3 ms·

Feels like solving marginal 'issues' that noone is having. "The sound is supposed to be coming from the image that our eyes see on the screen, but our ears kno

Feels like solving marginal 'issues' that noone is having. "The sound is supposed to be coming from the image that our eyes see on the screen, but our ears know it’s coming from somewhere else." => Not something bothers most of us (also untrue) in current (and even historic) screen and stereo systems - with the support of surround and other spatial technology started in movies. We have a Sony TV where the screen is the speaker and the spatial immersion gain is unnoticable compared to good stereo speakers, while the sound quality is noticeably lower. In a mobile with narrow angle of view... even less significant. "[current technology] are still big enough to limit how thin our mobile devices can get" => then we put thick camera in it that ruins thinness. Which is fragile enough already and requires followup 'inventions' sometimes (think about the iPhone 6 mishap, becoming the first foldable screen phone : ) ). Having the vibration of sound crossed with tactile feedback? Sounds confusing like the idea of a transparent TV. I know, I know, it is not about real needs but about pretentious additions to charge more money than necessary fooling customers with pompus needlessness that shouldn't be taken seriously, yet, I am still a bit grumpy when they try, repeatedly.

kurthr 3y ago
Yeah, I'm a bit disillusioned having watched this technology for years. Piezoelectric speakers (and even voice coil driven larger displays) have been around in laptops since the mid 2000s. That's 20 years. I think the Sony Acoustic Surface you're talking about was based on voice coils when it was introduced in 2017, but I wasn't involved in it. It could be piezo now... certainly 50-60in surface would make larger displacements (lower frequency at higher volume) competitive with regular speakers possible. There are a lot of challenges with piezos in terms of cost, limited motion, and voltage (usually higher than 100V) that are difficult to make up for with thickness. Their performance (linearity) also seems to suffer quite a bit for any significant driving range. Generally, the bending moment (direct displacement is usually limited to a few % which is micrometers) is most useful for larger and thinner surfaces since deflection is nominally length^3/thick^3 or worse with strain. The haptics are just as challenging (and you often don't want to hear them!) for similar reasons and usually can't be localized. Touch position sensing is possible but tends to be very sensitive to mounting, wear, and dirt. There are really cool technologies developed, but there's a reason you don't see many in mass production even after 20 years. You have to have a VERY reliable and useful feature to get integrated into UI and the OS.

kurthr 3y ago

Yeah, I'm a bit disillusioned having watched this technology for years. Piezoelectric speakers (and even voice coil driven larger displays) have been around in laptops since the mid 2000s. That's 20 years. I think the Sony Acoustic Surface you're talking about was based on voice coils when it was introduced in 2017, but I wasn't involved in it. It could be piezo now... certainly 50-60in surface would make larger displacements (lower frequency at higher volume) competitive with regular speakers possible. There are a lot of challenges with piezos in terms of cost, limited motion, and voltage (usually higher than 100V) that are difficult to make up for with thickness. Their performance (linearity) also seems to suffer quite a bit for any significant driving range. Generally, the bending moment (direct displacement is usually limited to a few % which is micrometers) is most useful for larger and thinner surfaces since deflection is nominally length^3/thick^3 or worse with strain. The haptics are just as challenging (and you often don't want to hear them!) for similar reasons and usually can't be localized. Touch position sensing is possible but tends to be very sensitive to mounting, wear, and dirt. There are really cool technologies developed, but there's a reason you don't see many in mass production even after 20 years. You have to have a VERY reliable and useful feature to get integrated into UI and the OS.