Sub-surface indicator lighting
AssigneeCochlear Limited
InventorsNathan Isaacson, Jan Patrick Frieding
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Presented herein are devices/apparatuses having indicator lights (visual indicators), such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), positioned underneath/below the outer surface of a housing of the device. However, the indicator lights positioned below the outer surface of the housing, sometimes referred to herein as “sub-surface” or “sub-housing” indicator lights, are optically coupled to the outer surface of the housing via one or more optical connectors (e.g., light guides, light pipes, light diffusers, etc.). As such, the light emitted by the sub-surface indicator lights is still visible at the outer surface of the device housing.
Claims20
An apparatus, comprising:
- a housing including at least one acoustic port;
- a microphone positioned within the housing in alignment with the acoustic port;
- at least one optical connector positioned within the acoustic port;
- and
- at least one indicator light that is separate from the microphone and positioned within the housing, wherein the at least one indicator light is optically coupled to the acoustic port via the optical connector such that light emitted from the at least one indicator light is visible outside of the housing via the acoustic port.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a housing comprising at least one acoustic port, an outer surface, and an inner surface;
- a printed circuit board (PCB) positioned within the housing adjacent to the acoustic port;
- a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone mounted on the PCB in-line with the acoustic port;
- at least one indicator light that is separate from the MEMS microphone and mounted on the PCB below the inner surface of the housing;
- and
- at least one optical connector optically coupling the at least one indicator light to the outer surface of the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.