Abstract: An infrared headphone with supplemental microphones to aid the hearing impaired allowing the user to hear the significant sounds from the ambient surroundings. In order to suppress the sound intensity of the user's own voice the invention provides for microphones arranged at a distance from each other on a supporting elbow in such a way that when they are mounted on the head of the user they are symmetrically arranged with respect to a median plane of the user's head and the signals emitted from the microphones are conducted in counter-phase with respect to each other.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided with which a person suffering from sleeplessness can be more easily relaxed and may more rapidly fall asleep. In particular, sound pulses are emitted by an electro-acoustic transducer, according to the cadence of which, the person seeking to fall asleep is induced to breathe in and out over a predetermined period of time. By suitably selecting the pulse sequence frequency, the pitch and the amplitude of the sound pulses may be adjusted thereby enhancing the process of falling asleep.