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See-Through, Paper-Thin Speakers
Cormac writes "Here's an interesting article about scienists in the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) who are developing see-through flat speakers which (they claim) could be rolled/folded up and put in your pocket or even be pinned to a wall." I wonder about the fidelity, but there could be some excellent potential here: it irritates me that my center channel is on my TV. Without getting a projector and putting the speaker behind a screen, something like this could just be built onto your TV. But can it sound good?
To combine the coolest technologies here for audio, it sounds like you would need the following for a "dream" system.
Plasma tweeters
Electrostatics for the midrange
Sub-Woofer for low range & subsonics
Add a nice tube amp or at least a harmon/kardon or my poor departed Pioneer Spec-2, a decent pre-am (I miss my Pioneer Spec-1 as well), a Nak cassette deck, revox linear track turntable (with good quality cartrige&needle), Ampex DVD with the "right" roms (maybe not that Hi-Fi, but worth it anyways to play out of zone DVDs), and a decent laptop to run MP3s...but when you have a system in this range...most MP3s really sound like shit. Now a DBX encoded vinyl LP of pipe organ music....that will show you what the difference is between a good analog system and the best digital.
Years from now they will bemoan the fact that so much music of the 20th and 21st centuries is almost unlistenable because it was released with only 16 bit at 44.1 KHertz!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Those are electrostatics- these are piezos. Electrostatics operate on very high voltages (and very low amperages), and require stator screens. Piezos operate by one side expanding and the other contracting, mechanically pushing most of the speaker area forward or back. There are also center-driven planars (Sumo Aria, Museatex Melior) and line-driven planars (Magnepan).
I don't know what you'd have to do to get a huge plasma speaker that could carry bass, but I don't want to be around while you try it :)
In order to do composite drivers, you have to go with simpler crossovers, not more complex- phase relationships have to be dead simple, the normal rules for multi-element speakers are entirely reversed.
Electrostatics and planars do what they do not just by having the speaker handle all frequencies with one element, but by having the element behave more controllably than cone drivers. Use of very light elements can mean little or no overshoot or ringing at bass frequencies. That ringing is what would really create 'doppler' effects on the sound- having the speaker follow the path of the waveform as one unit does not cause any sort of distortion in itself.
The roll-up piezo speakers are likely to be fairly crappy sound, but this is mostly because they're lacking in any sort of solid stand or base to push against, and the piezo operates by flexing and going convex or concave. Clamp the edges and you'll get more bass and general fidelity.
I've experimented with these fairly extensively, and still am from time to time. DIYing center-driven stretched-mylar speakers is fun, but tricky to make useful. Here's what I learned:
DIY is fun
Right. There used to be a linux cafe in my old neighborhood that was in a big warehouse. the proprietor had a set of electrostatic speakers, which were just big mylar sheets suspended in a large frame. Made a nice noise, though they tended to "beam" a lot on the higher notes.
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I noticed
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I noticed
It's getting about time to leave everywhere
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"...huge speakers on his/her laptop that are taking up valuable space and weigh a ton."
Think about it. You want your laptop to be as thin and light as possible. You bet they would put one of these in them if they could. Look at how thing the screens and keyboards are getting.
On the other end I've got two 10cm x 5cm cheapie speakers I bought at discount (old iMac color) that sound ok but tinny. For 5 bucks I can't complain, they're smaller then anything else & don't mess with any magnetic media near them.
As to on a laptop screen - this as been talked about for years but every time a problem appears. Most of the times the speakers just weren't very robust physically, certianly not up to the life of a laptop. Or they've required too much power or degraded quickly. Then there's the whole "transparency" thing - unless they're really really clear folks aren't going want to put a smoky layer of whatever over their screens, audio or no. From the article pics of this latest incarnation it looks pretty murky...
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
... if he can spatially distinguish between a speaker on top of his TV and behind the TV.
How close are you sitting and how big is your TV? Unless you're talking a 36" TV and < 3' distance, I don't see how you can tell.
"Beware by whom you are called sane."
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Hardly. There are two I can think of that outclass EVERYTHING in the US. B&W's line, specifically the Nautilus, are some of the most trick speakers on Earth... the 601 coming it at $400 to the 801 used at Abbey Road studio to the $30,000.00 Nautilus - all made in the UK. From Holland we have BD Design's Oris. There are many more. Focal from France, Morel from Israel, Peerless from Germany, Solen from Canada... the list goes on. I really cannot name a US company that can compete with the exception of Magnepan (which comes to mind when you mention these thin speakers). If you are thinking of Bose as a world leader, they make crap... but my point is the US retaining leadership is a stretch of the imagination. The US has market share, but I current audio reviews claim that B&W is the hallmark of design. Many agree.
pronoblem
pronoblem
If you wanted one of these to be built in to your tv you'd also want to have the left and right speakers to also be the same shape and size to keep a constant tonal quality between the 3 chaannels. Otherwise you end up with tonal shifts when somoen walks around, and that's bad stuff.
matguy
matguy(.com)
That sounds awful 2d to me...
It does. It probably doesn't occur to non-techies that normal stereo sound is just 1D and dolby surrond is 2D. Yes, that means mono sound is 0D.
However, clever phase-shifting could make the appearance of 2D using just two (eg. stereo) speakers.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
Or someone else's sweater perhaps? (evil grin) Gives this sluggy comic a new shot at reality. :)
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
AIEEEE!!!
You try it.
AIEEEE!!!
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
the best part about those clothes isn't the speaker bit... its the part about them being transparent! woohoo!
on second thought, that might be a bad thing.
Here's a DIY project for you...
Why not try to use resonance?? Products like the Bose wave use long resanator tubes to get decent bass out of two 1" speakers. What would happen if you used a resonator with the mylar stretched across it?? (An old drum body, etc...)
I realize that this will not correct the already low bass response, as there apparently are no surfaces capable of producing the long low waves, but should add depth and take away from the tinniness of the speakers. With contact on a wood resonator, percussion and bass should at least produce a pleasant woody thump.
Just a thought...
~Hammy
Of course at that point in the story they were discussing 'current' flat speakers. Instead of the new ones they are developing.
Koh says his lab has turned the project over to sound engineers to work on the low-frequency sound issue.
Indeed. I'm running a pair of DM602S2s and a Velodyne FSX-12...
I just purchased a Rotel RCD-971, and I'm now on the mad lookout for HDCD recordings. I thought I had the audio fever bad before...
0x0D 0x0A
I have a very nice quality 5-piece flat planel setup at home ... the four flat tweeters around my system sound extremely good, even when cranked up very high... What makes these so unbelievable?
So if this speaker can transmit sound, it can receive sound, right?
Mount one to your monitor and connect it with a full duplex mic line to your computer. Use NetMeeting and you can get the ultimate video phone.
Now Microsoft (or the government, whichever lasts)can add some inconspicuous code and listen and watch everything you do.
Oh, no wait, that's 1984 isn't it?
"I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe." -- Arthur Dent
To reproduce low frequencies the speaker surface must move a fairly large distance. The problem is that this movement actual creates a doppler shift in the high frequencies, creating a "muddy" sound.
While this is essentialy true, it isn't the most significant problem with large panel speakers. These are large enough that the surface won't have to move much. (of cource if you make them small you're screwed).
Panel speakers traditionally got two problems:
They tend to be dipoles which means the got to be huge or have no bass. Once the path from the rear of the driver to the front becomes small compared to the acoustic wavelenght it exhibits an acoustic short which works to cancel and phaseshift LF sounds.
Also any driver which active surface is larger than the wavelenght of the sounds it reproduce will exhibit beaming and comb filtering since for a given point in space the path to two different points on the driver will be different. For large drivers the difference can become significant compared to wavelenghts and interference ensues.
Some panel speaker technologies also suffer from beeing very hard on the amps (el-stat).
In short it's hard to justify making a panel speaker.
Remember that it is a panel doesen't make it thin unto itself. If you don't want a dipole you still need the box, and if it is a dipole the problems above occurs and it will still have to stand out from the wall to avoid interference from back wall reflections.
Shawn Pack
For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.
I'd think that speakers like these would be more useful for surround sound: you can cover you walls or (car) windows with permanent installations. Another big win would be temporary set ups; take along five sheets of paper and some masking tape.
-_Quinn
Reality Maintenance Group, Silver City Construction Co., Ltd.
Any substantial home entertainment system is going to have a great big sub sitting off in a corner anyway. Since it's a lot harder to tell which direction a deep bass tone is coming from than with a higher tone, I don't see this being a problem. Then again, I don't know where the actual cutoff point lies. Plus that volume issue bugs me... I need my matrix gunfights to be LOUD
Yes, there is some magnetism, but not enough to affect a crt.
Cheers
Admittedly what's available now isn't flexible or transparent, but it is flat. I have a set of Monsoon speakers. Each satellite speaker has a normal cone-type midrange element, but the high-frequency element appears to be a clear piece of plastic printed with circuit traces and surrounded by magnets. In Monsoon's higher-end speakers, the satellite units are 100% flat-panel. Apparently the larger the panels are the lower frequencies they can handle. (makes sense)
I'm not sure whether Monsoon has this stuff patented or whether there just aren't many companies implementing it yet...
-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
yes, but they were HUGE. You need to move large volumes of air to get bass, and if you don't have throw, you have to substitute surface area.
may electrostats come with subwoofers for this reason.
Anyone remember the disposable Paper phones currently in design? We never thought those would replace cell phones (or heaven forbid, one of those option loaded corporate receptionist phones). But it's still a good idea because you can spend a few bucks on a paper phone if you need to make a call, and just throw it away when the time runs out.
:)
Same thing here with paper speakers. This isn't designed for watching The Matrix or Gladiator in all its glory. These speakers are better suited for cheap things when you just want any sound production whatsoever... Like talking advertisements in magazines...
On second thought maybe this isn't a good idea.
-Ted
and now paper speakers...
Plus, there's not mention of frequency response, wattage, impedience, nuthin'.
I doubt it's real (or if it is, it's real stupid, or real bad).
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
These speakers, if they come about well enough, will be used in places where they're needed, and not in places where competing technology kicks more ass. It's pretty much that way anywhere with any product. I see the following good uses for these:
- Computer speakers inside the monitor/laptop screen. Handy, space conservative, and powered by the monitor. Not great sound, but for sound effects and watching CNN live it should be fine.
- Center channel speakers on a 5.1 surround system. Get one of these on the screen of the TV and you have the perfect center channel speaker placement. Heck, get really innovative and have several over the surface of the TV, and you can get conversations between two people sounding like they are coming from either side (not that stereo technology doesn't do a lot of this already)
- Quick-'n'-easy party-hardy materials. Small, portable CD/MP3 player and a small bag of rollup speakers. Set player ontop of empty beer case, unroll speakers, stick to wall with stickytack, and wha-lah! Instant tunes.
- Applications where sound is wanted but conditions are rough: On rafts, boats, skis, snowboards, umbrellas, patios, bathtubs, showers, underpants...you get the picture.
- Talk about a revolution in children's books. Pages that have speakers right in them. neat-o.
:)
They're not likely to please the audiophile in your midst for hi-fi applications, and anyone watching something like Matrix on them should be shot. But they'll have their (rather vertical) niche and work great....I think it's cool!Blog,Twitter
Flat speakers (aka electrostatic speakers), though not exactly mainstream, aren't unusual in the audiophile world. If you're really curious, you might check out Magnepan or MartinLogan or Quad. Also try looking for reviews at Stereophile. There used to be a user-review site at www.audioreview.com, but it's not resolving for me so maybe they're offline at the moment.
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314-15-9265
We don't all have a pair of little speakers and a subwoofer on the floor.. Some of us would like to hear some midrange as well.
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Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Great, now instead of homey-g's carrying around a big boom box on their shoulder, soon they'll be able to blast (C)rap from thier shirts and pants!!! hehe cloth emitting speakers.. would be cool thoe.... remote controlled.. nothing like takin over the controlls of someone on the street.. speaker hacking... hmmmmm :)
What about business cards that played your radio commercial on command?
Greeting cards, of course. This has already been done, but I'm sure it'll be done again.
And finally, in my case, a credit card that screams in pain and curses me violently every time I use it.
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
Over 10 years ago a company called Penwalt (sp?) was selling stuff like this. Sound quality depends on how ou mount it. The really cool part of Piezio film is that it works "both ways." Apply sound to it and you get a signal out. Onr really demo is to take a glass tube and wrap two strips of film each around a different end of the tube. Connect an opamp between the two and then speak into the tube. It will start ringing at it's natural harmonic. Turn up the gain on the amp and good-bye glass tube.
My very educated mother just served us nine pizza-pies.
Where did I leave those new speakers?
RASG!!!
Damn...
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This space left intentionally blank.
Now when im short on paper i can use my speakers to smoke.
For most hifi systems this solved by having separate cones for the high end, midrange, and low end (tweeters, subwoofers, etc.).
My guess is that these simply won't be suitable for audiophile-level quality sound reproduction. Their best use would be for portable systems where sound quality isn't as big an issue, or computer speakers since we're all used to crappy sound anyway.
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
We've all got a pair of little speakers for high notes, then a big subwoofer on the floor. If they can make a better pair of tweeters, why gripe? As it is, mine are on the verge of falling of the desk because they can't fit next to my 21" moniter.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Reach for a kleenex and hear ads for the latest cold medicine as you blow your nose!
And of course, new at Spencer Gifts:
Talking toilet paper! With hilarious phrases like 'Man it's dark in here' and 'you thought YOU had a shit job'!
Chesty-wet-babe posters will now spout 900-ads at regular intervals.
Ok my karma is maxed out. When do I become Enlightened?
why wait till this comes out, subs in bugs VW's isn't that difficult just takes some fiberglass and elbow grease :)
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/ViewUltimateSystem. asp?EventID=20
who sez death can't be funny....www.endlesssorrow.com
This sounds a little like electrostatic speakers, but cheaper. There are a lot of high-end electrostats out there now (martin-logan, magnapan, quad, etc.), which have use a vibrating mylar film or ribbon suspended between metal grills or plates, or something along those lines. I've heard examples that sound phenomenal, aside from the lack of bass, but require serious amplification.
These sound like they'll require a lot less power, but will have even more trouble moving the amount of air necessary to make real bass or to actually get loud. I mean, how much air can something like this actually move? I'd have to guess not much.
circa75.com
But wouldn't it be nice to overlay your display with your speaker? Then it would sound a lot more like it was coming from there without relying on the stereo effect. I wonder if you could divide the display into several regions and have more realistic distribution of the sound...
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Dude if I had my mod points you'd be up one.
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This
mid range
two more words
sub woofer
last two words
need above
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This
I work to oppose software patents -- look at the little write up I did a month back on the M$ web poll patent. Know what facetious humor is?
CHoad.
Vergil Bushnell
Insects and Grafitti Photos
What articulate, yet visceral rhetoric!
What deft use of sandbox-cliches!
Vergil Bushnell
Insects and Grafitti Photos
Your post didn't irritate me at all - it was the anonymous troll after you.
Sincerely,
vergil
Vergil Bushnell
Insects and Grafitti Photos
- Ever been to a large protest or demonstration? Groups with axes to grind are typically under-funded, and habitually rely on tinny Radio Shack megaphones to "get the word out" - a marginal improvement over shouting, given ambient street noise. With these speakers, a dissident group could easily seed a crowd with plastic amplifiers taped to their ubiquitous posterboard placards.
- Pack a stack of these piezo-electronic sheets in your backpack, find an abandoned warehouse and a tube of super-glue and voila! Instant rave!
- Promotional companies that currently wheat-paste metropolitan walls with repetitous movie/concert fliers might find a way to paint their advertisements on sheets of the aforementioned plastic film with a flat EEPROM backing, thereby augementing their garish displays with short bursts of sound. Wait, I should patent that idea.
Sincerly,
Vergil
Cluebot.
Vergil Bushnell
Insects and Grafitti Photos
The problem with these existing speakers, critics say, is that while they do a good job of reproducing high-frequency sounds, they often are not substantial enough to produce deep bass sounds, or play at high volume.
"Even with quite large ones, which I've got a pair of them in my living room, they need a bass reinforcement," says David Pearce, a research fellow in functional materials at the University of Birmingham in England who specializes in piezoelectric ceramics. "Hearing these sort of panel speakers individually, they always sound kind of tinny. But then you put them together with bass support and you say, 'That sounds pretty good, actually.'"
Well, it was nice until that part... No volume and no loud bass, I'll stick with what I have, thanks.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
I'm not exactly sure of the properties of these speakers but i'm guessing they'd still have some magnetism built in or maybe i'm just wrong. If it is the case then they'd need to be shielded if you wanted to place them right on top of a tv or computer with a crt monitor. And if it would be that close you'd have to have something to shield it out with, thus making it clear useless. Am i wrong or could this be a potential problem?
What would DJ's and their ilk be able to do with this (ahem) musically?
instead of scratching a record/cd you could do tons of dopplar effects by f'in with a thin flexible speaker...
Let's see DJ scribbles (or whatever) get down with that!
instead of "scratching" it will be called "tearing" or "folding" a phat beat=P
sounds silly but plausible to move a speaker around for effect (See leslie speakers, or their "virtual/electric" bretheren of phase shifting audio devices phasers, flangers, and chorus')
*Shrug* YMMV
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
sounds alot like (i think its called) pizeo-electic metals.
If you'd taken the time to read the article, you'd konw for a fact that pizeo-electric metals (specifically platinum electrodes) are being used.
Stupid like a fox!
The problem with these existing speakers, critics say, is that while they do a good job of reproducing high-frequency sounds, they often are not substantial enough to produce deep bass sounds, or play at high volume.
They say this like the new speakers will solve the problem, but then don't explain anything more about it.
And if you think about it, it makes sense that flat speakers would lack in the bass department. How could they not? If you've ever wathcerd a big subwoofer at work, you'll see they move quite alot. A good centimenter worth of motion, at least. Now, if you pin a flat speaker to a wall, how do you expect to achieve that sort of range of motion? Sure, it'll be able to vibrate very quickly against the wall, but it has no room for the deep slow bass virations.
Perhaps they'll eventually work out a system in which the speaker sits in a deep picture frame, but until then, seems like flat tweeters and conventional woofers is the way to go.
Stupid like a fox!
Cool. Maybe some real 3d sound is coming up. Characters talk on the screen, and the sound comes from that point on the screen.
That sounds awful 2d to me...
Stupid like a fox!
It does. It probably doesn't occur to non-techies that normal stereo sound is just 1D and dolby surrond is 2D. Yes, that means mono sound is 0D.
Seems like this should be fairly obvious. But you're right, a lot of people think of stereo as "all around you" when it's really just occuring on a line between the speakers.
On the other hand (and getting off topic) it seems like you should be able to simulates everything human's can hear just with two speakers, one for each ear. After all, sound comes in two sources, seems like it should only need to be generated from two sources. Of course, clever phase shifting (like you mentioned earlier) would need to be used, I would think.
Stupid like a fox!
Cool. Maybe some real 3d sound is coming up. Characters talk on the screen, and the sound comes from that point on the screen.
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Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
I kind of like Canadian speakers myself, Paradigm, etc.
The sound quality aspect of these speakers is conspicuously missing from the article. Must not have much bass. "Singing" greeting cards use this technology, and we all know how good they sound!
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"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?
What if I lose it. What if I place it in a white room, with white walls, white carpet and bright florescent lights.
HOW AM I GONNA FIND IT!
on a side note, if they can make subwoofers out of this I might just buy a Volkswagaon.
I am currently not obliged to divulge that information as it might compromise the agents in the field
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Think about this for a minute. The basic design of speakers as a sound producing device has remain unchanged since it was invented nearly 100 years ago. The flat piezo screens are really no different: a big flat sheets of [whatever] vibrates to produce sound.
:)
What's wrong with that you say? Well first of all, as some people have already pointed out, the smaller they get the worse the sound is. Small speakers just can't produce the same bass that our ears can hear. And no matter what you make them out of it will always be that way if you use the standard old vibrating film design. Period.
What we need is a REAL revolutionary design change in the loudspeaker. A speaker with no moving parts. A speaker that simply vibrates the air without having to vibrate some part of it's anatomy at the same time.
I'm no engineer, but a mass of ionized air could easily be vibrated by use of electro-magnets without any direct physical contact. Since there is no direct physical manipulation of the air with a solid object, all the limitations of size and sound can be eliminated. Also, why do cheap speakers sound bad? It's bacause of the cheap materials used to vibrate the air. With no materials used to vibrate the air (only electricity) sound quality can be greatly improved as well.
Any electrical/sound engineers care to comment? I give you my invitation to steal my IP as long as I get the first samples!
Seriously though, I can see a bigger market in the home theatre market rather than in the laptop computer market. Really, when is the last time a laptop user has complained about the huge speakers on his/her laptop that are taking up valuable space and weigh a ton?
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
Note the word "think". Translation: vaporware. I'll believe it when I'm pinning one to the wall.
"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
They too originally thought it would work for speakers, but found the sound sucked.
It seems that technology maybe in a loop.
Careful what you say....
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
We might imagine that this speaker technology would be combined with Organic LED's to produce thin, inexpensive multimedia displays. The linked article says that it's possible that the organic LED displays can be made to rollup, as well. Now, we have a high definition, inexpensive, portable display with light, color, and sound that we can unroll and place on a wall anywhere, anytime.
Discuss.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
For something really cool, sometimes you have to look at older technology, like the plasma speakers described here.
The idea is that the shape/size of a flame can be influenced by a high voltage signal, and the resulting changes in the flame are broadcast as a high fidelity sound. Here's a quote from the above site
There's not much bass to these, but boy are they cool looking!And, as an added bonus, you get to play with nifty Tesla coil technology.
These are true Geek Speakers.
Help find a cure for Gidget.
Martin Logan has been producing electrostatic speakers that are made with a transparent mylar film for decades. A thin layer of conductive material is deposited on the film. The film is attached to a frame and wires run along the side of the film to carry the signal. A high frequency static field is generated on either side of the panel, which, obviously, creates vibration when voltage is applied.
Also, Quad produced an electrostatic loudspeaker in the late 50's, which, I believe, is still made, in some form, today.
You can tell a college man, but you can't tell him much.
Ceci n'est pas un sig
Ceci n'est pas un sig
Ceci n'est pas un sig
John Lennon late in his career had an inventor he called "Magic Alex" he threw money at. Among such ideas such as flying saucers, anti-grav devices, and a sixteen track sixteen speaker stero, Lennon asked "Magic Alex" to try to build something he called loudpaper.
Loudpaper was supposed to be a wallpaper that you could jack your stero into, turing a whole wall into a speaker. Sounds like John's smiling down on this one.
This has been another useless post from....
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
Using transparent speakers is a backward aproach. Better to use acousticly transparent projection screen, and place your choice of speakers behind it. This product is available now. Don't remember manufacture, but I believe that it showed up in Auido Visual Interiors issue that featured Fabio's system.
Many a long talk since then I have had with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage. Joshua Slocum
Don't Martin Logans already have something similar working? They have a thin clear film which the current runs through, but it is protected by a grill.
BTW they sound great.
See-Through, Paper-Thin Listening Devices
A PI's dream come true.
But Yogi, the RIAA won't like that.
Paper thin material that is good for base rumbling. I see the condom industry latching on to this one.
But Yogi, the RIAA won't like that.
sounds alot like (i think its called) pizeo-electic metals.
Sleep: A completely inadequate substitute for caffeine.
Now people will be able to last bass-drenched Hip Hop crap in even MORE ways with even lower quality...
TODO: Something witty here...
wrap it around your game controller, and you have an instant rumble pack!
Free unix account: freeshell.org
I've seen a whole pile of posts and people thinking that you can "wallpaper" your room or put it on your screen. Think for a second about how sound is made from speakers (or anything for that matter): by vibrations. If things vibrate, it means that they cannot be attached directly to anything except at the edges. You cannot "wallpaper" your room because all of the vibrations would be absorbed by the wall. You could however hang a sheet of this slightly away from the wall, thus giving it room to vibrate. The same thing would happen with a TV screen or your computer monitor. I don't know about you, but the thought of the glass of my screen vibrating at 12,000+ Hz as someone hits the high notes doesn't sound like a very bright idea.
Also, I have here with me a set of Monsoon MM1000s, which are flat panel speakers. Compared to my ($1400, not the best but good IMHO) stereo system at home they sound like crap, however I'm currently in France and I wasn't going to bring my huge towers with me. The flat panels are great for portibility, and considering their size they're really good sounding too. The problem is that you still need an amp for all of this, and the flat panels cannot produce low notes very well at all, so you'll also need a subwoofer.
In any case, speaking as a pseudo-audiophile, in my experience real speakers are still FAR ahead in the game when it comes to raw sound quality. If you want something easy to hook up to your TV or computer to play quake or listen to MP3s, then you can get by on something like this. However if you want quality then you still have to use conventional speakers, and I can't see that changing any time soon, but then again, what do I know?
I saw 21 U.S.Marines, in full dress, with rifles, fire a gun salute to the outgoing president, and every last one of them missed!
If God gave us curiosity
But I'm not sure about buildind them in front of a monitor (as seem to be sugested in the article). The amplitude of a sound generated by a speaker is directly proportional to the amplitude of it's movement. So, if I have onde of these in front of my monitor, I wouldn't enjoy if the screen was somehow shaking.. I already have a loot of eye strees just staring at a standing screen... So I wonder if it's a good ideia to build these kind of speakers in front of the screen. Maybe put them along the boarder of the screen (even thou its already been done with ordynary speakers) or build a pair of really thin ear speakers...
Ladies and gentlemants, Elvis has left the buildnig...
Trojan could make a fortune off that stuff!
From what I have seen in the past from the flattened speaker market, I am not going to hold my breath on this. It would be cool to think of one day having a flat plasma tv surrounded by a room of DTS capable flat speakers, but again, I think it is too soon to say when or whether this will happen
Is it just me, or does that make it sound like it's hard to hear? I suppose they could make nifty greeting cards that play music. Imagine!
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This is no technological breakthrough. I worked with a stereo manufacturer in the mid-1970s that manufactured thin film speakers. The speakers were a thin film of mylar with a metal surface that was applied by vapor deposition. They got the technology from NASA, as part of the FedGov's technology transfer program. The speakers had good bass response too. The manufacturer went out of business, but I know a couple of public places that still have the speakers installed and working, 20+ years later. The best thing about these speakers was that you could make a speaker 6 feet long and 0.5 inches wide, instead of a point source like a speaker cone that radiates in a spherical pattern, the sound radiated in a cylindrical pattern. Channel separation was excellent, as was spatial accuracy.
The koreans are making one huge misrepresentation, though. These speakers will never roll up, then unfold and just tack to the wall. You MUST keep the film taut in order to produce optimal sound. If you bend the films, the surface coatings break. And read the article closely. They haven't "invented" any new speaker technology, they've invented a new way to bond the electrodes to the surface. Whoop de doo.
you mean you can make clothes that act as a loudspeaker
riding the subway is hard enough already!!
that said, think of the applications for screwing with people if you could make your sweater talk... or a window... or a mirror.... oh my.
sorry, need to go make devilish plans...