wear hearing aids. Yet another prior art technique involves permanently adhering a foam ring to the hearing aid, thereby preventing the user from removing and replacing it. In the absence of adhesive, such a ring is likely to slide off and remain in the ear canal when the hearing aid is removed.
Guards for the ends of sound delivery tubes inserted in the ear canal that restrict cerumen from entering those tubes are commercially available. Known cerumen guards of this type are moldings of stiff polymeric material that releasably engage a knob-like end part at the end of the sound delivery tube, and provide passageways through the guard sized and oriented to provide that cerumen restricting function.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a simple and inexpensive sleeve assembly that is easy to apply to and remove from the distal end portion of a sound control device even by children or those enfeebled by age or infirmity; which sleeve assembly can be adapted to provide circumferential contact with a user's ear canal to control sound delivered to that ear canal at a desired level, to provide a cerumen guard at the end of a sound delivery tube included in the sound control device, or to provide both of those functions.
The sleeve assembly according to the present invention comprises a first layer of flexible material (e.g., sound attenuating, slow recovery foam, closed cell foam, open cell foam, reticulated open cell foam, or non-foamed polymeric material depending on the requirements of the sound control device on which the sleeve assembly is used) having a periphery that can be adapted to make partial or complete contact with or conform to the ear canal of a user into which the sleeve assembly is inserted, or to make little or no contact with that ear canal. A stiff resiliently flexible attachment member (e.g., a uniformly thick disc or a generally C-shaped member) having a through opening is fixed to one surface of the first layer. The first layer of material can have a hole between its first and second surfaces aligned with the opening in the attachment member or can be readily penetrable adjacent the opening in the attachment member to afford movement of a knob-like part at the distal end portion of a sound control device through the first layer and the opening in the attachment member, or alternatively, the knob-like part can be moved through the opening in the attachment member from its side opposite the first layer. The knob-like part and the area circumjacent to the opening in the attachment member then cooperate to provide complementary interlocking holding of the sleeve assembly on the end portion of the sound control device. Such interlocking holding will occur if the opening in the attachment member is smaller than the knob-like part so that the area circumjacent to the hole in the attachment member will flex during its passage and will releasably engage the sound control device behind the knob-like part to hold the sleeve assembly on the sound control device. Subsequently, the sleeve assembly can be removed from the sound control device by applying sufficient force to the attachment member to move it back over the knob-like part.
When the distal end of the sound control device is a sound delivery tube that engages the sleeve assembly so that its knob-like part is on the side of the attachment member opposite the first layer, the sleeve assembly can further include a thin layer of sound-transmitting material (e.g., reticulated open cell foam) overlaying the side of the attachment member opposite the first layer of foam that helps prevent detritus or cerumen from the ear canal from entering a sound transmitting passageway through the sound delivery tube. When such a sound delivery tube engages the sleeve assembly so that its knob-like part is on the side of the attachment member adjacent the first layer, the first layer of material can be of such sound-transmitting material so that it will help prevent detritus or cerumen from the ear canal from entering the sound transmitting passageway.
The portion of the human ear canal in which the sleeve assembly is intended to be positioned has an irregular generally oval cross section with dimensions on the order of 5 to 6.5 mm wide by 10 to 13 mm high. Thus, the sleeve assembly, which is accordingly quite small, could be difficult for some persons either to install on or remove from the sound control device. This problem is simplified by a container for a plurality of the sleeve assemblies. Each sleeve assembly can be positioned in the container with the first layer of material and the attachment member and over a passageway in a bottom wall of the container that has a diameter somewhat less than the outer diameter of the attachment member. To install a sleeve assembly in the container on a sound control device, the knob-like part at the distal end of that sound control device is forced downward through one of the sleeve assemblies so that it flexes and deforms the attachment member sufficiently to move through its opening while the attachment member of that sleeve assembly is supported by a portion of the bottom wall circumjacent to the passageway. The attachment member then releasably engages the sound control device adjacent its knob-like part as that knob-like part moves into the passageway. If a desired degree of engagement has thus been achieved between the sound control device and the sleeve assembly, the sleeve assembly will remain on the sound control device when it is lifted from the container. It is important to have the sleeve assembly securely mounted on the sound control device to avoid the problem of having it become detached and remain in the ear canal when the sound control device is removed. Thus, means are provided in the container to restrict removal of the sleeve assembly with the sound control device if that desired degree of engagement has not been achieved, whereupon the sleeve will slip off the sound control device and remain in the container. That means can be provided, for example, by frictional or friable engagement between sleeve assembly and the container, or by a top plate on the container that has finger like portions normally projecting over the sleeve assemblies that must be deflected to allow their removal.
The container can further include a compartment for used sleeve assemblies accessed through a generally keyhole-like slot in a wall of the container. That slot can include a first portion through which a sleeve
Babcock Martin P.
Chamberlin Davis W.
Oliveira Robert J.
Crompton Seager & Tufte LLC
Hearing Components, Inc.
Le Huyen
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