HAPTICS AND MICROPHONE DISPLAY INTEGRATION

• US 20200137486A1
• Filed: 12/28/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Paranjape, Vivek, Prathaban, Satish, Sinha, Vishal Ravindra, Cancel Olmo, Ramon C., Parikh, Kunjal S.
• Granted Patent: US 11,076,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/028 associated with devices performing functions other than acoustics, e.g. electric candles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/401 2D or 3D arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/01 Noise reduction using microphones having different directional characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/20 Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic H04R2203/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Microphones are located between pixel display elements (e.g., micro-LEDs and OLEDs) in a display. Display-integrated microphones allow displays to have thinner bezels. Audio processing components can also be incorporated into the display and allow audio processing offloading from processors external to the display. Arrays of microphones allow for the beamforming of received audio signals to enhance the detection of sound from remote audio sources. Piezoelectric elements can also be integrated into a display to allow for localized haptic feedback. Integrated piezoelectric elements can act as speakers and beamforming techniques can be used to activate sets of piezoelectric elements in coordination to direct sound to a specific location external to the display. Piezoelectric elements can aid in display thermal management by creating acoustic waves to move heated air within a display to create a more uniform thermal profile within the display or to remove excess heat from the display.

Claims

1. A display comprising:

a display substrate comprising a front side;

a plurality of pixels located on the front side of the display substrate, the plurality of pixels defining a display area; and

a plurality of microphones located on the front side of the display substrate.

2. The display of claim 1, wherein the plurality of microphones are located within the display area.

3. The display of claim 2, wherein the microphones are located within a peripheral region of the display area.

4. The display of claim 2, wherein individual of the pixels occupy a pixel area and at least one of the microphones is located within a pixel area of one of the pixels.

5. The display of claim 2, wherein at least one of the microphones spans multiple pixels.

6. The display of claim 2, wherein the display further comprises one or more audio processing components electrically coupled to the microphones.

7. The display of claim 6, wherein the one or more audio processing components comprise one or more analog-to-digital converters.

8. The display of claim 6, wherein the one or more audio processing components comprise one or more digital signal processors.

9. The display of claim 6, wherein the audio processing components are capable of performing at least one of voice activity detection, key phrase detection, or audio speech recognition.

10. The display of claim 2, wherein the display further comprises one or more audio processing components to:

determine a location of an audio source based at least in part on audio signals corresponding to at least one of the microphones;

select a subset of the plurality of microphones based on the location of the audio source; and

utilize audio signals corresponding to the subset of microphones to enhance detection of sound received at the display from the audio source.

11. The display of claim 10, the instructions to further cause the one or more processors to power off the microphones not included in the subset of microphones.

12. The display of claim 1, wherein the display substrate further comprises a back side and a plurality of rear microphones located on the back side of the display.

13. The display of claim 12, the display further comprising one or more audio processing components to:

determine a location of an audio source based at least in part on audio signals corresponding to at least one of the rear microphones;

select a subset of the plurality of the rear microphones based on the location of the audio source; and

utilize audio signals corresponding to the subset of rear microphones to enhance detection of sound received at the display from the audio source.

14. The display of claim 13, wherein the display is housed in a closeable computing device and the one or more audio processing components are further to determine the location of the audio source location based at least in part on the audio signals corresponding to the at least one of the rear microphones, select the subset of the plurality of the rear microphones based on the location of the audio source, and utilize the audio signals corresponding to the subset of rear microphones to enhance detection of the sound received at the display from the audio source when the computing device is closed.

15. The display of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pixels are micro-LED pixels.

16. The display of claim 1, wherein the display is incorporated in a housing that further houses one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media.

17. The display of claim 1, wherein the display is incorporated in a first housing coupled to a second housing that houses one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media.

18. The display of claim 1, further comprising a bezel, wherein at least one of the plurality of microphones is located within the bezel.

19. A method comprising:

determining a location of an audio source external to a display based at least in part on audio signals corresponding to at least one of a plurality of microphones incorporated into the display and located within a display area of the display;

selecting a subset of the plurality of microphones based on the location of the audio source; and

utilizing audio signals corresponding to the subset of microphones to enhance detection of sound received at the display from the audio source.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the plurality of microphones are front-facing microphones.

21. A method comprising:

performing key phrase detection by one or more audio processing components located within a display area of a display based at least in part on audio signals corresponding to a plurality of microphones incorporated in the display and located within the display area; and

causing a processor external to the display to transition from a low-power state to an active state in response to the one or more audio processing components detecting a key phrase.

22. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

determining a location of an audio source external to a display based at least in part on audio signals corresponding to at least one of a plurality of microphones incorporated into the display and located within a display area of the display;

selecting a subset of the plurality of microphones based on the location of the audio source; and

utilizing audio signals corresponding to the subset of microphones to enhance detection of sound received at the display from the audio source.

23. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 22, wherein the plurality of microphones are rear-facing microphones.

24. The one or more computer-readable storage media claim 24, wherein the display is housed in a closeable computing device and the determining the location of the audio source, the selecting the subset of the plurality of microphones, and the utilizing the audio signals are performed when the computing device is closed.