Patent Application
20210315311
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The disclosure relates to amplifying devices and more particularly pertains to a new amplifying device for passively amplifying sound passing through an ear hole in a helmet.
The prior art relates to amplifying devices. The prior art discloses a horn that has a spiral sound tube which is worn on a user's head for passively amplifying sounds for the user's ear. The prior art discloses a horn that includes a cushion that is positioned in a user's ear to passively amplify ambient sounds. Additionally, the prior art discloses an ear muff that has a passive speaker therein, that can be worn beneath a helmet, for passively amplifying ambient sound passing through an ear hole in the helmet. The prior art discloses an active noise cancelling device that is mounted on a user's ear when the user wears a helmet. The prior art also discloses a bowl that is wearable around a user's ear to passively amplify ambient sounds for the user.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a grommet has an inner lip that is spaced from an outer lip to define an engaging slot between the inner lip and the outer lip. The inner lip is extendable through an ear hole in a helmet thereby facilitating a bounding edge of the ear hole to engage the engaging slot. In this way the grommet is retained in the ear hole. The grommet has a sound hole extending therethrough to pass audible sound into the helmet. A bowl is integrated into the grommet and the bowl is concavely arcuate such that a curvature of the bowl has a focus that is aligned with the sound hole in the grommet. In this way the bowl can direct the audible sound into the ear hole. Thus, the bowl enhances a user's ability to hear the audible sound when the user is wearing the helmet.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The grommet 12 has a sound hole 24 extending therethrough to pass audible sound into the helmet 22. The sound hole 24 has a bounding edge 26 and the bounding edge 26 has a front side 28, a back side 30, a top side 32 and a bottom side 34. The top side 32 slopes downwardly between the front side 28 and the back side 30 thereby facilitating the sound hole 24 to conform to the shape of the ear hole 20 in the helmet 22. As is most clearly shown in
A bowl 37 provided and the bowl 37 is integrated into the grommet 12. Moreover, the bowl 37 is concavely arcuate such that the curvature of the bowl 37 has a focus that is aligned with the sound hole 24 in the grommet 12. In this way the bowl 37 can direct the audible sound into the ear hole 20 for enhancing the user's ability to hear the audible sound when the user is wearing the helmet 22. The bowl 37 extends away from the outwardly facing surface 36 of the outer lip 16 and the bowl 37 extends along each of the front side 28, the top side 32 and the bottom side 34 of the bounding edge 26 of the sound hole 24. In this way the bowl 37 simulates the shape of a human outer ear. The bowl 37 has a reflecting surface 38 that is directed toward the sound hole 24 and the reflecting surface 38 is concavely arcuate. The bowl 37 shields the front side 28, the top side 32 and the bottom side 34 of the bounding edge 26 from ambient noise, while the bowl 37 facilitates audible sounds to pass over the top side 32 of the bounding edge 26. In this way the bowl 37 enhances the user's ability to hear the voices of players on their team while simultaneously reducing the intensity of crowd noise and other ambient sounds.
In use, the grommet 12 is inserted into the ear hole 20 in the helmet 22 having the bowl 37 being exposed on the helmet 22. In this way the bowl 37 reflects and passively amplifies audible sounds into the ear hole 20. Thus, the user can more clearly hear the audible sounds such as plays called during a football game or other sounds that might be otherwise difficult to hear. Additionally, the orientation of the bowl 37 on the grommet 12 reduces the intensity of crowd noise and other ambient sounds for the user.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
