The present invention relates to an earplug, and more particularly to an earplug that is used to assemble on an earphone, enabling comfortable wearing of the earphone inside a user's ear canal.
Earphones are primarily used to transmit sound, and in order to ensure comfortability when wearing, the majority of earphones are configured with an earplug to increase comfortability when wearing. However, because the majority of earphones are made from material that is relatively hard, such as plastic, the earphone easily causes discomfort in the ear canal when placed directly therein.
Accordingly, the majority of these earphones are provided with an earplug made from soft material to increase comfortability when wearing. Moreover, the earphone configured with the earplug further enables tighter placement in the ear canal, as well as effectively blocking external air from entering the interior of the ear canal and preventing external noise from interfering with sound transmitted by the earphone.
As an example, U.S. Patent No. 2018255381A1 discloses an earplug that is able to increase airtightness of an earphone, and is further able to improve comfortability when being worn. Nevertheless, when wearing this type of earplug, although able to substantially increase airtightness, an excessive air pressure results in the interior of the ear canal, which produces symptoms such as tinnitus, and the like, resulting in the problem of the inability to wear the earplug for long periods of time.
Another example, Taiwan Patent Publication No. 1599234 discloses an earplug able to effect regulation of ear pressure, wherein the earplug is configured with pressure guide holes, through which air pressure produced in the ear canal is expelled. However, the earplug not only has inadequate supporting strength; moreover, the earplug is also easily compressed by the ear canal causing deformation thereof when being worn. If the deformation is serious, then air inside the ear canal can not be effectively expelled. In addition, this type of earplug easily causes external noise interference to pass through the pressure guide holes and enter the interior of the ear canal when being worn, and, thus, cannot effect noise control, which will affect tone quality of the earphone.
Accordingly, the technical problems the present invention intends to resolve and objectives thereof involves providing an earplug that can be applied to an earphone and effectively regulates ear canal air pressure as well as enabling reducing noise interference to improve tone quality.
The main object of the present invention lies in providing an earplug, and more particularly to an earplug that is assembled on an earphone and is provided with pressure regulation and noise control effects.
In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, the present invention first provides an earplug with pressure regulation and noise control, which is used to assemble on an earphone and worn in the ear canal. The center of the earplug is provided with a sound passage hole that is used to connect to the earphone, and a pressure regulation chamber encircles and is formed on the exterior of the sound passage hole. At least one air inlet and at least one air vent are respectively formed on the two sides of the pressure regulation chamber, thereby enabling air inside the ear canal to pass through the air inlets and enter the interior of the pressure regulation chamber, after which the air is expelled through the air vents to the outside of the pressure regulation chamber to achieve pressure equilibrium inside the ear canal, as well as effectively preventing external noise interference from entering the interior of the ear canal and achieving the effect to control noise interference.
In one embodiment, the earplug is further provided with an inner wall that encircles and forms the sound passage hole, and an outer wall that encircles the outer side of the inner wall surface and together with the inner wall surface structures the pressure regulation chamber. The air inlets and the air vents are respectively configured on two corresponding sides of the outer wall.
In the embodiment, the outer wall is further assembled from a front end surface that connects to one end of the inner wall, a rear end surface that connects to the other end of the inner wall, and a side surface that connects the front end surface and the rear end surface and corresponds to the inner wall. Accordingly, the pressure regulation chamber is thereby structurally configured from the inner wall, the front end surface, the rear end surface, and the side surface.
In the embodiment, the air inlets are located on the front end surface, and the air vents are located on the rear end surface.
In the embodiment, the diameters of the air inlets and the air vents lie between 0.1 mm to 1 mm.
In the embodiment, each of the air inlets and each of the air vents are located at different angular positions to the centers thereof.
In the embodiment, the capacity of the pressure regulation chamber lies between 10˜100 microliters, thereby controlling the expel time of sound from the interior of the ear canal to below 20 Hz.
In one embodiment, at least two partitions are further disposed within the pressure regulation chamber, thus, the partitions divide the pressure regulation chamber into at least two independent chamber structures. At least one of the air inlets and at least one of the air vents afford passage to each of the chamber structures.
In the embodiment, the capacity of each of the chamber structures lies between 10˜100 microliters, and the total capacity of the chamber structures is less than 100 microliters.
In the embodiment, each of the air inlets and each of the air vents are located at different angular positions to the centers thereof. An earplug with pressure regulation and noise control of the present invention is provided with the following advantages compared to the prior art:
To enable a further understanding of said objectives and the technological methods of the invention herein, a brief description of the drawings is provided below followed by a detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
Regarding the detailed content and structural means of the present invention, please refer to the description of the diagrams as follows:
Referring to
The sound passage hole 11 is circumferentially formed by an inner wall 13, and the pressure regulation chamber 12 is structurally formed from the inner wall 13 and an outer wall 14. The inner wall 13 is provided with a first end 131 that is connected to the earphone 20 and a second end 132 that extends out from the interior of the ear canal 30. The outer wall 14 is assembled from a front end surface 141 that is connected to the second end 132, a rear end surface 142 that is connected to the first end 131, and a side surface 143 connected between the front end surface 141 and the rear end surface 142 and separated from the inner wall 13. In other words, the pressure regulation chamber 12 is structurally formed from the inner wall 13, the front end surface 141, the rear end surface 142, and the side surface 143. In addition, it is preferred that the earplug 10 is formed as an integral body to prevent insufficient airtightness of the pressure regulation chamber 12.
Furthermore, at least one air inlet 144 that affords passage to the pressure regulation chamber 12 is configured in the front end surface 141, and at least one air vent 145 that affords passage to the pressure regulation chamber 12 is configured in the rear end surface 142. In addition, each of the air inlets 144 and each of the air vents 145 are located at different angular positions to the centers thereof, that is, each of the air inlets 144 and each of the air vents 145 are mutually angular displaced. In the present embodiment, four of the air inlets 144 are configured in the front end surface 141, and four of the air vents 145 are configured in the rear end surface 142. Moreover, each of the air inlets 144 and each of the air vents 145 are located at different angular positions to the centers thereof.
In addition, in order to facilitate effectively connecting the earplug 10 to the earphone 20, the earphone 20 is provided with an assembly portion 21, which is further provided with a sound outlet 22. The sound passage hole 11 of the earplug 10 and the sound outlet 22 are centrically located, and the sound passage hole 11 is provided with an inserting groove 111 that enables inserting the assembly portion 21 therein, thereby facilitating effectively connecting the earplug 10 to the earphone 20 by means of the assembly portion 21 and the inserting groove 111.
In the present embodiment, the diameters of each of the air inlets 144 and each of the air vents 145 are controlled to lie between 0.1 mm to 1 mm, and the capacity of the pressure regulation chamber 12 is controlled to lie within the range 10˜100 microliters. Each of the air inlets 144 and each of the air vents 145 are mutually angular displaced, thus, when the earplug 10 is placed inside the ear canal 30 using the earphone 20, then air inside the ear canal 30 is able to pass through the air inlets 144 and enter the pressure regulation chamber 12 (as depicted by the arrowheads in
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It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and that a wide variety of modifications thereto may be effected by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.