An “Invisible” car speaker that will be available commercially in the first half of 2023 was announced by LG Display, which won a CES Innovation Honor for the technology.
LG’s “Thin Actuator Sound Solution” is a thin film speaker that vibrates through use of piezoelectric technology, producing sound without the usual voice coils, cones and magnets.
The film panel instead vibrates within standard car components such as the dashboard, headliner, pillar and headrests to create what LG calls “immersive” and “accurate” sound with “wide directivity.” The speaker panel is about the size of a travel passport, with a weight of only 1.4 ounces, amounting to 30 percent of the weight and 10 percent of thickness of a traditional car speaker.
Continental has shown a similar type of flat panel speaker at CES for many years. LG said the new speaker was developed with “a global audio company,” but would not name that company. Both LG and Sony have used similar panels in their OLED TVs, said The Verge.
LG said of its new speaker, the “built-in nature not only allows the removal of speaker grills, but also enhances space efficiency by freeing up the space normally occupied by in-car speakers without compromising sound quality.” An LG press statement added, “In addition, LG Display has excluded the use of rare earth elements such as neodymium (Nd) normally used in conventional speakers, boosting the speaker’s eco-friendly factor.”
LG’s Thin Actuator Sound Solution was one of many technologies that received CES Innovation Honoree awards Monday. We will report on some of the other winners shortly.
Source: LG Display, The Verge, CTA
