Headrest speaker arrangement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9517732-B2
Application number	US-201313753806-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2013
Priority date	Jul 30, 2010
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

In embodiments of the invention, a headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box which can be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest is described. The headrest or the speaker box may have at least one speaker integrated in the headrest or in the speaker box, wherein the speaker has a main sound emission direction and wherein the speaker is fixed in the headrest or in the speaker box in such a way that the main sound emission direction is inclined with respect to a backrest main direction of the backrest of the vehicle seat.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest, comprising:
a first speaker and a second speaker integrated in the headrest or in the speaker box, and
a chamber having a sound outlet opening arrangement being formed by one or more openings,
wherein each of the first and the second speaker has a main sound emission direction, and wherein each of the first and the second speaker is fixed in the headrest or in the speaker box in such a way that the main sound emission directions are inclined with respect to a backrest main direction of a backrest of the vehicle seat, and
wherein the first speaker and the second speaker are lowered arranged in the chamber with respect to the sound outlet opening arrangement, so that during operation sound waves emitted from the at least first and second speaker are mixed in the chamber formed in the headrest or in the speaker box.

2. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 ,
wherein an angle β between the backrest main direction and a seating surface of the vehicle seat is changeable, and wherein the speaker fixed in the headrest or in the speaker box comprises an inclined main sound emission direction relative to the changeable backrest main direction.

3. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest, according to claim 1 , wherein an angle α between the main sound emission direction of the speaker and the backrest main direction is equal or larger than 25°, 30°, 45° or 90°.

4. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first speaker has a first main sound emission direction and the second speaker has a different second main sound emission direction.

5. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 4 , wherein an angle α 1 between the first main sound emission direction and the backrest main direction is equal or between larger than 10°, 20°, 30°, 45° or 90° and an angle α 2 between the second main sound emission direction and the backrest main direction is equal to 180°+α 1 .

6. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 4 , wherein an angle α 1 between the first main sound emission direction and the backrest main direction is equal or between larger than 10°, 20°, 30°, 45° or 90° and an angle α 2 between the second main sound emission direction and the backrest main direction is equal to 360°−α 1 .

7. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 wherein a distance D 1 from a center of the first speaker and a distance from a center of the second speaker to the sound outlet opening arrangement is at least 3 cm, 4 cm or 5 cm.

8. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second speaker are lowered arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box with respect to a top edge of the headrest or of the speaker box.

9. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein a distance D 2 from a center of the first speaker and distance D 2 from a center of the second speaker to the top edge of the headrest or speaker box is at least 3 cm, 4 cm or 5 cm.

10. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second speaker are arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box to irradiate at least one inner wall in the headrest or in the speaker box.

11. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second speakers are arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box, so that during operation a sound wave from the first speaker emitted in the main sound emission direction of the first speaker and a sound wave from the second speaker emitted in the main sound emission direction of the second speaker are reflected from at least one inner wall in the headrest or in the speaker box before escaping through the sound outlet opening arrangement.

12. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second speaker are arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box, so that a sound wave from the first speaker emitted during operation in the main sound emission direction of the first speaker and a sound wave from the second speaker emitted in the main sound emission direction of the second speaker irradiate a side wall and a bottom plate wall of the headrest or of the speaker box, wherein the sound waves escape through the sound outlet opening arrangement, which is arranged on a top side wall, opposite to the bottom plate wall of the headrest or speaker box.

13. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 12 , wherein during operation a de-correlated sound wave of a mixture of sound waves emitted by the first speaker and by the second speaker is emitted through the sound outlet opening arrangement.

14. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second speaker are arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box, so that a sound wave from the first speaker emitted during operation in the main sound emission direction of the first speaker and a sound wave from the second speaker emitted in the main sound emission direction of the second speaker irradiate a wall of the headrest or the speaker box and a sound outlet opening arrangement so that a mixture of a direct sound wave and a reflected sound wave is emitted through the sound outlet opening arrangement.

15. The headrest of a vehicle seat or a speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the speaker box is a polyhedron, a cube, a cuboid or a rectangular parallelepiped having a top side wall, opposite to a bottom plate wall and a plurality of side walls.

16. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first speaker is arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box, so that a sound wave emitted during operation in the main sound emission direction irradiates a side wall, and wherein the second speaker is arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box, so that the sound wave emitted during operation in the main sound emission direction irradiates a bottom plate wall.

17. The headrest of a vehicle seat or speaker box to be attached to the vehicle seat or to a headrest according to claim 1 , wherein the first speaker is arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box so that during operation a sound wave emitted in the main sound emission direction irradiates an side wall and the sound outlet opening arrangement and wherein the second speaker is arranged in the headrest or in the speaker box so that a sound wave emitted during operation in the main sound emission direction irradiates a side wall and a bottom plate wall of the headrest or of the speaker box, so that

Assignees

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V

Inventors

• Silzle Andreas
• Heise Ulrik
• Varga Stefan
• Lang Matthias
• Hellmuth Oliver

Classifications

• B60R2011/0028

  Ceiling, e.g. roof rails · CPC title

• H04R1/025

  Arrangements for fixing loudspeaker transducers, e.g. in a box, furniture · CPC title

• B60R2013/016

  integrating other functions or accessories · CPC title

• H04R5/023

  in a chair, pillow · CPC title

• H04R1/323

  for loudspeakers (H04R1/34 and H04R1/40 take precedence) · CPC title