Perfect complement to the virtual keyboard is a loudspeaker built into the
phone screen.
http://www.twomobile.com/content/1028.php
Panasonic Develops a Transparent Panel Speaker With Industry-first
Aerodynamic-drive Technology
Submitted by: Dave Conabree on April 1st, 2002
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. has developed a transparent panel
speaker called "Sound Window," an industry-first speaker that reproduces
sound by pneumatically vibrating a transparent panel using aerodynamic-drive
technology. Featuring extremely low power consumption and design flexibility
that makes it possible to mount the panel speaker onto a display screen or
touch panel[1], "Sound Window" can be applied to a wide variety of small
products such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
The transparent speaker works by using a transparent panel as the diaphragm,
and the driver[2] which generates air pressure can be positioned near the
panel. This feature enables the speaker to be mounted over the display
screen without interfering with the picture quality. A touch panel
configuration also works perfectly as a diaphragm of this aerodynamic-drive
speaker technology. Compared with other transparent panel speakers using
direct-driven panel, the 'Sound Window' speaker system with the
aerodynamic-drive technology consumes only 1/25 of power, making its strong
advantage in applications to mobile electronic products, such as cell phones
and PDA's.
Conventional speakers in video equipment such as televisions are usually
mounted on the front or the rear section of the appliance. A drawback in
such configuration is that front-mounted speakers restrict the screen size
because in conventional electrodynamic speakers[3] the diaphragm and
magnetic circuit[4] are in one body, requiring extra space if it is to be
mounted on equipment having a display screen. Also, rear-mounted speakers
reproduce sounds with less clarity. The "Sound Window" transparent speaker
attempts to eliminate this problem by allowing wide flexibility in choosing
the mounting position and designing the shape.
Some of the new technologies being used in the new transparent speaker are
the following:
(1) The "aerodynamic drive technology" acoustically vibrates a transparent
panel using the sound pressure generated by a driver installed in the space
behind the panel. This technology ensures sound-pressure transmission to the
entire panel surface, resulting in great flexibility in choosing the
installation position of the driver and designing the panel shape. [Figure
1]
(2) For driving a large-area panel using a small driver the "acoustic
leverage technology" enables a small driver to acoustically vibrate a panel
with ten or more times the diaphragm area of the driver. The acoustic
leverage works in proportion to the area ratio of speaker panel and driver
diaphragm, so that a small driver can efficiently vibrate a large-area
panel.
The company plans to mass produce the products at Matsushita Electronic
Components Co., Ltd, and ship them to its industrial customers by the end of
year.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christian Molstrom" <cmolstrom@lightsurf.com>
To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 10:33 AM
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Virtual keyboard unveiled at world computer show
>
> And it looks like something that can certainly be shrunk to fit into a
mobile device.
>
> Christian
>
Received on Tue Apr 2 21:26:02 2002