Earpiece positioning and retaining

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016007110-A1
Application number	US-201514851169-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 11, 2015
Priority date	Jun 30, 2006
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A retaining member for an earphone includes an outer layer of a first material surrounding an inner core of a second material. The retaining member extends from the earphone, and is curved to generally match the shape the antihelix of a human ear. The second material is harder than the first material, providing a stiffness to the retaining member that causes it to apply an upward and backward force against the antihelix when the retaining member is bent to fit under the antihelix of a particular user's ear.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An ear interface for an in-ear headphone, the ear interface comprising:
a body portion that fits beneath the tragus and anti-tragus and occupies the concha of a user's ear when worn by the user, and a compliant retaining member extending from the body portion and terminating at an extremity, wherein the ear interface comprises a first material and a second material in a unitary structure, the body portion and the retaining member together define an exterior surface shaped to fit the anatomy of an ear and an interior surface shaped to couple the ear interface to acoustic elements of an earphone, the first material occupies a first volume adjacent to the interior surface, and extending into the compliant retaining member, the second material occupies a second volume between the first volume and the exterior surface, surrounding the first material in the retaining member, and the first material has a greater hardness than the second material.

2 . The earphone of claim 1 wherein the retaining member is generally curved in the plane, and has a greater stiffness in directions tending to straighten the retaining member than in directions tending to increase the curvature.

3 . The earphone of claim 1 wherein the retaining member terminates at an extremity that seats at the end of the anti-helix under the base of the helix of the user's ear.

4 . The earphone of claim 1 wherein the retaining member applies a upward and backward pressure to the anti-helix of the user's ear along substantially the entire length of the retaining member.

5 . A retaining member for an earphone, the retaining member comprising an outer layer of a first material surrounding an inner core of a second material,
wherein the retaining member extends from the earphone, and is curved to generally match the shape the antihelix of a human ear, and the second material is harder than the first material, providing a stiffness to the retaining member that causes it to apply an upward and backward force against the antihelix when the retaining member is bent to fit under the antihelix of a particular user's ear.

6 . The retaining member of claim 5 , wherein the inner core is coupled to a retaining feature of an ear interface for coupling to the earphone, and the outer layer extends over a portion of the ear interface that contacts the ear when worn.

7 . The retaining member of claim 5 , wherein the first material comprises plastic having a hardness between 3 shore A to 30 shore A.

8 . The retaining member of claim 7 , wherein the first material comprises plastic having a hardness of 16 shore A.

9 . The retaining member of claim 5 , wherein the second material comprises plastic having a hardness between 30 shore A to 90 shore A.

10 . The retaining member of claim 9 , wherein the second material comprises plastic having a hardness of 70 shore A.

Assignees

• Bose Corp

Inventors

• Silvestri Ryan C
• Wallace Eric M
• Annunziato Kevin P
• Boyle Stephen D
• Dryden Joshua Kevin

Classifications

• H04R1/105 Primary

  Earpiece supports, e.g. ear hooks (for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335) · CPC title

• H04R1/2803

  for loudspeaker transducers · CPC title

• H04R1/1016

  Earpieces of the intra-aural type · CPC title

• H04R2499/11

  Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's · CPC title

• H04R2420/07

  Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones · CPC title