Headphones

Claim 1

A headphone for receiving and sending electrical signals, comprising two earpieces adapted for positioning over the wearer's ears, and a headband structure interconnecting said earpieces; a directional microphone located within one of the earpieces for translating vocal sounds generated by the wearer's voice box into electrical signals, said microphone being oriented to receive vocal information primarily only through a surface thereof oriented to face the wearer's ear; a speaker located within the other earpiece for delivering audio signals into the wearer's adjacent ear; said headband structure comprising two padded cushion structures (65 and 66), and a flexible strip means (68) extending from one cushion structure into the other cushion structure as a telescopic fit therein; and a dialing panel (67) carried on an external surface of said other cushion structure facing away from the head area of the person wearing the headphone; each earpiece being hingedly connected to an end of an associated cushion structure so that each earpiece can be folded onto an external surface of the associated cushion structure; said other cushion structure having sufficient length that the pushbuttons on the dialing panel are freely accessible when the respective earpiece is folded onto the external surface of the cushion structure.