GB2264207A - Portable telephone with cushioned earpiece - Google Patents

Abstract

A portable telephone has an earpiece with a lozenge-shaped cushion 21 located around a grille behind which is a speaker. In a first position, the cushion is proud of the front face of the telephone serving to improve the quality of sound heard by reducing the amount of sound that dissipates away and the amount of ambient sound that mixes with the sound from the speaker. When the telephone is not in use, the cushion may have a second position in which it is no longer proud of the front face, this allowing for easy storage. The cushion may be moved between the first and second positions either by inflation/deflation (see figs 2 - 4) controlled by a particular key 37, or by a special function of an existing key 9, or the cushion may be moved bodily in or out of the telephone casing (see fig 5). <IMAGE>

Description

Portable Telephone This invention relates to a portable telephone having an earpiece comprising a speaker and a grille on a front face of a main body portion of the telephone.

Portable telephones are becoming increasingly lightweight and compact allowing them to be stored and carried in pockets or other small spaces when not in use.

Compactness may be achieved by reducing the volume of the telephone housing to a minimum, for example as in is the "Technophone TP2" (Registered Trademark) marketed in the UK by the present applicant.

In a portable cellular radio telephone, Model No 9800X, of the US Motorola Corporation, to reduce volume a microphone is provided on a hinged flap-like member carried by the main housing, which, when the telephone is not in use, is folded flat against the main body.

In co-pending British Application GB-A-2235606, of the present applicant, there is disclosed a telephone provided with a support which carries a mouthpiece and which can slide or telescope in or over a main body of the telephone. In use, the support is extended while, when not in use, it is retracted to provide for a more compact telephone for storage purposes.

A problem encountered with compact, portable, telephones is that the earpiece may not be located at the best possible place adjacent the ear of the user to allow optimum transmission, from the earpiece, of the incoming sound. This is particularly true when the body of the telephone is of a flat configuration, because, when the mouthpiece is close to the user's mouth, the earpiece is some distance from the ear, thus giving rise to loss of quality of the incoming sound.

This problem may be somewhat alleviated by either providing a telephone which is angled to bring the earpiece closer to the user's ear - as in the Motorola Model No. 9800X, or slightly curved as disclosed in British Patent Application GB-A-2235850.

In GB-A-2235850, the earpiece of the telephone is provided on a retractable spring-loaded support which, when the telephone is in use, is extended from the front face of the main body of the telephone so as to place the earpiece still further nearer the ear. When the telephone is not in use, the support is retracted.

However, even in this case, there is still the problem that, because of the airgap between the earpiece and the ear, sound may be dissipated away from the ear of the user, in addition to the problem of ambient noise mixing with the sound from the earpiece, both leading to loss of quality of the incoming sound. This is particularly true, when the user is using the telephone in a noisy environment e.g. in a railway station concourse.

Additionally, in the case of the telephone disclosed in GB-A-2235850, even when the support is in its retracted position, the earpiece stands proud of the front surface of the telephone, which is not conducive to storing the telephone particularly in small spaces e.g.

in a jacket pocket, because the earpiece and support may catch on the walls of the small space.

According to the present invention there is provided a portable telephone having an earpiece comprising a cushion around the grille, the cushion having a first disposition in which it stands proud of the front face.

This has the advantage that, because the cushion, when proud of the front face fits against the ear in a conformal manner around the earhole, there is a reduction in the dissipation of the sound away from the user's ear and background noise is blocked out thus improving the quality of the sound heard by the user.

Additionally, the cushion provides a comfortable surface against which to place the ear.

In a preferred embodiment, the cushion has a second disposition in which it is not proud of the front face.

This preferred embodiment has the advantage that, in this second disposition, there is nothing protruding to catch on a pocket or to take up extra storage space.

Thus, the cushion can be moved into its second position when the telephone is not in use for easy and compact storage.

The cushion may be an annular cushion for example, an airfilled cushion, which is inflated in the first disposition and deflated in its second disposition.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 is a front view of a portable telephone; Figure 2 is a schematic vertical section through an upper portion of the portable telephone of Figure 1 along the line I-I' in Figure 1, in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention showing an inflated cushion; Figure 3 is the vertical section of Figure 2 showing a deflated cushion; Figure 4 is a schematic vertical section through an upper portion of the telephone of Figure 1 along the line I-I' in Figure 1, in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention; and Figure 5 is a schematic vertical section through an upper portion of the telephone of Figure 1 along the line I-I' in Figure 1, in accordance with a third embodiment of the invention.

In the figures the same reference numerals are used to designate corresponding parts in the different embodiments.

A hand portable cellular radio telephone 1, as shown in figures 1 and 2, comprises a housing 3 having a main body portion 5 which encloses substantially the whole of the electronic circuitry of the telephone including a transceiver and all other features conventionally found in a cellular telephone.

The housing 3 may be made of a plastics material, typically 2mm thick, or of a metal such as satin anodized aluminium whose thickness may be less than 0.5mum, Included on the housing 3 are a first group of keys or buttons 7 labelled 1-9, 0, *, and v arranged in an array of four rows and three columns, as is usual; and a second group of control keys or buttons 9 for selecting various predetermined functions such as memory storage, last number redial, call start etc, again as is usual Within the housing 3 above the two groups of keys 7 and 9 there is a display panel 11, suitably a liquid crystal display for presenting information to the user, in conventional manner. Above the display 11 is an earpiece 17 comprising a grille 13 on the main body portion 5 behind which is mounted a speaker 15.

The speaker 15 is connected to electronic audio circuitry (not shown) in a known manner such that the signals received by the transceiver and processed by the circuitry are output as audible signals by the speaker 15.

Located around the grille 13 of the earpiece 17 is a substantially lozenge-shaped channel 19 in which is located a cushion 21 of substantially the same shape as the channel 19 and which is secured therein, for example using glue or by welding. The cushion 21 is arranged such that, when the telephone is in use, the cushion 21 is proud of the front face 25 of the main body portion 5 of the telephone 1 as is shown in figure 2. Preferably, the cushion extends from the face 25 by around 3 to 4mm. In this extended disposition, the cushion 21 acts as a barrier so as to not only substantially reduce the amount of the sound from the speaker 15 dissipating away from the user's ear, but also the amount of ambient noise mixing with the sound from the speaker 15, thus improving the quality of the sound heard by the user. Additionally, the cushion 21 also acts to channel the sound towards the user's ear.

The cushion also provides a comfortable surface against which a user's ear can be placed.

In order to help with storage of the telephone when it is not in use, the cushion is retractable to a second disposition in which the cushion is no longer proud of the front face 25 of the main body 5. Thus, in this second disposition the cushion will not catch on a user's jacket pockets or walls of a storage space, when being stowed away.

In one embodiment, shown in figures 2 and 3, the cushion 21 is in the form of a sealed tube 27 of flexible plastics or elastomeric material, the interior of which is connected to an air pump (not shown) for supplying air to and exhausting air from, the tube 27.

The air pump is located in the main body of the telephone, and is connected to the tube 27 typically by a flexible hose 29 fed through a hole 31 in any one of the walls 35, 36 of the channel 19. A specially dedicated button 37, located on the main body 5, and labelled for example with the word tICUSHION'l is pressed when it is intended to use the telephone, so as to activate the pump to supply air to the tube 27 thus inflating the cushion 21 - see Figure 2. After use, the button 37 can be pressed again and the pump is once more activated, this time into a suction mode to expel the air from the tube 27, so deflating the cushion 21 so that it is no longer proud of the front face 25 see Figure 3.

As an alternative to a special button, one or any of the first or second groups of keys or buttons 7,9 can be operable in a second mode to activate the pump, i.e it has one mode for its usually assigned function and one for activation of the pump, the modes being selectable, for example, using a function key on the keyboard in a known manner.

To avoid the problem of the pump being activated by the accidental pressing of the button 37,7,9, it can be arranged so that the pump is only activated when, for example, any two, or two predetermined buttons are pressed either together, or in succession within a preset time interval, for example, the dedicated button 37 and a specific one of the keys 7,9.

Alternatively, inflation of the cushion 21 may be initiated by manipulation of the telephone housing 3.

For example, if the telephone is of the hinged, sliding or telescopic type described above, the pump could be arranged to activate, i.e. to inflate or deflate the cushion 21, upon opening or closing of the flap, or upon movement of the sliding part of the telephone.

This could be activated solely by mechanical means i.e.

by mechanically coupling the part of the housing being manipulated to the pump, or under control of the microprocessor of the telephone's electronic circuitry.

Instead of a tube, the air-filled cavity can be provided by sealing e.g. using glue or by welding, to the corners of a base wall 35 of the channel 19, a sheet 39, preferably of plastics or elastomeric material, so as to define a tubular cavity 49 defined by the plastic sheet 39 and the base wall 35 of the channel - as shown in figure 4.

In this embodiment, the air pump can be connected to the cavity 49 by feeding the tube 29 through a hole (not shown) in the base wall 35.

In another embodiment, illustrated in Figure 5, the channel comprises a base wall which may be in the form of a plate 43 which is movable between first and second positions in a direction parallel to the side walls of the well as shown by the arrows in Figure 5. Instead of an inflatable cushion, a foam filled annular cushion 45 with a cover 47 of, preferably plastics or elastomeric material is mounted on the movable plate so as to fit within the channel 19. The dimensions of the cushion 45 and the position of the plate 43 are such that, when the plate is in the second position, the edge of the cushion 45 does not extend beyond the front face 25 of the telephone, while in the first position, the cushion extends proud of the front face 25 so that the upper face 51 of the cushion 45 extends to a distance of around 3 to 4mm from the front face 25.

The first position corresponds to the first disposition described above in relation to the first embodiment.

This plate could be activated either manually or automatically in the same manner as the pump is activated in the previous embodiment.

In view of the foregoing description it will be evident to a person skilled in the art that various modifications may be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, the cushion may not be a continuous ring, but could be, for example, horseshoe shaped. Alternatively, the cushion could be other closed-loop shaped, for example, circular. Also, other means for retracting and extending the cushion could be used

Claims (13)

1. CLAIMS 1. A portable telephone having an earpiece comprising a speaker, a grille on a front face of a main body portion of the telephone, and a cushion around the grille, the cushion having a first disposition in which it stands proud of the front face.
2. 2. A portable telephone according to claim 1 wherein the cushion has a second disposition in which the cushion is not proud of the front face.
3. 3. A portable telephone according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the cushion is located in a channel in the main body portion around the grille.
4. 4. A portable telephone according to claim 2 or 3 wherein the cushion is deflatable, and, in the first disposition, the cushion is inflated and, in the second disposition, the cushion is deflated, the telephone comprising means for inflating and deflating the cushion.
5. 5. A portable telephone according to claim 5 wherein the inflating and deflating means comprises a pump.
6. 6. A portable telephone according to claim 4 or claim 5 comprising means for activating the inflating and deflating means.
7. 7. A portable telephone according to claim 6 wherein the activating means is a dedicated button located on the main body portion.
8. 8. A portable telephone according to claim 6 wherein the activating means comprises one or any of a set of keys located on the main body of the telephone, the keys having other assigned functions.
9. 9. A portable telephone according to claim 3 wherein a basewall of the channel comprises a plate moveable between a first and a second position, the plate carrying the cushion such that when the plate is in the first position, the cushion is in the first disposition and when in the second position, the cushion is in the second disposition.
10. 10. A portable telephone according to claim 9 comprising means for actuating the plate.
11. l1. A portable telephone according to claim 10 wherein the actuating means is a dedicated button located in the main body portion.
12. 12. A portable telephone according to claim 10 wherein the actuating means comprises one or any of a set of keys located on the main body of the telephone, the keys having other assigned functions.
13. 13. A portable telephone substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings.