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Researchers Make Paper Speakers For LCD TVs

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-smooth-origami-sound dept.

narramissic writes "Engineers at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have developed stereo speakers in paper (video) that are are well suited for thin devices like LCD TVs and will be used in cars starting next year. According to an ITworld article, 'The special paper is made by sandwiching thin electrodes that receive audio signals and a prepolarized diaphragm into the paper structure. A special Flexpeaker adapter between the MP3 player and the speaker is used to play music through the paper.' ITRI says it hopes in the coming year to develop a chip that will do away with the adapter and allow people to plug a digital music player directly into the speaker. ITRI is also working on wireless technologies and will show off its first Bluetooth enabled paper speaker in July."

6 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Greeting cards... by dirkbaztard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    would benefit greatly from this. Full stereo cacophony instead of the over-driven mono racket would be a blessing.

    1. Re:Greeting cards... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Still better: evolving into a vertebrate, which is to say, growing a fucking spine. Don't want to participate in the holidays? Don't. It's pretty easy to opt-out of most of it. You can work on the holiday and get paid for it if you like, most employers are pretty happy to permit that one. I don't find it particularly holy to buy shit either.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:Dear lord, this is horrible... by Plekto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or imagine shopping and they have these hooked up to IR sensors.

    "Check out this deal on Bug Light! (starts playing radio commercial)"

    Yes, it is horrible. Moreso than most people can imagine.

  3. People don't care about sound any more. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It makes me sad that as television sets get larger and better screens, the audio side seems to be getting worse.

    Even a top of the range TV will have worse sound than a 1950s hifi.
    I understand that people want smaller speakers (preferably completely flat), but there are certain physical laws that make it difficult to get full range sound without a cabinet.

    I would love to start an advertising campaign about how televisions can be miniaturized, so that annoying big plasma screen can now be only a few inches in size. :) People would probably think me crazy, but that's how I feel about trying to get real sound from a tiny box.

    And don't even mention the 'one note bass' bose stuff please.

  4. Re:So... by Burning1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In my experience, the issue isn't that most people can't recognize the difference between good sound and bad sound; the issue is that most people have never even heard good sound to begin with.

    Sure... We go to the theater and hear *loud* sound, and then get it into our heads that a base line capable of collapsing a lung means the equipment is of good quality.

    Frankly, these days even if you have good equipment, the source material is so bad that you can't actually tell.

  5. Re:So... by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    here's a 440 Hz test tone

    A sound system incapable of reproducing that sound isn't even close to Hi-Fi.