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."
Conference Calls?
by
dthable
·
· 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?
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.
--
-- Karma: Chameleon (you come and go)
Invisible Stereo
by
mframe
·
· 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?
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.
Other uses, perhaps unintended...
by
gilroy
·
· 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?
Slashdot Mirror
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?
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)
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?
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.
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