Method and device for acoustic sealing and occlusion effect mitigation

An earpiece, comprising:

• an expandable device configured for placement within an ear canal to isolate a sealed ear canal volume and the expandable device configured to face a tympanic membrane when placed in an ear having a sidewall which acts as a reflective surface to reflect bone or body conducted sound away from the ear canal volume, the expandable device comprising at least one membrane configured to face the tympanic membrane and configured to mitigate an occlusion effect;
• and
• a medium filling the expandable device placing the expandable device under tensile stress and causing ambient sound to reflect from a proximal surface of the expandable device.

An earpiece, comprising:

• a stressed membrane configured for placement within an ear canal to seal and isolate an ear canal volume and causing a reduction of body or bone conducted sound from coupling to the ear canal volume and thereby mitigating an occlusion effect when the ear canal volume is sealed;
• a medium filling an expandable device formed from the stressed membrane placing stressed membrane under tensile stress, the tensile stress further mitigating the occlusion effect and wherein the expandable device includes a sidewall acting as a reflective surface to reflect bone or body conducted sound away from the ear canal volume.