Material Turns All Surfaces into Stereo

An anonymous reader writes "According to James Bullen of NXT, 'The UK ministry of defense was experimenting with a way to dampen the sound in helicopters and developed a honeycombed material that did the opposite — conducted sound.' Cambridge-based NXT christened it "SurfaceSound" and arranged for it to be crafted into Toyota cars, Gateway computers, Hallmark greeting cards and more. NXT is working on ways to put the technology to use in touch screens that promise to be part of a new rage in 'natural interfaces' for computers, mobile telephones, televisions and other electronic devices. Toyota has SurfaceSound in the head liners of four of its car models. NXT recently made a deal with greeting card giant Hallmark to use the technology in 'big cards with big sound' when opened, Bullen said."

Comments

Re:Great .. more noise pollution :(

[Marbleless]

Just what we needed!
... and I'm starting to sound like my grandparents ;)

True surround sound headphones

[andreyvul]

Now possible!
Just wrap the FlexiHalo (tm) speaker around your head and listen in infinity.0!

Re:True surround sound headphones

[Loibisch]

You can also purchase the buttplug-upgrade for the FlexiHalo to listen in infinity.1!

Surfaces... into Stereo?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's great, I've always hated mono surfaces. So flat and everything.

With any luck, in a few years we will be able to turn six surfaces into 5.1!

Demolition

[therpham]

Great, now we can finally conveniently announce the demolition of the Earth when the time comes!

Ha!

[Mr. Ksoft]

Now I can give Earth a demonstration of the greatest announcement system in the history of the universe before I demolish it for that hyperspace bypass.

Man I hope this doesn't work with fabric

[edwardpickman]

Just imagine a Hawaiian shirt that not only looks loud but is loud.

In other news...

[scatters]

The British Army now has ideal way to deliver the World's Funniest Joke to the battlefield. They are reportedly looking for a large number of English to Persian translators willing to work in isolated conditions.

Re:In other news...

[shellbeach]

They are reportedly looking for a large number of English to Persian translators willing to work in isolated conditions. Unfortunately for the army, the end result was Farsical ...

Unexpected source?

[QuantumFlux]

Ministry of Defence? I would have thought it would be developed by the Ministry of Sound...

Re:The heck with headphones!

[RuBLed]

I won't recommend that... Think of the consequences...

ahhh that ain't nuthin' ...

[Stumbles]

the Vogons have been able to do that for a long time and do wirelessly.

Re:The heck with headphones!

[jollyreaper]

I want them to make me a suit of that stuff! So you aren't willing to settle for a loud tie, you want the jacket to be loud, too?

won't someone think of the basers?

[jollyreaper]

I dread pulling up at a traffic light next to a baser, especially once they start coating their cars with this shit. I'll have to coat my car with the same material, sample their noise and play it back a half-wavelength out of phase so I can cancel it out. If that doesn't work, plan B is the monster truck lift kit.

Re:won't someone think of the basers?

[e4g4]

And plan C is the macarena.

:P

Re:won't someone think of the basers?

[jollyreaper]

And plan C is the macarena [xkcd.com]. :P You bastard, you sick fucking bastard. I'm perfectly ok with crushing them to death inside their pimped rides with my monster truck tires but the macarena? At long last, sir, have you no decency?

Re:The heck with headphones!

[Architect_sasyr]

I'm kind of ashamed to know that you parodied a Viagra warning label :(

Hallmark cards?

[Chas]

I can see this at Christmas.

*Little Jimmy* Here you go grandma!

*Grandma* Why thank you Jimmy you're such a

{100 decibels} WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!...

*Grandma* Augh!

[THUD]

*Little Jimmy* Grandma? Grandma? Why'd you go to sleep?

Re:Stereo = misnomer

[MisterSquid]

and vice versa

Having the right audio channel project the right side of the monitor would be completely awesome!

Think of the porn games, man. Think of the porn

[Moraelin]

Ah, screw Alice. (When she grows up a bit, anyway;) Think of the packaging for those interactive porn games.

In fact, if you can make a bit of paper play sounds, heck, who needs the game there? The magazine could be its own game. Rub the girl in the photo there and hear her moan, rub her there and she... umm... sorry, gotta go to the bathroom. I'll... uh... do some brainstorming and get back to you later ;)

Re:When you DAMPEN something you make it wet

[the_other_chewey]

This is a pet peeve of acousticians everywhere.
Sound and vibration are DAMPED.
DAMPENING is for dishtowels.

It's probably based on HiFi magazine terminology:

"Using that technology, you will be soaked with great dewily bass,
humid treble and moist mid-range audio. Be careful though to
use properly luted cables or you will get drowned by the leaked
wet noise."

Finally a card for Grandpa

[Shawn Parr]

I know you were trying to be funny, but this would finally be a card my grandfather could have a chance of hearing.

Of course

[elrous0]

Hallmark to use the technology in 'big cards with big sound' when opened

That's good, because honeycomb speakers are big...yeah yeah yeah! They're not small...no no no!