LG Display’s ‘invisible’ speaker brings sound to any surface in your car

By Derek Malcolm Published November 21, 2022

LG Display, the innovative arm of LG Electronics responsible for the company’s cutting-edge rollable OLED TV and wraparound display tech, is at it again. Today, it announced a new superthin sound technology that can turn any surface inside your car into “invisible” speakers.

A woman in a car holding the LG Display Thin Actuator Sound Solution speaker. — LG Display

Known as the Thin Actuator Sound Solution (TASS), the tech forgoes all the bulky components that make up traditional speakers — drivers, magnets, cones, coils — in favor of what LG Display calls “film-type exciter technology” that comes in passport-sized panels (150mm x 90mm x 2.5mm) that can be embedded into a car’s interior, such as dashboards, headliners, pillars, and headrests.

Recommended Videos

The company says that the thin TASS can vibrate off of almost any surface inside the car to create sound. And at just 30% of the weight and 10% of the thickness of conventional car speakers, this can open up all kinds of options for placement, which will lead to a more immersive sound experience, while also freeing up space inside door panels and other traditional automotive speaker placement locations.

“We have transformed the conventionally heavy and bulky speaker into a high-quality ‘invisible’ sound solution by using our cutting-edge technology to elevate space, design, and eco-friendly factors and provide a next-level sound experience like none before,” said Yeo Chun-ho, vice president and head of the business development division at LG Display.

The company isn’t alone in the race to rethink in-car audio. In 2021, Resonado Labs announced that its flat core speaker tech, which also reduces the size of conventional speakers, would be used in vehicles, including Airstream trailers.

LG Display is expecting to commercialize the TASS tech early next year, but if you’re among the nerdy hordes attending CES 2023 in January, you can get a sneak peek of the tech, for which the company has just won a CES 2023 Innovation Award in the In-Vehicle Entertainment & Safety category.

Topics

Contributing Editor, A/V

Derek Malcolm is a contributing editor and evergreen lead for the A/V and Home Theater section of Digital Trends. Derek…

Audio / Video

CES 2023: Dirac Live Active Room Treatment is ANC for your speakers

A Dirac Live Room Treatment-enabled speaker showing a soundwave graphic filling the room.

The massive convention halls of CES 2023 in Las Vegas are filled with blinding eye candy as far as you can see -- everything from the latest TVs and computer monitors to smart projectors and more. But the Swedish digital audio processing masters at Dirac want you to know that the annual tech show is also loaded with things that sound amazing. To that end, Dirac today announced its Dirac Live Active Room Treatment, which it says works like active noise cancellation technology by using your home theater system's own speakers to help clean up the sound in any room.

Anyone who's ever set up speakers or a subwoofer in a home entertainment space will tell you that everything from the size of the room to its walls, floor, ceiling, and the objects in it can affect the sound -- bass frequencies can cross and create an annoying boom, and sound can bounce all over the place, creating unwanted noise.

Audio / Video

CES 2023: Drop’s BMR1 Nearfield Monitors bring audiophile sound to your desktop

Drop's new BMR1 Nearfield Monitors on a desktop with a computer.

San Francisco-based audio product maker Drop announced the launch of its BMR1 Nearfield Monitors at CES 2023 today. This set of affordable and compact desktop speakers promises to bring pristine and natural high-quality sound to your workspace, whether you're a professional sound mixer, a discerning sound snob, or just a work-from-homer.

A great set of desktop speakers can be hard to come by, especially ones that offer accurate sound reproduction at such a close distance. Nearfield speakers tend to have smaller drivers and are designed to be situated 2 feet to 3 feet from the listener, allowing for a direct sound that isn't affected by the surrounding walls or room surfaces.
Drop says that its BMR1 Nearfield Monitors can deliver loud, distortion-free audiophile-level sound with a wide and natural soundstage using what Drop calls balanced mode radiators (BMR) and force-canceling passive radiators, which allow the long, narrow speakers to be placed vertically or horizontally and in any position. This freedom of placement will bode well for desk jockeys without a lot of space as the speakers can be placed above, below, behind, or beside computer monitors and other office accouterments.
While the Drop BMR1s are not packed with connectivity options, this can be forgiven considering their more than reasonable $129 price tag. Bluetooth 5.0 and a 3.5mm AUX input for direct-lining to a computer or other sound source are all you get here, but the speakers do offer a 3.5mm subwoofer output so you can add extra bass should you need it. There's also a 3.5mm headphone out and the 2.6 x 3.9 x 11.5-inch speakers (WxDxH) come with sound-isolating stands, too. The Drop press release also says that customizable magnetic grills will be available for purchase, giving buyers additional style options.

Audio / Video

LG’s new thin and stretchable displays could be used to wrap skin, cars, and furniture

A woman bends and folds LG Display's stretchable display.

LG Display has announced that it has created the world's first stretchable display that can be deformed by up to 20% of its original size and shape without suffering any damage. The ultrathin material looks similar to OLED-based flexible displays we've seen from LG Display in the past, but the company says it has gone with micro-LED technology for this new stretchable version.

It's a full-color, 12-inch RGB panel that has a claimed pixel density of 100 pixels per inch (ppi). LG Display says that's a resolution that competes with most existing monitors, but the company appears to have a different target use for the stretchable material. "Alongside its thin, lightweight design, the Stretchable display’s revolutionary technology offers next-level versatility for various daily scenarios," the company said in a press release. The display is "easily attachable to curved surfaces such as skin, clothing, furniture, automobiles and aircraft."

nproxy.org