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US 10,441,470 B2Granted
Interactive air pressure exchange system
Assignee1964 Ears, LLC
InventorsChristopher E. Ogut, Vitaliy Y. Gordeyev
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In-ear monitors, earphones and noise-attenuating earplugs are provided with a vent to improve insertion, removal and wearing comfort, and to protect delicate audio drivers from excessive pressure excursions. The vent is fitted with a pressure-management material such as a viscoelastic open-cell foam to control the rate at which air can pass through the vent. The pressure-management material permits tuning of the vent to achieve acoustically flat attenuation of ambient sound.
Claims19
An earpiece comprising:
- a body configured to rest in an outer ear of a wearer;
- a stem coupled to the body, said stem configured to extend into an ear canal of the wearer and to seal the ear canal;
- a vent connecting an airspace inside the sealed ear canal to an ambient atmosphere outside the body;
- and
- a pressure-management material removably fixed within the vent to control passage of air through the vent, wherein
- the pressure-management material provides a targeted audio response and permits pressure equalization between the airspace inside the sealed air canal and the ambient atmosphere over an insertion time of the earpiece.
3 more elements
An earpiece comprising:
- a body shaped to match an impression of a wearer's outer ear and adjacent outer ear canal, the body having a vent extending directly from an orifice within the wearer's ear canal to an ambient atmosphere outside the wearer's outer ear;
- at least one audio driver to emit sound waves into the wearer's outer ear canal through an audio passage;
- and
- a discrete carrier for an open-cell viscoelastic foam removably secured within the vent, wherein
- the open-cell viscoelastic foam is fixed within the discrete carrier to control passage of air through the vent.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- inserting a pressure-management material into a vent module;
- measuring sound transmission levels at a plurality of different frequencies from a source, through the vent module containing the pressure-management material, to a sink;
- and
- if a first sound transmission level at a first frequency differs from a second sound transmission level at a second frequency by more than a predetermined amount,
- adjusting the pressure-management material within the vent module before repeating the measuring operation to produce an acoustically tuned vent module;
- and
- inserting the acoustically tuned vent module containing the pressure management material into an earpiece.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.