ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,593,161, issued on March 31, was assigned to Wavs Custom Inc. (Greenville, S.C.).

"Method for making a customized earpiece" was invented by Charles Richard Hoke (Simpsonville, S.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for making a customized earpiece includes creating a unique identifier associated with a user, scanning an ear of the user with an electronic device that includes at least one camera system that configured to perform three dimensional mapping image scans, associating the unique identifier with one or more scans obtained via the electronic device, receiving, at a database, the one or more scans via transmission from the ...