Samsung, in collaboration with LG, has been working on a special screen that is able to emit via bone conduction sounds. Here’s how it works
In recent times, the front of smartphones have gone through numerous changes that have heavily modified their appearance. Think of the increasingly thin edges accompanied by the inevitable notch introduced with the iPhone X and then trending on many other models.
Now, however, Samsung is thinking of a new revolution: the talking screens. The South Korean manufacturer, in collaboration with LG, presented during the last Display Week 2018, held in late May in Los Angeles, the project of a screen with piezoelectric speaker. These are special speakers that exploit the phenomenon of piezoelectricity, whereby by applying a voltage to the faces of a piezoelectric crystal, it undergoes a mechanical deformation proportional to the voltage applied by the user. The deformation is used to set a mass of air in motion which is useful to reproduce a sound. This is a technology currently used only on some smartwatches but that Samsung wants to bring on the next Galaxy S10.
Samsung Galaxy S10 with the first talking display
The talking screen that we will probably see on Galaxy S10 does not include the presence of any speaker to be used during calls: the voice will be turned into vibration by piezoelectric crystals and transmitted through our head with bone conduction.
Not having to have an earpiece the bezels of the smartphone will be further reduced and the screens will take up even more surface space. This means that the OLED screens of Samsung’s next top of the line will occupy almost 90% (if not more) of the front and, most importantly, the Galaxy S10 will not have a notch. The size of the screen should be the same as already seen on the Galaxy S9+, and therefore 6.2 inches, but the overall size of the device will be smaller. A very small bezel will still be present on the Galaxy S10, to accommodate iris recognition and a 3D camera.
It should be said that the “talking” screen will not be an absolute novelty. Vivo, in its top-of-the-line Nex S, has already tested this technology to integrate almost all sensors below the smartphone screen. While in 2016 Xiaomi text on the Mi Mix a very similar technology, but then returning to the earbuds. Samsung’s attempt, however, joins a larger project. The South Korean giant has developed a screen that can reproduce sounds between 100 and 8000Hz via bone conduction. This means that every phone conversation we have will be truly private. Whoever is next to us will have no way of hearing what our interlocutor is saying, as sometimes happens with normal speakers. Only by leaning our ear against the screen will we hear the interlocutor’s voice. An aspect that increases privacy and after Galaxy S10 could become the norm on many smartphone screens.