WIRELESS OPEN EAR CANAL EARPIECE

摘要

A communications earpiece (20) is disclosed which can be used by hearing impaired and non-hearing impaired users so as to be able to communicate with an external device such as personal communications node or cellular phone (110) via a wireless link. A communications earpiece comprises an ear canal tube (22) sized for positioning in an ear canal of a user so that the ear canal is at least partially open for directly receiving ambient sounds. A sound processor (32) amplifies the received ambient sounds to produce a processed analog signal. The processed analog signal is then converted into digital signals (37) and transmitted to a remote unit via a wireless link. The earpiece also receives signals from the remote unit which are then processed and applied to a speaker (36) in the earpiece.