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Apple is gearing up to reinvent the earbud as we know it, and there's a good chance we might see them as soon as next month with the rumored launch of the latest iPhone.
A patent filed in April 2012 and approved on Thursday details what Apple is calling "vented in-the-ear headphones," which aims to cut back on the echoes you might hear of your voice while making phone calls.
"The invention aims to improve the sound quality by venting or leakage," Apple said.
Although earbuds can be used for various types of activity -- such as exercising vigorously or talking on a telephone call -- Apple said the sound quality is lost due to the design.
"This increased level of physical activity, however, results in the lower frequency or bass sounds that are being heard by the user to be amplified inadvertently by the headphone," Apple said in the patent filing. "This may be due to the headphone tip forming a very good seal with the user's ear canal wall, thereby creating an occluded cavity therein."
This means that the external vibrations caused from the sound within earphones bounce against the skull or other parts of the body near the ear. But Apple's latest design concept includes a "vented tip" that forms a seal with a user's ear canal, according to visuals included in the filing.
"When such a headphone is then is inserted into the user's ear, a flared portion of the ear tip becomes compressed against the ear canal wall and thereby creates a sealed (essentially airtight) cavity inside the canal," Apple said in the filing. "This provides the wearer with good acoustic isolation against external sounds."