By Michael Kornacki and Matt YglesiasIt’s not uncommon for a patent to be published in a science journal, even if it’s decades after its invention.
But the process for patenting something is so complicated, it can take years to actually patent a technology.
This week, a U.S. patent office employee gave us a taste of the process he’s used to patent his invention, the ear apparatus.
Inventors don’t patent their inventions, but they do patent their methods and techniques for the creation of them.
The ear apparatus patent is based on a patent published in the American Chemical Society (ACS), which describes the design of the device as “a single, flexible, transparent polyurethane, flexible tube, formed of an electrically conductive polymer that can be wound around the ear with a single, rigid, elastic force applied to the ear canal.”
Patent office staffers put their ears on the device, and the patent examiner watches them carefully to make sure the earpieces work, and that the electrodes work in the right positions.
After that, the patent office gets to work on creating the patent.
Patent offices are notoriously slow in granting patents, which is why this is the first time we’ve heard of a person using an earpiece to make a patent.
The inventor, Daniel C. Meehan, invented the earpiece in his twenties and had the ear pieces made in the 1990s.
The patent office is interested in his invention because the device can be used to make artificial ears that are designed to help deaf people hear.
The device has three basic functions: a headband that allows the user to hear sounds without hearing them, an ear protector, and a microphone that captures sound.
The headband can detect sounds through its “loud” speaker and can be adjusted to accommodate different sounds.
The headset has a microphone attached to a cable that runs through the ear-shaped earpiece.
When the cable is pulled out, the microphone is plugged into the cable.
When this cable is tightened, the device sends a signal to a microphone on the ear, which picks up the sound.
If the earphones are worn, the user can feel the ear pads move in response to the audio signal.
This sounds like a very simple idea, but it takes a lot of time to perfect.
Patent Office staff then had to design the device and make sure it was soundproof.
The Patent Office’s patent office assistant explained to Patent Office staffers that the headband would be placed in the ear to create a barrier between the ear and the surrounding environment.
The microphone would be attached to the head band, which would be then attached to another piece of the ear.
The apparatus would then be attached in this manner to the outside of the headbands earpieces, and in this way, the system would function as a head-mounted device.
“The patent office would then need to design a way to attach the ear piece and ear protector to the device,” Meehans patent application says.
That’s when the invention is presented to the patent officer for review.
MEEHANS patent office staff needed a patent for the invention, and they got one, which they published in ACS in 2013.
It says that the ear earpiece device has been designed with “two primary functions in mind: To provide a low-noise system and to provide a microphone which can provide sound from any source in a safe, inconspicuous, and noninvasive manner.”
The patent describes the ear headband as having two different “headbands” that are placed on the head and neck.
The first headband has a thin “silent” layer that can detect the ear sounds without any noise.
The second headband is made of an outer, transparent material that absorbs noise and acts as a microphone.
The patents description of the second head band says that it can “be attached to any head, neck, or other part of the body without affecting the normal ear canal of the wearer.”
The ear protector is a plastic device that is made up of a polyurethan foam material that allows for the ear protection to “perform a variety of functions.”
MeeHans patent office explained that this design allows the ear protector “to have different shapes and colors and other features.”
He also wrote that the device has “a light weight design.”
The device also has “fiber optic and a flexible outer layer that allows it to provide sound for an average ear to hear without causing discomfort.”
The invention describes a system that can allow the earring to be attached “in any manner” and that can also be attached with an external attachment that “is designed to fit over the ear.”
MEEHIANS patent staff also said the ear protective is made “with high-quality materials and has a low cost.”
The Patent office’s patent assistant described to Patent office staff that the patent was “designed to provide acoustic isolation, which includes the ability to separate