Turn any flat surface to a speaker...

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lokem

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Hope this is not a repost. There's a device from Olympia which allows any flat surfaces to be turned into a speaker.

The Soundbug was developed in partnership with Newlands Scientific, a commercial research company that was spun off from Hull University.

The Soundbug transmits the sound to the flat surface by way of a small piece of Terfenol, which is a mixture of rare earth metals and iron. This substance is placed within an aluminium case, around which is wrapped a coil.

Passing electricity through the coil causes the piece of Terfonal to slightly expand, resulting in a force of 400 pounds, explained Newlands Scientific managing director Brian Smith. Once attached to a flat surface, Soundbug will transmit electronic signals into mechanical energy -- causing the flat surface to vibrate and broadcast the sound.

Full article: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2106596,00.html

Wonder how good the sound quality is :D
 
Originally posted by lokem
Hope this is not a repost. There's a device from Olympia which allows any flat surfaces to be turned into a speaker.



Full article: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2106596,00.html

Wonder how good the sound quality is :D

I read this the other day.
Quite interesting. The article that I read said that the sound quality was unexpectably good even if it was attached to a table.
Also it was stated that it was possible to attach 2 of these soundbugs to the same flat surface for stereo sound..
 
Re: Re: Turn any flat surface to a speaker...

Originally posted by Arris
I read this the other day.
Quite interesting. The article that I read said that the sound quality was unexpectably good even if it was attached to a table.
Also it was stated that it was possible to attach 2 of these soundbugs to the same flat surface for stereo sound..

Interesting. Just as I'm planning to get the low end Altec Lansing speakers, this pops up ;) It's a pity that they don't come in pairs for default stereo sound. Guess it's not meant for desktop use. Imagine how notebooks will sound with this!
 
Never crossed my mind about the possible application for these in the laptop market. Dunno if they would have to be detatchable or just mounted in the base of a laptop to provide sound throught he work surface. One problem though is for sound if you have the laptop on your lap ;) I guess the traditional output would still be required.
 
Never crossed my mind about the possible application for these in the laptop market. Dunno if they would have to be detatchable or just mounted in the base of a laptop to provide sound throught he work surface.
From the image I saw on the ZDNet website, the thing looks like a mouse with a suction cup at the bottom instead of a mouse wheel. I suppose the "suction cup" can be placed at bottom of the notebooks OR they can shrink those contact points so that it can be pulled out from the notebook and be attached to something else when the user is properly seated. If the sound quality is good enough, that should give the notebooks some "subwoofer" sound effects and not what they're claiming now with the Compaq models :D

One problem though is for sound if you have the laptop on your lap ;) I guess the traditional output would still be required.

Heh, forgot about the lap position :D Agreed, the traditional output would still be required for notebooks to remain mobile. But think about PDAs where you can place the PDAs on the table and convert it into a jukebox :D
 
Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing what the performance is with like with smaller devices such as PDA and mp3 players. Might be a bit more compact to carry around than some of the flat speakers that are currently available for desktops.
 
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