A patent from Apple shows that the company is looking to improve the quality and definition of call volume on the iPhone, through a new acoustic coating material for its speakers. The project is detailed in a patent application carried out by the company at the end of 2019 and okay this Thursday (13/05) by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office).
One of the challenges of Apple was how to improve audio quality without increasing the size of the speaker. Based on this, the company's researchers designed the manufacture of an “acoustically active” coating to amplify the intensity of the sound. According to the license, the material would have “acoustic properties” that would improve the back volume on the iPhone speakers, increasing their emission power.
“The speaker has an enclosure that delineates the rear volume behind a speaker driver so that the driver converts the electrical audio signal into sound and the sound propagates through a gas in the rear volume,” the patent explains. “When the enclosure is used in the rear volume of a speaker, it causes the rear volume to behave as if it were larger than it actually is.”
Schematic of iPhone speaker with new acoustic coating material (US Patent and Trademark Office)
Porous material mitigates volume loss
According to Apple, the acoustic coating material is “highly porous” and has a thickness of between 2% and 30% of binder and between 70% and 98% of zeolite (a silicate mineral used mainly for water treatment and purification). Precisely because of the porosity of the material, the patent text explains, the loss of volume in the iPhone speakers could be attenuated. “One of the ways to reduce pressure fluctuations in the rear volume of mobile devices is to place adsorbent materials such as carbon black and zeolite”, it summarizes.
Regarding the structure of the coating, the Cupertino company mentions “an irregular matrix formed by a plurality of convex shapes connected by concave connectors”. However, as this is a patent, there is no indication that the solution will actually be launched commercially in the coming years.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Apple Insider
Image: Chinnapong/iStock
