JPH10276499A - Hearing aid and earplug for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an earplug for a hearing aid, with which earwax is hardly put into a sound discharging port, by providing a cover, which has an opening part in the direction of the side face, so as to cover the sound discharging port. SOLUTION: A shell 1 for incorporating a microphone, a speaker or an amplifier and an inserting part 2 to be inserted into the external auditory miatus are integrally provided. On the top end side of this inserting part 2, a sound discharging port 21 is opened through the thickness of the wall surface in the top end direction of the sound discharge part 20. In order to hardly put earwax into this sound discharging port 21, a cover 5 in the shape of circular dome is provided while having two opening parts 50 in the side face direction so as to surround the sound discharging port 21. In this case, the cover 5 the opening parts 50 are arbitrarily formed and the number of opening parts 50 is not limited to two but it is enough to provide one opening part at least. Thus, since the cover 5 is provided so as to cover the sound discharging port 21 on the wall surface toward the top end of the inserting part 2, earwax to be infiltrated from the fore side into the sound discharging port 21 is blocked by that cover 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hearing aid provided with an insertion portion that can be inserted into a user's ear canal, or an earplug of a hearing aid attached to the insertion portion of such a hearing aid and inserted into the user's ear canal. In particular, the present invention relates to a hearing aid and an earplug of a hearing aid in which earwax hardly enters the sound emission port by covering a sound emission port provided on a wall surface at a tip end in an insertion direction to an ear with a side opening.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is an overall perspective view showing an example of a conventional hearing aid. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional hearing aid includes a shell 1 having a built-in audio amplifier such as an amplifier, a microphone, and a speaker, and an insertion portion 2 connected to the shell 1 and inserted into an ear canal of a user. Configuration. A sound emitting portion 20 is formed at the distal end portion of the insertion portion 2, and a sound emitting port 21 is formed in a wall surface in front of the sound emitting portion 20 (in the direction toward the far end of the ear canal) to connect the hearing aid with the outside. Communicating.

In a conventional hearing aid having such a configuration, a sound amplified by an amplifier, a microphone, a speaker, and the like in the shell 1 is emitted from a sound emission port 21 to a user's ear through a sound emission section 20. It has become so.

[0004] Fig. 8 is a partially cut-away side view showing an example of an earplug attached to the distal end of the insertion portion of such a hearing aid, and shows a state of being attached to the hearing aid. The earplug of the conventional hearing aid shown in FIG. 1 is attached to the distal end of the insertion portion 2 of the hearing aid and inserted into the ear canal of the user, and includes a sound emitting portion 30 constituting the distal end of the earplug 3 and a flare. 32
The inner central portion of the flare 32 is fitted to the distal end of the insertion portion 2 so as to be integrally attached to the hearing aid.

[0005] The sound emitting portion 30 has a sound emitting opening 31 formed in a peripheral wall portion on a side surface in the insertion direction, so that sound from a hearing aid is emitted to a user's ear. Flare 32
Are integrally formed with the sound emitting unit 30 and have an umbrella shape that extends toward the opposite side to the direction in which the earplugs 3 are inserted. In FIG. 8, reference numeral 4 denotes a sound input unit provided at the rear end of the shell 1 of the hearing aid.

In the earplug of a conventional hearing aid having such a configuration, the sound input and amplified by the shell 1 of the hearing aid is emitted from the sound emission port 31 of the earplug to the user's ear via the insertion section 2. At the same time, the flare 32 arranged in an umbrella shape in the external auditory canal prevents sound other than the sound passing through the hearing aid from reaching the user's ear.

[0007]

However, in such a conventional hearing aid or earplug, a sound emission port is opened at the insertion portion of the hearing aid or at the tip of the earplug in the insertion direction. There is a problem that earwax easily enters from the inside. Naturally, earwax invades the sound outlet from the front, that is, from the far end of the ear.

[0008] Since the sound outlet is directly connected to the speaker in the hearing aid, if earwax enters, the sound characteristics of the speaker may be degraded, or the sound may become difficult to hear due to the clogging of the outlet. The problem arose.

The present invention has been proposed to solve such a conventional problem, and a sound emission port provided on a wall surface at a tip end in an ear insertion direction has a cover having an opening in a side direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hearing aid and earplugs of a hearing aid in which earwax hardly enters the sound emission port by being covered by the sound emitting opening.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a hearing aid according to claim 1 of the present invention has a sound emitting device that allows sound to penetrate through a wall of a distal end of an insertion portion to be inserted into an ear canal so as to penetrate the thickness of the wall. In a hearing aid provided with an outlet, a cover having an opening in a side surface direction is provided so as to cover the sound emission port.

According to the hearing aid of the present invention having such a configuration, since the cover is provided so as to cover the sound emission port on the wall in the distal end direction of the insertion portion of the hearing aid, the cover is provided by the back end of the ear. The earwax which tries to invade into the sound emission port from can be prevented. This prevents earwax from being blocked by the cover and makes it difficult for the earwax to enter the sound emission port. This reduces problems such as deterioration of the sound characteristics of the speaker and clogging of the earwax, which makes the emitted sound difficult to hear.

The material and shape of the cover, the shape and number of openings, the positional problem in the lateral direction, and the like can be determined as appropriate. In addition, the sound emitted from the sound emission opening amplified by the amplifier or the like of the hearing aid changes its direction once by this cover, and is emitted from the opening in the side direction.

The hearing aid according to a second aspect of the present invention is configured such that an earwax intrusion prevention member having sound permeability is disposed in the sound emission port.

According to the hearing aid of the present invention having the above-described configuration, for example, by providing a sound-permeable earwax intrusion prevention member made of a continuous foam such as a sponge in the sound emission port, the earwax intrusion can be prevented. The prevention member can prevent invasion of earwax that could not be prevented by the cover, and protect the speaker and the like of the hearing aid from earwax.

Further, the hearing aid according to a third aspect of the present invention is configured such that an earwax invasion preventing member having a sound-transmitting property, which covers the sound emission port, is disposed on one surface of a wall surface in a distal direction of the insertion portion.

According to the hearing aid of the present invention having such a configuration, for example, an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property formed of a continuous cell formed in a sheet shape is provided with a sound emission port on the back side of the wall surface of the hearing aid. By arranging it to cover,
With this earwax intrusion prevention member, the invasion of earwax that could not be prevented by the cover can be prevented, and the speaker and the like of the hearing aid can be protected from the earwax.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an earplug for a hearing aid which is attached to an insertion portion to be inserted into an external auditory canal, wherein the earplug penetrates a wall surface in a tip direction of the earplug through the thickness of the wall surface. In the earplug of the hearing aid provided with the sound emission port as described above, a cover having an opening in a side surface direction is provided so as to cover the sound emission port.

According to the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention having such a configuration, the cover is provided so as to cover the sound emission port on the wall in the distal direction of the insertion portion of the hearing aid. It is possible to prevent earwax from entering the sound outlet from the back end of the ear. Because of this, earwax is blocked by the cover and it is difficult to enter the sound emission port,
Problems such as deterioration of the sound characteristics of the speaker and clogging of the earwax, making the emitted sound difficult to hear are reduced.

The material and shape of the cover, the shape and number of the openings, the positional problems in the lateral direction, and the like can be determined as appropriate. In addition, the sound emitted from the sound emission opening amplified by the amplifier or the like of the hearing aid changes its direction once by this cover, and is emitted from the opening in the side direction.

Further, the earplug of the hearing aid according to the fifth aspect has a configuration in which an earwax intrusion prevention member having sound permeability is disposed in the sound emission port.

According to the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention having the above-described configuration, for example, by providing an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property made of a continuous foam such as a sponge in the sound emission port, With this earwax intrusion prevention member, the invasion of earwax that could not be prevented by the cover can be prevented, and the speaker and the like of the hearing aid can be protected from the earwax.

Further, the earplug of the hearing aid according to claim 6 is
An earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property that covers the sound emission port is disposed on one surface side of the wall surface in the distal direction of the earplug.

According to the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention having such a configuration, for example, an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property, which is formed of a sheet-like open cell, is provided on the back surface side of the wall surface of the hearing aid. By arranging it so as to cover the discharge opening, the earwax invasion preventing member can prevent the invasion of earwax that could not be prevented by the cover, and can protect the speaker of the hearing aid from earwax.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited only to the following embodiments. Further, the hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention are characterized in that the sound emission port is covered with a cover, and the other parts have substantially the same configuration as the conventional hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid described above. In the following embodiments, the same parts as those in the related art will be described with the same reference numerals.

[First Embodiment] First, a first embodiment of a hearing aid and an earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing a hearing aid according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing a cover part of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment.

The hearing aid of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is integrally provided with a shell 1 containing a microphone, a speaker, an amplifier, and the like, and an insertion section 2 inserted into an ear canal. The distal end side of the insertion section 2 is a sound emitting section 20.
A sound emission port 21 is formed in the tip of the sound emission part 20 so as to penetrate through the thickness of the wall in the tip direction of the sound emission part 20.

In order to make it difficult for earwax to enter the sound emission port 21, a circular dome-shaped cover 5 having two openings 50 in the side direction is provided so as to surround the sound emission port 21. Here, the shapes of the cover 5 and the opening 50 are arbitrary, and the number of the opening 50 is not limited to two, and at least one opening 50 may be provided.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 22 denotes flares formed in three rows on the outer periphery of the sound emitting portion 20 of the insertion portion 2 in a three-row manner. The flares close the gap between the ear canal and the insertion portion 2 and allow the hearing aid to be inserted into the ear canal. It has the role of firmly fixing it. However, this flare 22 is not essential.

The inside of the shell 1 and the insertion section 2 is configured in substantially the same manner as the conventional one, and the material, outer shape and the like are arbitrary. In this embodiment, the shell 1 and the insertion section 2 are of an integrated type, but the invention is not limited to this.
Can be made detachable and integrated when both are assembled.

According to such a hearing aid of the present embodiment,
Since the cover 5 is provided so as to cover the sound emission port 21 on the wall surface in the direction of the distal end of the insertion portion 2, earwax that the cover 5 tries to enter the sound emission port 21 from the front can be prevented.

That is, the earwax is blocked by the cover 5,
Since it is difficult to enter the sound emission port 21, problems such as deterioration of the sound characteristics of the speaker and clogging of the earwax, making it difficult to hear the emission sound are reduced. on the other hand,
The sound emitted from the sound outlet 21 after being amplified by the amplifier (not shown) in the shell 1 of the hearing aid changes its direction once in the cover 5 and is emitted from two openings 50 in the side direction.

[Second Embodiment] FIGS. 3 and 4 show a second embodiment of the hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a partially cut-away side view showing an earplug of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment, and FIG.

As shown in these figures, the present embodiment
While the first embodiment described above relates to a hearing aid, the present invention relates to an earplug attached to the hearing aid.

That is, the earplug of the hearing aid of the present embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is the earplug 3 of the hearing aid attached to the insertion portion 2 inserted into the external auditory canal. A plurality of sound emission ports 33 are provided so as to penetrate the wall thickness, and two openings 6 are provided in the side direction.
The cover 6 having 0 is provided so as to cover the front of the sound emission port 33.

Here, the earplug 3 is made of a flexible synthetic resin material such as silicon or urethane formed into a bowl shape, and the front side portion where the earplug 3 comes into contact with the ear canal is outward. The flare 32 becomes thinner as it goes closer. Due to the flare 32, the earplug 3 is pushed into the inner ear canal while being softly in contact with the inner wall of the ear canal, and is fixed.

In this embodiment, the number of the sound emission ports 33 is four and the number of the openings 60 is two.
These are not limited to this number. In addition, the shape of the sound emission port 33, the shape of the opening 60, and the formation position of the opening 60 with respect to the cover 6 can be determined as appropriate. Further, the earplug 3 and the cover 6 can be provided separately. Therefore, the material of the cover 6 may be any material different from the earplug 3.

The internal structure of the insertion section 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 4. In FIG.
And the sound emission direction is directed to the sound emission port 23. A fitting protrusion 10 is provided on the outer periphery of the distal end portion of the insertion portion 2, and the fitting protrusion 10 is fitted with a fitting protrusion 34 provided on the back side of the earplug 3 to fix the earplug 3. doing.

As described above, since the earplug 3 of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment is provided with the cover 6 so as to cover the sound emission port 33 on the wall surface in the distal direction, the cover 6 tries to enter from the front. Prevents earwax. This allows
Since it is difficult for the earwax to enter the sound emission port 33 and the sound emission port 23, it is possible to reduce the problem that the sound characteristics of the speaker are deteriorated and the emitted sound becomes difficult to hear due to clogging of the earwax.

Third Embodiment Next, a third embodiment of the hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing an earplug of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment.

The earplug of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 7 is provided with a sound-transmitting member formed of a continuous foam 8 such as a sponge inside all the sound outlets 33 in the above-described second embodiment. By inserting an earwax intrusion prevention member, intrusion of earwax is prevented. Thereby, the open-cell body 8 completely prevents invasion of earwax which could not be prevented by the cover 6 covering the sound emission port 33, and protects a speaker and the like from earwax.

[Fourth Embodiment] Next, a fourth embodiment of the hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing a cover of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment.

The earplug of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment shown in the figure prevents the ingress of earwax from the sound emission port 21 on the back side of the wall of the sound emission unit 20 in the first embodiment described above. A sheet-like open cell 80 is attached. In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the open-cell body 80 is affixed to the back side of the sound emission unit 20, but the same effect can be obtained by affixing it to the front side or the like.

The open-cell body 80 can normally pass the sound amplified by the amplifier in the shell 1 similarly to the open-cell body 8 in the third embodiment described above, but can prevent the passage of earwax. An earwax intrusion prevention member having sound properties. Normally, the cover 5 that covers the sound outlet 21 prevents earwax from entering from the front, but the earwax that cannot be completely prevented here is the open-cell body 80 on the back side of the sound outlet 21.
Prevents intrusion and protects speakers and the like.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the shape of the cover and the opening is arbitrary, and a configuration in which the cover is detachable so that the inside can be cleaned is also possible. In addition, the above-described device in each embodiment can be applied to each other.

[0045]

As described above, according to the hearing aid and the earplug of the hearing aid of the present invention, the sound emission port provided on the wall surface at the distal end in the direction of insertion into the ear is covered by the cover having the side opening. As a result, it is possible to effectively prevent earwax from entering the sound emission port without impairing the sound characteristics of the hearing aid.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing a hearing aid according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing a cover of the hearing aid according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partially cut-away side view showing an earplug according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing an earplug according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing an earplug according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing a cover part of a hearing aid according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an overall perspective view showing a conventional hearing aid.

FIG. 8 is a partially cut-away side view showing an earplug of a conventional hearing aid, with the earplug attached to the hearing aid.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Shell 2 Insertion part 3 Earplug 4 Sound input part 5 Cover 6 Cover 7 Speaker 8 Open cell 10 Fitting projection 20 Sound emission part 21 Sound emission opening 22 Flare 32 Flare 33 Sound emission opening 34 Fitting projection 35 Cushion 50 Opening Part 60 opening 80 open cell

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Toshifumi Wakayama 4-9-17-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Eurotech Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Isao Yabe 6-1-1-12 Honcho, Tanashi-shi, Tokyo Watch Co., Ltd. Tanashi Factory

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A hearing aid in which a sound emission port is provided on a wall surface in the direction of the distal end of an insertion portion to be inserted into an ear canal, so as to penetrate the thickness of the wall surface. A hearing aid provided to cover the exit. 2. The hearing aid according to claim 1, further comprising an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property disposed in the sound outlet. 3. On one surface side of a wall in a distal direction of the insertion portion,
The hearing aid according to claim 1, further comprising an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property that covers the sound emission port. 4. An earplug of a hearing aid attached to an insertion portion to be inserted into an external auditory canal, wherein a wall of the earplug in a tip direction is provided with:
An earplug for a hearing aid provided with a sound emission port so as to penetrate the thickness of the wall surface, wherein a cover having an opening in a side surface direction is provided so as to cover the sound emission port. Earplugs. 5. The earplug of a hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein an earwax intrusion prevention member having sound permeability is disposed in the sound emission port. 6. The hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein an earwax intrusion prevention member having a sound-transmitting property that covers the sound emission port is disposed on one surface of a wall surface in a distal direction of the earplug.