Headphone apparatus for providing dynamic sound with vibrations and method therefor
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorAtsushi Nagayoshi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A headphone 10 has a pair of sound generating units 16 designed to be placed adjacent to ears of a user and a vibration generating unit 14 designed to be placed on a back neck of the user. In response to an audio signal, the sound generating units 16 generate acoustic sound and then provide it to the ears. Simultaneously with this, in response to the audio signal, the vibration generating unit generates vibrations to be provided to the back neck of the user. Then, the user will perceive the acoustic sound through ears and the vibrations through the back neck simultaneously. This provides the user with a dynamic sound effect.
Claims16
A headphone apparatus, comprising:
- a U-shaped band having opposed opposite ends;
- a pair of sound generating units, each of said sound generating units including an acoustic transducer and being supported at a respective one of said opposite ends of said band so as to be placed adjacent to a left ear and a right ear of a user, respectively;
- and
- a vibration generating unit including a vibrator, said vibration generating unit being supported at an intermediate portion of said band so as to be placed on a back of a neck of the user;
- and
- wherein said pair of sound generating units and said vibration generating unit are arranged such that, in response to an electric audio signal, each of said acoustic transducers generate acoustic sound while said vibrator simultaneously generates vibrations, said band being operable to transmit the vibrations to each of said opposed opposite ends so that the vibrations are transmitted to a user at least at the back of the neck, at the left ear, and at the right ear.
A method of providing acoustic sound and vibrations simultaneously, comprising:
- providing an audio signal;
- driving a pair of acoustic transducers in response to said audio signal to generate corresponding acoustic sound, said pair of said acoustic transducers being placed adjacent to respective ears of a user;
- driving a vibrator in response to said audio signal to generate corresponding vibrations, said vibrator being placed on a back of a neck of said user between said pair of acoustic transducers;
- and
- transmitting the vibrations toward each of said pair of acoustic transducers by a band connecting said vibrator to each of said acoustic transducers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.