Japanese electronics maker Kyocera showed off a new mobile phone that uses tiny vibrations in the screen in place of an ear speaker.

Kyocera says its new Urbano Progresso phone is the first in the world to use "tissue conduction" technology in such a way.

It calls the device, which is located under the top half of the screen, its "Smart Sonic Receive."

The vibrations produces by the phone are picked up by the ear physically, meaning it is clearer in noisy environments.

The company demonstrated this using a speaker that blasted out construction and other background noise.
Conversation is still clearly audible above the noise.

The vibrations produced by the phone can also be heard through headphones or other headwear that is attached firmly to the ear.

The phone does have an external speaker on the back, for ring tones and its speakerphone function.

It runs Android 4.0 and has 4-inch display, along with an 8 megapixel camera and 4GB of internal memory.

It is also water resistant and supports standard Japanese features such as touch payments and infrared connections.

The phone went on sale Thursday in Japan, under carrier au, the country's second-largest.

For IDG News at the Wireless Japan Conference in Tokyo, this is Jay Alabaster.