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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."

5 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. So... by Jaysyn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They've been making paper speakers for a long time. This seems to be a driverless paper speaker, which apparently is a big deal. I guess technically the prepolarized diaphragm *is* the driver, but it isn't your standard cone / cylinder shape.

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
    1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      From TFA:

      One limitation with Flexpeaker is that while it's very good with sounds at frequencies between 500Hz to 20KHz, it doesn't handle low frequency sounds well.

      They're not pretending to be able to deliver Hi Fi quality sound; this technology is for a completely different purpose to your home cinema setup. Audiophile equipment being expensive is no reason for people not to develop speakers for other applications.

  2. Piezo-electric by CrAlt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric

    So they rediscovered the reverse piezoelectric effect and then glued it to some paper.

    Wow, I guess the 50 year old earphones on my crystal radio are cutting edge...

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    I have to return some videotapes...
  3. stereo? is it really stereo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This appears to be just the application of Piezoelectric effect to paper.. The clip only mentions the use of this in posters..not as a replacement for existing speaker technology in car and home sound systems. But would be cool to have a poster talk to you as you walk past.. include this in the paper displays.. disposable video displays with sound..

      I do dispute the use of the term 'Stereo' .. this system just gives you multi speaker or audio point sources.. but stereo? stereo is not just having two (or more)speakers. Stereo is about basic positional interpretation from the listener.. but then many cheap mp3 players are twin channel Mono anyway..

    1. Re:stereo? is it really stereo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What would be cool is....

      There are thousands of tiny diaphragms on that paper.

      If they can address them individually then they have a wavefront capable speaker.

      You can do things with wavefront reproducing speaker systems that make 7.1 seem like a child's toy.

      It's a little like the difference between holography and normal photography.