IP Library Granted Patent US 10,531,212
Granted Patent B2
US 10,531,212 · App. 15/623,516 · Granted Jan 7, 2020

Acoustic transducers in haptic systems

Inventors: Benjamin John Oliver Long (Bristol, GB); Thomas Andrew Carter (Bristol, GB); Brian Kappus (San Diego, CA)
Assignee: Ultrahaptics IP Ltd.
H04R29/002G06F3/016H04R1/403H04R1/406H04R3/12H04R17/00G08B6/00H04R17/005H04R2201/401
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,531,212
App. No.
15/623,516
Granted
Jan 7, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

Described is a screen surface layer comprising a plurality of light-emitting pixels including a plurality of red pixels, a plurality of green pixels and a plurality of blue pixels; a transducer layer comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers, wherein the transducer layer is affixed below the screen surface layer; and a cover layer having a plurality of cylinder-shaped perforations, wherein the cover layer is affixed above the screen surface layer. In addition, an average “transducer model” describing a phasor distribution in space may be produced describing the output signal at the carrier frequency in the air at a known spatial offset from an averaged transducer. Further, phased array systems may have numerous individual transducer elements that will likely fail before the product incorporating the transducers reaches end-of-life. By detecting such failed transducers, the transducer array may function at peak performance by working around the missing transducer output.

Claims (36)

1. An apparatus comprising:

a screen surface layer comprising a plurality of light-emitting pixels including a plurality of red pixels, a plurality of green pixels and a plurality of blue pixels;

a transducer layer comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers and generating an acoustic field, wherein the transducer layer is affixed below the screen surface layer;

a cover layer having a plurality of cylinder-shaped perforations, wherein the cover layer is affixed above the screen surface layer;

wherein the perforations are arranged such that the acoustic field transmitted through the perforations to air above the screen surface layer is not substantially attenuated; and

wherein the perforations and the light-emitting pixels are arranged such that images produced by the screen surface layer are not substantially distorted by the perforations.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of cylinder-shaped perforations is located just above each of the plurality of acoustic transducers.

3. The apparatus as in claim 2 wherein the top of each of the plurality of cylinder-shaped perforations has a curved opening.

4. The apparatus as in claim 2 , wherein the plurality of blue pixels are larger than the plurality of red pixels and the plurality of green pixels.

5. The apparatus as in claim 2 , wherein the plurality of acoustic transducers are approximately the same size as the plurality of red pixels and the plurality of green pixels.

6. The apparatus as in claim 2 further comprising a meta-material layer of labyrinthine structures.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a screen surface layer;

a layer of a plurality of transparent acoustic transducers on top of the screen surface layer;

wherein the layer of a plurality of transparent acoustic transducers comprises a plurality of opaque piezoelectric materials and wherein each of the plurality of opaque piezoelectric materials is adjacent to optically active elements.

8. The apparatus as in claim 7 wherein the layer of a plurality of transparent acoustic transducers comprises a transparent conductor and a transparent piezoelectric material.

9. The apparatus as in claim 8 wherein the layer of a plurality of transparent acoustic transducers further comprises transparent driving circuitry.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a screen surface layer comprising:

i) a plurality of light-emitting pixels including a plurality of red pixels, a plurality of green pixels and a plurality of blue pixels; and ii) a plurality of acoustic transducers, wherein the plurality of blue pixels, the plurality of red pixels, the plurality of green pixels and the plurality of acoustic transducers are in approximately the same plane; and

a cover glass above the screen surface layer having perforations with horn-shaped openings;

wherein the perforations and the plurality of light-emitting pixels are arranged such that images produced by the screen surface layer are not substantially distorted by the perforations.

11. The apparatus as in claim 10 , wherein the plurality of blue pixels are larger than the plurality of red pixels and the plurality of green pixels.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the plurality of acoustic transducers are approximately the same size as the plurality of red pixels and the plurality of green pixels.

13. The apparatus as in claim 10 , further comprising a cover layer having a plurality of perforations, wherein the cover layer is above the screen surface layer.

14. A method of calibrating an array of a plurality of acoustic transducers, comprising:

a) for each of the plurality of acoustic transducers:

i) pulsing the acoustic transducer with an acoustic transducer input to create an acoustic transducer output;

ii) receiving the acoustic transducer output by a reference transducer;

iii) comparing the acoustic transducer output with a reference transducer output to create acoustic calibration data; and

iv) applying physical jitter to the acoustic transducer that promotes diffraction to adjust for wavelength interference effects;

b) creating a complex valued phasor map using the acoustic calibration data from each of the plurality of acoustic transducers.

15. The method as in claim 14 , further comprising:

c) modifying an interacting material with known acoustic properties while taking measurements;

d) for each of the plurality of acoustic transducers, calculating a regression to compute the complex coefficients required to transform each acoustic transducer input to the acoustic transducer output;

e) calculating an acoustic model for an average acoustic transducer as a linear effect.

Assignments (6)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 6, 2026
From: SIM IP HXR LLC
To: UNITY MASTER LLC SERIES XIX
Reel/Frame 075365/0907 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 19, 2026
From: ULTRAHAPTICS IP LIMITED
To: SIM IP HXR LLC
Reel/Frame 075127/0429 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 16, 2026
From: ULTRAHAPTICS LIMITED; ULTRAHAPTICS IP LIMITED; ULTRAHAPTICS IP TWO LIMITED; ULTRALEAP LIMITED
To: SIM IP HXR LLC
Reel/Frame 074403/0943 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 20, 2023
From: CORNES TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS LIMITED
To: ULTRAHAPTICS IP LTD
Reel/Frame 063392/0054 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 12, 2020
From: ULTRAHAPTICS IP LTD
To: CORNES TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 051488/0142 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 15, 2017
From: LONG, BENJAMIN JOHN OLIVER; CARTER, THOMAS ANDREW; KAPPUS, BRIAN
To: ULTRAHAPTICS IP LTD
Reel/Frame 042716/0774 →
Cited By (14)
US 12,191,875 US 12,204,691 US 12,271,528 US 12,345,838 US 12,347,304 US 12,370,577 US 12,373,033 US 12,393,277 US 12,517,585 US 12,568,341 US 12,659,636 US 12,688,761 US 12,688,846 US 12,694,071