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Turn Your Head Into Speakers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that-just-doesn't-seem-safe dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "A small company based in Iowa has developed products made with a "smart" metal that can turn your walls or your head into speakers. "Last August, Etrema -- an innovative technology firm nestled in the cornfields of Ames, Iowa -- started selling those chrome discs for $1,500 a pair. Called Whispering Windows, they can turn any wall, window, or drab conference table into a speaker." The author tried the technology, and even if she needed a full bottle of Tylenol after usage, said "it's not every day that your head serves as a piece of stereo equipment." This overview tells you more about this "magic" metal, the Terfenol, which is a combination of terbium and dysprosium. The article also says that we can soon expect pirated versions of Terfenol coming from China."

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Been done before? by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2, Redundant

    SoundBug.

    Ok, so you can't turn your head into a speaker, but you can with practically any smooth surface.

    And for a lot less than $1500.

    --
    Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
  2. ThinkGeek by ajnlth · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Somethink like this perhaps?

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a15/

    except it's only $27

  3. The same thing can be done by Pingular · · Score: 0, Redundant

    with almost any flat surface, with this litte device, and it's significantly cheaper, at $26.99

    --

    When anger rises, think of the consequences.
    Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
  4. This sounds like Soundbug by G4from128k · · Score: 2, Redundant

    This product was already out in a device called SoundBug. back in 2002.

    I seem to recall that SoundBug had poor sound quality because most surfaces and structures have strange acoustic response patterns. But I'm sure that with a bit of clever processing (a microphone and a bit of FFT magic), one could estimate the transfer function of the speaker surface, create a inverse filter that corrects for its properties, and then apply the filter to the any sound for better output.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  5. Soundbug by dimension6 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    How does compare to the much cheaper Soundbug?