Patent ID: 9609420
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: H04R

Claim:
1. An earphone system comprising: a first earphone comprising a first speaker driver having a first magnet assembly, a first coil, and a first diaphragm, wherein the first magnet assembly and the first coil work together to drive the first diaphragm; a second earphone comprising a second speaker driver having a second magnet assembly, a second coil, and a second diaphragm, wherein the second magnet assembly and the second coil work together to drive the second diaphragm, wherein the second magnet assembly has a magnetic polarity that is opposite to that of the first magnet assembly; and a touch detector installed in one of the first or second earphones, to signal an audio source to turn off audio processing for the first and second speaker drivers in response to detecting that the left earphone and the right earphone are touching each other; wherein the first and second earphones each have a symmetrical housing, each symmetrical housing having a) a front side that is positioned inside an ear of a user when the earphone is worn by the user and wherein the front side has openings through which sound produced by the diaphragm directly enters the ear canal of the user when the earphone is being worn by the user, and b) a back side that is outside of the ear when the earphone is worn by the user, wherein the magnet assembly and coil are installed inside the housing between the front and back sides thereof, and wherein the magnet assemblies of the first earphone and the second earphone attract each other so that the housings touch at their respective front sides, when the front side of the first earphone housing is placed close to the front side of the second earphone housing, and wherein the touch detector is installed in the housing and is closer to the front side than the back side.