Personal audio-set with pivoting ear clip mount

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/361,897 filed on Mar. 2, 2002, and to U.S. design application Ser. No. 29/161,949 filed on Jun. 5, 2002, and issued as U.S. Des. Pat. No. D470,836 on Feb. 25, 2003.

[0003] The present invention relates to a personal audio set that includes a pivoting ear clip mount.

[0004] Personal audio-sets, commonly known as headphones, earphones, headsets, and the like, are gaining in popularity. The typical audio-set includes a frame containing an earphone which is usually positioned over or in a wearer's ear. In cases where the audio-set is a headset, a microphone is also typically positioned on the frame near the wearer's mouth.

[0005] It is important that the frame of the audio-set securely hold these components in their proper places with respect to the wearer, without being unduly heavy and without causing discomfort to the wearer. Historically, the frames of personal audio-sets have included a headband that the wearer positions over or behind their head to hold an earphone portion over one or both ears. However, some headband-type personal audio-sets inadvertently compress the wearer's head or ears thereby causing discomfort, particularly when the personal audio-set is worn for extended periods.

[0006] Personal audio-sets have been mounted to a wearer without using a headband. For example, some personal audio-set rely on ear plug-type mounts that are either physically wedged either into the wearer's ear canal or hooked on the intertragal notch of the wearer's ear as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,253 to Nagayoshi et al. However, the size of a wearer's ear and ear canal differ greatly between wearers. Accordingly, different sized ear plugs must typically be offered to account for these differences in ear and ear canal sizes. Moreover, since the entire weight of the assembly is supported by such a small portion of the ear, these types of mounts feel uncomfortable for some wearers.

[0007] More recently, headphones have been hooked around the base of a wearer's ear as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,171 to Marshall. However, these types of mounts are relatively bulky structures and some wearers feel discomfort supporting the personal audio-set in this matter. In addition, most ear hook designs do not easily lend themselves to being worn over either a wearer's left or right ear.

[0008] Accordingly, despite the available improvements offered by personal audio-set ear mounts, there remains a need for an ear clip type mount for a personal audio set that is light weight, not bulky, reversible, and comfortable to wear. In addition to other benefits that will become apparent in the following disclosure, the present invention fulfills these needs.

[0009] The present invention is a personal audio set, such as a headphone, earphone, or headset, that includes a pivoting clip-type mounting portion, the mounting portion includes two arms extending from a frame defining an ear clip. Each arm is pivotally secured to the frame, preferably at a common first pivot, and biased to a neutral position with respect to each other. The arms move apart from each other about their respective pivots when being installed or removed from an ear, and seek to return to their neutral positions when placed on an ear, thereby securing the personal audio set on the base of a wearer's ear.

[0010] Preferably, the mounting portion is also pivotally secured to the personal audio set at a second pivot that is substantially perpendicular to the first pivot and biased to a neutral position such that the audio set is biased against the wearer's ear.

[0011] More preferably, the mounting portion and personal audio set are shaped to fit on both a wearer's left and right ear.

[0012] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a personal audio set having independently pivoting ear clip arms in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention showing a possible mounting to a wearer's right ear, which is shown in hidden lines.

[0013] FIG. 2 is a top view of the personal audio set of FIG. 1, showing a possible mounting to a wearer's left ear and a possible boom microphone attachment, both of which are shown in hidden lines.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, isometric rear view of the ear clip portion of the personal audio set of FIG. 1 showing a possible engagement with a wearer's right ear.

[0015] FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side view of the ear clip portion of the personal audio set of FIG. 3 showing a possible movement of the pivoting arms along a first pivot axis when being installed on an ear.

[0016] FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the personal audio set of FIG. 1, showing a possible mounting to a wearer's right ear and a possible boom microphone attachment.

[0017] FIG. 6A is an enlarged, exploded view of the ear clip portion of the personal audio set of FIG. 4.

[0018] FIG. 6B is an enlarged, exploded view of an alternative preferred ear clip portion of a personal audio set.

[0019] FIG. 7 is a top view of the personal audio set of FIG. 1 showing a possible movement along a second pivot axis.

[0020] FIG. 8 is a fragmentary, isometric view of the personal audio set of FIG. 7, showing internal assembly details related to the second pivot axis.

[0021] A personal audio set 10, such as a headphone, earphone, or headset, that includes an ear-clip mounting portion 12 that has at least two arms 14a, 14bpivotally secured to a frame 16 at a first pivot 26 for operably engaging the base 92 of a wearer's ear 90, and preferably, the frame 16 is pivotally secured the personal audio set 10 at a second pivot 27 is shown in FIGS. 1-8.

[0022] In a preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-8, the personal audio set 10 is a headset 10″ having a frame 16 containing an ear clip mounting portion 12, an intermediate portion 18, and an ear phone portion 20. The ear clip mounting portion 12 is operably secured to the base 92 of a wearer's ear 90. The intermediate portion 18 extends from the ear clip mounting portion 12 over the wearer's ear 90 and aligns the ear phone portion 20 over the wearer's ear canal 94. An optional boom microphone 22 can extend from the frame. If so, it is desirable for the tip 23 of the boom microphone 22 to be either over or directed toward the wearer's mouth (not shown). Preferably, the boom microphone 22 is pivotally secured to the frame.

[0023] The ear phone portion 20 preferably contains a speaker 24, and wiring (not shown) extends from the headset 10″ to operably connect the headset 10″ to an appropriate audio device (not shown). Alternatively, the earphone can include appropriate electronics to allow it to wirelessly connect with the audio device.

[0024] Preferably and as best shown in FIG. 6A, the ear clip mounting portion 12 includes a first arm 14aand a second arm 14bwith each arm 14a, 14b, respectively, being pivotally secured to the frame 16. More preferably, the pivot axes of the two arms are coincident at pivot 26.

[0025] As best shown in FIG. 4, the arms 14a, 14bare curved such that they form an arcuate, substantially c-shaped griping portion 28 sized to encircle a portion of the base 92 of a wearer's ear 90. More preferably, the arms 14a, 14bare biased to a closed position 30 shown in FIG. 4 such that the distance 32 between the ends 34a, 34bof the two arms 14a, 14bis less than the corresponding thickness 95 of the wearer's ear base 92. Accordingly, the arms 14a, 14bsecurely grip the wearers' ear base 92 when the ear clip mounting portion 12 is installed on a wearer's ear 90.

[0026] An exemplar structure for biasing the arms 14a, 14bin this manner is shown in FIG. 6A. Each arm 14a, 14bincludes a pivot hole 36a, 36b, respectively, for operably receiving a pivot pin 40, which extends from the frame 16. A coil spring 42 encircles the pivot pin 40 and operably engages stops 44 on each arm 14a, 14bsuch that the arms 14a, 14bare urged about the pivot pin 40 toward each other. The spring 42 is preferably sized so that undue force is not required to pivot the arms 14a, 14babout the pivot pin 40 from their closed position 30 (FIG. 4), but still allows the arms 14a, 14bto securely engage a wearer's ear 90 when mounted.

[0027] Alternatively, and as shown in FIG. 6B, pivot pin 40 can extend from the frame 16 through both pivot holes 36a, 36bas shown. The outer diameter of arm 14bis substantially circular so as to pivotally engage a mating recess 39 in the frame 16. Arm 14bis pivotally secured to pivot pin 40. Preferably, fastener 27 pivotally secures the arms 14a, 14bto the frame 16. Stop (not shown) operably engages arm 14ato prevent arm 14afrom pivoting past the stop. Similarly, slot 45 operably engages a mating protrusion 44 extending from arm 14aso as to limit the range of movement of arm 14babout the pivot pin 40. Coil spring 42 encircles the pivot pin 40 and operably engages the arms 14a, 14bso as to urge them toward each other about the pivot pin 40. Preferably, pivot hole 36ais larger that pivot hole 36bso as to receive the coil portion of the coil spring therein.

[0028] As best shown in FIGS. 7 & 8, the intermediate portion 18 of the personal audio set 10 is preferably c-shaped and pivotally secured to the frame 16 at pivot 27. Preferably, pivot 27 is aligned substantially perpendicular to pivot 26 such that the ear clip mounting portion 12 is moveable in the direction of arrow 60 (FIG. 7). More preferably, the ear clip mounting portion 12 is biased to a neutral position 64, thereby further securing the ear phone portion 20 to the ear 90 as best shown in FIGS. 2 and 5. The neutral position 64 is preferably sized such that distance 66 between the ends 34a, 34bof the two arms 14a, 14band the inner surface of the ear phone portion 20 is less than the thickness of the correspondingly engaging portions of the wearer's ear 90.

[0029] Referring to FIG. 8, the frame 16 preferably includes a pivot pin 70 for operably engaging mating pivot holes 72 on the intermediate portion 18 thereby defining the pivot 27. A biasing means, such as a coil spring 74, operably engages the frame 16 and intermediate portion 18 to urge the ear clip mounting portion 12 to its neutral position 64. The spring 74 is preferably sized so that undue force is not required to pivot the ear clip mounting portion 12 about the pivot pin 70, but still allows the ear phone portion 20 to comfortably and securely engage a wearer's ear 90.

[0030] More preferably, the frame 16 includes a lever arm portion 80 extending from the pivot pin thereby defining a lever arm opposite the ear clip mounting portion. As best shown in FIG. 7, the lever arm extends from the intermediate portion 18 such that moving the lever arm 80 in the direction of arrow 62 (FIG. 7) urges the ear clip mounting portion 12 to pivot away from its neutral position 64 and thereby release the personal audio set 10 from the wearer's ear 90.

[0031] The headset 10″ can be designed to have a mirror image shape about its longitudinal axis 46 as best shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the headset 10″ and ear-clip mounting portion 12 operate equally well and can be easily mounted to either a left or right ear of a wearer.

[0032] If desired, the ear engaging portions of the ear-clip mounting portion 12 and ear phone portion 20 can include appropriate padding 48 to further improve the comfort of the personal audio set 10.

[0033] A user mounts the personal audio set 10 to their ear 90 by positioning the substantially c-shaped gripping portion 28 behind either their left of right ear 90 so that the ends 34a, 34bof the arms 14a, 14bare pointing toward the ear 90 as shown in FIG. 5 and depressing the lever arm in the direction of arrow 62 (FIG. 7). The wearer than slides the frame 16 in the direction of arrow 50 (FIG. 4) toward the base 92 of their ear 90 such that the arms 14a, 14bcontact the ear's base 92. This contact forces the arms 14a, 14bto pivot away from each other about the pivot pin 40, thereby urging the arms 14a, 14bin the direction of arrows 52a, 52b, respectively. The wearer keeps sliding the arms 14a, 14bacross the base 92 of their ear 90 such that the arms 14a, 14btravel on different sides of the base 92 of the ear with the ear phone portion 20 sliding over the pinna 96 of the wearer's ear. When the frame 16 is positioned adjacent to the base 92 of their ear 90 as shown in FIG. 3, the wearer releases the personal audio set 10, thereby allowing the ear clip mounting portion to seek its neutral position. The biasing force on the arms 14a, 14b, urges the arms 14a, 14bto securely grip the base 92 of the wearer's ear 90, thereby holding the personal audio set 10 in place on the wearer's ear 90.

[0034] To remove the personal audio set 10 from the wearer' ear 90, the wearer simply reverses this process by depressing the lever arm 80 and sliding the frame 16 away from their ear in an opposite direction from arrow 50 (FIG. 4), thereby urging the arms 14a, 14bto open and release the ear 90.

[0035] An alternative preferred embodiment of the personal audio set 10 is also shown in FIGS. 1-2. In this embodiment the personal audio set 10 is an earphone 10′ without a boom microphone extending therefrom. The earphone 10′ has an ear-clip mounting portion 12 that has at least two arms 14a, 14bpivotally secured to a frame 16 for operably engaging the base of a wearer's ear.

[0036] If desired, separate earphones 10′ can be secured in both the right and left ears of the wearer, thereby providing stereo sound to the wearer, and allowing the two earphones 10′ to operate like a pair of headphones.

[0037] Having described and illustrated the principles of our invention with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles may be put, it should be recognized that the detailed embodiment is illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of our invention. Accordingly, we claim as our invention all such modifications as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.