Canal phones with structure and method for selectively passing or blocking environmental ambient sound and switchable electrical connections

摘要

A canal phone incorporates a transducer within an isolation sound chamber for reproducing sound from an audio source, and a sound-transmission passageway, or ambient sound port, for allowing ambient sounds to enter the isolation sound chamber. The passageway has inner and outer apertures, one oriented towards the ambient noise environment outside of the listener's ear and the other oriented toward the isolated chamber formed by the space between a loudspeaker diaphragm within the canal phone and the tympanum of the listener's ear. The canal phone has a port blocking switch mechanism that selectively opens or closes the aperture of the passageway that is open to the ambient noise. This switch mechanism may also electrically disconnect the transducer and seal either the outer or the inner end of the passageway in different embodiments of the invention.

主权项

1. A canal phone having a housing adapted to engage the ear canal of a user, comprising:
a sound chamber within said housing isolated from ambient noise; an ambient sound-transmission passageway for acoustically connecting the sound chamber to the ambient noise; wherein said ambient sound-transmission passageway is an acoustical transmission structure in open fluid communication with the outside atmosphere and is acoustically tuned to enhance the intelligibility of speech and other important ambient sounds in the 50-1 kHz band and the 1 kHz to 3 kHz band; and a switch mechanism for selectively opening and closing said ambient sound-transmission passageway.