An increasing number of electronic devices include cameras and, in some instances, audio transducers, such as microphones and/or speakers. For example, an increasing number of wearable devices, such as watches, pendants or the like, include cameras and audio transducers. For those wearable devices that include cameras and audio transducers, the wearable devices must be sized and configured to support both the camera and an audio transducer. In this regard, wearable device must generally define openings utilized by the camera and the audio transducer in order to receive optical signals and to radiate and/or receive acoustic signals. As a result of the manner in which wearable devices are worn, the openings cannot generally be formed in the rear face of the device housing that faces the user, but must, instead, be formed in the front or side faces of the device housing. Of these prospective locations, openings defined by the side surface of a wearable device that support the operation of a camera and an optical transducer may be repeatedly blocked, such as by the user or the user's clothing, and, even if not blocked, may be subjected to a noisy environment, such as due to the rustling of clothing near the side surface of a wearable device that impedes the capture of audio signals by an audio transducer. Instances in which the opening associated with the audio transducer is blocked may be particularly destructive in relation to the capture of audio signals by the wearable device since the user of the wearable device generally does not receive any feedback regarding the blockage of the opening associated with the audio transducer and the corresponding decrease in the quality of the audio signals that are captured by the audio transducer until after the fact when the user reviews a previously recorded audio and/or video file.
Thus, the openings associated with a camera and an audio transducer are generally defined by the front face of a wearable device that faces away from the user even though the resulting openings are more noticeable to the user and may correspondingly diminish the aesthetic appeal of the wearable device. By including both a camera and an audio transducer, however, the wearable device may require more openings for communication therewith and, as a result, may be required to dedicate more space, such as more surface area on the front face of the wearable device, to the openings associated with the camera and the audio transducer. In this regard, the wearable device may need to define separate openings for the camera and for the audio transducer. In addition, the wearable device may need to define a cavity, such as within the housing, in acoustic communication with the audio transducer in order to facilitate proper operation of the audio transducer. However, the inclusion of multiple openings in the front face of a wearable device and an internal cavity in association with the audio transducer may increase the overall size of the wearable device, thereby conflicting with the general desire to reduce the size of wearable devices. Additionally, the inclusion of multiple openings in the front face of a wearable device may diminish the aesthetic appearance of the wearable device since many consumers believe that such openings diminish the attractiveness of the resulting device.
Further, the manufacture of the wearable device may be complicated by the need for multiple openings in the front face of the wearable device. In this regard, the opening associated with the camera must generally be aligned with the camera, while the opening associated with the audio transducer must generally be aligned with the audio transducer. Thus, the multiple openings must be separately aligned with different components which, in turn, makes the manufacture of the wearable device more challenging.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds