Patent Application
20150237433
The present disclosure relates generally to audio devices and more particularly to earpiece devices and more particularly to user-adjustable earpiece devices.
Today's communication environment offers a wide variety of user worn audio devices such as headphone, headset and earpiece devices. On-ear devices sit against the ear, near the ear canal, but not in the ear. There is a large variation in user ear sizes and shapes. An easily adjustable earpiece is highly desirable. Size and professional appearance are of concern to users. Customers also want devices that are easy to clean and sanitize. Reliability is a concern as tension on cables attached to an earpiece can lead to dislodgement of the earpiece from the user's ear. User preferences can change from left ear to right ear, an earpiece that adapts easily to both is needed. The ability of a user to adjust their own earpiece is critical in terms of comfort and good audio reception. Thus, it would be desirable to have a user friendly adjustable earpiece device.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate embodiments of concepts that include the claimed invention, and explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
Briefly, there is provided herein an audio device comprising an earpiece which provides a plurality of adjustable features. A user can adjust the device for left ear or right ear usage by adjusting an adjustable shaft and a telescoping ear loop. The earpiece device may further comprise a swivel boom microphone which can equally be adjusted for right or left side operation. The pivoting boom microphone and telescoping ear loop provide additional adjustability for a wide variety of user preferences including user selectable right or left side operation.
For left ear mounting, view 206 shows a left inside position of the audio device 100 having on-ear speaker housing 110, adjustable shaft 120, malleable ear loop 130, and boom microphone 140. View 220 shows the audio device 100 mounted to the left ear of a user. With this mounting audio porting 212 is located next to the user's left ear. View 208 shows the left outside position of the audio device 100.
In accordance with the various embodiments, the adjustable shaft 120 is rotated to accommodate either left side or right side usage. The adjustable shaft 120 is formed as an extension of the on-ear speaker housing 110, preferably as a single molded piece part, within which the shaft pin 310 can be pulled up and down by pulling on the ear loop 130.
Referring to view 304, the adjustable shaft 120 provides a two-way adjustable shaft comprising a shaft pin 310 for vertical movement of the ear loop 130. Point B shows the vertical movement of the earpiece along shaft pin 310. Relative to an x, y, z axis 312, the ear loop 130 moves up and down along the z axis. The vertical movement of the adjustable shaft 120 provides the telescoping control for the ear loop 130.
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Accordingly, there has been provided an audio device 100 which advantageously provides a single system approach that accommodates user-adjustable right or left ear usage. The ear loop is conformable to a variety of shapes via a variety of behind the ear positions along with the ear loop's telescoping capability. The audio device is easy to clean and maintain. Cable routing within the ear loop minimizes tension pull to the speaker housing and inadvertent pull out. The adjustable shaft may further be used to accommodate a swivel boom microphone while still providing right or left ear adjustability.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
