Earpiece positioning and retaining
A retaining member for an earphone includes an outer layer of a first material surrounding an inner core of a second material. The retaining member extends from the earphone, and is curved to generally match the shape the antihelix of a human ear. The second material is harder than the first material, providing a stiffness to the retaining member that causes it to apply an upward and backward force against the antihelix when the retaining member is bent to fit under the antihelix of a particular user's ear.
1. An ear interface for an in-ear headphone, the ear interface comprising:
a body portion that fits beneath the tragus and anti-tragus and occupies the concha of the user's ear when worn by the user; and
a compliant retaining member comprising a curved leg that extends from the body portion and terminates at an extremity, wherein:
the curved leg has a varying radius along its length and applies pressure to the antihelix of the user's ear at the rear of concha of the user's ear,
the ear interface comprises a first material and a second material in a unitary structure,
one or more parts of the compliant retaining member and one or more parts of the body portion contacting flesh of the user's ear are made from the first material,
one or more parts of the compliant retaining member and one or more parts of the body portion that couple the ear interface to acoustic elements of an earphone are made from the second material,
the first and second materials are each resiliently deformable such that they change from a certain shape when a force is applied to them but return to the certain shape when the applied force is removed, and
the second material has a greater hardness than the first material.
2. The ear interface of claim 1 wherein the retaining member is generally curved, and has a greater stiffness in directions trending to straighten the retaining member than in directions tending to increase the curvature.
3. The ear interface of claim 1 wherein the curved leg comprises an inner leg and an outer leg, each of which terminate at an extremity that seats at the end of the anti-helix under the base of the helix of the user's ear when the ear interface is worn by the user.
4. The ear interface of claim 1 wherein the retaining member applies an upward and backward pressure to the anti-helix of the user's ear along substantially the entire length of the retaining member.
5. The ear interface of claim 1 , wherein:
a housing containing the acoustic elements of the earphone is made of a third material, the second material interfacing with the housing to secure the ear interface to the housing; and
the third material has a greater hardness than the second material.
6. A retaining member for an earphone, the retaining member comprising:
a curved leg that extends from the earphone and terminates at an extremity, and is curved to generally match the shape of the antihelix of a human ear, wherein:
the curved leg is made of an outer layer of a first material surrounding an inner core of a second material, has a varying radius along its length, and applies a backward force to the antihelix of the user's ear at the rear of concha of the user's ear and an upward force to the antihelix of the user's ear at the top of the user's concha,
one or more parts of the outer layer contact flesh of the user's ear,
the first and second materials are each resiliently deformable such that they change from a certain shape when a force is applied to them but return to the certain shape when the applied force is removed, and
the second material has a greater hardness than the first material.
7. The retaining member of claim 6 , wherein the inner core is coupled to a body portion of an ear interface for coupling to acoustic elements of the earphone, and the outer layer extends over a portion of the ear interface that contacts the ear when worn.
8. The retaining member of claim 7 , wherein:
a housing containing the acoustic elements of the earphone is made of a third material, the second material interfacing with the housing to secure the retaining member to the housing; and
the third material has a greater hardness than the second material.
9. The retaining member of claim 6 , wherein the first material comprises a material having a hardness between 3 shore A to 30 shore A.
10. The retaining member of claim 9 , wherein the first material comprises a material having a hardness of 16 shore A.
11. The retaining member of claim 6 , wherein the second material comprises a material having a hardness between 30 shore A to 90 shore A.
12. The retaining member of claim 11 , wherein the second material comprises a material having a hardness of 70 shore A.