Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

LCD Screens Double as Speakers

Posted by Hemos on from the so-many-submissions dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC has a story about a company who has developed an LCD screen that can produce sound as well. They claim that the sound quality is quite good, and compare it to average multimedia computer speakers. Also NEC is making and selling computers that use this technology in Japan. Hardware integration like this should make for some interesting appliances in the next few decades."

2 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Not New Tech... by FosterSJC · · Score: 5, Informative
    First, obviously, the sound isn't coming from the light or the screen or whatever. There is a thin acrylic sheet that is used as a sounding board:

    The technology works by placing a thin acrylic panel over the computer display. This is attached at the edges to a couple of exciters.

    These moving coil motors make the acrylic screen vibrate to produce the sound.

    This is the same tech, essentially, that drives those flat-panel computer speakers, and the Soundbug over at thinkgeek.
  2. Re:Image integrity? by Musashi+Miyamoto · · Score: 5, Informative

    It sounds like these speakers are similar to Martin Logan electrostatic speakers, and the screen will not produce anything close to low-frequency sound. The screen will likely require a midrange/woofer to reproduce the full spectrum of sound.

    Electrostat speakers are typically transparent like glass, but held between two screens to allow the sound to travel. The article says the company claims the monitor has a "universal sweet spot", but that is probably corporate marketing talk for "no sweet spot". Most panel based electrostat speakers have a very very tiny sweet spot, and you need to be sitting perfectly between the two speakers.

    From howstuff works:

    These speakers vibrate air with a large, thin, conductive diaphragm panel. This diaphragm panel is suspended between two stationary conductive panels that are charged with electrical current from a wall outlet. These panels create an electrical field with a positive end and a negative end. The audio signal runs a current through the suspended panel, rapidly switching between a positive charge and a negative charge. When the charge is positive, the panel is drawn toward the negative end of the field, and when the charge is negative, it moves toward the positive end in the field.