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."
Only moderately cool
by
SanLouBlues
·
· 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.
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).
RIAA
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
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.
Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
Practical joke ability
by
Erich
·
· 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.
--
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Seen it, loved it, want one!
by
deepstephen
·
· 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)
Better version already available
by
IainHere
·
· 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.
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
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.
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!
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 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.
how flat it your chest?
Must be a geek chick....
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
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)
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.
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
The drone of violence? I can't hear you, Chief, you'll have to speak up...
--
Ben Coates