Abstract:
A structure and method of arrangement for use in audio playback that includes a pair of speakers each having a housing and fasteners, which may cooperate to provide a convex configuration. The fasteners include two spring biased fasteners that are configured to retract simultaneously in each of the housings. Once they are retracted simultaneously, the housings may be twisted relative to each other to lock the speakers together through engagement of two fixed fasteners and through spring bias from the two spring biased fasteners. An audio cord or wire of the speakers may then be spooled about a junction formed where the fixed fasteners overlap each other to effect the engagement.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The invention relates to ear clip speakers that interlock with each other. Audio cords of the speakers may be spooled about the location where the speakers interlock.  
           [0003]    2. Discussion of Related Art  
           [0004]    Conventional ear clip speakers are distributed to passengers on commercial aircraft to enable the passengers access to audio ports in the arm rests of their seats for listening to the aircraft internal audio playback system.  
           [0005]    The present inventors have observed that the two speakers in a pair of ear clip speakers do not need to be separate from each other when not in use, such as during periods of storage. Further, there is no need to all the audio cords of the speakers to freely dangle when the pair of ear clip speakers are not in use.  
           [0006]    It is therefore desired to modify conventional ear clip speakers so as to enable the speakers to no longer remain separate from each other when not in use and to enable their audio cords to no longer dangle freely when the speakers are not in use.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    One aspect of the invention resides in a pair of ear clip speakers each with a speaker housing that has a spring biased fastener and a fixed fastener. When the fasteners of one of the speakers are brought into engagement and alignment with the fasteners of the other of the speakers, further manual pressing results in retraction of two of the fasteners in opposite directions. With the two of the fasteners retracted, twisting the speakers relative to each other by rotation in one direction causes another two of the fasteners to overlap and locks the speakers together at a junction where the two fasteners overlap. If the two fasteners that retract are spring biased, the spring bias from each is in opposite directions that tend to keep the fixed fasteners overlapped until untwisted by manual force. By twisting the speakers to rotate in a reverse direction, the speakers become unlocked from each other to enable the springs to spring bias the speakers apart from each other and out of engagement.  
           [0008]    Each housing may have a convex face whose contour is partially defined by an outermost surface of the associated ones of the fasteners while the speakers are in an unlocked condition. Each housing has an opposite side that is padded and is of a dimension greater than that of the junction about which the audio cord is spooled or wrapped when the speakers are locked. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING  
       [0009]    For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following description and accompanying drawings, while the scope of the invention is set forth in the appended claims.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a pair of right and left ear clip speakers that interlock in accordance with the invention.  
         [0011]    FIGS.  2 - 5  show progressive side views of the pair of the right and left ear clip speakers that interlock of FIG. 1, in which FIG. 2 shows contact between the convex faces,  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 shows engagement of the convex faces, FIG. 4 shows interlocking of the convex faces after relative turning, and FIG. 5 shows the audio cord of the right and left ear clip speakers spooled.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 6 shows a schematic perspective view of a left ear clip speaker of FIGS.  1 - 5  after engagement with the right speaker, showing a spring biased fastener pressed in against spring bias.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 7 shows a schematic perspective view of the right ear clip speaker of FIGS.  1 - 5  after engagement with the left speaker, showing another spring biased fastener pressed in against spring bias.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 8 shows a schematic representation showing the locking engagement of the left and right ear clip speakers.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIGS. 9 and 10 show exploded front and rear perspective views of the right ear clip speaker of FIGS.  1 - 5 .  
         [0017]    [0017]FIGS. 11 and 12 show exploded front and rear perspective views of the left ear clip speaker of FIGS.  1 - 5 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0018]    Turning to the drawings of FIGS.  1 - 7 , a left ear clip speaker  10  and a right ear clip speaker  12  are shown, each having their own conventional flexible ear hook  14  and conventional padding  16 . Each has a respective housing  18 ,  20  that houses conventional speaker electronics, perhaps within a sub-housing (not shown). The padding  16  is secured to an inner face of the respective housing  18 ,  20 . The outer convex faces  22 ,  24  of the housings  18 ,  20  are convex in configuration and each has a complementary one of spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  and a complementary one of the fixed fasteners  30 ,  32 . Conventional audio cord or wire  34  extends from each speaker with a conventional terminal  36  configured to be inserted into a conventional audio port (not shown) to enable playback of audio signals, after being transformed into sounds by the speaker electronics through the ear clip speakers  10 , 12 .  
         [0019]    The ear clip speakers  10 , 12  may be locked together by engaging the spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  with the fixed fasteners  30 ,  32 . This may be accomplished by aligning the spring biased fastener  26  and fixed fastener  30  of the left speaker  10  with their counterpart fasteners  28 ,  32  of the right speaker  12 , pressing the outer convex faces  22 ,  24  toward each other against the spring bias of the spring biased fasteners  26 , 28  while maintaining the alignment, and, after pressing in as far as possible, twisting the outer convex faces  22 ,  24  relative to each other in one direction such as clockwise so as to interlock the fasteners  26 ,  28 ,  30 ,  32 .  
         [0020]    The shape of the edges of the spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  conform to the shape of the edges of the fixed fasteners  30 ,  32 . Fasteners  26 ,  32  preferably have corners  38 . During twisting, the corners  38  of fixed fastener  32  are moved behind the underside of the fixed fastener  30  into a locking position while the spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  remain in a compressed condition. The fixed fastener  30 , which defines a square edge at its opening  40 , may have blocking elements  42  (FIG. 6) that block the corners  38  of fixed fastener  32  and thereby block rotation beyond a quarter turn. These blocking elements  42  extend from the underside of the convex surface of the fixed fastener  30  in succession along one side adjacent each corner of the square edge. Thus, the sides adjacent to the blocking elements  42  at each corner remain clear.  
         [0021]    Further, the spring biased fastener  26  presses against the fixed fastener  32  in a direction opposite to the direction that the spring biased fastener  28  presses against the fixed fastener  30 . Once the left and right speakers  10 , 12  are locked together, the audio cord or wire  34  may be spooled or wrapped around the junction between the left and right speakers  10 , 12  to provide a neat appearance and avoid leaving the audio cord or wire  34  dangling in a loose manner by its full length.  
         [0022]    To unlock the speakers  10 , 12  from each other, the reverse order of steps involved in locking them is followed. That is, the sequence of steps for locking involves aligning the complementary fasteners  26 ,  28 ,  30 ,  32 , pressing the outer convex faces  22 ,  24  of the housings  18 ,  20  toward each other against spring bias as far as possible and then twisting the housings  18 ,  20  in one direction relative to each other. The sequence of steps for unlocking involves twisting the housings  18 ,  20  in a direction reverse to the one direction relative to each other, allowing the spring bias to push the outer convex faces  22 ,  24  out of engagement and away from each other and then separating the speakers  10 ,  12  from each other. If the audio cord or wire  34  had been spooled when the speakers  10 ,  12  were locked together, then unlocking the speakers  10 ,  12  from each other and separating them still provides the user with the benefit of having the audio cord or wire  34  in the wrapped condition if held in that position immediately upon separation of the speakers  10 ,  12 .  
         [0023]    For ease in understanding, FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the pair of speakers  10 ,  12  prior to engagement, with the audio cord or wire  34  shown dangling. FIGS.  2 - 4  illustrate the locking procedure in succession, i.e., alignment, engagement and twisting rotation.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 shows spooling the audio cord or wire  34  about the junction where the convex faces  22 ,  24  are interlocked by the complementary fasteners. The dimension of the junction is smaller than the dimension of the padding  16  and the largest dimension of each of the speakers. Such a configuration enables spooling.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIGS. 6 and 7 show representative internal views of the speakers  10 ,  12  to illustrate the spring biasing action using springs  44 . FIG. 8 represents the manner in which the fasteners  30 ,  32  interlock under the spring bias at fasteners  26 ,  28 . The view shows the top of fixed fastener  32  after it has protruded through the opening  40  in the fixed fastener  30  and is twisted relative to the fixed fastener  30 . Blocking elements  40  only permit a quarter turn.  
         [0026]    By providing the two central fasteners  26 ,  32  with corners  38 , the fixed one of the two central fasteners  32  will have its corners  38  lodge or wedge behind the underside of the outer one of the fixed fasteners  30  due to spring bias exerted in opposite directions by the central fastener  26  against the central fastener  32  and by the outer fastener  28  against the outer fastener  30 . The thickness of the fixed fasteners  30 ,  32  should be such as to enable the fixed fastener  32  to clear the thickness of the fixed fastener  30  when the spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  are at most in the fully compressed conditions so as to enable relative twisting thereafter to effect the locking.  
         [0027]    As should be evident from the drawings, the outward face of the spring biased fasteners  26 ,  28  each define a portion of a contour of the convex configuration of the respective housing while in a fully extended position, i.e, with the spring biased fasteners in a relaxed condition. When in a fully retracted position, however, each outward face leaves a recess in the convex configuration, i.e., with the spring biased fasteners in a compressed condition.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIGS. 9 and 10 show the assembly of the right ear clip speaker and FIGS. 11 and 12 show the assembly of the left ear clip speaker. FIGS.  9 - 10  show a logo piece  50 , a floating ring  52 , a spring  44 A, a cover  54 , an ear hook  14 A, a speaker driver  56 , a speaker ring  58 A and the padding  16  (foam ear pad). FIGS.  11 - 12  show the padding  16  (foam ear pad), speaker ring  58 B, ear hook  14 B, chassis  60 , cover  62 , spring  44 B, and logo piece  64 . The logo pieces  50 ,  66  may have an advertising logo or other indicia on them.  
         [0029]    To avoid duplication, FIG. 10 only depicts the opposite side of those components of FIG. 9 that are not evident from FIG. 11 for the same components. FIG. 12 also only shows the opposite side of those components whose opposite side is not depicted elsewhere. The left and right ear clip speakers&#39; ear hooks  14 A,  14 B, and the left and right ear clip speakers&#39; speaker rings  58 A,  58 B mirror each other. The padding  16  and the speaker drivers  56  are the same construction for the left and right ear clip speakers.  
         [0030]    For ease in understanding the terminology of the application, the logo piece  64  of FIGS. 11 and 12 is part of the spring biased fastener  26  of FIG. 6. The floating ring  52  of FIGS. 9 and 10 is part of the spring biased fastener  28  of FIG. 7. The logo piece  50  of FIGS. 9 and 10 is part of the fixed fastener  32  of FIG. 7. The cover  62  of FIGS. 11 and 12 includes the fixed fastener  30  of FIG. 6.  
         [0031]    While the foregoing description and drawings represent the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.