WO2008123667A1 - Headphone with vibration speaker - Google Patents

Headphone with vibration speaker Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2008123667A1
WO2008123667A1 PCT/KR2008/001711 KR2008001711W WO2008123667A1 WO 2008123667 A1 WO2008123667 A1 WO 2008123667A1 KR 2008001711 W KR2008001711 W KR 2008001711W WO 2008123667 A1 WO2008123667 A1 WO 2008123667A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
vibration
user
sound
contact
acoustic
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/KR2008/001711
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Seong Sig Choi
Original Assignee
Seong Sig Choi
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Seong Sig Choi filed Critical Seong Sig Choi
Publication of WO2008123667A1 publication Critical patent/WO2008123667A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R5/00—Stereophonic arrangements
    • H04R5/033—Headphones for stereophonic communication
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R1/00—Details of transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
    • H04R1/10—Earpieces; Attachments therefor ; Earphones; Monophonic headphones
    • H04R1/1008—Earpieces of the supra-aural or circum-aural type
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R1/00—Details of transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
    • H04R1/20—Arrangements for obtaining desired frequency or directional characteristics
    • H04R1/22—Arrangements for obtaining desired frequency or directional characteristics for obtaining desired frequency characteristic only 
    • H04R1/28—Transducer mountings or enclosures modified by provision of mechanical or acoustic impedances, e.g. resonator, damping means
    • H04R1/2807—Enclosures comprising vibrating or resonating arrangements
    • H04R1/2811—Enclosures comprising vibrating or resonating arrangements for loudspeaker transducers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S3/00—Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic
    • H04S3/002—Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution
    • H04S3/004—For headphones
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R2205/00—Details of stereophonic arrangements covered by H04R5/00 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
    • H04R2205/022—Plurality of transducers corresponding to a plurality of sound channels in each earpiece of headphones or in a single enclosure
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R2460/00—Details of hearing devices, i.e. of ear- or headphones covered by H04R1/10 or H04R5/033 but not provided for in any of their subgroups, or of hearing aids covered by H04R25/00 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
    • H04R2460/13—Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S2420/00—Techniques used stereophonic systems covered by H04S but not provided for in its groups
    • H04S2420/07—Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a headphone including a vibration unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker as a vibration unit disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator and output through the vibration unit is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of an ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division from the sound generator, thereby enabling a user to listen to sound of a movie as acoustic vibration without hearing damage when watching the movie.
  • Background Art
  • a bone conduction speaker operates in a different manner from a general speaker, and converts electric signals into vibration signals and then transmits the converted vibration signals to the cochlea of a user in order to allow the user to listen to music.
  • the bone conduction speaker has been developed in various forms.
  • bone conduction hearing can be used to detect sound signals via vibration of the bone.
  • a normal person can hears sound signals via air-conduction hearing, he/she can also listen to sound by means of the bone conduction speaker.
  • a conventional vibration type headphone includes a head band and vibration speakers provided at opposite sides of the head band to come into contact with a user wearing the headphone.
  • the conventional vibration type headphone when a sound generator connected to the headphone outputs acoustic vibration, the acoustic vibration is transmitted to a user mainly through parts of the user contacting the vibration speaker.
  • the extended use of the vibration type headphone results in pain to the parts of the user contacting the vibration speakers and can stimulate the brain or cause headaches.
  • the present invention addresses such problems of the conventional technique, and it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker as a vibration unit disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator and output through the vibration unit is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of the ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound from the sound generator can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division through the headphone, thereby enabling a user to listen not only to sound from the sound generator but also to sound of a movie as multi-channel acoustic vibration.
  • a headphone includes vibration units 100 each including a magnet 150 vibrating to generate acoustic vibration in response to a sound signal input from an external sound generator 400 and a contact plate 110 acting as a final transmission plate of the acoustic vibration, the contact plate 100 fixedly contacting a contact portion to which the acoustic vibration is directly or indirectly transmitted from the vibration unit 100; and vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210 each transmitting the acoustic vibration of the vibration unit 100 to the skull of a user, wherein each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' includes: a head band 210a, 210'a having the contact portion contacting the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 to evenly transmit the acoustic vibration from the contact plate 110 to the skull of the user, the head band 210a, 210'a exerting elastic force to tightly contact the skull of the user and having a shape corresponding to the skull; and an ear contact member 210b, 210'b provided to a
  • the ear contact member 210b, 210'b may have a through-hole formed at a center thereof to allow external sound to pass through the through-hole while allowing acoustic vibration from the sound generator to be transmitted to the user.
  • the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' may include a left vibration transmission piece 210 and a right vibration transmission piece 210' and the vibration units may operate independently. Here, the left and right vibration transmission pieces contact the associated vibration units to transmit different sounds.
  • the left vibration transmission piece 210 may include at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, and the right vibration transmission piece 210' may include at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211' and 212'.
  • the separate vibration transmission pieces contact the associated vibration units to transmit the acoustic vibration in a multi-channel manner.
  • the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 contacting each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' has a contact area proportional to a transmission range of the acoustic vibration.
  • the headphone including an indirect type vibration unit can uniformly transmit sound generated from a sound generator to a user through the head and the ear by delivering the sound to a vibration transmission piece including an iron core after converting the sound into vibration sound.
  • the headphone can realize multi-channel sound by allowing vibration sound generated in divided phases of high frequency sound and mid- low frequency sound from the sound generator to be transmitted to different vibration transmission pieces, so that a hearing-impaired person incapable of hearing via air-conduction, by which sound in air is transmitted to the internal ear through the eardrum and the auditory ossicle, can hear multi-channel sound in a movie theater.
  • FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an indirect type vibration unit provided to the headphone according to the embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the indirect type vibration unit provided to the headphone according to the embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit to realize multi-channel sound according to another embodiment of the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
  • the headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker, i.e. a vibration unit, disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator 400 and output through the vibration unit 100 is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of an ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division from the sound generator, thereby enabling a user to listen to not only sound from the sound generator but also sound of a movie as multi-channel acoustic vibration.
  • a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker i.e. a vibration unit, disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator 400 and output through the vibration unit 100 is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of an ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniform
  • FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.
  • the headphone according to one embodiment of the present invention includes vibration units 100, vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210 , and an outer covering 300.
  • FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an indirect type vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention
  • Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the indirect type vibration unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.
  • the indirect type vibration unit includes a contact plate 110, an inner case 120, a first tension plate 130, an acoustic diaphragm 140, a magnet 150, a magnet case 160, a magnet holder 170, a second tension plate 180, and an outer case 190.
  • the inner and outer cases 120 and 190 are coupled to constitute an outer appearance of the vibration speaker such that the contact plate 110 is located on an open upper side of the inner case 120 to close the inner case 120.
  • the inner case 120 is configured to prevent leakage of internal sound to the outside and to reinforce a magnetic shielding function of the magnet, and acts as a spatial case that can allow a sound image of a speaker unit to form an imaginary sound stage inside the spatial case along with the outer case 190.
  • the outer case 190 acts as a sound reflection plate and a cover of the speaker unit, which protrudes outward when applied to the headphone.
  • the inner case 120 is connected to a headband of the headphone such that the overall speaker body can be secured to the skin of a user in a tight contact state by elasticity of the headband.
  • the contact plate 110 is configured to make contact with the skin of the user and to transmit sound of the speaker to the skin of the user.
  • the contact plate 110 is made of a soft material to gently transmit the sound from the speaker to the skin of the user.
  • the contact plate 110 is provided at an upper portion with a wide skin contact plane that closes an open upper side of the inner case 120, and at a lower central portion with an elongated penetration pin 111.
  • the contact pin 110 can regulate local sound intensity and can smoothly transmit the sound as a final transmission plate of a sound source.
  • the penetration pin 111 extending from the contact plate 10 passes through the first tension plate 130, acoustic diaphragm 140, magnet 150, magnet case 160, and second tension plate inside the speaker unit.
  • the acoustic diaphragm 140 is penetrated by the penetration pin 111 and transmits acoustic vibration inside the speaker unit to the penetration pin 111, which in turn transmits the acoustic vibration to the contact plate 110.
  • a voice coil 141 is bonded facing downward to a lower side of the acoustic diaphragm 140 by a thermally resistant rubber-based heat stronghold adhesive and drives the vibration unit in response to a sound signal input from an external source through an input line.
  • the magnet 150 and the magnet case 160 are located below the acoustic diaphragm
  • the magnet 150 has a hollow cylindrical shape, and is secured to the bottom of the magnet case 160 by a magnetic force thereof and by a bonding agent.
  • a neodymium magnet is used as the magnet 150.
  • the magnet case 160 has a box shape defining a space for a magnetic field of the magnet 150 and receives the magnet 150 such that an inner circumferential surface of the magnet case 160 is separated a constant distance from the magnet 150 to form a space in which the voice coil 141 is located between the magnet case 160 and the magnet 150.
  • a cylindrical magnet holder 170 is fixedly bonded around the magnet case 160.
  • the magnet holder 170 is provided to achieve primary attenuation of sound and unidi- rectionally pass air, and serves as a body for holding the respective components of the vibration unit.
  • the magnet 150, the magnet case 160, and the magnet holder 170 are bonded to one another to serve as a single fixed unit inside the vibration unit.
  • the magnet 150, the magnet case 160, and the magnet holder 170 are bonded to one another by means of ultrasonic wave vibration bonding and adhesives.
  • the first tension plate 130 and the second tension plate 180 are coupled to open upper and lower sides of the magnet holder 170, respectively.
  • the first and second tension plates 130 and 180 are also penetrated at the centers thereof by the penetration pin 111 of the contact plate 110.
  • the first and second tension plates 130 and 180 are formed in a thin plate shape.
  • the first and second tension plates 130 and 180 have central rings 131 and 181 through which the penetration pin 111 passes, outer rings 133 and 183, and curved supporting branches 131 and 182 connected between the central rings and the outer rings, respectively. With this configuration, the first and second tension plates 130 and 180 exhibit a predetermined resilient force with respect to upward and downward vibration, thereby maintaining structural tension.
  • the headphone including the vibration unit according to the present invention includes a pair of vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' disposed in a bilaterally symmetrical structure inside the outer covering 300.
  • Each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' includes a head band 210a, 210'a brought into contact with the head of a user, and an ear contact member 210b, 210'b brought into contact with the ear of the user.
  • the headphone will be described in detail with the left-side vibration transmission piece 210, and the head band 210a and the ear contact member 210b constituting the vibration transmission piece 210.
  • the head band 210a and the ear contact member 210b are incorporated into a single body.
  • the head band 210a is shaped to conform to the head of a user
  • the ear contact member 210b is a circular iron plate which has a through-hole at the center thereof.
  • the ear contact member 210b is illustrated as a partially open circular iron plate in this embodiment, but may have a completely closed loop shape.
  • the head band 210a contacts the aforementioned vibration unit 100 and transmits part of vibration sound to the skull of a user wearing the headphone.
  • the head band 210a is a frame of the headphone according to the present invention to provide the headphone with a predetermined shape, and exhibits elastic force to force the ear contact member 210b located at the end of the head band to closely contact cartilage of the ear.
  • the user wearing the headphone according to the present invention can listen not only to sound generated from the sound generator 400 as vibration sound, but also to other sound including sound waves in air transmitted to the inner ear through the eardrum and the auditory ossicle.
  • the punctured central region of the ear contact member 210b is covered with cloth or an iron plate having a plurality of small openings, preventing the ear of the user from being exposed to the outside of the headphone and providing a pleasing appearance to the headphone.
  • the outer covering 300 includes the vibration units 100 and the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' therein, and provides a clean and sleek finish to the outer appearance of the headphone while protecting the vibration units 100 and the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210'.
  • Fig. 1 shows the headphone according to the first embodiment of the present invention, which has a symmetrical structure and includes two vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' and vibration units 100 provided to the respective vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210'.
  • the vibration units 100 are bilaterally symmetrically arranged at ends of the head bands 210a inserted into the outer covering 300, and each of the vibration units 100 transmits sound generated from the sound generator 400 to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 after converting the sound into acoustic vibration.
  • Some of the acoustic vibration transmitted to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 is also transmitted to the ear contact member 210b through the head band 210a.
  • the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 directly contacts the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 and transmits the sound generated from the sound generator 400 to the vibration transmission piece 210.
  • the contact plate 110 acts as a final transmission plate of a sound source and regulates local sound intensity while smoothly transmitting the sound to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 which is made of a rigid iron core.
  • the rigid iron core for the vibration transmission piece 210 is adopted for the purpose of allowing the vibration transmission piece 210 to transmit acoustic vibrations from the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 to the user's head without loss.
  • the acoustic vibrations transmitted to the head band 210a are in turn transmitted to the ear contact member 210b through the head band 210a.
  • FIG. 4 shows a headphone according to a second embodiment of the present invention that includes four vibration transmission pieces 211, 212, 211' and 212' and vibration units 101, 102, 103 and 104 provided to the respective vibration transmission pieces 211, 212, 211' and 212'.
  • 211' and 212' and two pairs of vibration units 101, 102, 103 and 104 are provided in bilateral symmetry to the headphone according to the second embodiment to transmit sound generated from the sound generator 400 to a user wearing the headphone as four-channel sound.
  • the second embodiment will be described in view of the left side of the headphone.
  • the headphone includes first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 disposed in a left inner side of an outer covering 300 and first and second vibration units 101 and 102 contacting the two vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, respectively.
  • the first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 are separated from each other inside the outer covering 300 at the left side of the headphone, and the first and second vibration units 101 and 102 are provided to ends of the first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, respectively.
  • the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the headphone of the second embodiment has one pair of vibration transmission pieces and one pair of vibration units at either side of the headphone in order to transmit multichannel sound generated from the sound generator 400 to a user.
  • the mid-low frequency sound is transmitted as another vibration sound to the user through the second vibration transmission piece 212 via the second vibration unit 102.
  • the headphone including the vibration units according to the invention enables transmission of multi-channel sound composed of high frequency sound and mid-low frequency sound from the sound generator 400 to the user through the first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 via the first and second vibration units 101 and 102, thereby realizing a multi-channel function.

Abstract

Disclosed is a headphone including a vibration unit. The vibration unit includes a magnet to generate acoustic vibration in response to a sound signal from a sound generator and a contact plate acting as a final transmission plate of the acoustic vibration. The headphone further includes vibration transmission pieces transmitting the vibration of the vibration unit to the skull of a user. Each vibration transmission piece includes a head band to evenly transmit the acoustic vibration from the contact plate to the skull, and an ear contact member provided to a distal end of the head band and brought into contact with the ear to transmit remaining acoustic vibration, not transmitted to the user's skull through the head band to the user's ear. The head band exhibits elastic force to tightly contact the skull and is shaped to conform to the skull.

Description

Description HEADPHONE WITH VIBRATION SPEAKER
Technical Field
[1] The present invention relates to a headphone including a vibration unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker as a vibration unit disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator and output through the vibration unit is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of an ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division from the sound generator, thereby enabling a user to listen to sound of a movie as acoustic vibration without hearing damage when watching the movie. Background Art
[2] A bone conduction speaker operates in a different manner from a general speaker, and converts electric signals into vibration signals and then transmits the converted vibration signals to the cochlea of a user in order to allow the user to listen to music. The bone conduction speaker has been developed in various forms.
[3] Specifically, for a hearing-impaired person suffering from conductive hearing loss relating to damage of the external ear and the middle ear which constitute a path of sound conduction through air, bone conduction hearing can be used to detect sound signals via vibration of the bone. Although a normal person can hears sound signals via air-conduction hearing, he/she can also listen to sound by means of the bone conduction speaker.
[4] A conventional vibration type headphone includes a head band and vibration speakers provided at opposite sides of the head band to come into contact with a user wearing the headphone. In the conventional vibration type headphone, when a sound generator connected to the headphone outputs acoustic vibration, the acoustic vibration is transmitted to a user mainly through parts of the user contacting the vibration speaker.
[5] Then, the extended use of the vibration type headphone results in pain to the parts of the user contacting the vibration speakers and can stimulate the brain or cause headaches.
[6] Further, since the conventional vibration type headphone cannot realize multichannel sound, it fails to sufficiently transmit multi-channel sound to the user. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem
[7] The present invention addresses such problems of the conventional technique, and it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker as a vibration unit disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator and output through the vibration unit is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of the ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound from the sound generator can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division through the headphone, thereby enabling a user to listen not only to sound from the sound generator but also to sound of a movie as multi-channel acoustic vibration.
Technical Solution
[8] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a headphone includes vibration units 100 each including a magnet 150 vibrating to generate acoustic vibration in response to a sound signal input from an external sound generator 400 and a contact plate 110 acting as a final transmission plate of the acoustic vibration, the contact plate 100 fixedly contacting a contact portion to which the acoustic vibration is directly or indirectly transmitted from the vibration unit 100; and vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210 each transmitting the acoustic vibration of the vibration unit 100 to the skull of a user, wherein each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' includes: a head band 210a, 210'a having the contact portion contacting the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 to evenly transmit the acoustic vibration from the contact plate 110 to the skull of the user, the head band 210a, 210'a exerting elastic force to tightly contact the skull of the user and having a shape corresponding to the skull; and an ear contact member 210b, 210'b provided to a distal end of the head band 210a, 210'a and brought into contact with the ear of the user to transmit remaining acoustic vibration, not transmitted to the skull of the user through the head band 210a, 210'a, to the ear of the user.
[9] The ear contact member 210b, 210'b may have a through-hole formed at a center thereof to allow external sound to pass through the through-hole while allowing acoustic vibration from the sound generator to be transmitted to the user.
[10] The vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' may include a left vibration transmission piece 210 and a right vibration transmission piece 210' and the vibration units may operate independently. Here, the left and right vibration transmission pieces contact the associated vibration units to transmit different sounds.
[11] The left vibration transmission piece 210 may include at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, and the right vibration transmission piece 210' may include at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211' and 212'. The separate vibration transmission pieces contact the associated vibration units to transmit the acoustic vibration in a multi-channel manner.
[12] The contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 contacting each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' has a contact area proportional to a transmission range of the acoustic vibration.
Advantageous Effects
[13] According to the present invention, the headphone including an indirect type vibration unit can uniformly transmit sound generated from a sound generator to a user through the head and the ear by delivering the sound to a vibration transmission piece including an iron core after converting the sound into vibration sound.
[14] Further, the headphone can realize multi-channel sound by allowing vibration sound generated in divided phases of high frequency sound and mid- low frequency sound from the sound generator to be transmitted to different vibration transmission pieces, so that a hearing-impaired person incapable of hearing via air-conduction, by which sound in air is transmitted to the internal ear through the eardrum and the auditory ossicle, can hear multi-channel sound in a movie theater. Brief Description of the Drawings
[15] Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[16] Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an indirect type vibration unit provided to the headphone according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[17] Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the indirect type vibration unit provided to the headphone according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[18] Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit to realize multi-channel sound according to another embodiment of the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
[19] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Herein, although an indirect type vibration speaker is used for a headphone of the present invention, it should be noted that both indirect type and direct type vibration speakers can be applied to the present invention.
[20] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the headphone that has a vibration transmission piece and a vibration speaker, i.e. a vibration unit, disposed inside an outer covering of a conventional ear pad structure, such that when acoustic vibration generated from a sound generator 400 and output through the vibration unit 100 is transmitted to a rigid iron or plastic core used as a frame of an ear pad, the acoustic vibration can be uniformly dispersed and delivered to the user through the head, and such that sound can be output as multi-channel sound by sound division from the sound generator, thereby enabling a user to listen to not only sound from the sound generator but also sound of a movie as multi-channel acoustic vibration. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and that those having ordinary knowledge in the art may make various modifications and changes to the present invention.
[21] Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a headphone including a vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[22] Referring to Fig. 1, the headphone according to one embodiment of the present invention includes vibration units 100, vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210 , and an outer covering 300.
[23] Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an indirect type vibration unit according to one embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the indirect type vibration unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[24] Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, the indirect type vibration unit according to the embodiment includes a contact plate 110, an inner case 120, a first tension plate 130, an acoustic diaphragm 140, a magnet 150, a magnet case 160, a magnet holder 170, a second tension plate 180, and an outer case 190.
[25] The inner and outer cases 120 and 190 are coupled to constitute an outer appearance of the vibration speaker such that the contact plate 110 is located on an open upper side of the inner case 120 to close the inner case 120.
[26] The inner case 120 is configured to prevent leakage of internal sound to the outside and to reinforce a magnetic shielding function of the magnet, and acts as a spatial case that can allow a sound image of a speaker unit to form an imaginary sound stage inside the spatial case along with the outer case 190. The outer case 190 acts as a sound reflection plate and a cover of the speaker unit, which protrudes outward when applied to the headphone.
[27] The inner case 120 is connected to a headband of the headphone such that the overall speaker body can be secured to the skin of a user in a tight contact state by elasticity of the headband.
[28] Here, the contact plate 110 is configured to make contact with the skin of the user and to transmit sound of the speaker to the skin of the user. The contact plate 110 is made of a soft material to gently transmit the sound from the speaker to the skin of the user.
[29] The contact plate 110 is provided at an upper portion with a wide skin contact plane that closes an open upper side of the inner case 120, and at a lower central portion with an elongated penetration pin 111.
[30] With this configuration, the contact pin 110 can regulate local sound intensity and can smoothly transmit the sound as a final transmission plate of a sound source. [31] For the internal configuration of the cases 110 and 190 of the speaker unit, the penetration pin 111 extending from the contact plate 10 passes through the first tension plate 130, acoustic diaphragm 140, magnet 150, magnet case 160, and second tension plate inside the speaker unit. [32] Here, the acoustic diaphragm 140 is penetrated by the penetration pin 111 and transmits acoustic vibration inside the speaker unit to the penetration pin 111, which in turn transmits the acoustic vibration to the contact plate 110. The acoustic diaphragm
140 may be made of an advanced magnesium-based material to allow quiet rhythmic acoustic vibrations to be transmitted as heavy sound. [33] A voice coil 141 is bonded facing downward to a lower side of the acoustic diaphragm 140 by a thermally resistant rubber-based heat stronghold adhesive and drives the vibration unit in response to a sound signal input from an external source through an input line. [34] The magnet 150 and the magnet case 160 are located below the acoustic diaphragm
140 and are also penetrated at the centers thereof by the penetration pin 111 of the contact plate 110. [35] Here, the magnet 150 has a hollow cylindrical shape, and is secured to the bottom of the magnet case 160 by a magnetic force thereof and by a bonding agent. Preferably, a neodymium magnet is used as the magnet 150. [36] The magnet case 160 has a box shape defining a space for a magnetic field of the magnet 150 and receives the magnet 150 such that an inner circumferential surface of the magnet case 160 is separated a constant distance from the magnet 150 to form a space in which the voice coil 141 is located between the magnet case 160 and the magnet 150. [37] A cylindrical magnet holder 170 is fixedly bonded around the magnet case 160. The magnet holder 170 is provided to achieve primary attenuation of sound and unidi- rectionally pass air, and serves as a body for holding the respective components of the vibration unit. [38] Hence, the magnet 150, the magnet case 160, and the magnet holder 170 are bonded to one another to serve as a single fixed unit inside the vibration unit. [39] Preferably, the magnet 150, the magnet case 160, and the magnet holder 170 are bonded to one another by means of ultrasonic wave vibration bonding and adhesives. [40] The first tension plate 130 and the second tension plate 180 are coupled to open upper and lower sides of the magnet holder 170, respectively. The first and second tension plates 130 and 180 are also penetrated at the centers thereof by the penetration pin 111 of the contact plate 110. [41] The first and second tension plates 130 and 180 are formed in a thin plate shape. The first and second tension plates 130 and 180 have central rings 131 and 181 through which the penetration pin 111 passes, outer rings 133 and 183, and curved supporting branches 131 and 182 connected between the central rings and the outer rings, respectively. With this configuration, the first and second tension plates 130 and 180 exhibit a predetermined resilient force with respect to upward and downward vibration, thereby maintaining structural tension.
[42] The headphone including the vibration unit according to the present invention includes a pair of vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' disposed in a bilaterally symmetrical structure inside the outer covering 300. Each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' includes a head band 210a, 210'a brought into contact with the head of a user, and an ear contact member 210b, 210'b brought into contact with the ear of the user.
[43] Next, the headphone will be described in detail with the left-side vibration transmission piece 210, and the head band 210a and the ear contact member 210b constituting the vibration transmission piece 210.
[44] The head band 210a and the ear contact member 210b are incorporated into a single body. In particular, the head band 210a is shaped to conform to the head of a user, and the ear contact member 210b is a circular iron plate which has a through-hole at the center thereof.
[45] The ear contact member 210b is illustrated as a partially open circular iron plate in this embodiment, but may have a completely closed loop shape.
[46] Further, the head band 210a contacts the aforementioned vibration unit 100 and transmits part of vibration sound to the skull of a user wearing the headphone. The head band 210a is a frame of the headphone according to the present invention to provide the headphone with a predetermined shape, and exhibits elastic force to force the ear contact member 210b located at the end of the head band to closely contact cartilage of the ear.
[47] Since the central region of the ear contact member 210b is punctured, the user wearing the headphone according to the present invention can listen not only to sound generated from the sound generator 400 as vibration sound, but also to other sound including sound waves in air transmitted to the inner ear through the eardrum and the auditory ossicle.
[48] The punctured central region of the ear contact member 210b is covered with cloth or an iron plate having a plurality of small openings, preventing the ear of the user from being exposed to the outside of the headphone and providing a pleasing appearance to the headphone.
[49] The outer covering 300 includes the vibration units 100 and the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' therein, and provides a clean and sleek finish to the outer appearance of the headphone while protecting the vibration units 100 and the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210'.
[50] Referring again to Fig. 1, transmission of sound generated from a sound generator
400 to a user through the headphone according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
[51] Fig. 1 shows the headphone according to the first embodiment of the present invention, which has a symmetrical structure and includes two vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' and vibration units 100 provided to the respective vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210'.
[52] As shown in Fig. 1, the vibration units 100 are bilaterally symmetrically arranged at ends of the head bands 210a inserted into the outer covering 300, and each of the vibration units 100 transmits sound generated from the sound generator 400 to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 after converting the sound into acoustic vibration.
[53] Some of the acoustic vibration transmitted to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 is also transmitted to the ear contact member 210b through the head band 210a.
[54] More specifically, the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 directly contacts the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 and transmits the sound generated from the sound generator 400 to the vibration transmission piece 210. At this time, the contact plate 110 acts as a final transmission plate of a sound source and regulates local sound intensity while smoothly transmitting the sound to the head band 210a of the vibration transmission piece 210 which is made of a rigid iron core.
[55] Here, the rigid iron core for the vibration transmission piece 210 is adopted for the purpose of allowing the vibration transmission piece 210 to transmit acoustic vibrations from the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 to the user's head without loss.
[56] The acoustic vibrations transmitted to the head band 210a are in turn transmitted to the ear contact member 210b through the head band 210a.
[57] At this time, when being transmitted to the ear contact member 210b through the head band 210a, about 20% of the acoustic vibration is transmitted to the user through the head contacting the head band 210a and about 80% of the acoustic vibration is transmitted to the user's ear though the ear contact members 210b located at opposite sides of the head band 210a.
[58] The above description is given only from the viewpoint of the left-side vibration transmission piece 210 between two vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' which are positioned in bilateral symmetry. Therefore, it is needless to say that the function of the vibration transmission pieces simultaneously occurs at both right and left sides of the headphone to enable well balanced transmission of acoustic vibrations to the right and left side of the user, thereby realizing the function of a headphone including the vibration units according to the present invention.
[59] Fig. 4 shows a headphone according to a second embodiment of the present invention that includes four vibration transmission pieces 211, 212, 211' and 212' and vibration units 101, 102, 103 and 104 provided to the respective vibration transmission pieces 211, 212, 211' and 212'.
[60] As in the first embodiment, two pairs of vibration transmission pieces 211, 212,
211' and 212' and two pairs of vibration units 101, 102, 103 and 104 are provided in bilateral symmetry to the headphone according to the second embodiment to transmit sound generated from the sound generator 400 to a user wearing the headphone as four-channel sound. Next, the second embodiment will be described in view of the left side of the headphone.
[61] Referring to Fig. 4, the headphone includes first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 disposed in a left inner side of an outer covering 300 and first and second vibration units 101 and 102 contacting the two vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, respectively.
[62] The first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 are separated from each other inside the outer covering 300 at the left side of the headphone, and the first and second vibration units 101 and 102 are provided to ends of the first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, respectively.
[63] As such, the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the headphone of the second embodiment has one pair of vibration transmission pieces and one pair of vibration units at either side of the headphone in order to transmit multichannel sound generated from the sound generator 400 to a user.
[64] That is, when the sound generator 400 generates sound divided into high frequency sound and mid-low frequency sound, the high frequency sound is transmitted as vibration sound to a user through the first vibration transmission piece 211 via the first vibration unit 101.
[65] Meanwhile, the mid-low frequency sound is transmitted as another vibration sound to the user through the second vibration transmission piece 212 via the second vibration unit 102.
[66] As described above, the headphone including the vibration units according to the invention enables transmission of multi-channel sound composed of high frequency sound and mid-low frequency sound from the sound generator 400 to the user through the first and second vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212 via the first and second vibration units 101 and 102, thereby realizing a multi-channel function.
[67] The above description of the second embodiment has been made from the viewpoint of the left side of the headphone. However, since transmission of sound from the sound generator 400 to the user occurs according to the same process through the third and fourth transmission pieces 211 and 212 via the third and fourth vibration units 103 and 104, a detailed description of the other components of the second embodiment will be omitted herein.
[68] Although the present invention has been described with reference to various embodiments and the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and the drawings. It should be noted that various modifications, substitutions, and changes can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

Claims
[ 1 ] A headphone , comprising : vibration units 100 each comprising a magnet 150 vibrating to generate acoustic vibration in response to a sound signal input from an external sound generator 400 and a contact plate 110 acting as a final transmission plate of the acoustic vibration, the contact plate 100 fixedly contacting a contact portion to which the acoustic vibration is directly or indirectly transmitted from the vibration unit 100; and vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' each transmitting the acoustic vibration of the vibration unit 100 to the skull of a user, wherein each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' comprises: a head band 210a, 210'a having the contact portion contacting the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 to evenly transmit the acoustic vibration from the contact plate 110 to the skull of the user, the head band 210a, 210'a exerting elastic force to tightly contact the skull of the user and having a shape corresponding to the skull; and an ear contact member 210b, 210'b provided to a distal end of the head band 210a, 210'a and brought into contact with the ear of the user to transmit remaining acoustic vibration, not transmitted to the skull of the user through the head band 210a, 210'a, to the ear of the user.
[2] The headphone according to claim 1, wherein the ear contact member 210b,
210'b has a through-hole formed at a center thereof to allow external sound to pass through the through-hole while allowing the acoustic vibration from the sound generator to be transmitted to the user.
[3] The headphone according to claim 1, wherein the vibration transmission pieces
210 and 210' comprise a left vibration transmission piece 210 and a right vibration transmission piece 210' and the vibration units operate independently, the left and right vibration transmission pieces contacting the associated vibration units to transmit different sounds.
[4] The headphone according to claim 3, wherein the left vibration transmission piece 210 comprises at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212, and the right vibration transmission piece 210 comprises at least two separate vibration transmission pieces 211 and 212', the separate vibration transmission pieces contacting the associated vibration units to transmit the acoustic vibration in a multi-channel manner.
[5] The headphone according to claim 1, wherein the contact plate 110 of the vibration unit 100 contacting each of the vibration transmission pieces 210 and 210' has a contact area proportional to a transmission range of the acoustic vibration.
PCT/KR2008/001711 2007-04-05 2008-03-27 Headphone with vibration speaker WO2008123667A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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KR10-2007-0033896 2007-04-05
KR1020070033896A KR20080090720A (en) 2007-04-05 2007-04-05 Headphone with vibration speaker

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US20100046783A1 (en) * 2008-08-21 2010-02-25 Jetvox Acoustic Corp. Dual-frequency coaxial earphones with shared magnet
KR20140091602A (en) * 2011-12-23 2014-07-21 션젼 복스테크 컴퍼니 리미티드 Bone conduction speaker and compound vibration device thereof
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US9807490B1 (en) 2016-09-01 2017-10-31 Google Inc. Vibration transducer connector providing indication of worn state of device
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US8189847B2 (en) * 2008-08-21 2012-05-29 Jetvox Acoustic Corp. Dual-frequency coaxial earphones with shared magnet
US20100046783A1 (en) * 2008-08-21 2010-02-25 Jetvox Acoustic Corp. Dual-frequency coaxial earphones with shared magnet
US9900676B2 (en) 2011-07-20 2018-02-20 Google Llc Wearable computing device with indirect bone-conduction speaker
KR20140091602A (en) * 2011-12-23 2014-07-21 션젼 복스테크 컴퍼니 리미티드 Bone conduction speaker and compound vibration device thereof
JP2015505204A (en) * 2011-12-23 2015-02-16 深▲セン▼市韶音科技有限公司 Bone conduction speaker and its combined vibration device
KR101633481B1 (en) * 2011-12-23 2016-06-24 션젼 복스테크 컴퍼니 리미티드 Bone conduction speaker and compound vibration device thereof
US9462365B1 (en) 2012-03-14 2016-10-04 Google Inc. Structure and manufacture of bone-conduction transducer
WO2015077315A1 (en) * 2013-11-19 2015-05-28 Marware, Inc. Dba Marblue Headphones with removable headband pad
US9185483B2 (en) 2013-11-19 2015-11-10 Marware, Inc. Headphones with removable headband pad
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WO2016187867A1 (en) * 2015-05-28 2016-12-01 苏州佑克骨传导科技有限公司 Ear shield type noise reduction earphone having bone conduction vibrators
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US10289205B1 (en) 2015-11-24 2019-05-14 Google Llc Behind the ear gesture control for a head mountable device
US9998817B1 (en) 2015-12-04 2018-06-12 Google Llc On head detection by capacitive sensing BCT
US9936301B1 (en) 2016-06-07 2018-04-03 Google Llc Composite yoke for bone conduction transducer
US10178469B2 (en) 2016-06-07 2019-01-08 Google Llc Damping spring
US9998829B2 (en) 2016-06-27 2018-06-12 Google Llc Bone conduction transducer with increased low frequency performance
US10321217B2 (en) 2016-09-01 2019-06-11 Google Llc Vibration transducer connector providing indication of worn state of device
US9807490B1 (en) 2016-09-01 2017-10-31 Google Inc. Vibration transducer connector providing indication of worn state of device
RU2797645C1 (en) * 2020-04-29 2023-06-07 Шэньчжэнь Шокз Ко., Лтд. Acoustic devices and their magnetic circuits

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