Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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EAR MICROPHONE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ear microphone
and, more particularly, to an ear microphone suitable for
use under noisy circumstances by providing a vibration
pick-up mechanism for picking up a bone conductive voice
signal from the external auditory canal wall of the ear and
a speaker for converting the received signal to a voice.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The ear microphone of the above-described type has
been heretofore known. For example, U.S.Patent Nos.
4,150,262 and 4,334,315, and West Germany Patent No.
4,150,262, etc. disclose the conventional ear microphones.
These ear microphones are all of the type that a
vibration pick-up such as a piezo element having a weight
is attached through a support such as a spring to the ear
microphone to be inserted into an external auditory canal.
When the ear microphone is inserted into t~e external
auditory canal to generate a voice, the user's voice signal
sounds vibrate as a bone conductive voice signal the
external auditory canal wall. The vlbration pick-up
mechanism picks up the vibratlon to generate a voltage
proportional to the vibration, the voltage is amplified by
an amplifier connected to a pick-up cords, and is
transmitted externally. The amplifier is attached into an
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earpiece.
A speaker for converting the received signal into a
voice is disposed out of the earpiece, and connected
through a sound conductive tube to the earpiece.
In the abovementioned conventional ear microphone, the
sound generated from the speaker is transmitted through the
sound conductive tube into the ear. Thus, when the sound
conductive tube is bent in the midway, it has such
disadvantages that the sound is hardly heard in the ear,
and the sound conductive tube feasibly picks up a noise so
that the voice is readily mixed with the noise.
The ear microphone is closely inserted into the
external auditory canal. Since the conventional ear
microphone does not has a duct for communicating between
the inside and the outside of the ear in the earpiece, the
external auditory canal is, when the ear microphone is
inserted into the external auditory canalj completely
closed. Thus, the sound generated from the speaker is
enclosed in the external auditory canal to become unnatural
sound. Since the external sound is not heard from the ear
of the side into which the ear microphone is inserted, the
directional feeling of the ear is lost to be dangerous. In
addition, since the external auditory canal is closed as
described above, it has such a disadvantage that the
external auditory canal is readily sweat.
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Further, the vibration pick-up mechanism in the
conventional ear microphone is disposed in parallel with
the external auditory canal at attaching time. In this
arrangement, namely, when the pick-up mechanism is
laterally disposed, the earpiece containing the pick-up
mechanism must be disposed laterally in long length, with
the result that the end of the earpiece to be inserted into
the external auditory canal must be increased in length.
However, since the vibration is picked up through the end
of the earpiece inserted into the external auditory canal,
the end portion of the earpiece cannot be softened~ Since
the end of the earpiece is inserted deeply into the
external auditory canal, the user's attaching feeding of
the earpiece is deteriorated to possibly cause the user's
ear to feel a pain. Moreover, an ear discharge tends to be
stored in the sound canal formed at the end of the
earpiece, and there is a disadvantage that the ear
discharge is hardly cleaned.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to
provide a bidirectional ear microphone suitable for use in
a mass production by avoiding the mixture of a noise due to
a sound conductive tube and the attenuation of a sound from
a speaker, improving the clarity of the sound and reducing
the number of parts.
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Another object of the present invention
is to provide an ear microphone which can eliminate
an increase in sound pressure (sound enclosing feel-
ing) in the ear at attaching time, can hear external
sound, and can hardly generate an ear discharge in
the ear.
Yet another object of the present invention
is to provide an ear microphone which attains good
attaching feeling without deeply inserting into the
external auditory canal and can be composed of a
soft material at the end of an earpiece.
Still another object of the invention is
to 'provide an ear microphone which causes no pain
even if deeply inserted into the ear and can be
readily cleaned at the end thereof.
In accordance with a particular embodiment
of the invention there is provided an ear microphone
comprising a vibration pick-up mechanism for picking
up a bone conductive sound signal from an external
auditory canal wall and a speaker for converting
a received signal into a voice in an earpiece.
Other and further objects, features and
advantages of the invention will appear more fully
from the following description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a side view of an embodiment
of an ear microphone according to the present
invention;
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view
of an earpiece of the ear microphone;
Fig. 3 is a view showing the attaching
state of the ear microphone to the ear;
Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view
of another embodiment of the invent,ion; and
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Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of still
another embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFER~ED EMBODIMENTS
The most preferable embodiment of the present
invention will be described in detail with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
An earpiece 1 is ordinarily formed of plastic, and an
inserting portion 2 of the earpiece 1, to be inserted into
an external auditory canal, i5 projected in a curved shape
capable of closely inserting into the external auditory
canal. A pick-up mechanism 4 and a speaker 5 are contained
in the portion of an earpiece body 3 to be disposed outside
the ear. In order to associate the pick-up mechanism 4 and
the speaker 5 in the earpiece 1, the earpiece 3 is capable
of being split longitudinally as shown in Fig. 2. The
pick-up mechanism 4 consists of a sensing portion for
sensing a bone conductive voice signal (vibration) of a
user himself to be transmitted to the external auditory
canal wall, and a vibration pick-up element for converting
the vibration sensed by the sensing portion into an
electric signal. The vibration pick-up element ordinarily
employs a piezo element, but may instead employ a silicon
semiconductor to detect the variation in a resistance value
upon changing of the pressure to the silicon semiconductor.
The pick-up mechanism may also employ as other type a
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system for generating a current by vibrating a coil in a
magnetic field. A sound canal 6 which communicates with
the end of the inserting portion 2 from the speaker 5, is
formed in the earpiece 1. A duct 7 which communicates with
the end of the inserting portion 2 from the rear surface of
the body 3, is formed in the earpiece 1. The front half of
the duct 7 may communicate with the sound canal 6 as shown
in Fig. 2. The duct 7 is provided to communicate between
the inside and the outside of the ear at the time of
mounting the ear microphone to balance sound pressures
between the outside and the inside of the èar. Thus, since
an increase in the sound pressure in the ear is eliminated
to obviate a sound enclosing feeling and the duct 7 does
not disturb hearing of an external sound, user's sound
direction feeling is not lost. Further, the ear is not
readily sweat, and the arrangement of the earpiece
containing the microphone and the speaker can various
advantages such as preventing a howling. The earpiece 1
also comprises a cord 8 lèading f~om the pick-up mechanism
4 and a cord 9 leading from the speaker 5.
The pick-up mechanism 4 may not always necessarily be
disposed laterally as shown in Fig. 2, but may be disposed
longitudinaLly in the earpiece body 3 as shown in Fig. 4.
When the pick-up mechanism 4 is disposed laterally, the
inserting portion 2 must be that much increased in the
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length, but when the pick-up mechanism 4 is disposed
longitudinally in the body 3, the inserting portion 2 may
be shortened in the length. Even if the pick-up mechanism
4 is thus disposed longitudinally, the external auditory
canal wall vibration is transmitted to the earpiece 1 and
is picked up by the pick-up mechanism 4 in the same manner
as that the pick-up mechanism is disposed laterally. With
such an arrangement of the earpiece 1, the inserting
portion 2 is shortened in the length so that the earpiece 1
is not deeply inserted in the external auditory canal.
Thus, preferable attaching feeling of the`earpiece 1 is
attained. Since the pick-up mechanism is not disposed in
the inserting portion 2, the inserting portion 2 may be
formed of a soft material.
Further, in the embodiments shown in Figs. 2 and 4,
the end of the inserting portion 2 may be formed to be
removably. More specifically, as shown in Fig. 5, a
detachable piece 10 is formed at the end of the inserting
portion 2 to be detachably attached to the inserting
portion 2 by means such as snap-fitting. A passage 9 which
communicates with the sound canal 6 and the duct 7 (mostly
formed commonly) is perforated in the detachable piece 10.
Since the passage 11 is disposed at the end of the
inserting portion 2, a ear discharge tends to be stored,
but can be simply cleaned by removing the earpiece 1 and
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can also be maintained in a clean state at any time. The
detachable piece 10 may be formed of an elastic material
such as urethane or silicon. Thus, the user's feeling of a
pain in case of inserting the eaxpiece 1 deeply into the
external auditory canal can be alleviated.
