Posted by
Hemos
on from the transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye dept.
James writes "At CeBIT, Olympia has been showing off its Soundbug - a gadget that can turn almost any flat surface into a soundboard. It's only gonna cost £29.99 (around $45, i guess), but it sounds like there's some seriously cool science behind it."
Sure, floors are a good start
windows are mentioned in the article
why not just plug one into every flat surface in the house!
Would bring a completely different viewpoing on "raising the roof" at parties:D
Re:floors?
by
madfgurtbn
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· Score: 3, Interesting
See www.invisiblestereo.com They sell a large version of something similar where you attach the coil to the back side of drywall, or under your floor, turning your wall or floor into a speaker. It sounds pretty good, and its fun to have people try to find the speakers in your house. I know a guy who has 40 of them all over his home.
-- Send lawyers, guns, and money. Dad, get me out of this.
Re:floors?
by
bleckywelcky
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I read several pieces on this technology, but I'm not exactly sure about the logisitics of these types of devices. Sure, we all know that we vibrate surfaces in order to produce sounds waves. But, these vibrations seem to be pretty disastrous to things that don't want to vibrate (i.e. Your House). So, if you hooked one of these things up behind your drywall it would seem as if any amount of use would cause the wall to shake, drywall screws to become loose, plaster over the drywall to crack, base molding to come loose, and paint to chip/crack. How do they aim to create a vibration without causing all sorts of damage? Well, if we moved it to a hardwood floor (or even better, the composite material wood floors that aren't even nailed into the floor, rather they float as an entire surface together), we could end up with better results. The wood is most likely much better able to handle the vibrations and transfer them well too. But, what happens if you walk across the floor? It would seem that the power of this type of equipment wouldn't be large enough that it could vibrate an additional 150 - 200 lb person. So, as you would walk across floors, you would be creating deadspots all over the place and interfering with the workings of the 'speakers'.
Has anyone seen any articles with an in-depth analysis of how this equipment might work. Despite the poster's comment that "it sounds like there's some seriously cool science behind it." the article was very slim on any technical details.
I can't really answer the question, but I have played with the concept. I took a 5 inch speaker, cut away most of the cone and screwed a thin, springy piece of steel across the basket. From there a bolt goes down to the dust cap, which is then covered in epoxy, so the voice coil, dustcap, bolt and steel leaf are a rigid unit. mass is added to the strap to adjust the resonant frequency. The entire thing can be attached to walls or tables or whatever, turning the entire surface into a speaker with really nasty resonant peaks at harmonics of the drivers resonant freq.
Regardless of the sound quality of this particular setup, a 4x8 piece of sheetrock actually makes a fair speaker at resonable volumes, its fine for watching TV or casual radio listening. I used it in my workshop for several months just for the novalty. If you desire very high SPL though, more standard technology would probably be a better investment.
Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
Re:body parts?
by
gimpboy
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· Score: 2, Interesting
yeah the article knows the difference between force (lbf) and pressure (lbf/area). i dont think it exerts 400 lbs of force on the flat object, but rather on the coil inside. i would imagine that a 400 lb force applied to a window wouldnt be too good for the glass.
since this is one of the mediums they are suggesting you use it with, i dont think it will do too much damage will be placed apon to the original poster if he plans on using his chest. i think one requirement is that the surface be rigid so that it can transmit the sound. i doubt most of our chests are rigid.
-- --
john
Re:body parts?
by
psychosis
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· Score: 1, Offtopic
So CowboyNeal would be the woofer, right?
Re:body parts?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The article said to use a FLAT surface... like your head.
Reminds me of those big rubber disks (like neoprene) I put under my turntable for isolation. Maybe you could do that with a table, depending on table mass.
The reverse is a bad idea; using speakers as tables. I was just commenting a moment ago on someone in my department who taped (not duct, tch tch tch) some small cabinets on the top of their monitor, whether it has any ill effect. After moving into an apartment a couple years ago I had no stand (but now have the deluxe cynderblock and plank set:) for my nice flat screen blackstripe monitor and put it up on a big guitar speaker cabinet. It was quite a site to see TV in purples and greens. Fortunately it degaussed and recovered. Never again.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I wonder what would happen if I shaved my head and stuck this thing on my skull?
Well, judging from this quote in the article; "...Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds...", it might not be very pleasant.
OTOH, it's apparently OK to use this on a big sheet of glass (which is much more brittle than your skull, I hope), without shattering it. The force won't do you much harm, but the vibrations will probably do nasty things after a while; coal miners and others who use pneumatic drills often suffer from vibration white finger, which damages blood vessels (of which there are quite a few in your head), nerves (ditto), and other body parts. I guess I wouldn't want any of this to happen to my head! It can (in miners) lead to the loss of your fingers. I suppose if it happens to your head, you'd lose that, too:(
Re:well...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Hopefully a Darwin award.
Re:well...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
OTOH, if you did use it on your skull, you probably didn't have much of a brain in your head to speak of. So losing your head wouldn't really matter much:P
So it rattles furniture
by
Perl-Pusher
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· Score: 1, Funny
The surfaces of my windows do the same thing when certain idiots drive by.
Re:So it rattles furniture
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
This reminds me of a time when I was stopped at a red light and then noticed, with some alarm you can imagine, that my car's mirror was vibrating... and my *glasses* too!
After a second or something, I realized that this cretin in the car besides me had his """stereo""" jacked all the way up and was causing all of this. Considering everyone had his/her windows closed (this was winter, you know) and that he still managed to do this (make parts of *my* car vibrate), I can only be alarmed at how loud it must have been in his jacked-up Suzuki (or was it a Honda Civic?). Not only the damage to his ears must be extensive if he still does it, and the fact that he would not hear anyone honking at him/a siren announcing an approaching police car/firemen truck, but the excessive vibrations from the "rap music" must have created a few "surprises" to his car's structure, just waiting to happen.
Seriously, how much dammage could be inflicted to a vehicule by excessive volume & vibrations (esp. with those ""sub-woofers"" they plant in their cars)?
Re:So it rattles furniture
by
Perl-Pusher
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· Score: 1
Actually quite a bit. I have a friend who said that the vibrations in his sons car caused parts of the dash to come loose. All the screws holding the front of the dash together came out and got lost 1 at a time until the thing just fell apart.
Re:So it rattles furniture
by
GuyverDH
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· Score: 1
Heh - I used to set off car alarms during competitions - with my windows up, trunk closed, and bass turned down - usually at up to about 4 cars away would trip. Only when I was outside the vehicle and only during competitions using my remote. I still have 'tinitis' (?sp?) ringing in my ears from my early days.
Take any speaker, hold the magnet against a surface and play music through it - the surface conducts the sound as well. Solids are a better sound conductor than air. Get enough mass moving, and voila - instant larger speaker.
-- Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
use http://babelfish.altavista.com to translate the whole page, works much better
-- Get the facts first. You can distort them later.
---Mark Twain
Only moderately cool
by
SanLouBlues
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I have a similar device. It's a guitar. Just touch the headstock to anything and play. Or cut the big magnet in a speaker out of the cone, and tape it to a table. The real test will be the fidelity of the sound. Although the thought of stereo from two connectors on a single surface sounds acceptably super-cool.
For more information
by
Wind_Walker
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· Score: 3, Informative
You should see this Slashdot article from nearly a year ago. It describes Korean scientists doing this exact same thing, but as a "proof-of-concept" type of thing.
Apparently, some things that Slashbots debunk as vaporware are made practical:-)
Re:For more information
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I've constructed devices similar to these nearly 13 years ago. The concept wasn't to produce sound from glass or other surfaces, but to make sound impossible to intercept.
Laser-Window listening systems on the infrared wavelength are impossible for humans to detect, won't be detected by bug scanning devices, etc. A real security concern, to be sure (especially from the govt.) Look here for more info on this sort of thing. Note that the example site is very antiquated, there are much better listening devices around (not on the open market, however) that can reliably listen over several kilometers.
My device (basically a quiet pizeo) would pump tons of accoustical interference into the window pane so that evesdroppers could not get a reliable signal bounce. It mounts in the corner of the window, and is otherwise undetectable to humans (unless they put their ear directly on the glass, then they would hear various noise patterns).
But if your desk is the speaker, not only would you not get stereo sound, but you would not be able to use the desk, or it would probably ruin the sound. Think about it, how would the music sound with a monitor, a couple books, and some food sitting on the desk.
Using the windows or some other large furniture in the room would be better, but again, you would need at least two for stereo sound, and they would probably need to be roughly the same size and density for the sounds to match.
Re:Desk for a speaker?
by
IainHere
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Well, obviously damping the vibrations (with books etc) would decrease the volume, but it's not true that you wouldn't be able to achieve stereo sound with a single vibrating body. Different parts of your desk don't have to vibrate in phase or at the same frequency unless it is infinitely stiff, which it isn't.
Not only that, but what would the long term effect be on the material being used to generate the sound? I don't think it could be that good. What would happen if someone hooked this up and cranked the base? Some stuff vibrates with normal speaker when the base is cranked. I probably won't by this.
On the lighter side, imagine hooking it up to a wall in your apartment or house, or get 3 y-cables and some cords and hook it up to all four walls. The biggest speakers in the world!
-- At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
Conference Calls?
by
dthable
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· Score: 4, Interesting
So the article talks about using the technology to improve the conference phone that so many businesses have placed. But if everyone is seated and taking notes, won't their contact with the table stop the vibrations? Same with the desk. If I have a lot of crap on it, does the soundbug quality reduce because the desk can't vibrate?
Re:Conference Calls?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Does a guitar become inaudible simply because you are holding it?
I can recall Sharper Image's catalog having these for whole walls in the past. If I recall a write up in a sound magazine, the quality is surprisingly good, but obviously not like audiophile level.
--
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Re:been around
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Yeah they're an old idea, I remeber these in the 60's.
Bear in mind that those that are truly dedicted to having a 'thumping ride' are too into the quality of the sound they send soaring through the subdivision to possibly consider something of this nature. Being one in Pro Audio for a living right now, I can imagine it being a fun toy, but nothing to write home about or send out with U2 on their next American tour....its all about the quality! No sound-good, no thump-down-the-street!
Bear in mind that those that are truly dedicted to having a 'thumping ride' are too into the quality of the sound they send soaring through the subdivision to possibly consider something of this nature.
Riiight...these morons care about sound quality??? Of what, the bass signal? C'mon, maybe what you say works for a sales pitch, but don't try and tell me that mixing road noise with bass-biased eq's and 18" speakers mounted in the back of some yahoo's Gremlin combines to yield "quality sound." That's a load of hooey, and you know it. Nobody who does this kind of activity cares the least about maintaining fidelity to the original signal - if you don't believe me, try out one of these systems on a harpsichord melody, or maybe a flute solo. What these systems are meant to do is project the driver's music as far as possible, to the annoyance of all the people who surround them. That's all. You want "sound-good" you turn on the stereo at home.
--
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
Re:Wonderful...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Although this is probably a troll, i'll respond. I used to have a setup in one of my cars that easily sounded better than any stereo equipment i have in the house, even going 80. now, admittedly, it wasn't a "thump-thump mobile", you couldn't really hear it outside the vehicle, but inside you could feel every bass note and hear every high note w/o distortion. It sounded really nice.
Ya I agree. I have a sealed box in my truck, with a 12" sub, with a soundstream amp running it. The amp I have is a very clean amp, and is stable at 1ohm I believe, so it can be pushed really hard without introducing any sort of distortion.
I chose a sealed box because they are more accurrate then a ported box, and like the above poster stated, you can hear every bass note, and treble note with good clarity. I have half my amp powering that sub, with the other half powering mids and highs, and it works great. Can't really hear bass outside the truck, unless you open the doors, but inside its quite a different story.
Ok, now the dumbass in his gremlin that has an 18 with a jensen amp (those real nice ones that say 500 watts peak for 99 bucks) dont give a crap about quality, their main goal is to annoy others as much as they can.
Well, an implementation using a suction cup is new, at least to me, but I've seen such things at hamfests, since at least 1988. They were large lag screws with a driver coil directly mounted thereon, driving a VERY heavy magnet suspended on light springs, so when you applied the audio, The magnet largely would hold still, moving the driver coil/lag screw, which was to be screwed into a wall stud. I never heard one in action, though, but if the lag screw didn't turn the wood its in into sawdust, it should give awesome bass.
I've been expecting to see some moron with one mounted in the center of his car roof for a subwoofer. If I ever do, I'm finally going to scavenge that old klystron and start sniping.
All that I wonder about this(other than when can I get one) is how long till some genius in a Marketing department somewhere turns an entire building into a non-stop looping jingle? Just think, Times Square (which is already an advertising mecca) but now with J-Lo/ Kylie/ Britney playing in the background 24 hours a Day!
you should check out yahoo shopping if you want to purchase one...they are the only ones to have one that I have seen. Cost is about $50
Remember the vogons...
by
Natanleod
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· Score: 3, Funny
Next thing we know is that Vogons will announce us, turning every table into a a speaker, that our planet is to be destroyed to make way for an hyperspace bypass...
Re:Remember the vogons...
by
C0WB0YN34L
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· Score: 1
but thats life....don't talk to me about life...:P somone else is a fan:)
Important Stuff:
Please try to keep posts on topic.
ooops...
The ultimate feedback loop?
by
Zocalo
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· Score: 2
I wonder what would happen if I attached the device to this large piece of sheet metal the local orchestra uses, placed its input microphone in front of the sheet and give the sheet a hefty whack... Or even dumped the microphone and captured the vibrations directly for that matter.
Soundbug is made by Newlands Scientific, a company based in Hull (UK), and comes in a variety of colours, some of which (pink and purple) are pretty disgusting, some of which (grey and blue) aren't...
Their website has plenty more glossy pictures, and a bit more info about "smart materials", which are used to make the wall/glass/whatever vibrate. They seem to be similar to piezo-electric materials, though better (at least, that's what the company would have you believe).
I want to make one big enough for political demonstrations. It would be kind of cool to use an entire building as a loud speaker to get your point across.
Can you imagin the protest over zoning commerical then? Everybody could have these babies hooked up to their car hoods and the outside of their windows and everything else flat that they could find.
A virtual soundscape of an urbanized area could then be run though the system to demonstrate exact how bad things would be.
Look up Tesla oscillators. Tesla did some stuff in Manhattan that oscillated at Earth's natural resonant frequency that made the earth shake for blocks. Same basic principle - vibrate stuff.
Re:More info
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Shaking the local geology is hardly related to the resonant frequency of the entire Earth.
If memory serves, he had a steam powered mechanical oscillator attached to the cast iron frame of the building he was occupying at the time. As the frequency rose he observed as various parts and things in the room were shaken at their resonant frequency. Of course everything else in the building was being shaken too, and lots of stuff in the immediate area around the building.
As with nearly everything else Tesla has done, the reports are invariably vastly inflated.
AFAIR, the oscillator was tuned to Earth's natural resonant frequency. The ground actually started shaking and people thought there was an earthquake in Manhattan. He also had an air-powered oscillator that could be tuned to reciprocate at the frequency of objects such as walls and beams. He nearly destroyed his laboratory using these.
How does anybody know if the reports are inflated? More reports? Who do we trust?
play a song for me for I am not sleepy and have no place to be
Practical joke ability
by
Erich
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This has great potential in the realm of practical jokes.
Imagine sucking this to the underside of someone's desk way back in the knee well. Then attach it to a radio and a timer device that will randomly turn on the radio for a few seconds every few hours.
Imagine attaching this to the door of the person who was making loud, annoying noises with a POTAS whilst you were trying to sleep, and waking them up when you have to go to your 8:00 class!
The possibilities for this device are truely limitless.
Sounds like the time nerd friends of mine put a "Clapper" on the monitor of their nerd boss, set so sensitive that when he put down his Dr. Pepper on the desk, *CLICK*.
-- Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Re:Practical joke ability
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
You have a low slashdot account, you are a nerd too. Unless you want to own up to being an ms windows button pusher.
You'd probably wind up seriously distorting the image in a multitude of ways. The first (and probably least likely) would be from the sound waves/impacts causing ripples on the display surface.
The second (and much more likely) is the EM field from the soundbug screwing with the plasma display's magnetics. It'd also screw with LCDs for the same reason. You'd probably wind up with a soundbug sized distortion on the front of the screen, with the potential of permanantly trashing that area of the screen if left long enough. And yes, you'd have to attach it to the back of the screen (meaning your flat panel isn't flat anymore), since you kinda want to watch the front of the screen.
Front projectors don't have rigid enough screens for something like this. So it's not even applicable.
And besides, anyone who drops the cash for a good flat panel or front projection system is abysmally stupid for using something like this instead of a good surround sound speaker setup.
In addition, to make a good sound, you need a rather sturdy surface that will affect the air around it for the sound waves. Attaching it to a monitor would only bounce around the monitor because it is absorbing much of the energy and not really transferring it to the air as in sound waves.
--
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
I think he meant that if you stick a flat panel tv on the wall and then turn the wall behind it into a speaker you get a significant reduction in used floorspace.
As long as the thumper, which is what I'm gonna call this gadget since it basically thumps the attached surface and makes sound, is far enough away from the screen, there's little or no EM interference. The only thing you need to worry about then is vibrations screwing it up. I imagine placing some kind of vibration damper between the screen and the surface would take care of it.
But if he did mean turning the monitor itself into the speaker, then I agree with you.
Regardless, you're talking about buying a $10-20,000 screen and using a $50 gadget for your speakers.
Sorry, that's just stupid... I really can't think of a better way to put it.
If you want to save space, get some flat panel speakers and hang them on appropriate places on the wall. You'll need some space for a real subwoofer, but that's it.
Well yah but could I get a ripple effect over the monitor when say showing a water scene or such though?
Hmm, aren't flexible transistors supposed to be coming out Sometime Soon Now?
That would royaly rock, LOL!
I am thinking of direct targeted sound waves to physically manipulate the display instead of some sort of expensive servo mechanism.
Imagine when you are hit with a Rocket your screen warping and bending all around you! Oh man talk about some nifty immersion technologies!
Or when your character leans forward the edges of your screen curving in towards you, or your screen bending back from you when you bend backwards to dodge a bullet!
The possibilities are almost endless!
This would completely blow away that IFeel technology stuff!
Even niftier would be outfitting a multi unit setup like this onto some type of highly rigid rubber but setting the sound waves to the right frequency to cause the rubber to become malleable and move in a coordinated fashion!
Imagine your mouse ACTUALLY becoming jiggly when you go to www.jello.com
Seen it, loved it, want one!
by
deepstephen
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The Soundbug is very very cool indeed. My flatmate is doing some work for Newlands Scientific (the people who developed this stuff) and I've seen the Soundbug in action. I want one!
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
It's absolutely amazing, and the possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to walk into a crowded, noisy bar and be able to have a whispered conversation with the person standing next to you. Neither of you would be able to hear the rest of the bar, and the rest of the bar would be unable to hear you.
It really is like something out of a sci-fi novel. Those of you who have read any Iain M Banks novels will know this works much the same way as his sound fields.
This sounds like the "Get Smart" episode with Smart and his boss have this dome come down from the ceiling to keep eavesdroppers out of the know, but the device was not working right and they kept saying "What?" and ended up sticking their heads outside the device to communicate anyway. Very funny routine!
. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want
I saw this too. I was watching The Prisoner reruns last night, and No. 6 used something just like this. He was in a record shop listening to some records, and instead of headphones, there was a small plastic bubble attached to the wall. Kind of like one of those old hair dryers. Stick your head in and listen to the sound that only you can hear.
-- Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
They actually have those in stores in my area to "test drive" cds. It's not totally effective, as you can vaguely hear the music walking by one of them, though I'd guess that's the idea trying to sell cd's in stores...
It's make a cool subversive broadcast device. Add a sub-minature FM receiver & attach the soundbug to a window or a wall near BG's office in Redmond. Connect a remote transmitter to a tape-loop of Linus or esr's speeches & watch the fun from a distance....:)
-- Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Imagine being able to walk into a crowded, noisy bar and be able to have a whispered conversation with the person standing next to you. Neither of you would be able to hear the rest of the bar, and the rest of the bar would be unable to hear you.
Now this has potential. Is it discreet enough that you could keep it hidden? Imagine, you walk up to that attractive person and start chatting. They aren't aware of the device and think that they're having some sort of supernatural experience. This would do a lot for your success ratio.
I was watching The Prisoner reruns last night, and No. 6 used something just like this. He was in a record shop listening to some records, and instead of headphones, there was a small plastic bubble attached to the wall. Kind of like one of those old hair dryers. Stick your head in and listen to the sound that only you can hear.
You mean something like this? (Found through an article (in German) in Telepolis, that draws a link to the Kate Bush song Experiment IV.
--
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Re:Seen it, loved it, want one!
by
peter
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· Score: 1
They have audible sirens so you know to look around. The colors help you spot it once you're looking. (Good drivers check their mirrors fairly often, but...)
-- #define X(x,y) x##y Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@cordes ,.ca)
Attach it to the cat's back! Watch grandma boogie to the sound of her stomach-speaker! Laugh as your ceiling collapses around you thanks to it's 'bass-boost' functionality! Watch chicken heads explode as you turn their coups into 7Hz resonating huts of doom!
Can't wait to get hold of one of these:)
--
Roadkill is yummy.
Re:Fun for all the family
by
marcop
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· Score: 3, Funny
Or strap it to a desk as its intended purpose, turn up the bass, then convince your SO to have sex on the desk. In the middle of the action turn the unit on and enjoy how your SO exclaims, "you really make the world shake!"
Re:Fun for all the family
by
Fucky+the+troll
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· Score: 1, Funny
"you really make the world shake. I just wish you'd stop that damned tellytubbies theme tune while you're at it":)
When I read the title I was almost sure it's a re-run of this
-- -- No sig today
Official Site
by
theCURE
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· Score: 3, Informative
Check out this link for the official site of the product. Includes pictures.
-- "i can never say no to anyone but you"
A small version of The ButtKicker!
by
crosbie
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· Score: 1
There's the ButtKicker for floors:
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/
I remember putting one of those little music box mechanisms (tiny little alloy chassis) against a railway carriage window and being very surprised by how very loud it suddenly sounded (as were most of the other passengers).
Flat panel speakers
by
fruey
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I have a set of Wharfedale flat panel speakers, which use similar technology I suppose. The sound quality is decidedly "thin" and the old magnet driven cones beat it hands down.
I would love to see a more technical analysis of the soundbug and I looked around.
However, I did not find a nice frequency response graph based on some standard material like a pane of glass one metre square, or MY office desk;-) for example.
In all, it looks reasonably cool, and I can see applications everywhere. Now, when am I going to be able to get one in Morocco??
Re:Flat panel speakers
by
Zathrus
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· Score: 3, Interesting
No, flat panel speakers aren't really similar to this. Flat panel speakers vibrate a thin film layer to create the sound. One of the advantages of this is that you don't create a point source like you do with tweeters, instead you create an eliptical wave. You have to be rather careful about interference though, since the sound eminates from both the front and the back of the panel. This does help with things like off-axis response, and doesn't hurt imaging if done right.
If you find the speakers in question "thin" sounding, then it's because they're not very good, or your setup isn't very good. Good flat panels do have a different tone than a box speaker, but they are generally accepted as being just as good as long as you have a top notch subwoofer to cover the bass.
I inherited a pair of Quad ESL 57's from my Dad and nothing sounds like these. Best for acoustic music. The addition of a subwoofer for the low-end will give you a listening experience that no box speaker's can match.
-- If you don't want to repeat the past,
stop living in it.
>>The Soundbug transmits the sound to the flat >>surface by way of a small piece of Terfenol, >>which is a mixture of rare earth metals and >>iron. This substance is placed within an >>aluminium case, around which is wrapped a coil.
If they make a ton of these, what's that going to mean for our supply of Terfenol? I'm not an environmentalist or anything, but I'm sure people won't be happy.
Here is a cool article and picture on Terfenol. Looks like its main purpose is for damping and energy absorption. Kind of looks like gold!
If they make a ton of these, what's that going to mean for our supply of Terfenol? I'm not an environmentalist or anything, but I'm sure people won't be happy.
I wonder if it might end up like tantalum. During the.com bubble, it was virtually impossible to get surface mountable tantalum capacitors, because so many were being used up by all the PeeCees and carphones being built.
Leadtimes for capacitors were upwards of a year for a while.
I even heard that some people in Malaysia (I think) discovered that tantalum could be found in the waste products of a particular type of old chemical plant. (I wish I remembered the details.) There were a lot of surreptitions mining operations where people were tunnelling underneath such sites, and collecting the contaminated soil to extract tantalum from.
Also, many electronics vendors were redesigning a lot of their voltage regulators so that they could be used without a capacitor on their output. (Standard design technique.)
Also, some electronics vendors started to release capacitors made with niobium instead of tantalum.
I don't know what's become of all that now.
Better version already available
by
IainHere
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· Score: 5, Informative
DERA the British "defence" research agency developed a much better version years ago (technologically, if not financially), where the panel itself was made to vibrate using electronic impulses. More info here.
Interestingly, they were looking for ways to reduce background noise (using anti-noise) when they stumbled across it.
They've been available commercially for years.
time to get the idiots back
by
Cape+Verdean
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· Score: 1
i reflect back upon all the times when the morons would drive by playing their music at such ungodly levels it rattles the trunk of their 1978 2-door Buick Regal. (i listen to hip hop and R&B, i assure u people not in the know that "they" are playing what i like to refer to as "trash rap")
-hopefully i can momentarily deafen these same kids when i hook this little gem to truck.
Were I marketing this product, I would not have thought to produce a crap video of pasty-fleshed youth rocking out with their Soundbug at the fucking *BowlPlex* in some grotty suburban strip-mall. And were I the manager of those esteemed lanes, I think I'd be well and truly freaked by those eerie green ripples coruscating across random vertical surfaces, beckoning my patrons to practice their white-man's overbites and get funky!
hmmmmm
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
now all they have to do is make the 'brown note' readily available and we can grab mass amounts of the speakers hook them up to the car. Sounds like it could be more fun than the internet.
I won'd be buying the barney kids version
by
JPriest
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· Score: 1
But the technology has definite car audio potential. Now I just need to find a good price on plexi glass windows.
-- Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I wonder if something like this could be built small enough to integrate into my laptop, so the screen could radiate sound. It wouldn't take much to improve upon the tinny crap that comes built in, and with a lot of modern laptops being made of magnesium or titanium, I'd think that they're certainly rigid enough to be driven by one of these. Just a few more details from my rudimentary understanding of german:
Great alternative to headphones Needs a metal plate, glass surface, or other similar surface Can generate sound levels up to 75 dB A group of people can listen to music, or a presenter can give a preso w/ a laptop without speakers! weighs 180 grams 6.34 oz, or about the same as an iPod http://www.soundbug.biz has some more info as well
-- This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
Invisible Stereo
by
mframe
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· Score: 4, Interesting
The first thing I thought of when I saw this were some units from a company called Invisible Stereo.
Same deal, just put them behind your drywall, and your entire wall turns into a speaker. Different thicknesses, different frequency responses.
I never heard them in person, but they always intruiged me. Anybody ever use/hear these?
Re:Invisible Stereo
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Hull university also invented liquid crystal displays. Kingston-upon-Hull! We love you!
Decades ago, I remember going through model houses at a new California suburbia then being built up. (Now known as Irvine.) In many of the houses there were hallways with music coming from the walls.
I had the impression they'd just stuck an ordinary, normally celing-mounted, speaker to the inside of the drywall somewhere. I never found out details, and I don't think it was a "standard feature" of the houses.
I had a set of these once! They were great. The only problem is they eventually losen even molly fasteners in drywall. Believe it or not the best frequency response I found was from glass.. Although I wouldnt crank it up!
-- Sick of stupidity? http://www.patentlystupid.com
I can see this applied to places like theaters, if you could get walls, floors and ceiling to vibrate.
This would really get the subsonics going.
The ultimate would of course be stadiums, for rock concerts and other public events. I can seen the politicians now, using sound to held inspire fear or some other emotion depending on the vibrations being put into the mix.
"I don't know, but I felt sort of tingly when I saw him/her live. TV just doesn't communicate his/her charisma"
Of course, the stress testing of the building designs would have to be taken to a whole new level, to handle the extra energy.
-- "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Couple comments about this technology. First, devices that did this are fairly old. I remember about 20 or 30 years ago a wall system was announced (I forget by whom) that would turn your entire wall into a speaker. I also remember that school buses had a similar system for announcing for awhile - where a transducer turned the roof of the bus into a speaker system.
But that aside... this reminds me also of something I saw the Musician Laurie Anderson do... I visited her traveling museum (stocked full of VERY COOL things she had invented). One of her inventions was a large wood dinner table. At the point where each person sat was two small indentations in the table - exactly where you would rest your elbows with your hands on your face (as so many of us do while eating).
The cool thing was she had transducers in the holes... you could hear absolutly nothing until you put your elbows in the holes and leaned your head on your hands... then instantly you heard MUSIC in your ears! This was accomplished by bone induction (e.g., the music traveling through your elbow and into your arm bone and out your hand into your head). The quality was astonishing!
The other neat thing was it was fully stereo (unless you were a one-armed-man) and each person at the table got a totally different soundtrack.
Re:Laurie Anderson's Sound Table
by
Monkelectric
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· Score: 1
First, devices that did this are fairly old
Your right, these devices are properly called "Surface Transducers". 10 years ago you could find them in home stereo catalogs. I remember drooling over a 400$ one, but then thinking -- wtf would I do with it?:)
As an audiologist I have to be pedantic and note that bone conducted sound does not give you the same cues for locating the sound (i.e. no head shadow). So saying you can hear it in steroe is a little misleading. While you can add additional streams of sound, you will loose lots of timing and amplitude cues (no head shadow, and bone conducts sound faster than air) you use to locate where a sound is coming from .
The "speaker" however sounds pretty neat, and a $40 bone oscillator is even cooler (typically in the $100's). I wonder if the frequency response goes up to the ultrasonic range. If you really want to hear some weird stuff, you can actually hear frequecies by bone conduction that your cannot hear by air conduction (over 24 kHz).
(Science
and
Lancet) There is a
company in Tucson doing some cool stuff with this to make hearing aids and tinnitus maskers.
Left channel = left arm to left ear. Right channel = right arm to right ear.
Pretty sure that's basic stereo. Oh, you're talking about ambience?
stupid.
Re:Laurie Anderson's Sound Table
by
BCoates
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· Score: 1
Is this how 'musical lollipops' work? I've seen on the little impulse-shopping rack at the grocery store checkout, they claim to conduct music through your head when you press the button (with the lollipop in your mouth, of course)... I've never actually tried one, though, so I have no idea about the quality they produce or anything. (And considering the target market, they probably have c-list boy band tunes anyway)
-- Benjamin Coates
Re:Laurie Anderson's Sound Table
by
stapedium
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· Score: 1
Pretty much. I wonder how hard it would be to hackone of those little things to use a regular headphone jack? Hmmm...now where is my soldering iron.
Shattering glass or even buildings?
by
kyoorius
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· Score: 1
I would imagine that with the right frequency and enough volume, one of these might be able to shatter window panes and other brittle objects. Can't wait to get one this Christmas!
Re:Shattering glass or even buildings?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
First thing I thought of. ~:D You know the one about knocking down a building with an electric motor and a little hammer? First, determine the resonant frequency of the building frame. Then, set the motor to rotate the little hammer at the same frequency...
Don't know that it has ever been done, except maybe by Tesla.
Magnetostriction is cool?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Interesting
It might be, but it's not new. Been used since WWII for sonar, and in the wild wild 50s and 60s for delay line memories. What the article doesn't mention is how the sound is generated, I suppose if it's put on a desk, the sound will radiate upwards. What is the interaction with objects on the desk?
Can anyone think of an application where the soundbug would be preferential over standard or wireless speakers? I don't think cost is really an issue since you can pick up cheap speakers for under $10 or even used ones for less than that. The article mentions teleconferencing but people who are partaking in activities such as teleconferencing tend to have deep enough pockets to splurge for a decent sound system.
Have a look at their video adverts. They're targeting children. This will be a great toy for kids to plug in to their walkman/discman/mp3 player, and the price is right for their market.
Ravers? Anyone who wanted to play music, but didn't want to carry around a rack of speakers? Someone who had an mp3 player, and wanted to let everyone listen, but didn't have anything to do so? The fact that it's about mouse sized means that it's a lot more portable than speakers.
And it's got the gee-whiz factor. You setting up a speaker and playing sound is boring. Me flipping some little device onto a table, and getting music is cool.;)
-- Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds, explained Newlands Scientific managing director Brian Smith. Once attached to a flat surface, Soundbug will transmit electronic signals into mechanical energy -- causing the flat surface to vibrate and broadcast the sound.
So basically it is a way to pound, rythmically, on the surface, to replicate sound from a source. Great.... does it damage the surface? How many of these are going to be bought for kids by parents only to be forbidden to use it anywhere due to the damage it causes?
It would be interesting to try it on a drywall wall though. I've seen professional quality speakers that are designed to be mounted in the wall and they use the space in the wall as their speaker box. Wonder if these would be able to be used as (low quality) invisible wall speakers?
So basically it is a way to pound, rythmically, on the surface, to replicate sound from a source[...]
No: basically, it's a way to make a surface vibrate. All the moving parts are enclosed. If you go to the website of Newlands Scientific, you can find some pictures which show a thing similar in shape and size to a mouse, with a suction cup to attach them to smooth surfaces. There isn't a little hammer sticking out to pound on your table!
In order to set up a vibration though it has to cause the surface to flex in some way, by definition. Wether it is done with a little hammer (which was not what I was trying to say) or by "jumping up and down" on the table top is really unimportant. Either way it flexes the surface. My question is... can it damage the surface, mar it, something like that?
It also doesn't jump up and down. The unit itself vibrates. Because the unit is in direct contact with the sheet of glass (etc.), this vibrates too. It would only damage the surface if it was repeatedly coming into contact and then moving away, which it isn't.
The flexing of the surface will have an effect, you're right. I don't know enough physics to know whether this is significant or not. I guess that over time it'd loosen the putty on your window, or cause your table's legs to unscrew, though I don't know if it would have any effect on the actual sheet of glass/table top. Glass is a strange substance at the best of times; it's not really a solid, but a very viscous liquid. If you look at really old windows (hundreds of years), you can apparently see that they've flowed downwards very slightly. Perhaps if you set a soundbug in the middle of a horizontal sheet of glass and played a constant note for a few hundred years you'd eventually get waveforms in it...
> If you look at really old windows (hundreds of years), you can apparently see that they've flowed downwards very slightly.
Glass is too viscous to explain that. It would take IIRC some orders of magnitude longer for the glass to flow that much. The reason for the bulge at the bottom is that it occurred while the pane was being made, at high temp, so the glass could flow. You wouldn't get waveforms in your glass unless you heated it before trying to play stuff.
That doesn't change the fact that glass is an amorphous solid, rather than crystaline.
-- #define X(x,y) x##y Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@cordes ,.ca)
And while your table is rocking away, so can your harddrives under your table. Check out this story on slashdot from a month ago, where a friend of mine turned some harddrives into speakers. Some people thought that was a hoax. Maybe now with this article, they might see that it's possible, and is so damn cool.
old hat
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
stuff like this has been around for a long time. i had something like this about 10 years go.. was called "Disco Disc" or something. we'd drop em in the pool so you could hear music underwater. local rescue dive teams would use em too.
how old is the average /. reader?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
reading the article, it sounds like they're doing something (in a slightly newer way) that has been around since I was in college 10 years ago. basically you just attach a voice coil to a mass and stick it onto a wall. the voice coil attached to the stationary wall makes the mass want to move, but given the mass' inertia, it's actually easier to flex the wall and thus, produce noise.
also, I did something similar when I connected the + and - speaker wires to a small DC motor and placed it on top of my (metal) stereo case. when playing music it would kind of rattle and buzz but when I held it down, pressing it firmly onto the sheet metal case of my stereo, it stopped rattling and transmitted its energy to the case and actually gave off a surprisingly clear sound. response-wise, it only went up to a few kHz, but still, the idea is the same.
Sounds like the cone of silence
by
dar
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· Score: 3, Funny
Oh wait. You're probably all too young to remember that.
dar
-- My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
Re:Sounds like the cone of silence
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Translation: "Well, my dick is obviously much larger than any of yours!"
Re:Sounds like the cone of silence
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Translation: I have an excuse for hating Microsoft unlike most of the slashdot reading public.
Re:Sounds like the cone of silence
by
BCoates
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· Score: 5, Funny
The drone of violence? I can't hear you, Chief, you'll have to speak up...
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
I hope they do not intend on getting a patent for "the cone of silence" as pioneered on the American TV show "Get Smart!"
First of all, why would you want to put a speaker in a desk or table? I assume it's so that the ceiling can hear music, right? Speakers are usually placed vertically for a reason: To project the sound to your ears.
Second of all, is it really a good idea to put a transducer capable of point size 400lb. pressures on a piece of glass? In fact, pretty much all of the items they're talking about (desks, tables, windows, etc.) really weren't designed with this type of stress in mind.
--
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Re:Unique, yes...smart, no
by
Mr+Windows
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· Score: 2, Informative
The 400 pound pressure (presumably this means 400psi, or something?) applies inside the device, to the components which are moved. These components are moved quickly in order to induce vibrations in the object to which they are attached. The sheet of glass (or whatever) doesn't get 400lb (psi? again) pressure applied to it, it just picks up the vibrations.
Re:Unique, yes...smart, no
by
nochops
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· Score: 1
OK. I understand that, but is it really wise to set a sheet of glass vibrating? Weather or not the 400lb. pressure is applied directly to the object in question, in order to get that object to resonate, force has to be transferred to it.
This is the same reason that, with just the right note and amplitude, you can shatter a wine glass by moving your wet finger in circles around the rim of the glass. The resonation reaches a point where the structure of the glass just can't take any more, and it shatters.
--
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Re:Unique, yes...smart, no
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
You said it yourself: Resonance. Unless you feel like listening to a single, monotonous tone at the glass' resonance frequency, it's not gonna do much damage. If you're listening to ordinary music/talk/whatever, the frequency and amplitude changes constantly.
So you've got to have a pretty dull music taste if you feel like shattering your windows.
Re:Unique, yes...smart, no
by
BringItOn
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· Score: 1
ahhh..but you cannot shatter a crystal glass simply by running your finger around it. Unless of course you can make your fingertip do laps at an incredible speed. Your finger simply being on the glass affects the resonant tone of the glass and therefore it is nearly impossible to do it in that manner.
Also, contrary to common belief, for all practical purposes, even the best of operatic sopranos canNOT shatter a glass with merely their voice UNLESS it is a glass designed with this in mind. My high school choral teacher had done a project on this--turns out that demonstrations of that nature are 'rigged' in that the glass was designed with a resonating freq. in the a)audible human hearing range and b)one that could easily be sustained for a length by a skilled musician.
-- Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs....
Re:Unique, yes...smart, no
by
nochops
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· Score: 1
Interesting...I hadn't thought of that.
Thanks for the info.
--
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Sound travels in waves. So, I wonder how other stuff on the desk can affect the sound coming from it. I mean, my desk has 2 monitors, a laptop, books, beer bottles, papers. To use this, do I have to clear all that stuff off?
--
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
Can I attach it to my skull?
by
joshtimmons
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· Score: 1
And make it play voices that tell me to do things?
I suspect it will be less than adequate. I question the fact that they're marketting to children, assuming they're less descriminating as sound critics.
Hell, if they sound was great they'd be charging a grand and hitting up the hi-fi market.
FT had the scoop in yesturday's IT edition
by
forged
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· Score: 1
Reverse the technology
by
Tazzy531
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I'm sure the CIA has thought of this, but if you can transmit sound through stuff like desks, why can't you also build a device that will listen to the vibrations and record sound from the room. It would be the ultimate listening device (aka bug).
--
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
Re:Reverse the technology
by
belg4mit
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· Score: 1
Gee how original, and behind the times. Try bouncing a laser off a window why don't you.
-- Were that I say, pancakes?
Re:Reverse the technology
by
FinnishFlash
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· Score: 2, Informative
Well, that is allready existing technology.
You use a laser beam to measure vibrations on a window. Window's because they vibrate more easily than whole walls.
Ofcourse this technology is not foolproof, as it is highly sensitive to "structural" background noises like heating systems etc.
Re:Reverse the technology
by
chavo+valdez
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· Score: 1
Or you could just use a microphone.
Re:Reverse the technology
by
fishebulb
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· Score: 3, Funny
actually the CIA wouldnt have thought of this. They would have had the NSA think about it for them. THIS kind of thing is the NSA's purpose. and running all of the US spy sattelites
I thought the NSA just listened in on everyone else's communications. They don't go out into the field to spy--the CIA does that. It would have been more likely that the CIA's directorate of Science & Technology invented this.
Re:Reverse the technology
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
why can't you also build a device that will listen to the vibrations and record sound from the room.
Actually you can and its a standard technique that has been used quite a bit.
Re:Reverse the technology
by
GldisAter
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· Score: 1
Laser microphones have existed for many years. They sense the vibrations in windows or other such things. As for having one sense vibrations within a room...why not just attach a traditional microphone ot the underside of the table?
Re:Reverse the technology
by
robdeadtech
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· Score: 1
john cage did this back in the day with his rainforest compositions.
A few years ago, I saw a brief tech news article about how a japanese company had made a tv screen that hung on your wall like a painting, and the screen itself was the speaker. I thought it was cool, but when I mentioned it to people later they thought I was on crack. And I didn't have the link anymore. Now I have proof that such a thing can exist! Proof I say! Proof! Um, does anyone have a link to an article proving the existence of the little people that steal socks from the dryer too? Thanks.
dont expect and Bass response.
by
Lumpy
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· Score: 2
remember kiddies, if it doesnt create the low frequency and large excursion that your beloved 8-32 inch speaker cone does then you are going to get very minimal bass response. in otherwords. It's a great tweeter and midrange but it will plain suck at bass.
-- Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Re:dont expect and Bass response.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Go find a wide, thin, flat surface and bang the side of your fist against it.
What do you think a bass drum or a tympani is?
As long as your surface is big enough, you should get plenty of bass response.
Re:dont expect and Bass response.
by
Lumpy
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· Score: 2
Ok I did , I banged my fist on it being sure to not allow my fist to travel more than 1/4 of an inch... no Bass... lowest frequency registered on the sectrometer here at work was 190hz.
What do you think a bass drum or a tympani is?
not a soundboard. they are as is a large stringed Bass, a soundbox. A tuned cavity to amplify and shape the resulting sound. a flat board that is not designed specifically as a sound device produce no bass without meeting some simple requirements... large deflection to create the amplitude needed for the very large soundwaves.. BTW, a 60Hz wave needs almost 300 feet to develop into a wave... you can't hear it unless you are inside the sound field of the speaker (2X the diameter of the driven element)
this is also why people that put huge woofers in their trunk of their cars are pretty much un-educated wannabe's.
Nope... it's going to sound as good as a 4inch general purpose speaker... with a probability of awesomne high end dynamic range... but the bass will suck.
-- Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Re:dont expect and Bass response.
by
jerm_nz
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· Score: 1
BTW, a 60Hz wave needs almost 300 feet to develop into a wave... you can't hear it unless you are inside the sound field of the speaker (2X the diameter of the driven element)
this is also why people that put huge woofers in their trunk of their cars are pretty much un-educated wannabe's.
dude, have you ever listed to a sub in someone's car? i can definately tell you that you can hear the sound just as clearly from inside the car, than from outside.
--
jerrold.
Fun for the whole family...
by
dasspunk
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· Score: 1
Hook this thing up with some memory, maybe a motion detector and a built in microphone and you have even more really interesting possibilities...
- Scare the hell out of kids on Halloween - some kind of simple alarm system (home, hotels, car, etc...) - Portable PA - a creepy doorbell - endless practical jokes
I would guess that it would be better for voice than for music because it would surely have little to no bass response but this thing could be pretty cool...
The device can be stuck to a car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a hands-free conversation without having to wear a headset
Oh boy! And so can anyone else nearby, with their windows rolled down, etc. Greaaaat. Hope you weren't having an intimate conversation, or talking trade secrets!
Thankfully a lot of places have noise ordinances now that could be used against morons placing these things and annoying everyone nearby.
Definitely useful, assuming the sound quality is even mediocre. But I doubt that it's going to replace decent speaker setups anytime soon.
I thought of that. Basically you'd need two window panes. The inner one plays the sound and the outer one does the noise nullification they mentioned in the article.
All I need is 6 of those: 4 for the walls 1 for ceiling 1 for floor. And then Im set. A true suround sound sys.
-- --=.=--
www.cyber2000.qc.ca
I wonder where they got that idea...
by
Uttles
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· Score: 2
Because 5.5 years ago when I was a freshman at Clemson University I saw the same thing being done in the ceramics engineering department. All the freshman engineers had to tour the different departments to help them decide what path to take, and when I was on the Ceramics tour the guide showed us a science fair type piece of cardboard that had a small ceramic disc on the back of it. The disc had two little wires going to a small fm radio and when he turned the radio on I thought I was listening to one of those WaveRadio thingies. It blew me away and the first thing I thought of was I wish they could put those in cars so when the football players turned their bass up too high, if they had a disc on the trunk, at least it would rattle to the music!
Seriously though, I wonder what the Engineering college over at Clemson would have to say about this.
--
~ now you know
Re-enacting Hitchhiker's Guide
by
devphil
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· Score: 3, Funny
Or the scene at the beginning of HHGTTG, where the Vogon ships turn every radio and flat surface into a remote-controlled speaker.:-)
-- You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Re:Re-enacting Hitchhiker's Guide
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
...and then saying we have no chance to survive make our time.
Re:Re-enacting Hitchhiker's Guide
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Ha Ha Ha...
Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
gilroy
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I know of three important technological dualisms:
All electric motors are also electric generators, and all electric generators are electric motors;
All transmitters are receivers, and all receivers are transmitters;
All microphones are loudspeakers, and all loudspeakers are microphones
So, it's probably just my usual paranoid suspicions, but how easily could one of these things -- or, more likely, a more advanced, optimised version -- be turned into a bug that "listens" to the vibrations put on a large flat surface by, say, casual conversation?
Re:Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
IainHere
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· Score: 1
This has been going on for decades - although rather than listen to tables, you would tend to listen to windows. You can buy devices that do exactly this, and secret services, police etc. have been using them routinely forever.
From what little experience I have (cheap 1980s Hollywood films) usually the operator is a Russian spy with a large beard and wooly hat, and the person being listened to is a US citizen.
Re:Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
Nyarly
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· Score: 2
So, it's probably just my usual paranoid suspicions, but how easily could one of these things -- or, more likely, a more advanced, optimised version -- be turned into a bug that "listens" to the vibrations put on a large flat surface by, say, casual conversation?
One of the stocks in trade of espionage / detective fiction for some time have been laser bugs: point an infrared laser at the windows of a room you want to listen to, and the laser detects vibrations in the windows and system converts the vibrations back into sound. Supposed to actually exist. I've seen them advertized, but couldn't confirm the lack of scam.
As far as affixing an electronic device to a hidden location in a room (under a table, say) why not just use a conventional bug?
Re:Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
whitegold
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· Score: 1
Already being done.
As posted by others, the technology to do this or something like it does exist.
And yes, they really are and were used by everything from law enforcement to "governement work". The principle is a laser measuring vibrations on glass from a distance.
Another application I heard of was a russian "Gift" of a paperweight given to a US diplomat. The US new it was a bug. It had to be. But every scan showed up blank. It was hollow, and completely inoffensive.
Later research showed that russian observers were actually (can't remember how) tracking the vibration on the specially designed metal plaque, making it essentially a passive transmitter.
This is a story told to me when I was younger, so please do not poke holes in it. I'm not that interested : )
if you use 5 miles of wire it can be a motor AND a generator, and convert the mass of the wire directly to energy! Check it out!
Re:Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
David7Coleman
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· Score: 1
The following was received yesterday:
DECLARATION FOLLOWING TESTING OF 5,000 LB AND 900 LB UNITS
This letter represents a disclosure of investigations and experimentation which I have performed on Joseph Newman's energy generating machine. The fact is that every experiment which I have performed shows that the energy output of the device is indeed larger than the energy input. Some examples are:
1) The electrical energy output is measured at more than four times the electrical energy input. Note: This does not violate the Law of Conservation of Matter/Energy if one considers the source of the additional output to be the conductor coil in accordance with E=MCsquared.
2) Acting as a motor, Joseph Newman's device performed mechanical work in excess of ten times the electrical energy input.
3) Joseph Newman's device delivers over ten times the torque of a commercial D.C. permanent magnet motor rated at 80% efficiency. However, during this test Joseph Newman's device is consuming only a fraction of the input power of the commercial motor.
4) These results must be taken seriously. Joseph Newman has made the observation that huge magnetic fields may be generated with minimal power input in a large coil wound with large diameter wire. This coil creates a very large torque on a suitably large permanent magnet. In operation, the batteries powering the coil consume little power and discharge at a very slow rate. Yet the motor delivers considerable mechanical and/or electrically generated power.
It is fascinating to observe that Joseph Newman has arrived at this invention on the basis of his theoretical work, coupled with years of experimentation on electromagnetic energy. He has been rigorously consistent in the development of a model of matter and energy, and furthermore has fortified his model with experimentation. His model is based on the assumption that matter is concentrated electromagnetic energy. He predicts that this energy (E=MCsquared) may be released in a controlled way, and his experiments verify the prediction.
The future of the human race may be dramatically uplifted by the large scale commercial development of this invention.
Dr. Roger Hastings, PhD.
Principal Physicist, Unisys Corporation
Former Associate Professor of Physics
North Dakota State University
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Roger Hastings has a Ph.D. in Physics, University of Minnesota, 1975; MS in Physics, University of Denver, 1971; BS in Physics, University of Denver, 1969.
Dr. Hastings was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, 1977 - 77 with research in organic superconductors and the physical properties of solutions of macroions and viruses. Currently, Dr. Hastings is a Principal Physicist with the UNISYS Corporation. As a consultant, Dr. Hastings also designs electric motors for other corporations.
Note: Since the testing performed on the above Newman Motors, numerous improvements/innovations have been made to subsequent Newman Motor designs.
The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman
11445 East Via Linda, No. 416
Scottsdale, Arizona 85259
email:
josephnewman@earthlink.net
(480) 657-3722
http://www.josephnewman.com
dont post
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
great now people can really enjoy cybering we finally have the technology to see, hear, and now "feel" if placed correctly
People can reach out and vibrate someone now eeewww
Gives a whole new meaning
by
s4ltyd0g
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· Score: 1
to the phrase the walls have ears:-)
Re:Gives a whole new meaning
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AndyChrist
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· Score: 2
This is more like "the walls have mouths." Although it could give new meaning to the phrase "surround sound"
Now if this was turning any flat surface into a MICROPHONE.
Re:Gives a whole new meaning
by
Com2Kid
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· Score: 1
I want mine to give of screaming moans of agony and pain should burgerlers ever break into my house when I am gone.
Oooh yaaaah.
::scenes from AD&D instantly pop into Com2Kid's head::
Re:Gives a whole new meaning
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pennsol
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· Score: 1
Better yet put on INSIDE someones computer case.. preferably a paraniod or a PITA user.. so when they clicl on certian icons or do some thing stupid they get.wav clips of 2001 space Odyssey....dave...what are you doing dave.. i can let you do that.... should save a tech call or two in the future.. or would be fun... no mam..i don't hear anything..;)
Re:Gives a whole new meaning
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Com2Kid
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· Score: 2
Dude you are thinking SO small.
Imagine a maliable case of some sort (obviously the motherboard would have to be mounted by a different means, prehaps from a rack that hangs from the top of the case and not have the edges of the sides of the case maliable) that movies in time to your music. The old WinAmp ripple AV but on a much larger and life-like scale.
I am sure that if the technique was applied to other sources for movement and other materials that the ravers could get into it. Imagine entire dance hall walls that move and pulsate with the music!
Re:Gives a whole new meaning
by
matrix29
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· Score: 1
I want mine to give of screaming moans of agony and pain should burgerlers ever break into my house when I am gone.
Oooh yaaaah.
I've got a better deal. Have your walls and floors give off the screaming moans of a porn soundtrack. Five minutes of that at loud volume and the cops will be called over the noise complaints alone. It certainly would confuse most burglers.
-- "Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
Consider the prank/political protest potential
by
Chris+Tucker
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· Score: 1
Soon enough, there will be cheap knockoffs of this thing.
Imagine the fun! No more spray painted grafitti, stick one of these hooked to an FM receiver, to a glasswall and remotely broadcast your message to passersby.
Hey, the Attorney General is going to give a speech on campus! A half dozen of these things on the walls, again, with receivers, could turn a speech into a chat with God. "John, this is Yahweh. What's up with all that drapery covering that half nekked statue? Don't you LIKE half-nekked women?"
Oh, yes, these things will be making innocent victims of pranksters miserable for years to come.
Umm... just wait untill the kidz with the souped up Hondas get ahold of these....
Now you wont even need a trunk to rattle windows in your governemnt houseing development!
Don't put it on anything breakable!
by
josquint
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· Score: 2
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds
That's GOTTA do some damage if put on the wrong 'flat surface'. Like maybe a picture windows, or someone's forehead:->
Seriously though, I hope this becomes available in the US when I build my house. I'd LOVE to put these in the walls and make a home theatre without the speakers!
Its not unique - Like an earlier poster, I too remember these from 30 years ago.
They failed because most objects have acoustic resonances, in which case, the sound suffers from the resonance. Objects that don't have an acoustic resonance, are generally so heavily acoustically damped (eg cushions) that they are no use as sound boards. A loudspeaker is made from all the optimum materials, in highly optimised geometries. ANything else sounds like something else.
What if a kid doesnt know what it is.........
by
dcstimm
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· Score: 1
What if a kid doesnt know what it is and sticks it to his ear? How loud is it? and If can turn a table into a speaker than I bet it could turn a kids ear into jelly...heh.. but this idea will catch on and it will sell big time here in the US
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds, explained Newlands Scientific managing director Brian Smith.
What would happen if you put this on someone's chest? They always said heavy metal caused violence and death, guess they were right.
Wife: "Did you remember to pick up the milk? Didn't I tell you to pick up the milk? I swear you are so arrogant, you never listen to a thing I..."
Me: [Flips on soundbug running from laptop which is filtering out any sentence already stored in it's "redundant insults" database, so he hears nothing but the first question:] "No, I forgot."
Wife: "... Well you are going to go and pick it up right now."
Me: [hears "...go and pick it up..."] "Ok, honey".
Me: lives happily ever after.
-- My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so:-p
Re:This could save my life!
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
sounds like a great marriage you've got there.
Interesting, to say the least.
by
AFCArchvile
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· Score: 1
I really wish there were audio samples to accompany the pictures, but maybe that's coming later. I'm still wondering what kind of spectrum response it would get. Imagine the hilarious sonic terrorism that would ensue if this thing could play the brown note.
-- "Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
These things already exist, to some extend. They're called Body Shakers, and you bolt them tightly to your car to generate intense vibrations in the sub-40hz range.
I'm guessing they just found a lighter material that allowed them to create a full-range body-shaker-type-thing.
... parents going into their kid's rooms and shouting: "How many times have I told you to turn that table down!"
carbon microphones are loudspeakers
by
obtuse
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· Score: 1
A carbon microphone doesn't work as a speaker, because it isn't generating a signal.
The resistance of carbon granules changes based on compression by sound waves. Running current through the device is it's normal mode, running a varied current (sound signal) through it would only warm it up.
Just being obtuse
-- Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Re:carbon microphones are loudspeakers
by
gilroy
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· Score: 2
If you're going to be powering this thing off of your mp3 player, what kind of power draw does it have? If it is applying 600lb of pressure it seems like it might have a slightly larger draw than headphones.
-- This sig is exactly seventy characters long and a real waste of space!
I wonder if this thing could be placed on a window and used as a microphone to pick up sound so you can covertly listen in on people...:/
Or,.. have one bug on the window to play music, another to listen to it and then record the music into an mp3 or ogg,... then sit back and wait for the DMCA lawsuits to hit;)
I remember seeing Sharper Image selling something similar to these in the late 80's / early 90's.
I don't think its super scientifical if you understand how speakers work. Essentially the magnet on a speaker moves the cone to pressurize air to create soundwaves which are where sound comes from. (at least with subwoofers).
Cool right up until.....
by
CDWert
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· Score: 3, Informative
I have found something out over the years, the least likey scenario an engineer can imagine , I and others will do routinley.
There is a pressure of 400lbs aexerted by this gadget, it creates frequncy vibrations in a material that make sound, simple enough.
BUT my desk is partile composite with those idiot lags. No vibrsating the hell out of this 300 piece of junk for a long term is going, very simply to make it fall apart.
I have seen it before, vibration causing the particle composite to litteraly crumble when subjected to long term vibration. Glue seperates, and screws losen.
Be real neat righ up until your desk collapses:)
-- Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
Re:Cool right up until.....
by
Mr+Windows
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· Score: 1
There is a pressure of 400lbs aexerted by this gadget
No; there's a pressure of 400lbs (per square inch? per square mile? Who knows!) exerted within it. I'm not sure that the vibration from listening to music will have that much effect for a while: depends on how loud you listen, I guess.
Re:Cool right up until.....
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stapedium
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· Score: 1
My guess is that at audio frequencies (500 Hz to 16 kHz) the only risk to your cheap particle board desk is if it started to heat up and melted the glue holding the wood together. Your particle board desk may even sound better than a nice real wood desk. Now if you have a super cheap desk and the laminated top is already peeling off, it probably won't fall apart any faster, but the sound will really suck.
Vogon Tech on Earth!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board.
Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message.
``People of Earth, your attention please,'' a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels
so low as to make a brave man weep.
``This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,'' the voice continued. ``As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition.
The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes.
Thank you.''
So how loud can this thing get?
by
randomErr
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I was thinking that could be great for a band. Buy this device, get a piece of plywood, instant cheap stage speaker.
-- You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Electrostatics- The Original Flat Speakers
by
ashitaka
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· Score: 1
This is all very nice but I'll keep my Quad ESl 57's Thank You. Looks like a pair of oversize space heaters, sounds like a dream. Not even a brand-new set of Martin Logans compares with these hand-crafted beaties.
When these were at my dad's house thieves broke in and took all the other audio stuff (some of it pretty crappy Radio Scrap) but left these speakers not knowing what they were missing.
There's a pair relatively cheap on eBay right now.
-- If you don't want to repeat the past,
stop living in it.
Re:Electrostatics- The Original Flat Speakers
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Overpriced speakers. Having listened to a pair of them, I am not impressed. Then again I'm not an audiofile and don't give a damn if they sound 2% better than a pair of $3K high end speakers. The ones I heard cost around $5K each and they weren't worth it in my opinion.
Lower Your Standards.
by
switcha
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· Score: 3, Funny
Wow, that's a high brow prank. I was thinking more along the lines of putting one under someone's desk and then just transitting desk-rattling farts every so often.
-- You know what?... A little club soda *did* get that out!
When will the great and omnipotent entities that created XP make one compatible with my PC.
Oh and fuck all you slashdotters, if I could hurt some of you especialy the trolls in real life i'd beet the shit out of you
Then I'd force you to eat your' own shit
And then I'd beet the shit out of you again
Then i'd cram this speaker thing so far down your anus you jiz rubber and tinfoil
How long until
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
How long until some dumbass affixes the suction cup to his forehead and sends 400 pounds of pressure through his skull.
can this damage the material?
by
azethoth
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· Score: 1
I wonder if doing this stresses the materials in unexpected ways, making them less durable. Also, it's been a while since I took a physics class but isn't there a frequency for different types of materials that makes them vibrate? Like that wobbly bridge in washington. It seems like you could duplicate this effect with a powered up version of this device and break things apart with it.
Fresh Gear on Tech TV is running a story about an Electroactive polymer being explored for personal power generation for the military. Right at the end of the story they address other uses for this polymer including using a thin layer of this material to create a new type of loud speaker.
This article has a bit of the story as well as show times.
Although it has 400lbs of pressure (on the coil), it may not have too much pressure on the outside, but really, how safe is this item for Kids?
This, to me, seems more like an tool that would be marketed to adults (i know I want one). Sooner or later this marketing target to kids will have a sour turn, IMO.
Still, I'm going to order one. This is one cool toy.
Olympia also demonstrated a mobile phone
version of Soundbug, that will be aimed at
business workers. The device can be stuck to a
car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a
hands-free conversation without having to wear
a headset.
Oh. And I first thought the idea was to attach this thing to your skull...
-- "...Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
solution in regards to your neighbour
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
1. get a pepsi bottle
2. cut the top half off and throw it away
3. piss in the remaining half of bottle
4. throw piss in his window
I have a Cocker Spaniel who has a reasonably flat head and she often times sits around in the same spot for hours on end.
Could I attach this to her and use her as a sort of mobile speaker unit or would the close proximity to her cranial unit and/or ear drums pose a significant threat to her over all health?
The article seems to skimp a little bit on the issue, only calling it "impressive". But is it good enough to replace high fidelity speakers? If so, this is a really cool thing. If not, this probably won't have any real applications beyond possibly being used in phone-like devices.
..the bus shelter sure as heck is going to be a lot more interesting from now on!
Re: Conference Calls
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
On an accoustic guitar, the strings are vibrating, and yes, if you are holding the strings they will not vibrate, or make sound. The inside of the guitar just allows the sound to resonate by bouncing off the inner walls.
Yes, ask Tesla :)
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
i think he did something with building resonance... EARTHQUAKE!
Re:Yes, ask Tesla :)
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
As an experiment he calculated the resonant frequency of his lab and then built a device to make it vibrate around that frequency. People started calling the police, so he had to smash it up. (I've also heard stories of him wandering around downtown New York and doing this to random buildings for the hell of it, although they're probably apocryphal.)
He also got some attention by saying in an interview that if the Earth were uniformly-constructed, then someone could use the same principle to build a machine to split the planet it half. People didn't realize that, since the Earth isn't uniform, he was only saying it was possible academically-speaking. Got quite a few people stirred up over that comment.
Not new, not even close ...
by
dohcvtec
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· Score: 1
Aura Sound has been producing subwoofer transducers of similar, albeit larger, design for years under the Bass Shaker line. Of course, nowadays they aren't the only ones producing the things - there are some really low-end ones that punks install in their clapped-out sedans. Honestly, I've never listened to the things, so I can't say if they're good or bad, but this is just an updated application of old technology.
-- -- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
sounding board != soundboard
by
Charlie+Bill
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· Score: 1
A sounding board is a resonant surface. A soundboard is a mixing console. A $45 mixer would kick ass, trying to find a nice acoustically clean panel makes this somewhat less interesting.
There was a 70s-era innovation kinda like this that you could bolt into your sheetrock and have the -wall itself- become your sounding surface but it generally sounds crap.
Save the money and get some decent headphones.
Re:sounding board != soundboard
by
swordgeek
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· Score: 2
Um...no. Not quite.
A soundboard is a resonant surface. A piano has a soundboard, not a sounding board. Ditto for a violin.
A sounding board usually refers to a discussion forum or something like. Historically though, it was the reflecting surface above and behind a pulpit.
More recently, you're right--a sound board is also a mixer.
--
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I remember maybe 20 years ago, in a big catalog in France like "La Redoute" (equivalent to Sears), they were selling stuff like this to put on your wall, basically a big magnet like a standard speaker, but the wall act as a membran to vibrate...
-- "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Would this device, if placed on a desk near computers, affect the computers or any other devices?
-- If you're religishitty, KILL YOURSELF!
I remember when I was about 12...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I remember when I was about 12 or so, there was something similar. It looked like a big speaker magnet with a 1 inch screw on one side of the magnet. You would take the magnet and screw it into anything you wanted. The wall, a bucket or even a 4x8x1 sheet of plywood. And whatever you screwed it into became a giant speaker. Walls sounded the best. I guess because it was an enclosure of sorts. But I remember having a grand old time turning everything into a speaker.:)
Of course, all of this puts a completely different spin on the phrase "wave table".
-- Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
The technology is not so new
by
DaCool42
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· Score: 1
Sounds like a plain ol' transducer to me. Same sort of thing that makes those nice beeps in your watch, cellphone, PDA etc. You didn't think they actually had speakers inside that stuff, did you? I'm somewhat skeptical of the ability of this thing to do low freqencies, but it's still neat. Could be a good replacement for laptop speakers.
--
----
All of whose base are belong to the what-now?
Imagine if the near-center sounds in a movie actually emanated from the screen itself. You could place several of these on the back of the screen to enhance the directionality.
In fact I thought of this with the NXT flat panel speaker technology (got a pair of those from Mission), and it's probably been done already in some form.
--
--
The Cap is nigh. Time to get a fresh new account.
The only problems there is you'd "lose" some picture quality if the "speakers" were "cranked," as the surface the movie was being shown on would be vibrating to some degree.
Re:Movie screens!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Why do "you" use so "many" quotes in your "sentences"?
You "lose" quality because you're not really losing quality, but because the sceen is vibrating then it's not going to look as good to the bare eye.
The "speakers" aren't really speakers.
You're not really "cranking" the speakers because they're not actually speakers. Get it?
Tesla did it first
by
meta
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Nikola Tesla was experimenting with this technology--the principle of mechanical resonance--in the 1800's. Margaret Cheney, in her biography, Tesla: Man Out Of Time, relates several stories of his experiments. One was a near disaster, in which he shook nearby buildings--breaking windows and scaring occupants into the streets--before realizing the danger and turning off the tiny electromechanical oscillator he had attached to the iron frame of the building which housed his own laboratory.
-- Sometimes they fool you by walking upright.
Why Not?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
After all, I'm using my speakers for tables, or rather table legs.
Depending on the sound quality, and if it would work on my closet door, I could have a great MP3 jukebox...
Maybe I should try putting one on my chest, and play some Metallica or System of a Down. Wonder what would happen...
-- Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
What about structural integrity ?
by
lonedfx
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· Score: 1
Will the desk collapse after a while ?:) I mean, I wouldn't want to be on the highway when my window explodes due to my listening of J Boogie - Gemini Dub...
Olympia also demonstrated a mobile phone version of Soundbug, that will be aimed at business workers. The device can be stuck to a car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a hands-free conversation without having to wear a headset. It could be on sale by the end of this summer, and May is aiming for a price of £49.99.
Hmm, great--one of these on the windshield should transmit about as much sound OUTSIDE of the car as in it, if the windscreen's the actual vibrating surface. Do business people really want everyone on the highway hearing their phone conversation?
Now every white Honda Civic with a "Bad Boy" sticker on the back's going to get turned into a mobile broadcasting station by the kind of suede-baseball cap wearing, mouth breathing slopeheads that drive around playing those stupid CDs that are nothing but bass-boosted 808s going THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM at 3 a. frigging m. because they seem to think the child you've finally managed to get to sleep really wants to hear the latest Slap Diddy Fooly Fool CD.
--
---
Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
wrong type of waves
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
those are electromagnetic waves. Sound waves are variations in air pressure
"Olympia also demonstrated a mobile phone version of Soundbug, that will be aimed at business workers. The device can be stuck to a car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a hands-free conversation without having to wear a headset. It could be on sale by the end of this summer, and May is aiming for a price of £49.99."
... and so anyone outside the car also gets to listen in... Well, at least half of the convestation.
I can just see it now... the noise of horns and engines replaced by the sounds of a large crowd in traffic jams.
This does sound cool, though. I wonder what the fidelity is... I wouldn't expect much. However, it would beat most portable speakers one might drag around with a laptop.:)
...of the cheapo Aura Bass Shakers - bought them a long while back for $20.00 on Ebay - Aura makes (made?) a beefier model as well (and used to make the Aura Interactor Vest).
Hooking up the cheap shaker directly to the speaker out line on my soundcard, I was pretty amazed at the efficiency of the thing. I have yet to hook it up to a real amp (each one can handle up to 25 watts - their better model goes up to 50 watts or thereabouts), but I bet it can really quake at those levels.
I can also vouch for the Interactor vest - when it rumbles, it RUMBLES. The amp included seems to be pretty powerful (though I doubt it has low THD - it isn't meant for listening to music or noise, but to feel it), but it gets pretty damn hot after only a little while.
Other companies (as you note) produce bass shakers as well - they are typically (as you noticed) used to provide thumping bass in vehicles which don't have room for bumpin' 15s or such, as well as for home theater setups (mounted to the subfloor or couch to really quake the viewers). The ones made by others, though, tend to be more powerful, but more expensive to boot.
Aura's were the poor mans version - a pretty good value for the cost...
Although this is probably a troll, i'll respond. I used to have a setup in one of my cars that easily sounded better than any stereo equipment i have in the house, even going 80. now, admittedly, it wasn't a "thump-thump mobile", you couldn't really hear it outside the vehicle, but inside you could feel every bass note and hear every high note w/o distortion. It sounded really nice.
Nope, it's not a troll, and if you really think the stereo in your car combined with road noise (negligible at 80mph? Whaddya drive, a Lexus?:) sounds better than a comparably-priced indoor stereo, then I guess I have nothing more to say to you, especially since you're an AC.
--
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
Re:Stay the fuck up out my biznass, geeks!
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
If you are reading this, you most likely have no social skills.
You are correct sir.
Re:Attention:
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
If you are reading this, you most likely have no social skills.
The wall will be covered with powerful electro magnets. One for every pin, ideally, or for groups of pins
A few inches away from that is a huge pin-board thingy...like those boxes with the pins on it that you can press your hand against and get a metallic outline of your hand. The inside ends of these pins should probably be rounded.
Better yet, a dumbell shaped thing would allow fewer pins to cover a larger area.
Now either use some sort of computer-controlled arm or whatnot to press the pins outwards, or control them individually by having a natural magnet on each one, and forcing them out with the electromagnets.
In either case, the electromagnets would be used to retract them.
You might illuminate the heads of these pins fiberoptically.
If this isn't already patented, I guess it can't be now.
Of course a curtain of some sort of mail would have a nifty effect, too.
Now the Communicators in the TNG series (and spinoffs) don't look so silly. They obviously have one of these things attached to the ceiling, since that's where most of the crew looks.
It must be a hell of a drain on the transporters though, to keep one hovering above their heads when they beam down.
HAHAHA!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Did you even read the article?!? Do you know what 400 pounds of pressure can do?!?! Yeah sure go ahead and attach it to your bodies if you have some kind of death wish morons. Am I missing something here? WTF
Slashdot Mirror
I have hardwood floors in my house. I imagine my neighbor won't be very pleased if it works with my floor.
Woah, can I turn my chest into a speaker?
:)
Imagine walking down the street, blasting music from your belly
I wonder if it can bring the house down it attached to a wall with rock music?
Sounds like you could do amusing things with an audio feedback loop.
... "oops, my table's broken"
:)
I wonder what would happen if I shaved my head and stuck this thing on my skull?
The surfaces of my windows do the same thing when certain idiots drive by.
http://www.golem.de/0203/18739.html
I have a similar device. It's a guitar. Just touch the headstock to anything and play. Or cut the big magnet in a speaker out of the cone, and tape it to a table. The real test will be the fidelity of the sound. Although the thought of stereo from two connectors on a single surface sounds acceptably super-cool.
Apparently, some things that Slashbots debunk as vaporware are made practical :-)
But if your desk is the speaker, not only would you not get stereo sound, but you would not be able to use the desk, or it would probably ruin the sound. Think about it, how would the music sound with a monitor, a couple books, and some food sitting on the desk. Using the windows or some other large furniture in the room would be better, but again, you would need at least two for stereo sound, and they would probably need to be roughly the same size and density for the sounds to match.
Xaotik Designs
So the article talks about using the technology to improve the conference phone that so many businesses have placed. But if everyone is seated and taking notes, won't their contact with the table stop the vibrations? Same with the desk. If I have a lot of crap on it, does the soundbug quality reduce because the desk can't vibrate?
I can recall Sharper Image's catalog having these for whole walls in the past. If I recall a write up in a sound magazine, the quality is surprisingly good, but obviously not like audiophile level.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
The sound quality achieved by Soundbug is impressive, especially when the device is attached to a thick piece of a dense material.
Hey, now I can say something good about my roommate!
Now the guys with the bass systems in their vehicles will have sound eminating from their windows as well.
If it won't boot, Fsck it!
This technology has been around for years. They've been turning glass into resonance speakers the same way.
Turn any surface into a crappy sounding speaker!
All they need is a wireless version, and my wife can move the furniture all she wants.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Could be the perfect weapon with a couple of ampere more and defined frequencies; resonance will do the job..
You do not exist. Go away.
All that I wonder about this(other than when can I get one) is how long till some genius in a Marketing department somewhere turns an entire building into a non-stop looping jingle? Just think, Times Square (which is already an advertising mecca) but now with J-Lo/ Kylie/ Britney playing in the background 24 hours a Day!
Read Errant Story.
Next thing we know is that Vogons will announce us, turning every table into a a speaker, that our planet is to be destroyed to make way for an hyperspace bypass...
I suspect "loud" would be a good place to start.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Their website has plenty more glossy pictures, and a bit more info about "smart materials", which are used to make the wall/glass/whatever vibrate. They seem to be similar to piezo-electric materials, though better (at least, that's what the company would have you believe).
I'm gonna have heaps of fun with this! Hook it up to a radio reciever, make people think they're going insane:
"Taco... Taco... this is your fridge talking to you... come join us... room for one more..."
Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem.
I wonder if now the RIAA will insist that all tables be sold with software to prevent people from using them to play copyrighted materials.
dan.
Sure beats headphones.
-... ---
http://www.shoplifestyle.com/store/product.asp?pf% 5Fid=3858&source=altvas
Thats what it looks like.
play a song for me
for I am not sleepy and have no place to be
Imagine sucking this to the underside of someone's desk way back in the knee well. Then attach it to a radio and a timer device that will randomly turn on the radio for a few seconds every few hours.
Imagine attaching this to the door of the person who was making loud, annoying noises with a POTAS whilst you were trying to sleep, and waking them up when you have to go to your 8:00 class!
The possibilities for this device are truely limitless.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
what about flat panel "displays". then you've got spaker and monitor in one. I bet that's a savings.
I was talking, not thinking. -D. Franz
The Soundbug is very very cool indeed. My flatmate is doing some work for Newlands Scientific (the people who developed this stuff) and I've seen the Soundbug in action. I want one!
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
It's absolutely amazing, and the possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to walk into a crowded, noisy bar and be able to have a whispered conversation with the person standing next to you. Neither of you would be able to hear the rest of the bar, and the rest of the bar would be unable to hear you.
It really is like something out of a sci-fi novel. Those of you who have read any Iain M Banks novels will know this works much the same way as his sound fields.
--
Karma: Chameleon (you come and go)
Attach it to the cat's back! Watch grandma boogie to the sound of her stomach-speaker! Laugh as your ceiling collapses around you thanks to it's 'bass-boost' functionality! Watch chicken heads explode as you turn their coups into 7Hz resonating huts of doom!
:)
Can't wait to get hold of one of these
Roadkill is yummy.
When I read the title I was almost sure it's a re-run of this
-- No sig today
Check out this link for the official site of the product. Includes pictures.
"i can never say no to anyone but you"
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/
I remember putting one of those little music box mechanisms (tiny little alloy chassis) against a railway carriage window and being very surprised by how very loud it suddenly sounded (as were most of the other passengers).
I would love to see a more technical analysis of the soundbug and I looked around.
The official site is here, and has a nice photo.
A german article is here
However, I did not find a nice frequency response graph based on some standard material like a pane of glass one metre square, or MY office desk ;-) for example.
In all, it looks reasonably cool, and I can see applications everywhere. Now, when am I going to be able to get one in Morocco??
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
>>The Soundbug transmits the sound to the flat
>>surface by way of a small piece of Terfenol,
>>which is a mixture of rare earth metals and
>>iron. This substance is placed within an
>>aluminium case, around which is wrapped a coil.
If they make a ton of these, what's that going to mean for our supply of Terfenol? I'm not an environmentalist or anything, but I'm sure people won't be happy.
Here is a cool article and picture on Terfenol. Looks like its main purpose is for damping and energy absorption. Kind of looks like gold!
DERA the British "defence" research agency developed a much better version years ago (technologically, if not financially), where the panel itself was made to vibrate using electronic impulses. More info here.
Interestingly, they were looking for ways to reduce background noise (using anti-noise) when they stumbled across it. They've been available commercially for years.
i reflect back upon all the times when the morons would drive by playing their music at such ungodly levels it rattles the trunk of their 1978 2-door Buick Regal. (i listen to hip hop and R&B, i assure u people not in the know that "they" are playing what i like to refer to as "trash rap") -hopefully i can momentarily deafen these same kids when i hook this little gem to truck.
Their website should be http://www.olympia.to/ but there is no mention of this device yet.
Ironclad Security only exists when you have Chuck Norris on the shift. Do we really have to discuss this? (Plutonite)
The official Soundbug site is here. You can enter yourself into a prize draw to win one...
--
Karma: Chameleon (you come and go)
now all they have to do is make the 'brown note' readily available and we can grab mass amounts of the speakers hook them up to the car.
Sounds like it could be more fun than the internet.
But the technology has definite car audio potential. Now I just need to find a good price on plexi glass windows.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I wonder if something like this could be built small enough to integrate into my laptop, so the screen could radiate sound. It wouldn't take much to improve upon the tinny crap that comes built in, and with a lot of modern laptops being made of magnesium or titanium, I'd think that they're certainly rigid enough to be driven by one of these. Just a few more details from my rudimentary understanding of german:
Great alternative to headphones
Needs a metal plate, glass surface, or other similar surface
Can generate sound levels up to 75 dB
A group of people can listen to music, or a presenter can give a preso w/ a laptop without speakers!
weighs 180 grams 6.34 oz, or about the same as an iPod
http://www.soundbug.biz has some more info as well
This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
The first thing I thought of when I saw this were some units from a company called Invisible Stereo.
Same deal, just put them behind your drywall, and your entire wall turns into a speaker. Different thicknesses, different frequency responses.
I never heard them in person, but they always intruiged me. Anybody ever use/hear these?
This would really get the subsonics going.
The ultimate would of course be stadiums, for rock concerts and other public events. I can seen the politicians now, using sound to held inspire fear or some other emotion depending on the vibrations being put into the mix.
"I don't know, but I felt sort of tingly when I saw him/her live. TV just doesn't communicate his/her charisma"
Of course, the stress testing of the building designs would have to be taken to a whole new level, to handle the extra energy.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
But that aside... this reminds me also of something I saw the Musician Laurie Anderson do... I visited her traveling museum (stocked full of VERY COOL things she had invented). One of her inventions was a large wood dinner table. At the point where each person sat was two small indentations in the table - exactly where you would rest your elbows with your hands on your face (as so many of us do while eating).
The cool thing was she had transducers in the holes... you could hear absolutly nothing until you put your elbows in the holes and leaned your head on your hands... then instantly you heard MUSIC in your ears! This was accomplished by bone induction (e.g., the music traveling through your elbow and into your arm bone and out your hand into your head). The quality was astonishing!
The other neat thing was it was fully stereo (unless you were a one-armed-man) and each person at the table got a totally different soundtrack.
I would imagine that with the right frequency and enough volume, one of these might be able to shatter window panes and other brittle objects.
Can't wait to get one this Christmas!
It might be, but it's not new. Been used since WWII for sonar, and in the wild wild 50s and 60s for delay line memories.
What the article doesn't mention is how the sound is generated, I suppose if it's put on a desk, the sound will radiate upwards. What is the interaction with objects on the desk?
Can anyone think of an application where the soundbug would be preferential over standard or wireless speakers? I don't think cost is really an issue since you can pick up cheap speakers for under $10 or even used ones for less than that. The article mentions teleconferencing but people who are partaking in activities such as teleconferencing tend to have deep enough pockets to splurge for a decent sound system.
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds, explained Newlands Scientific managing director Brian Smith. Once attached to a flat surface, Soundbug will transmit electronic signals into mechanical energy -- causing the flat surface to vibrate and broadcast the sound.
So basically it is a way to pound, rythmically, on the surface, to replicate sound from a source. Great.... does it damage the surface? How many of these are going to be bought for kids by parents only to be forbidden to use it anywhere due to the damage it causes?
It would be interesting to try it on a drywall wall though. I've seen professional quality speakers that are designed to be mounted in the wall and they use the space in the wall as their speaker box. Wonder if these would be able to be used as (low quality) invisible wall speakers?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
And while your table is rocking away, so can your harddrives under your table. Check out this story on slashdot from a month ago, where a friend of mine turned some harddrives into speakers. Some people thought that was a hoax. Maybe now with this article, they might see that it's possible, and is so damn cool.
stuff like this has been around for a long time. i had something like this about 10 years go.. was called "Disco Disc" or something. we'd drop em in the pool so you could hear music underwater. local rescue dive teams would use em too.
reading the article, it sounds like they're doing something (in a slightly newer way) that has been around since I was in college 10 years ago. basically you just attach a voice coil to a mass and stick it onto a wall. the voice coil attached to the stationary wall makes the mass want to move, but given the mass' inertia, it's actually easier to flex the wall and thus, produce noise.
also, I did something similar when I connected the + and - speaker wires to a small DC motor and placed it on top of my (metal) stereo case. when playing music it would kind of rattle and buzz but when I held it down, pressing it firmly onto the sheet metal case of my stereo, it stopped rattling and transmitted its energy to the case and actually gave off a surprisingly clear sound. response-wise, it only went up to a few kHz, but still, the idea is the same.
dar
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
I hope they do not intend on getting a patent for "the cone of silence" as pioneered on the American TV show "Get Smart!"
What's next? Attaching these things to GSM shoes?
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
According to the article, it'll cost £49.99.
------
Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
First of all, why would you want to put a speaker in a desk or table? I assume it's so that the ceiling can hear music, right? Speakers are usually placed vertically for a reason: To project the sound to your ears.
Second of all, is it really a good idea to put a transducer capable of point size 400lb. pressures on a piece of glass? In fact, pretty much all of the items they're talking about (desks, tables, windows, etc.) really weren't designed with this type of stress in mind.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Sound travels in waves. So, I wonder how other stuff on the desk can affect the sound coming from it. I mean, my desk has 2 monitors, a laptop, books, beer bottles, papers. To use this, do I have to clear all that stuff off?
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
And make it play voices that tell me to do things?
This product sounds like it could be fun, but does anybody really want to use their wall/window/desk to produce sound on a full-time basis?
SM MBL-VIR looking 4 SIG 4 LTR. must be DDF, no 420, SD ok.
I read it yesturday in an article from IT edition of the Financial Times.
I'm sure the CIA has thought of this, but if you can transmit sound through stuff like desks, why can't you also build a device that will listen to the vibrations and record sound from the room. It would be the ultimate listening device (aka bug).
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
A few years ago, I saw a brief tech news article about how a japanese company had made a tv screen that hung on your wall like a painting, and the screen itself was the speaker. I thought it was cool, but when I mentioned it to people later they thought I was on crack. And I didn't have the link anymore.
Now I have proof that such a thing can exist! Proof I say! Proof!
Um, does anyone have a link to an article proving the existence of the little people that steal socks from the dryer too? Thanks.
omfg - please everyone dont tell Rolf Harris abouth this little gadget.
He murdered "stairway to heaven" with a wobble board!
What next?
"light my fire" played with a fire blanket?
"ace of spades" on a pack of a cards?
"130 steps" on an escalator?
please people keep schtum if you want your favourite classic to remain unviolated.
There's a video up in different formats over for you all to download... This thing looks amazing!
--
\ Christian A Strømmen
remember kiddies, if it doesnt create the low frequency and large excursion that your beloved 8-32 inch speaker cone does then you are going to get very minimal bass response. in otherwords. It's a great tweeter and midrange but it will plain suck at bass.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Hook this thing up with some memory, maybe a motion detector and a built in microphone and you have even more really interesting possibilities...
- Scare the hell out of kids on Halloween
- some kind of simple alarm system (home, hotels, car, etc...)
- Portable PA
- a creepy doorbell
- endless practical jokes
I would guess that it would be better for voice than for music because it would surely have little to no bass response but this thing could be pretty cool...
From the article:
The device can be stuck to a car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a hands-free conversation without having to wear a headset
Oh boy! And so can anyone else nearby, with their windows rolled down, etc. Greaaaat. Hope you weren't having an intimate conversation, or talking trade secrets!
Thankfully a lot of places have noise ordinances now that could be used against morons placing these things and annoying everyone nearby.
Definitely useful, assuming the sound quality is even mediocre. But I doubt that it's going to replace decent speaker setups anytime soon.
All I need is 6 of those: .
4 for the walls
1 for ceiling
1 for floor
And then Im set. A true suround sound sys.
--=.=-- www.cyber2000.qc.ca
Because 5.5 years ago when I was a freshman at Clemson University I saw the same thing being done in the ceramics engineering department. All the freshman engineers had to tour the different departments to help them decide what path to take, and when I was on the Ceramics tour the guide showed us a science fair type piece of cardboard that had a small ceramic disc on the back of it. The disc had two little wires going to a small fm radio and when he turned the radio on I thought I was listening to one of those WaveRadio thingies. It blew me away and the first thing I thought of was I wish they could put those in cars so when the football players turned their bass up too high, if they had a disc on the trunk, at least it would rattle to the music!
Seriously though, I wonder what the Engineering college over at Clemson would have to say about this.
~ now you know
Or the scene at the beginning of HHGTTG, where the Vogon ships turn every radio and flat surface into a remote-controlled speaker.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
So, it's probably just my usual paranoid suspicions, but how easily could one of these things -- or, more likely, a more advanced, optimised version -- be turned into a bug that "listens" to the vibrations put on a large flat surface by, say, casual conversation?
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
great now people can really enjoy cybering
we finally have the technology to see, hear, and now "feel" if placed correctly
People can reach out and vibrate someone now
eeewww
to the phrase the walls have ears :-)
Soon enough, there will be cheap knockoffs of this thing.
Imagine the fun! No more spray painted grafitti, stick one of these hooked to an FM receiver, to a glasswall and remotely broadcast your message to passersby.
Hey, the Attorney General is going to give a speech on campus! A half dozen of these things on the walls, again, with receivers, could turn a speech into a chat with God. "John, this is Yahweh. What's up with all that drapery covering that half nekked statue? Don't you LIKE half-nekked women?"
Oh, yes, these things will be making innocent victims of pranksters miserable for years to come.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Put one of these little bugs on the bottom of a table with a pile of marbles on top.
Umm... just wait untill the kidz with the souped up Hondas get ahold of these....
Now you wont even need a trunk to rattle windows in your governemnt houseing development!
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds
:->
That's GOTTA do some damage if put on the wrong 'flat surface'. Like maybe a picture windows, or someone's forehead
Seriously though, I hope this becomes available in the US when I build my house. I'd LOVE to put these in the walls and make a home theatre without the speakers!
They failed because most objects have acoustic resonances, in which case, the sound suffers from the resonance. Objects that don't have an acoustic resonance, are generally so heavily acoustically damped (eg cushions) that they are no use as sound boards. A loudspeaker is made from all the optimum materials, in highly optimised geometries. ANything else sounds like something else.
What if a kid doesnt know what it is and sticks it to his ear? How loud is it? and If can turn a table into a speaker than I bet it could turn a kids ear into jelly...heh.. but this idea will catch on and it will sell big time here in the US
keanmarine.com
Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds, explained Newlands Scientific managing director Brian Smith.
What would happen if you put this on someone's chest? They always said heavy metal caused violence and death, guess they were right.
--trb
Wife: "Did you remember to pick up the milk? Didn't I tell you to pick up the milk? I swear you are so arrogant, you never listen to a thing I..."
Me: [Flips on soundbug running from laptop which is filtering out any sentence already stored in it's "redundant insults" database, so he hears nothing but the first question:] "No, I forgot."
Wife: "... Well you are going to go and pick it up right now."
Me: [hears "...go and pick it up..."] "Ok, honey".
Me: lives happily ever after.
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
I really wish there were audio samples to accompany the pictures, but maybe that's coming later. I'm still wondering what kind of spectrum response it would get. Imagine the hilarious sonic terrorism that would ensue if this thing could play the brown note.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
These things already exist, to some extend. They're called Body Shakers, and you bolt them tightly to your car to generate intense vibrations in the sub-40hz range.
I'm guessing they just found a lighter material that allowed them to create a full-range body-shaker-type-thing.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
... parents going into their kid's rooms and shouting: "How many times have I told you to turn that table down!"
A carbon microphone doesn't work as a speaker, because it isn't generating a signal.
The resistance of carbon granules changes based on compression by sound waves. Running current through the device is it's normal mode, running a varied current (sound signal) through it would only warm it up.
Just being obtuse
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you're going to be powering this thing off of your mp3 player, what kind of power draw does it have? If it is applying 600lb of pressure it seems like it might have a slightly larger draw than headphones.
This sig is exactly seventy characters long and a real waste of space!
I wonder if this thing could be placed on a window and used as a microphone to pick up sound so you can covertly listen in on people... :/
;)
Or,.. have one bug on the window to play music, another to listen to it and then record the music into an mp3 or ogg,... then sit back and wait for the DMCA lawsuits to hit
I remember seeing Sharper Image selling something similar to these in the late 80's / early 90's.
I don't think its super scientifical if you understand how speakers work. Essentially the magnet on a speaker moves the cone to pressurize air to create soundwaves which are where sound comes from. (at least with subwoofers).
I have found something out over the years, the least likey scenario an engineer can imagine , I and others will do routinley.
:)
There is a pressure of 400lbs aexerted by this gadget, it creates frequncy vibrations in a material that make sound, simple enough.
BUT my desk is partile composite with those idiot lags. No vibrsating the hell out of this 300 piece of junk for a long term is going, very simply to make it fall apart.
I have seen it before, vibration causing the particle composite to litteraly crumble when subjected to long term vibration. Glue seperates, and screws losen.
Be real neat righ up until your desk collapses
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board.
Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message.
``People of Earth, your attention please,'' a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels
so low as to make a brave man weep.
``This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,'' the voice continued. ``As you will no doubt be aware, the
plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition.
The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes.
Thank you.''
I was thinking that could be great for a band. Buy this device, get a piece of plywood, instant cheap stage speaker.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
The device would blow up/self destruct.
This is all very nice but I'll keep my Quad ESl 57's Thank You. Looks like a pair of oversize space heaters, sounds like a dream. Not even a brand-new set of Martin Logans compares with these hand-crafted beaties.
When these were at my dad's house thieves broke in and took all the other audio stuff (some of it pretty crappy Radio Scrap) but left these speakers not knowing what they were missing.
There's a pair relatively cheap on eBay right now.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Wow, that's a high brow prank. I was thinking more along the lines of putting one under someone's desk and then just transitting desk-rattling farts every so often.
You know what?
as soon as someone gets a hold of these things, send a review to slashdot!! i want to know how these things sound
Finally, I can trick people into thinking God caught them masturbating without going to the trouble of installing a receiver in their braces!
You know what?
I'll replace anyone in my apartment building with a very small shell script who sticks a Soundbug to the wall *grin*.
Cheers,
Luker
Sound..heck..even light wont escape from it..
Rapid Nirvana
When will the great and omnipotent entities that created XP make one compatible with my PC.
Oh and fuck all you slashdotters, if I could hurt some of you especialy the trolls in real life i'd beet the shit out of you
Then I'd force you to eat your' own shit
And then I'd beet the shit out of you again
Then i'd cram this speaker thing so far down your anus you jiz rubber and tinfoil
How long until some dumbass affixes the suction cup to his forehead and sends 400 pounds of pressure through his skull.
I wonder if doing this stresses the materials in unexpected ways, making them less durable. Also, it's been a while since I took a physics class but isn't there a frequency for different types of materials that makes them vibrate? Like that wobbly bridge in washington. It seems like you could duplicate this effect with a powered up version of this device and break things apart with it.
Fresh Gear on Tech TV is running a story about an Electroactive polymer being explored for personal power generation for the military. Right at the end of the story they address other uses for this polymer including using a thin layer of this material to create a new type of loud speaker.
This article has a bit of the story as well as show times.
Although it has 400lbs of pressure (on the coil), it may not have too much pressure on the outside, but really, how safe is this item for Kids?
This, to me, seems more like an tool that would be marketed to adults (i know I want one). Sooner or later this marketing target to kids will have a sour turn, IMO.
Still, I'm going to order one. This is one cool toy.
thelikesofwhich.com
"...Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
1. get a pepsi bottle
2. cut the top half off and throw it away
3. piss in the remaining half of bottle
4. throw piss in his window
and there you go...all problems solved
I have a Cocker Spaniel who has a reasonably flat head and she often times sits around in the same spot for hours on end.
Could I attach this to her and use her as a sort of mobile speaker unit or would the close proximity to her cranial unit and/or ear drums pose a significant threat to her over all health?
::notices sharp pain in cheek::
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Another Anderson, Pamela Anderson, is also noted for their work relating to bone induction...
Yeah. Well we need another World War to thin out your Nazi dumbass herd!
The article seems to skimp a little bit on the issue, only calling it "impressive". But is it good enough to replace high fidelity speakers? If so, this is a really cool thing. If not, this probably won't have any real applications beyond possibly being used in phone-like devices.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
..the bus shelter sure as heck is going to be a lot more interesting from now on!
On an accoustic guitar, the strings are vibrating, and yes, if you are holding the strings they will not vibrate, or make sound. The inside of the guitar just allows the sound to resonate by bouncing off the inner walls.
i think he did something with building resonance... EARTHQUAKE!
Aura Sound has been producing subwoofer transducers of similar, albeit larger, design for years under the Bass Shaker line. Of course, nowadays they aren't the only ones producing the things - there are some really low-end ones that punks install in their clapped-out sedans. Honestly, I've never listened to the things, so I can't say if they're good or bad, but this is just an updated application of old technology.
-- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
A sounding board is a resonant surface. A soundboard is a mixing console. A $45 mixer would kick ass, trying to find a nice acoustically clean panel makes this somewhat less interesting.
There was a 70s-era innovation kinda like this that you could bolt into your sheetrock and have the -wall itself- become your sounding surface but it generally sounds crap.
Save the money and get some decent headphones.
I remember maybe 20 years ago, in a big catalog in France like "La Redoute" (equivalent to Sears), they were selling stuff like this to put on your wall, basically a big magnet like a standard speaker, but the wall act as a membran to vibrate...
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Would this device, if placed on a desk near computers, affect the computers or any other devices?
If you're religishitty, KILL YOURSELF!
I remember when I was about 12 or so, there was something similar. :)
It looked like a big speaker magnet with a 1 inch screw on one side of the magnet. You would take the magnet and screw it into anything you wanted. The wall, a bucket or even a 4x8x1 sheet of plywood. And whatever you screwed it into became a giant speaker. Walls sounded the best. I guess because it was an enclosure of sorts. But I remember having a grand old time turning everything into a speaker.
Of course, all of this puts a completely different spin on the phrase "wave table".
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Sounds like a plain ol' transducer to me. Same sort of thing that makes those nice beeps in your watch, cellphone, PDA etc. You didn't think they actually had speakers inside that stuff, did you? I'm somewhat skeptical of the ability of this thing to do low freqencies, but it's still neat. Could be a good replacement for laptop speakers.
----
All of whose base are belong to the what-now?
Wow, that's really something. £30 is $45? Man, I can remember when it was 8 dollars to the pound. How far the mighty have fallen.
In fact I thought of this with the NXT flat panel speaker technology (got a pair of those from Mission), and it's probably been done already in some form.
--
The Cap is nigh. Time to get a fresh new account.
Nikola Tesla was experimenting with this technology--the principle of mechanical resonance--in the 1800's. Margaret Cheney, in her biography, Tesla: Man Out Of Time, relates several stories of his experiments. One was a near disaster, in which he shook nearby buildings--breaking windows and scaring occupants into the streets--before realizing the danger and turning off the tiny electromechanical oscillator he had attached to the iron frame of the building which housed his own laboratory.
Sometimes they fool you by walking upright.
After all, I'm using my speakers for tables, or rather table legs.
Depending on the sound quality, and if it would work on my closet door, I could have a great MP3 jukebox... Maybe I should try putting one on my chest, and play some Metallica or System of a Down. Wonder what would happen...
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
Will the desk collapse after a while ? :) I mean, I wouldn't want to be on the highway when my window explodes due to my listening of J Boogie - Gemini Dub...
lone, dfx.
SoundBug + glass door + tone genterator =, well hey you guys are smart, work it out for yourself.
If these speakers are attached to a car window to carry on a hands free cell phone conversation...
Couldn't everyone *outside* the car hear the conversation too?
does anyone know the frequency response these things have? or how loud they get...
just wondering
Hmm, great--one of these on the windshield should transmit about as much sound OUTSIDE of the car as in it, if the windscreen's the actual vibrating surface. Do business people really want everyone on the highway hearing their phone conversation?
-- Of course I'm paranoid. I'm a sysadmin.
Now every white Honda Civic with a "Bad Boy" sticker on the back's going to get turned into a mobile broadcasting station by the kind of suede-baseball cap wearing, mouth breathing slopeheads that drive around playing those stupid CDs that are nothing but bass-boosted 808s going THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM at 3 a. frigging m. because they seem to think the child you've finally managed to get to sleep really wants to hear the latest Slap Diddy Fooly Fool CD.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
those are electromagnetic waves. Sound waves are variations in air pressure
"Olympia also demonstrated a mobile phone version of Soundbug, that will be aimed at business workers. The device can be stuck to a car windscreen, meaning that drivers can have a hands-free conversation without having to wear a headset. It could be on sale by the end of this summer, and May is aiming for a price of £49.99."
I can just see it now... the noise of horns and engines replaced by the sounds of a large crowd in traffic jams.
This does sound cool, though. I wonder what the fidelity is... I wouldn't expect much. However, it would beat most portable speakers one might drag around with a laptop. :)
Cheers,
Twilight1
...of the cheapo Aura Bass Shakers - bought them a long while back for $20.00 on Ebay - Aura makes (made?) a beefier model as well (and used to make the Aura Interactor Vest).
Hooking up the cheap shaker directly to the speaker out line on my soundcard, I was pretty amazed at the efficiency of the thing. I have yet to hook it up to a real amp (each one can handle up to 25 watts - their better model goes up to 50 watts or thereabouts), but I bet it can really quake at those levels.
I can also vouch for the Interactor vest - when it rumbles, it RUMBLES. The amp included seems to be pretty powerful (though I doubt it has low THD - it isn't meant for listening to music or noise, but to feel it), but it gets pretty damn hot after only a little while.
Other companies (as you note) produce bass shakers as well - they are typically (as you noticed) used to provide thumping bass in vehicles which don't have room for bumpin' 15s or such, as well as for home theater setups (mounted to the subfloor or couch to really quake the viewers). The ones made by others, though, tend to be more powerful, but more expensive to boot.
Aura's were the poor mans version - a pretty good value for the cost...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
You can check out a video of the device here: http://www.soundbug.biz/video/soundbug_big.wmv
Although this is probably a troll, i'll respond. I used to have a setup in one of my cars that easily sounded better than any stereo equipment i have in the house, even going 80. now, admittedly, it wasn't a "thump-thump mobile", you couldn't really hear it outside the vehicle, but inside you could feel every bass note and hear every high note w/o distortion. It sounded really nice.
:) sounds better than a comparably-priced indoor stereo, then I guess I have nothing more to say to you, especially since you're an AC.
Nope, it's not a troll, and if you really think the stereo in your car combined with road noise (negligible at 80mph? Whaddya drive, a Lexus?
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
If you are reading this, you most likely have no social skills.
You are correct sir.
If you are reading this, you most likely have no social skills.
You are correct sir.
Alright....picture this:
The wall will be covered with powerful electro magnets. One for every pin, ideally, or for groups of pins
A few inches away from that is a huge pin-board thingy...like those boxes with the pins on it that you can press your hand against and get a metallic outline of your hand. The inside ends of these pins should probably be rounded.
Better yet, a dumbell shaped thing would allow fewer pins to cover a larger area.
Now either use some sort of computer-controlled arm or whatnot to press the pins outwards, or control them individually by having a natural magnet on each one, and forcing them out with the electromagnets.
In either case, the electromagnets would be used to retract them.
You might illuminate the heads of these pins fiberoptically.
If this isn't already patented, I guess it can't be now.
Of course a curtain of some sort of mail would have a nifty effect, too.
Now the Communicators in the TNG series (and spinoffs) don't look so silly. They obviously have one of these things attached to the ceiling, since that's where most of the crew looks. It must be a hell of a drain on the transporters though, to keep one hovering above their heads when they beam down.
Did you even read the article?!?
Do you know what 400 pounds of pressure can do?!?!
Yeah sure go ahead and attach it to your bodies if
you have some kind of death wish morons.
Am I missing something here? WTF