Apple files patent covering noise cancelling earphones
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a patent application by Apple for noise cancelling earphones.
The USPTO made the patent publicly available on September 1.
Apple applied for the patent, US number 20160255433, on January 29, 2016. It is a continuation of provisional patent filings for US numbers 61/126,396 and 62/265,860, which were made in February and December 2015.
The patent is described as a “balanced armature based valve” and “the valve flap is actuated by the drive pin into open and closed positions, in response to respective motions of the armature”.
Additionally, there is a “membrane [that] is attached to the housing and divides the housing into an upper space and a lower space, and there is airflow through the hole, between the upper space and the lower space, only when the valve flap is open”.
An image included with the application shows the valve mechanism and how air flows through the device.
“A first spout of the housing may deliver sound generated by an acoustic driver in the housing into a wearer’s ear canal, and is also open to the upper space. A second spout of the housing is open to the bottom space and to an ambient environment,” said the application.
In August this year, WIPR reported that Apple had filed a patent hinting at a move into the automobile industry. The patent is described as a “steering device for articulated vehicle” and covers a “steering device comprising a steering member” as well as “a link mechanism” for pivoting the vehicle.
