Patent Publication Number: US-2007104345-A1

Title: In-ear type earphone with an ear hanger

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
      This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 94139227, filed on Nov. 9, 2005. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to an earphone, and more particularly, to an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Along with the continuous development of the new technology, the electronic products are designed to be lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller, thus the user can use the electronic product such as the FM radio or walkman at anytime and anywhere. In addition, the personal digital products such as the MP3 walkman, the mobile phone, the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), and the laptop (a.k.a. the notebook) computer are well accepted and had become an inevitable device in our daily life. Moreover, a new mobile phone that supports both the FM radio and MP3 player functions is also available in the current market.  
      For all types of electronic products, in order to allow the user to clearly listen to the audio information provided by the electronic product without having to interfere others, the earphone had become an inevitable accessory for the electronic product. In addition, the earphone also provides a better audio transmission link to the user, such that the user can clearly hear and understand the contents of the audio, which eliminates the problem of non-clear voice transmitted in the air. When the user is in motion, such as in sports, driving, intense activity, or under a noisy environment, the user can listen to the audio clearly without being impacted by the noisy environment.  
      The in-ear type earphone, in which the earphone is placed into the user&#39;s ear and fixed therein, had become the most popular earphone. However, with such method of fixing the earphone on the user&#39;s ear, the signal transmission line of the earphone is easily pulled out by body movement or unintentional action, thus the earphone will easily fall out from the ear hole, which makes the ear feel uncomfortable and may also damage the earphone. Accordingly, in another conventional in-ear type earphone, an ear hanger is further disposed on the earphone to increase the fixation of the earphone.  
       FIG. 1  schematically shows a diagram of an in-ear type earphone disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,615. Referring to  FIG. 1 , the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger comprises: an in-ear type speaker element  28 , a sliding round shaft  30 , a sliding sleeve  32 , an ear hanger  42 , a cable  40 , and a plug  43 . Wherein, the sliding round shaft  30  is coupled to the in-ear type speaker element  28 , and the sliding sleeve  32  is muff coupled to the sliding round shaft  30 . With such mechanism, the in-ear type speaker element  28  slides up and down and freely rotates around the sliding round shaft  30 , such that it can adapt with different types of ear shapes. However, the connection between the ear hanger  42  and the sliding sleeve  32  is rather weak and easily damaged, and the sliding round shaft  30  is easily broken.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger, the earphone is suitable for adjusting to adapt with the user&#39;s different ear shapes, such that the earphone can provide optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling.  
      The present invention provides an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger. The in-ear type earphone includes a holder, an earphone body, and the ear hanger. The holder has a guiding portion with a sliding groove, the earphone body is slidingly assembled in the sliding groove, and the ear hanger is connected to the holder.  
      In the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger, the holder may further comprise a pivot portion, and the ear hanger pivots on the pivot portion of the holder. In addition, the ear hanger may be suitable for sliding along the axis of the pivot.  
      In the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger, the earphone body may comprise a case and a speaker element. The case is slidingly assembled in the sliding groove and the speaker element is disposed inside the case. In addition, the case may comprise at least one hole. Moreover, the in-ear type earphone may further comprise a signal transmission line, and the case has an outlet hole. Wherein, one end of the signal transmission line passing through the outlet hole is electrically coupled to the speaker element, and the other end of the signal transmission line works as an audio input port.  
      In the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger, the earphone body may comprise an audio-output side and a holder side that are disposed on two sides of the guiding portion, respectively. Wherein, the holder side has a first width on a first direction and a second width on a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction. Here, the first width is greater than the width of the guiding portion, and the second width is smaller than the width of the guiding portion. Alternatively, the end portion of the guiding portion may be a takeoff hole, and the earphone body is suitable for being taken off from the holder through the takeoff hole.  
      In the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger, the ear hanger may be slidingly connected to the holder. In addition, the in-ear type earphone may further comprise an ear pad that covers an audio-output side of the earphone body. Moreover, the in-ear type earphone may further comprise a signal transmission line. Wherein, one end of the signal transmission line is electrically coupled to the earphone body, and the other end of the signal transmission line works as the audio input port. Furthermore, the guiding portion may be formed in a curve shape.  
      In summary, in the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger provided by the present invention, since the link between the earphone body and the holder is designed to slide, the position of the earphone body is adjustable to adapt with the user&#39;s ear shape, such that the earphone can provide optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling. Moreover, the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger provided by the present invention has the advantages of better structure strength and is hard to damage. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION DRAWINGS  
      The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a conventional in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic 3D diagram of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  is a front view of the in-ear type earphone shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 4  is a side view of the in-ear type earphone shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 5  is a front view of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to another embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 6  is a front view of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to more another embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic 3D diagram of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to an embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3  is a front view of the in-ear type earphone shown in  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 4  is a side view of the in-ear type earphone shown in  FIG. 2 .  
      Referring to FIGS.  2 ˜ 4 , the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger  200  comprises a holder  210 , an earphone body  220 , and an ear hanger  230 . Wherein, the holder  210  has a guiding portion  212 , the earphone body  220  is slidingly assembled in the guiding portion  212  of the holder  210 , and the ear hanger  230  is connected to the holder  210 . In the present embodiment, the guiding portion  212  with a sliding groove G 10  is formed in a U-shape, and the earphone body  220  is slidingly assembled in the sliding groove G 10 . In addition, in order to comply with the ergonomic standard, the guiding portion  212  of the present embodiment may be designed as a curve shape. Alternatively, the guiding portion  212  also can be designed as a plat panel. Of course, it will be apparent to one of the ordinary skills in the art that different designs may be applied to the link between the earphone body  220  and the guiding portion  212 , as long as the earphone body  220  can slide in the guiding portion  212 .  
      In addition, since the earphone body  220  slides along the direction D 10  in the guiding portion  212  (referring to  FIG. 3 ), when the user hangs the in-ear type earphone  200  on his/her ear, the location of the earphone body  220  on the holder  210  can be adjusted to adapt with the user&#39;s ear shape, such that the earphone body  220  can be appropriately placed into the user&#39;s ear hole, and the user can enjoy the optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling.  
      In addition, the holder  210  may comprise a pivot portion  216 , and the ear hanger  230  pivots on the pivot portion  216  of the holder  210 . Therefore, the ear hanger  230  pivots on the axis A 10  (referring to  FIG. 2 ) of the pivot portion  216  in the holder  210 . With such design, the earphone body  220  is deeply placed into the user&#39;s ear, such that the interference of the external noise is eliminated and the audio quality is improved. When the ear hanger  230  pivots on the pivot portion  216 , by modifying the mechanism design, it is possible to limit the rotating angle according to the real requirement. Moreover, an elastic portion (not shown) or another part may be further disposed between the ear hanger  230  and the pivot portion  216 , so as to provide an appropriate rotating elasticity to the ear hanger  230 .  
      Furthermore, the ear hanger  230  may be slidingly connected to holder  210 . In other words, the link between the ear hanger  230  and the holder  210  may be designed in a sliding manner, such that the ear hanger  230  can slide along a direction D 20  (referring to  FIG. 3 ) on the guiding portion  212 . Accordingly, the in-ear type earphone  200  is adjustable by the user to adapt with the user&#39;s ear size, so as to obtain an optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling. When the holder  210  has the pivot portion  216 , the sliding direction of the ear hanger  230  may be the same as the axis A 10  of the pivot portion  216 .  
      In the present embodiment, the earphone body  220  may comprise a case  222  and a speaker element (shown in  FIG. 4  with dot line)  224 . The case  222  is slidingly disposed in the guiding portion  212  of the holder  210 , and the speaker element  224  is disposed inside the case  222 . In addition, the case  222  may be optionally designed to be consisting of one or more audio holes  226  for adjusting the audio field of the speaker element  224 , so as to provide better audio quality. Moreover, if the in-ear type earphone  200  is designed to be wired, the in-ear type earphone  200  may further comprise a signal transmission line  240 , and the case  222  has an outlet hole  228 . Here, one end of the signal transmission line  240  passing through the outlet hole  228  is electrically coupled to the speaker element  224 , and the other end of the signal transmission line  240  works as the audio input port  242 . The audio input port  242  is provided to connect with various audio source devices such as the mobile phone, the stereo device, and the MP3 player for receiving the audio signals. Of course, the in-ear type earphone  200  may be designed to be wireless. In such case, the audio signal is received in a wireless manner.  
      Moreover, the in-ear type earphone  200  may further comprise an ear pad  250 . The ear pad  250  covers the audio-output side of the earphone body  220 , such that the user can feel more comfortable when hanging the earphone. The ear pad  250  may be made of various soft materials such as the rubber, silica gel, and sponge.  
      In addition, the link between the earphone body  220  and the holder  210  may be designed as removable.  FIG. 5  is a front view of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 5 , in the present embodiment, the earphone body  520  has an audio-output side  524  and a holder side  522  that are disposed on two sides of the guiding portion  512 , respectively. Wherein, the holder side  522  has a first width W 10  on the X-direction and a second width W 20  on the Y-direction that is perpendicular to the X-direction. The first width W 10  is greater than a width W 30  of the sliding groove G 50 , and the second width W 20  is smaller than the width W 30  of the sliding groove G 50 . Therefore, when the earphone body  520  is sliding in the sliding groove G 50  with the certain tilt angle shown in  FIG. 5 , the earphone body  520  is placed and clamped in the sliding groove G 50 . In addition, when the earphone body  520  rotates 90 degrees, since meanwhile the second width W 20  of the earphone body  520  is smaller than the width W 30  of the sliding groove G 50 , the earphone body  520  can be taken off from the holder  510  and the earphone body  520  can be used independently.  
       FIG. 6  is a front view of an in-ear type earphone with an ear hanger according to more another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 6 , in the present embodiment, the in-ear type earphone  600  is similar to the in-ear type earphone  200  shown in  FIG. 2 . The difference between the in-ear type earphones  200  and  600  is that a takeoff hole H 10  is designed on the end portion of the sliding groove G 60 , and the size of the takeoff hole H 10  is greater than the size of the end portion of the earphone body  620 , such that the earphone body  620  can be taken off from the holder  610  through the takeoff hole H 10 . Moreover, the takeoff hole H 10  can be specially designed, such that the earphone body  620  has to be tilted in a certain angle in order to be taken off from the holder  610 . With such design, the earphone body  620  is not easily detached from the holder  610 . After referring to the accompanying drawings, the one of the ordinary skills in the art should easily understand the design of the takeoff hole H 10 , thus its detail is omitted herein. In addition, with such design, the user can easily take off the earphone body  620  from the holder  610  and use the earphone body  620  alone, which further improves the agility of the in-ear type earphone  600 . Of course, the embodiments mentioned above are exemplified herein for describing the present invention, the earphone body  620  may be taken off from the holder  610  with different designs according to the real requirements.  
      It is to be noted that even the drawing of each embodiment mentioned above is the single-side earphone, the double-side earphone is also applicable to the present invention.  
      In summary, in the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger provided by the present invention, the link between the earphone body and the holder is designed in a sliding manner, thus the user can adjust the location of the earphone body according to his/her ear shape to obtain the optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling. In addition, a pivot-type design and/or a sliding-type design also can be applied to the link between the ear hanger and the holder. Moreover, a removable-type design may be applied on the link between the earphone body and the holder. With such designs, the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger provided by the present invention is more suitable to adapt with the user&#39;s ear shape for providing an optimal audio quality with a comfortable feeling, and providing more adjustable spaces in different directions so as to improve the user&#39;s convenience. Furthermore, the in-ear type earphone with the ear hanger provided by the present invention has the advantages of better structure strength and is hard to damage.  
      Although the invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment thereof, it will be apparent to one of the ordinary skills in the art that modifications to the described embodiment may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention will be defined by the attached claims not by the above detailed description.