Universal earpiece
An earpiece designed to fit a substantial majority (over 90%) of people without customization to the outer ears, i.e., without the need to make customized measurements or a mold of the actual ear of an individual.
1. An earpiece for a hearing device or communication device for a wearer having an inner ear, an outer ear comprising a concha bowl, a crus of concha, and an intertragal notch, and an ear canal inwardly directed from the outer ear to the inner ear, the earpiece comprising:
a base having a forward end and a rearward end defining between themselves a length between the forward and rearward ends;
an ear canal extension of the base, inwardly directed from the forward end of the base, the ear canal extension smoothly extending away from the forward end of the base; and
a helix extension of the base which substantially curves away from and above the rearward end of the base;
in which the base substantially fills the concha bowl but does not contact the intertragal notch and does not substantially lie over the crus of concha.
2. The earpiece of claim 1 , in which the earpiece touches the outer ear in a minimum number of four contact points of the outer ear, the contact points being the helix, tragus, anti-tragus and concha bowl.
3. The earpiece of claim 1 , in which the earpiece is made of a material selected from acrylic, plastic, ABS, metal, vinyl and silicone.
4. The earpiece of claim 1 , in which the earpiece comprises at least one of a replaceable helix extension and a replaceable ear canal extension.
5. The earpiece of claim 4 , in which at least one replaceable helix or ear canal extension attaches to the earpiece via a ball and socket assembly.
6. The earpiece of claim 4 , in which at least one replaceable helix or ear canal extension is made of a different hardness material than another portion of the earpiece.
7. The earpiece of claim 1 , further comprising a feature for attaching a soft eartip.
8. The earpiece of claim 1 , in which the earpiece provides passive hearing protection.
9. The earpiece of claim 1 , in which the base has a hollow interior.
10. A system comprising an earpiece according to claim 1 , in which the base has a hollow interior, and the ear canal extension of the base defines a sound channel within the ear canal extension; the system further comprising electronics mounted at least partially within the hollow interior of the base of the earpiece, in which the electronics comprises a receiver within the hollow interior of the base, an external module electronically connected to the earpiece having a battery and a digital signal processor within the external module, and at least one microphone connected to at least one of the electronics and the external module.
11. The system of claim 10 , in which there is a single microphone mounted at one of within the earpiece and within the external module.
12. The system of claim 10 , in which the external module is one of Bluetooth™-enabled, RF-enabled, and near-field-inductive enabled.
13. The system of claim 10 , in which there are one or more directional microphone systems each mounted within one of the earpiece and the external module.
14. The system of claim 10 , in which the external module is electronically connected to the earpiece by one of a Bluetooth connection, a near field magnetic induction signal, or a radio frequency signal.
15. The system of claim 10 , in which the external module is a behind-the-ear module.
16. The system of claim 10 , in which the system monitors a medical parameter from within or in the vicinity of the ear canal.