Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

3m Innovative Properties Company

Telex Communications, Inc.

David A Hotvet

Paul D Henry

David M Lutgring

Ernest L Woodfill, Jr

Rolf C Rising

Water resistant acoustic ports and electronic hearing protection devices incorporating such ports are described. More specifically, water proof acoustic ports that provide water protection for an internal sealed chamber by providing acoustically transparent inlets that are capable of withstanding external water pressure at given depth due to their volume relation to that of the internal chamber, as well as hearing protection devices incorporating such ports, are described.

Water resistant acoustic port in ear-mouthed hearing device

An ear device protects a user from damaging sound levels while permitting the user to hear and understand conversation in a noisy environment. The device includes an enclosure system for at least partially isolating the user's ear drums from ambient sounds, at least on directional microphone, an adaptive band pass filter and a speaker. The adaptive band pass filter further includes adaptive high pass and adaptive low pass filters which adaptively and independently control the range of the pass band depending upon the characteristics of the noise in the user's environment. A speaker transmits the processed signal to the user. The adaptive filter also includes a detector connected to receive the processed signal which controls the gain of the system to prevent overcompression of the audio signal. The adaptive filter further includes an adaptive compression circuit utilizing multiple time constants to control the response time of the adaptive filter under various conditions.

Directional ear device with adaptive bandwidth and gain control

An attachment device for a probe microphone adapted to be utilized in conjunction with the external ear canal of a person having an ear lobe. A housing is adapted to contain the probe microphone and secures the housing in a fixed relationship with respect to the ear lobe of the person. A probe tube is coupled to the housing and is adapted to be coupled to the probe microphone and adapted to be inserted into the external ear canal of the person. A holding mechanism is coupled to the housing and receives the probe tube and slideably secures the probe tube in a repositionably fixed relationship to the housing. In this manner the housing may be secured and positioned with respect to the ear lobe and the probe tube may be slid through the holding mechanism and positioned reliably in the external ear canal. A marker may be attached to the probe tube to reliably mark a particular location along the probe tube for further reference by a user of the attachment device so that the user may mark a particular location along the probe tube with reference to an extrinsic landmark.

Attachment device for a probe microphone

A hearing aid having signal compression characteristics that adapt to the environment of the sound field in which it is operative in which an automatic gain control signal processor is responsive to the magnitude, duration and frequency of the signals in a sound field to control a compression amplifier so that the gain thereof is proportional to said signals.

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Savage, MN, United States of America

David A Hotvet