Researchers at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Pohang, South Korea have unveiled a prototypicalOLEDdisplay with a potentially game-changing twist: the novel 13-inch panel is capable of emitting not only visuals, but also full-blown audio.
In a research article titled Localized Sound-Integrated Display Speaker Using Crosstalk-Free Piezoelectric Vibration Array,published in Advanced Scienceback in April 2025 (via ScienceDaily), Inpyo Hong and Su Seok Choi outline a screen that can essentially convert electrical signals into full-blown sound vibrations using piezoelectric technology.
“Piezoelectricspeakersdirectly convert electrical energy into mechanical motion via the inverse piezoelectric effect, enabling efficient sound generation with a lightweight, flexible, and low-power design. Their simple layered construction, consisting of electrodes and piezoelectric materials, offers advantages such as low cost, high energy efficiency, and compactness,” write Hong and Choi.
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What is Pixel-Based Local Sound OLED technology?
A conceptual multi-channel sound system where each pixel emits its own audio
Dubbed Pixel-Based Local Sound OLED technology by the POSTECH researchers, a central innovation employed in this concept is the embedding of Piezoelectric exciters directly into the frame of the 13-inch OLED panel in question. This circumvents the need for traditional audio exciters, which take up a substantial amount of physical space to produce sound through their driver element and other required speaker internals.
Piezoelectric tech itself isn’t new – we’ve seen consumer electronics brands experiment with it in the past, such as with theGoogle Pixel 5’sgrill-less front-facing speaker hidden behind its display. This all-new implementation of Pixel-Based Local Sound OLED tech is distinct, however, with its pixel-like arrangement and embedding directly into the OLED panel hardware itself. The end result is an OLED screen arrangement that can produce audio at a per-pixel level, much like how each individual OLED pixel can already emit its own light.
According to Hong and Choi, these piezoelectric exciters can be demonstrably integrated into the frame of an OLED display without significantly impacting the shape and size of the panel itself, all while eliminating crosstalk (sound source leakage) and bolstering acoustic precision, positionality, and localization.
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Is Pixel-Based Local Sound OLED technology the future of TV?
Cost, production, scaling, and quality are all barriers that need to be worked through
Conceptually, Pixel-Based Local Sound OLED technology is an exciting prospect. OLED panels are already considered best-in-class for their thin and flexible design, their per-pixel control of light emission, and their deep blacks and punchy contrast levels. The addition of pixel-perfect audio emission has the potential to bolster the coveted ‘3D spatial audio’ or surround sound effect that some consumer brands strive to achieve, while also obsoleting bulky speaker hardware in the process.
“This technology has the potential to become a core feature of next-generation devices, enabling sleek, lightweight designs in smartphones, laptops, and automotive displays – while delivering immersive, high-fidelity audio,” writes Hong and Choi in the research paper.
Of course, the findings of Hong and Choi are experimental and serve as a proof of concept – Pixel-Based Local Sound isn’t a consumer-ready technology that can be churned out on a production line, and it likely won’t be for the foreseeable future. to achieve the scale necessary for mass industrial production, audio performance will have to achieve cost-to-performance parity with existing consumer audio devices, and doubtless other hurdles will need to be conquered.
Audio directionality and spacial contextualization can seriously elevate the experience of consuming media.
There’s also no telling whether this tech will scale well to larger-screened and smaller-screened devices, or whether piezoelectric exciters will ultimately be able to achieve the audio results consumers expect out of their TVs, smartphones, and other tech gadgets (existing implementations of piezoelectric tech, such as on the aforementioned Pixel 5, haven’t exactly taken the world by storm).
Personally, I’m hopeful of a future in which Pixel-Based Local Sound not only hits the consumer space, but also achieves critical mass. Audio directionality and spacial contextualization can seriously elevate the experience of consuming media, and this is double true when it comes to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets. If bulkytraditional speaker hardwarewere to one day become antiquated, it’d also open up the door for even thinner tech products across the board, which is an exciting prospect indeed.
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