Headphone

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9794676-B2
Application number	US-201614993443-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Jan 12, 2016
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

A headphone that has a support structure that is adapted to sit on a head or upper torso of a user, a first acoustic driver carried by the support structure such that the first acoustic driver is located off of an ear of the user, wherein the first acoustic driver has front and rear sides and sound is radiated from both sides of the first acoustic driver, and a structure that defines a first acoustic chamber on the front side of the first acoustic driver and with at least one opening therein, and a second acoustic chamber on the rear side of the first acoustic driver and with at least one opening therein. At low frequencies a polar pattern of the first acoustic driver behaves approximately like a dipole, and at high frequencies a polar pattern of the first acoustic driver exhibits a higher order directional pattern. A second acoustic driver can be included.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A headphone, comprising:
a support structure that is adapted to sit on a head or upper torso of a user;
an audio unit carried by the support structure such that the audio unit is located off of an ear of the user, the audio unit comprising:
a single acoustic driver that has front and rear sides and that is adapted to radiate sound from both its front and rear sides; and
a structure that defines a first acoustic chamber on the front side of the acoustic driver and a second acoustic chamber on the rear side of the acoustic driver, wherein the first acoustic chamber has at least one sound-emitting opening therein and the second acoustic chamber has at least one sound-emitting opening therein;

wherein at low frequencies, a polar pattern of the audio unit behaves approximately like a dipole where sound is radiated from the first and second acoustic chambers in opposite directions at approximately the same level in both directions, and at high frequencies, a polar pattern of the audio unit exhibits a higher order directional pattern Where sound is radiated from the first and second acoustic chambers in opposite directions at a significantly greater level in one direction than the other.

2. The headphone of claim 1 , further comprising a baffle extending from the structure proximate a sound-emitting opening.

3. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the structure that defines a first acoustic chamber on the front side of the acoustic driver and a second acoustic chamber on the rear side of the acoustic driver comprises a housing for the acoustic driver, where the acoustic driver is located inside of the housing.

4. The headphone of claim 3 , wherein the housing is located above or behind an ear of a user.

5. The headphone of claim 3 , wherein the housing comprises a first port that is acoustically coupled to the front of the acoustic driver and a second port that is acoustically coupled to the rear of the acoustic driver.

6. The headphone of claim 5 , wherein the first and second ports are configured to have an acoustic impedance ratio of less than approximately 1.1.

7. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the front side of the driver, the first acoustic chamber and the at least one sound-emitting opening in the first acoustic chamber together have a first effective impedance, and the rear side of the driver, the second acoustic chamber and the at least one sound-emitting opening in the second acoustic chamber together have a second effective impedance, where the ratio of the first effective impedance to the second effective impedance ranges from approximately 0.95 to approximately 1.05 at frequencies ranging from about 20 Hz to about 2 kHz.

8. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the front side of the driver, the first acoustic chamber and the at least one sound-emitting opening in the first acoustic chamber together have a first effective impedance, and the rear side of the driver, the second acoustic chamber and the at least one sound-emitting opening in the second acoustic chamber together have a second effective impedance, where the ratio of the first effective impedance to the second effective impedance is less than approximately 0.95 at frequencies above about 2 kHz.

9. The headphone of claim 1 , further comprising an acoustic resistance material proximate to each of the sound-emitting openings in the first and second acoustic chambers.

10. The headphone of claim 9 , wherein the acoustic resistance material comprises at least one of: a plastic, a textile, a metal, a permeable material, a woven material, a screen material, and a mesh material.

11. The headphone of claim 9 , wherein the acoustic resistance material has an acoustic impedance that ranges from about 5 MKS Rayls to about 100 MKS Rayls.

12. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the higher order directional pattern comprises one of: a cardioid or a hypercardioid.

13. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the structure that defines the first and second acoustic chambers comprises a first device surrounding the front side of the driver and a second device surrounding the rear side of the driver.

14. The headphone of claim 13 , wherein the first and second devices each comprise a basket.

15. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic impedances of the front and rear sides of the acoustic driver are approximately equal.

16. The headphone of claim 1 , wherein the first and second acoustic chambers each have a plurality of sound-emitting openings therein.

17. The headphone of claim 16 , wherein the sound-emitting openings in the first acoustic chamber and the sound-emitting openings in the second acoustic chamber are configured to have approximately the same equivalent impedance, such that the acoustic driver is symmetrically loaded.

18. A headphone, comprising:
a support structure that is adapted to sit on a head or upper torso of a user;
an audio unit carried by the support structure such that the audio unit is located off of an ear of the user, and outside of the pinna when viewed in the sagittal plane, the audio unit comprising:
an acoustic driver that has front and rear sides and that is adapted to radiate sound from both its front and rear sides;
a structure that defines a first acoustic chamber on the front side of the first acoustic driver, and a second acoustic chamber on the rear side of the acoustic driver, wherein the first acoustic chamber has at least one sound-emitting opening directly formed therein and the second acoustic chamber has at least one sound-emitting opening directly formed therein;
wherein the structure has a first portion that is closest to the ear of the user and a second portion that is farthest from the ear of the user, where one of the openings is in the first portion of the structure and another opening is in the second portion of the structure; and
a baffle extending from the structure proximate the opening in the first portion of the structure, and farther from the ear than the opening in the first portion of the structure such that the baffle is effective to constrain and re-direct toward the ear sound leaving the opening in the first portion of the structure, where the baffle covers a portion of the pinna when viewed from the sagittal plane.

19. The headphone of claim 18 , wherein the sound-emitting openings are configured to have approximately the same overall acoustic impedance.

20. The headphone of claim 18 , wherein at low frequencies, a polar pattern of the audio unit behaves approximately like a dipole where sound is radiated from the first and second acoustic chambers in opposite directions at approximately the same level in both directions, and at high frequencies, a polar pattern of the audio unit exhibits a higher order directional pattern where sound is radiated from the first and second acoustic chambers in opposite directions at a significantly greater level in one direction than the other.

21. The headphone of claim 20 , wherein the higher order directional pattern comprises one of: a cardioid or a hypercardioid.

22. A headphone, comprising:
a support structure that is adapted to sit on a head or upper torso of a user;
an audio unit carried by the support structure such that the acoustic driver audio unit is located off of an ear of the user, the audio unit comprising:
a single acoustic driver that has front and rear sides and that is adapted to radiate sound from both its front and rear sides; and
a structure that defines a first acoustic chamber on the

Assignees

• Bose Corp

Inventors

• Shetye Mihir D
• Silvestri Ryan C

Classifications

• H04R2205/022

  Plurality of transducers corresponding to a plurality of sound channels in each earpiece of headphones or in a single enclosure · CPC title

• H04R1/1075

  Mountings of transducers in earphones or headphones · CPC title

• H04R1/1091 Primary

  Details not provided for in groups H04R1/1008 - H04R1/1083 · CPC title

• H04R1/1008

  Earpieces of the supra-aural or circum-aural type · CPC title

• H04R1/347 Primary

  for obtaining a phase-shift between the front and back acoustic wave · CPC title