WO1991005444A1

WO1991005444A1 - Ergonomic hearing aid

Info

Publication number: WO1991005444A1
Application number: PCT/FR1990/000706
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-François Matton
Original assignee: Concept Developpement S.A.R.L.
Priority date: 1989-10-06
Filing date: 1990-10-04
Publication date: 1991-04-18
Also published as: FR2652977A1; AU6518490A; EP0461208A1

Abstract

The ergonomic hearing aid, intended to be installed in the external ear, is prolonged on its internal face (31), substantially vertical, by an oblique sound conduit (58). This sound conduit (58) is comprised of means (34, 50) allowing to adjust its orientation simultaneously forwards, inwards and downwards inside a directional cone whose summit is substantially at the middle of the internal face (31) and whose summit angle is approximately equal to 50. The internal extremity of such conduit is completed with a mouth piece (100) with an opening (105) housed in the inlet of the auditory miatus to isolate it phonically and to transmit the sound coming from the transducer (20) contained in the hearing aid.

Description

ERGONOMIC EARPHONE

The present invention relates to an ergonomic earpiece more particularly provided, although not exclusively, for hearing aid devices used by hearing impaired people. Unlike the deaf, the hearing impaired still have their own hearing sensitivity, but this is greatly attenuated and unevenly in the frequency spectrum. Typically, such people refuse to admit their disability and reluctantly accept, and only for special events, the use of assistive devices.

One-piece hearing aids are fully supported in the ear, such as, for example, those described in documents US 4,800,982 or FR 2,596,644. These devices have a shell shaped from an imprint of the patient's ear canal. , shell in which are housed a microphone, an amplifier with its possible control means, a transducer converting the electrical signals into sounds brought near the eardrum as well as a battery.

Means necessary for the deaf, these devices are generally disdained by the hard of hearing because they involve a visit to a doctor, then a hearing aid acoustician, which assimilate them to patients. In addition, these devices are normally installed and adjusted once and for all, and any modification requires a new visit to the hearing care professional. Finally, the production and implantation of such prostheses are particularly expensive.

There are also devices for the deaf with pocket or behind-the-ear amplifiers. However, for the majority of them, sound is brought from the device to the ear canal by means of a thin, particularly unsightly flexible plastic tube. Such an apparatus is for example described in the document GB 2 204 759. This plastic tube is frequently terminated by a tip molded from an impression of the auditory canal which will also have required a visit to the hearing aid acoustician.

A hearing impaired person wishing to remain outside the medical circuit may seek to adapt a portable sound recording and reproducing device sold under the name "walkman" by adapting a high sensitivity microphone and using a pair of headphones having the shape of buttons very easily inserted into the pinna. But this solution quickly proves unsatisfactory because the earpiece being of relatively simple design, in particular as for the sealability of the sound, there is a Larsen effect, that is to say a return of the sound of the earpiece at the sensitive microphone translating into the device by a very dangerous whistling sound. In addition, the distance between the earpiece and the entrance to the ear canal varying according to the morphology, the tone of the sound is different each time.

The object of the present invention is a headset powered by electrical signals including ergonomics is such that it allows the use of very sensitive microphone and quality amplifier in particular to be able to better modulate the tone of the sounds perceived. Such an earpiece must first perform effective sound isolation in order to exclude any possibility of feedback of the Larsen effect type. Obviously, the shapes and dimensions of this earpiece must be such that it remains permanently in place in the ear and this without causing genes in particular by the absence of pressure zones. Such a headset must also be easy to put on or take off, even several times a day, by a non-professional customer operating in the dark. Finally, the design of this headset must be such that it involves only simple geometric shapes reproducible by machines in order to lower the manufacturing cost and therefore the selling price to consumers.

In the remainder of the description, the internal face of the earpiece will be understood to mean that facing the wearer's head when this earpiece is installed in the ear, and therefore by external face, that facing outwards. In a similar way, one will hear by frontal face that directed in front towards the nose and by anterior face, that in the direction of the nape. These aims are achieved according to the invention thanks to an ergonomic earpiece comprising a transducer of electrical signals into sounds and intended to be installed in the conch of the pinna. This headphone is extended on its internal face, substantially vertical, by an oblique sound conduit comprising means making it possible to adjust its orientation simultaneously towards the front, inward and downward within a directional cone whose apex is substantially in the middle of the inner face and whose apex angle is approximately equal to 50 °. The internal end of the conduit is completed with a mouthpiece with an opening accommodating itself in the entry of the auditory canal to isolate it phonically and to transmit the sound coming from the transducer.

According to a first advantageous characteristic, the earpiece tip includes means for adjusting the longitudinal position along the conduit.

According to another advantageous characteristic, the substantially vertical internal face of the earpiece is completed in the lower two thirds by a rounded protuberance intended to settle in the cavum of the ear conch.

According to another advantageous characteristic, a cavity is formed in the lower part of the protuberance and of the internal face of the earpiece to arrange the position closest to the earpiece towards the earpiece.

According to another advantageous characteristic, the external face of the earpiece has in its front lower part a flat for the seat of the tragus of the ear. According to a preferred embodiment, the means for orienting the duct comprise a ball joint integral with the start of the duct and seated in a semi-spherical housing located inside the protuberance of the earpiece, the conduit emerging through a window of predetermined dimensions.

In an advantageous embodiment, the conduit is threaded on its outer surface and has two opposite flats. The ball joint is locked in rotation by a lug on the ball joint passing through a slot made in the protuberance or a lug on the inner face of the protrusion entering a groove made on the ball joint. Then, the means for adjusting the end piece on the duct include, inside a rear sleeve of the end piece, a soundproofing piece which can slide but not rotate around the duct, followed by a threaded cylinder engaged in the thread of the conduit and carrying a spring acting in a notch in the sealing part, this cylinder being integral with the sleeve and the end piece.

Usefully, during the manufacture of an earpiece according to the invention, a base is first produced, an intermediate body and a cover, and then:

- the transducer in the base,

- the intermediate body over the base containing the transducer,

the means for adjusting the orientation of the conduit in a housing of the intermediate body,

- And finally the cover over the adjustment means on the intermediate body.

The invention will be better understood on studying an embodiment taken by way of nonlimiting example and described by the following figures in which: FIGS. 1a to 1a respectively represent the views of the front, internal and anterior faces of an earpiece provided for the right ear and from which the ear plug is removed,

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the components of the earpiece according to a preferred embodiment,

FIG. 3 is a view from the external face of the earpiece installed in an ear, and

FIG. 4 is a top view of a section along the plane IV-IV of FIG. 3.

Referring to Figures 1, the earpiece comprises a housing 1 which extends from the inner tee a protrusion 2 from which leaves a conduit 58 carrying a nozzle not shown in these figures.

The housing 1 is first formed by a base 10: a shell, the largest periphery of which has an approximately circular shape and the cross section of which approaches a half-ellipse. This base 10 is extended downwards by a reinforcement 12 in which is firmly anchored the start of a cable 5 containing several wires for supplying electrical signals. This base also has a flat 18 (Figure la) on the front and lower part of the external face, beyond the reinforcement 12. On this flat 18 come sit, when wearing the earpiece, the tragus of the ear.

This base 10 is closed on the interior side by the first part of an intermediate body 30, this first part being delimited by a substantially face vertical 31. The outer periphery of this first part corresponds to that of the base 10. This housing 1 is designed to subsequently be installed in the conch of the wearer's ear with its upper and anterior sides bordered by the anthelix and the underside located internally from the antitragus. Therefore, the average diameter of the outer periphery is of the order of 18 mm while the thickness of this housing, corresponding to half of the small width of the ellipse forming the cross section, is of the order of 6 mm. As can best be seen in FIG. 2, this base 10 contains a transducer 20 transforming electrical signals brought by the cable 5 into sounds, a transducer also called "dynamic cell". With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the second part of the intermediate body 30 constitutes the base 32 of the protuberance 2, the center of which is located approximately two-thirds down on the vertical median axis of the face 31. A cover 40 added over this base 32 ends this protuberance 2. The average diameter at the base of this protuberance is approximately 12 mm for a thickness of the order of 8 mm. This protuberance 2 is provided to settle in the cavum of the conch, that is to say the internal hollow located under the bottom of the cymba of the conch.

As can best be seen in Figures la, 1b and 2, a cavity is provided at the bottom and the front of the earpiece. This cavity is delimited by a face 15 on the internal side of the base 10 oriented, when wearing the earpiece, substantially vertically; by an upper face 35 formed in the first part of the intermediate body 30; as well as by a face 25 formed substantially perpendicular to the face 31 of the end of the base 10, in the intermediate body 30 and as far as the cover 40 as illustrated more clearly in FIG. In the second internal half of this face 25 is formed a window from which a conduit 58 for sound emerges. This cavity accommodates a tip 100 at the end of the conduit 58 when the latter must be as close as possible to the earpiece.

Referring to Figure 2, the conduit 58 is completed at its upstream end, that is to say close to the transducer 20, by a ball joint 50 open at 56 in connection with its internal channel. During assembly of the earpiece, this ball joint 50 sits inside a semi-spherical orifice 34 formed in the second part of the intermediate body 30 and a second semi-spherical orifice formed in correspondence in the inner face of the cover 40, and this just behind the window present on the face 25. Thanks to this ball joint installation, the conduit 58 can debate all along the width and the height of the predetermined window during the design of this internal body 30 and cover 40. However, in order to prevent this conduit 58 from being able to rotate about its axis, there is provided on the ball joint 50 a lug 54 engaged in a slot 45 in the cover 40, the deflection along the width of the window being made around the axis passing through the lug and the clearance according to the height of the window being authorized by the orientation of this slot 45.

Alternatively, the lug emerges from the inner face of the cover 40 and enters a groove cut in the ball 50. In order to promote the passage of sound from the transducer 20 into the opening 56 of the ball 50, a second opening can be made in the center of the intermediate body 30, that is to say adjacent but behind the orifice semi-spherical 34. Thus produced and as visible in Figures 1, the conduit 58 is oriented relative to the housing 1 of the earphone simultaneously forward, inward and downward with an orientation such as this conduit 58 remains inside a deflection cone whose angle at the top is of the order of 50 °. This possibility of varying the orientation of the conduit 58 means that the tip 100 will naturally be housed at the mouth of the wearer's ear canal. The length of the part of the duct emerging from the window is approximately 5 mm.

The function of the tip 100 carried by the downstream end of the conduit 58, therefore opposite the patella, is to isolate the auditory canal phonically so as to let through it through an orifice 105 only the sounds coming from the transducer 20 and especially to prevent them from coming out and from interfering with the microphone. Preferably, the internal end of the end piece is semi-spherical. For considerations of comfort, it is desirable that the longitudinal position of this tip 100 along the duct 58 is adjustable in order to be able to compensate for the morphological differences of the users and effectively obstruct the opening of the auditory canal without generating pressure against it. To this end, the conduit 58 has on its external face a thread and two flats 52 opposite one with respect to the other. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the end piece 100 is carried by a sleeve 60 whose wide upstream opening is closed by a part 70 which can slide without being able to rotate along the conduit 58. For this, the opening 72 of the part 70 has two opposite rectilinear parts corresponding to the flats 52 connected together by arcs of circle of diameter slightly greater than the external diameter of the pipe thread. Thus, this part 70 phonically insulates the interior of the sleeve 60. In addition, this part 70 also has a notch 74 on its periphery. Following this part 70, a threaded cylinder 81 is installed in this sleeve 60, the internal thread pitch of which corresponds to that of the exterior of the conduit 58. This cylinder has on its external face a transverse groove opening into a longitudinal flat 82. In this groove and flat 82 a double C spring 90 is installed, that is to say a first C shape intended to be installed in the transverse groove and a second smaller C shape intended to be contained inside the flat 82 with the end of the curvature emerging from the front face of the cylinder to engage, when in correspondence, in the notch 74 of the part 70. The end piece 100 is then simultaneously integral with the external surface of the cylinder 80 and the periphery of the sleeve 60. Thus produced, any rotation applied to the end piece simultaneously rotates the sleeve 60 but also the cylinder 80 which, by its threaded connection with the cond uit 58, causes a forward or backward translation depending on the direction of rotation of the endpiece 100. The soundproofing piece 70 cannot rotate but only slide, it follows the translational movement. However, after each round complete, the second part of the spring 90 re-engages in the notch 74 of the soundproofing part 70 ensuring a temporary locking in sufficiently firm rotation without being definitive. In addition to preventing any unwanted longitudinal movement of the end piece, this temporary blocking in rotation above all makes it possible no longer to have to leave the orifice 105 in the axis of the conduit 58 but rather along a predetermined oblique axis corresponding substantially to that of the ear canal. Typically, this axis of exit from the orifice 105 can make an angle between 8 ° and 50 ° with the axis of the conduit. The thread pitch of the armature 58 and of the thread of the cylinder 80 are established at a value such that each turn of the nozzle 100 moves it by five tenths of a millimeter along the five millimeters of thread of the conduit 58.

The semi-spherical outer surface of the end piece 100 is preferably smooth, although a thin coating of compressible mouse can also be envisaged, provided that this does not alter the sound insulation. The usual outside diameter of the nozzle is of the order of 8 mm. If the opening of the ear canal is very large, we change this tip for a wider one of the order of 10 mm by completely unscrewing the first and screwing the second again.

A first advantage of the ergonomic earpiece resides in an embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 2. In fact, one begins by molding in known injection presses the base 10, the intermediate part 30, the cover 40 and the conduit 58 with its ball joint 50. The complementary parts to the end piece that is to say the sleeve 60, the insulating piece 70 and the cylinder 80 can either be also molded in plastic or machined in stainless metal. Thanks to this cutting of the earpiece in part elementary, its assembly is facilitated. Indeed, we start by installing the transducer 20 in the base 10 after having connected it to the electric wire belonging to the cable 5. This transducer is then held in place by fixing by welding or gluing the intermediate body 30 over the base 10. The ball joint 50 of the conduit 58 is then installed in its semi-spherical housing 34 and it is held in position by welding or gluing the cover 40 on the base of protuberances 32 of the intermediate body 30, and this after having engaged the lug 54 in the slot 45. The insulation piece 70 is then inserted into the sleeve and then this sleeve and the end piece 100 are fixed over the threaded cylinder 80. We can then engage the whole of this end piece over the conduit 58 to engage the cylinder thread on the thread of the duct. The end piece 100 is then rotated, which causes it to move along the conduit 58 to an initial intermediate position.

A second advantage of the ergonomic earpiece lies in its ease of installation in the ear as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. The hearing impaired person first presents the earpiece 100 at the entrance to the ear canal (s ) then sit the housing 1 in the conch (o) of the ear. In this last movement, the reinforcement 12 is housed in the intertragian notch with the tragus (q) resting on the flat

18 and with the antitragus (p) on the external face of the housing. The protuberance 2 occupies the cavum of the conch (r). The upper and anterior part of the case is surrounded by the anthelix (u). Due to the sophisticated ergonomics of the earpiece as well as the possible variations in the orientation of the earpiece 100, the positioning of this earpiece in the ear is practically automatic and effective.

If the pressure of the earpiece against the opening of the ear canal turns out to be too great, the hearing impaired person pulls out the ergonomic earpiece to first turn the earpiece clockwise, which causes the approximation of this tip to the housing. If the pressure of this nozzle still remains too high, it is then advisable to change the entire nozzle for another whose diameter is smaller. Conversely, if the sound insulation is insufficient, resulting in the risk of Larsen effect, it is advisable either to advance the endpiece with respect to the housing by turning it anticlockwise or change it for another with a larger diameter. In addition, the tip is still in place, the tone of the perceived sound does not vary from one use to another.

As we could see on reading this presentation, the earpiece according to the invention has an ergonomics ensuring comfort for the wearer and a real soundproofing allowing only then the use of very sensitive microphones for the device. hearing assistance. Obviously, such a headset can also be used by any normal person using particularly sensitive listening devices such as metal detectors, microphones directional for capturing bird fields or in another area for headsets in very noisy aircraft such as helicopters. Many improvements can be made to this ergonomic helmet as part of this invention.

Claims

1. Ergonomic earpiece with a transducer

(20) of electrical signals in sounds and intended to be installed in the conch of the pinna, characterized in that it is extended on its internal face (31), substantially vertical, by a sound conduit (58) oblique comprising means (2,34,50) making it possible to adjust its orientation simultaneously forwards, inwards and downwards inside a directional cone whose apex is substantially in the middle of the face internal (31) and the apex angle of which is approximately equal to 50 °, conduit the internal end of which is completed by a mouthpiece (100) with an opening (105) being housed in the entrance to the ear canal for the '' phonic isolate and transmit sound from the transducer (20).

2. Headphone according to claim 1, characterized in that the tip (100) comprises means for adjusting (70,80,90) of its longitudinal position along the conduit (58).

3. Headphone according to claim 1, characterized in that its substantially vertical internal face (31) is completed in the lower two thirds by a rounded protuberance (2) intended to be installed in the cavum of the ear conch.

4. Headphone according to claims 2 and 3, characterized in that a cavity is formed in the lower front part of the protuberance (2) and the internal face (31) of the earpiece to arrange the position closest to the endpiece (100) towards the earpiece.

5. Headphone according to claim 1, characterized in that its outer face has in its lower front part a flat (18) for the seat of the tragus of the ear.

6. Headphone according to claim 3, characterized in that the means for orienting the conduit (58) comprise a ball joint (50) integral with the start of the conduit (58) and seated in a semi-spherical housing (34) located at the inside the protuberance (2) of the earpiece, the conduit (58) emerging through a window of predetermined dimensions.

7. Headphone according to claim 2 and 6, characterized in that the conduit (58) is threaded on its outer surface and has two opposite flats (52), in that the ball joint (50) is blocked in rotation by a lug ( 54) on the ball joint passing through a slot (45) formed in the protuberance (2) or a lug on the inner face of the protuberance penetrating into a groove of the ball joint and in that the means for adjusting the end piece (100) on the conduit (58) comprise, inside a rear sleeve (60) of the end piece (100), a soundproofing part (70) which can slide but not rotate around the conduit (58), followed a threaded cylinder (80) engaged in the thread of the conduit and carrying a spring (90) acting in a notch (74) of the sealing part (70), this cylinder being integral with the sleeve (60) and the 'end piece (100).

8. A method of manufacturing an earphone according to claim 2, characterized in that one realizes a base (10), an intermediate body (30) and a cover (40) and in that one assembles the transducer (20) in the base (10), then the intermediate body (30) over the base (10) containing the transducer (20), then the means for adjusting (50) the orientation of the conduit (58 ) in a housing (34) of the intermediate body (30), then the cover (40) over the adjustment means (50) on the intermediate body (30).