Bose Corporation

Active Control Experts, Inc.

Cymer, Inc.

Gerald F Caron

Kenneth B Lazarus

Jeffrey W Moore

Edward F Crawley

Farla M Russo

Erik Saarmaa

Richard Perkins

Douglas A Simpson

Ricardo Federico Carreras

Louis F Genatossio

Christopher B Ickler

Eric John Freeman

Finn A Arnold

George E P Chute

Charles R Barker, Iii

Thomas C Schroeder

Brian J Gawronski

Jeffrey J Hoefler

Donald F Hamilton

Rakesh C Pandey

Dorie A Sabol

Allan S Copeland

Osman K Isvan

Doug Kramer

Roberto M Dizon

A loudspeaker system having an enclosure having a narrow opening or slot for radiating high frequency acoustic energy. The loudspeaker system has a cover member defining a slot between the cover member and a boundary of a listening space. The loudspeaker system may also include a fixed or adaptive equalizer for modifying frequency response anomalies resulting from the interaction of the acoustic energy, the narrow opening, and the boundary.

Narrow opening electroacoustical transducing

An electroacoustical transducer has an enclosure having a thickness substantially smaller than the width and the depth. The transducer includes a first rigid sheet, a second rigid sheet, and a spacing structure for spacing the first rigid sheet from the second rigid sheet to define an acoustic enclosure, having a top, a bottom and a side edge. The top includes the first rigid sheet and the bottom includes the second rigid sheet. The transducer includes an acoustic transducer for exchanging sound waves with the acoustic enclosure. The enclosure has a plurality of outlet points.

Thin enclosure electroacoustical transducing

An electrically driven signal unit is adapted for one-step assembly or injection molding with a device housing to vibrate, flex, beep or emit audio signals, or to sense and provide tactile feedback or control. The signal unit is a package with one or more active areas each containing a layer of ferroelectric or piezoelectric material, connected by inactive areas which may position, align and conduct electricity to the active areas. The active areas may be coupled over a region to transmit compressional, shear or flexural wave energy into the housing, or may contact at discrete regions while bending or displacing elsewhere to create inertial disturbances or impulses which are coupled to create a tactile vibration of the housing. The unit may be assembled such that the housing, the sheet or discrete areas thereof form a bender to provide tactile or sub-auditory signals to the user, or may be dimensioned, attached and actuated to produce audio vibration in the combined structure and constitute a speaker. In other embodiments one or more active regions of piezo material are attached to thin or movable wall regions of the unit to sense strain and, in conjunction with a conditioning circuit, produce electrical switching or control signals for the device. Other embodiments include devices having a tight tolerance between a housing wall and a signal module, and devices having one or more through-holes located on the housing wall. The invention also includes electroactive sheet structures having a polymer block, bracket or functional body formed therearound, which serves as a mounting, coupling or functional operating structure for the driven device.

Inertial/audio unit and construction

A valve regulates fluid displacement in a damper assembly, for example, displacement of hydraulic fluid in a sealed shock absorber. The valve is placed between a portion of fluid at one pressure and regulates the passage of fluid through an aperture or passage to a portion of fluid at a lower pressure by a blocking member which moves to obstruct the aperture in accordance with a desired level of damping. The blocking member is, or is driven by, an electroactive device, such as a bimorph actuator formed of ferroelectric material.

Damper and valve

A valve regulates fluid displacement in a damper assembly, for example, displacement of hydraulic fluid in a sealed shock absorber. The valve is placed between a portion of fluid at one pressure and regulates the passage of fluid through an aperture or passage to a portion of fluid at a lower pressure by a blocking member which moves to obstruct the aperture in accordance with a desired level of damping. The blocking member is, or is driven by, an electroactive device, such as a bimorph actuator formed of ferroelectric material. In one embodiment, the blocking member is a bimorph which covers the aperture, and is flexibly displaced by passage of pressurized fluid through the aperture. A controller provides an electrical actuation signal to move the bimorph toward or away from the aperture, augmenting or decreasing its closing bias to affect both the threshold flow initiation pressure and the rate of flow once the passage opens. Preferably the blocking member is a flexible piezoelectric assembly, which moves across a gap to provide a varying obstruction in the near field of fluid flow as the fluid moves through the passage. Piezobenders, washers and various pinned or cantilevered constructions of electroactive elements are adapted to different passage geometries. The valve assembly may be implemented in a plenum that attaches between chambers of a fluid housing, and include a first passage leading to one side, illustratively the high pressure side, of the damping piston, and a second passage connecting to the other, e.g., low pressure side of the piston. A piezo bender covers an elongated opening between the first and second passages and a controller moves the bender toward or away from the opening to reduce or increase flow. Preferably, a position sensor connected to the controller senses piston position, and the controller operates to energize the bender and to obstruct the opening or to further restrict flow if the piston position or its velocity is determined to lie above a threshold.

A loudspeaker system includes an upper frequency assembly that radiates acoustical energy having spectral components in the audio frequency range above a predetermined upper frequency, typically at the high end of the bass frequency range between 150 and 200 Hz. The assembly includes a ported enclosure with a front face enclosing a loudspeaker driver with a cone adjacent to the front face of diameter slightly less than at least one of the height and width of the enclosure.

Satellitic compact electroacoustical transducing

Electroacoustical apparatus includes according to one aspect structure for providing a sound field concentrated at a restricted listening region corresponding substantially to a human head while being spaced from the restricted listening region. According to another aspect an electroacoustical transducer is located at the interface of an acoustic waveguide and a ported enclosure.

Electroacoustical transducing

A loudspeaker enclosure has an inside volume. At least one port characterized by predetermined mass intercouples the inside volume and the region outside the enclosure. Each port has a smoothly flared input end within the inside volume and smoothly flared output end adjacent to the region outside the inside volume. The port defines a boundary between the acoustic mass therein and the inside volume, the boundary typically being defined by an ellipse, and in a particular form by the rotation of an ellipse about the axis of a port. Typically, the length of the port corresponds substantially to the major diameter of the ellipse.

Porting

Loudspeaker module

Growing community of inventors

Andover, MA, United States of America

Gerald F Caron