ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,285,316, issued on April 29.

"Airbag-type earplug comfortable to wear and offering sound insulation and noise reduction" was invented by Xiangrong Zhou (Shenzhen, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The utility model discloses an airbag-type earplug comfortable to wear and offering sound insulation and noise reduction, which comprises a support part and an airbag part, a through ventilation channel is arranged in the middle of the support part, the airbag part is arranged outside the support part, and the whole airbag part is in the shape of a frustum, that is, an internal cavity of the airbag part gradually expands outward from one end ...