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."

The heck with headphones!

[loftwyr (36717)]

I want them to make me a suit of that stuff!

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[RuBLed (995686)]

I won't recommend that... Think of the consequences... [xkcd.com]

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[Brian Gordon (987471)]

Fails about as hard as scientists who somehow invent a sound-conducting miracle foam while trying to create sound insulation.

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[solitas (916005)]

...invent[ed] a sound-conducting miracle foam while trying to create sound insulation.

Must've lost track of a negative-sign somewhere in the calculations. Happens all the time.

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[jollyreaper (513215)]

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?

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[Architect_sasyr (938685)]

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

True surround sound headphones

[andreyvul (1176115)]

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

Re:True surround sound headphones

[Loibisch (964797)]

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

Stereo = misnomer

[themushroom (197365)]

Stereo means there are two sound sources. Not to say that one couldn't put two separate panels (which I presume is the case with the car systems) to handle each channel, but in the case of the greeting cards it's gonna be monaural.

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[by Anonymous Coward]

Hm? just position them at the far ends of the card. Don't use the whole card as a sound source.
Would allow two sources almost a foot apart, enough for a human to pick up stereo.

Re:Stereo = misnomer

[ikkonoishi (674762)]

You can divide the surface up and project different sounds from different sections of the panel. Thus you could have the right side of the monitor project the right audio channel and vice versa.

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[MisterSquid (231834)]

and vice versa

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

Surfaces... into Stereo?

[by 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!

That is making a speaker inside things

[corsec67 (627446)]

Not turning any surface into a speaker.

For that you need something like these speakers from Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com], which stick on to any surface and make that surface the speaker.

Re:That is making a speaker inside things

[Walt Dismal (534799)]

If they can do it with a greeting card, I imagine they could create product packaging that plays sounds. How about a PC game box that plays the sounds from the game, for example American McGee's Alice which had interesting tracks?

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[cyfer2000 (548592)]

Or the screen of this display. http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/08/more-details-about-alienwares-awesome-curved-dlp-display/ [engadget.com]

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

[Moraelin (679338)]

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 ;)

Demolition

[therpham (953844)]

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

Re:Demolition

[phillymjs (234426)]

Damn you for beating me to making the reference while I was looking up the relevant passage!

"Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on. Every tin can, every dust bin, every window, every car, every wine glass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board. Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message."

~Philly

Ha!

[Mr. Ksoft (975875)]

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.

A THUNDEROUS Round of Applause

[davidsyes (765062)]

To the UK government and NXT for turning what would have been a money-sucking venture (in the near-term application, assuming war/conflict/helo-deployment NOT inevitable) into a commercial spin-off and apparent success.

(No, I'm not dissin' DARPA, I just don't know of/haven't seen in the new an intended DOD effort that nearly-IMMEDIATELY spun off into commercial success. I don't doubt they exist, I just have to Google them...)

Now, I wonder if those sound conductors will work in love chambers... gotta keep the neighbors awake...

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[YrWrstNtmr (564987)]

No, I'm not dissin' DARPA, I just don't know of/haven't seen in the new an intended DOD effort that nearly-IMMEDIATELY spun off into commercial success.

umm...you're using it, dude.

DARPA isn't in the business of churning out commercial 'toys'. Medicine, aircraft, autonomous vehicles...all much longer range ideas. Stroll through their current list of projects [darpa.mil]. Some very interesting things.

A long road to applause

[greg1104 (461138)]

Ah, if only it were true. The underlying technology was patented by Britain defense researchers in 1991 and licensed to Verity Group, a big audio company, in 1996 (see the end of this article [vxm.com] for a readable history here). Verity has been the company funding the money-sucking venture all this time. Even with their resources, it's taken them ten years to get this technology into the market in any big way. NXT is hardly a poster-child for quick commercial spin-off success.

Re:A THUNDEROUS Round of Applause--LOL

[davidsyes (765062)]

HEHE, Yeh, that's an obvious one, and I should have said "recent" spin-offs...

Man I hope this doesn't work with fabric

[edwardpickman (965122)]

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

In other news...

[scatters (864681)]

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.

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[Fallen Kell (165468)]

I don't know what is worse, that I got the joke or that other moderators did as well...
 
I just hope they make certain the translators only ever see one word each, because we all know what happened last time when they translated it to German...

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[shellbeach (610559)]

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 ...

Sterno!?

[moosesocks (264553)]

I misread the headline as "Material Turns All Surfaces into Sterno [wikipedia.org]"

which, although a boon to the catering industry, would be somewhat troubling.

Fortunately, they're just talking about NXT [nxtsound.com]'s cool speaker transducers that have been around for quite some time now (yawn...). Given that the laws of acoustics do still apply, even if the speaker is flat, the "cabinet" needs to be properly designed to produce good sound.

I've got a portable speaker that incorporates the technology. Logitech mm28 -- I think I paid $15 for it, although it's discontinued now. Although it does sound fantastic for a tiny $15 speaker, the bass is a bit lacking, and the thing distorts all to hell when the volume is turned up. To be fair, it can be driven *quite* loud, which seems to indicate that the transducers are quite powerful, and that Logitech forgot to include some sort of volume-limiting circuit. It's more or less the most simplistic NXT design you could imagine, as it's a rounded rectangle panel with an NXT transducer a third of the way from either edge.

All in all, with a bit of refinement, it could be turned into a great product, and it's easy to see how there could be many applications for this. Even though it might not produce audiophile sound (at least, not as lotitech had it configured), I imagine that it could be quite handy for "hiding" speakers in various locations, and could definitely be used to improve the sound quality of mobile phones. It also avoids many of the pitfalls of other "flat panel" designs.

Poking around their website reveals that they've got a pretty nifty portfolio of technologies backed up by some hard science -- they've even applied the same technology (in reverse) to produce touch screens.

Ancient technology

[Col. Bloodnok (825749)]

I bought a pair of unused 'flat panel' IBM speakers (also NXT) 3 years ago. On ebay, for 99p.

They're really good, for little speakers.

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[flappinbooger (574405)]

I heard those "fancy" flat speakers had crap for bass.

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[moosesocks (264553)]

"Flat panel" speakers can be made in two ways:

1) Squash a regular voice coil speaker cone, and shove it into a tiny cabinet. This is obviously not optimal.

2) Make a flat object to vibrate to produce your sound. This can cause all sorts of unwanted resonances, the elimination of which is one of NXT's primary innovations.

Bass, however, still is a problem no matter what design you choose. Because lower frequencies have longer wavelengths, the object producing said waves needs to have a great enough range of

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[flappinbooger (574405)]

I think the idea of a very flat mid/high speaker set with a sub under the desk for the lows is a great idea.

Mount the LCD to the wall and embed some speakers in the wall next to it to eliminate anything on the desk at all, and you've got a winner.

Better yet, make all the walls, the ceiling and the floor be speakers and you're really winning.

Didn't someone invent paint that turned a wall into a speaker? Or am I imagining things and need to go to sleep?

Unexpected source?

[QuantumFlux (228693)]

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

ahhh that ain't nuthin' ...

[Stumbles (602007)]

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

THIS is how the military should be making money

[ecavalli (1216014)]

Sure, taxes are great, but I'd like to see how much cash the military makes on the amazing tech their scientists come up with.

Between stuff like this (mil-spec gear modified for use in civilian life) and the medical breakthroughs they've created over the years, if the military were a standard corporation, they'd have cash coming out of every orifice not used for firing projectiles or enticing teenagers to join their ranks.

This is nothing new - again.

[waterwingz (68802)]

NXT has been flogging this technology for years. This is nothing new but every few years they seem to get the media to think it is.

Vibrations? Distributed mode behaviour of a panel

[Jonah Hex (651948)]

SurfaceSound describes DML products that, with appropriate excitation, are capable of emitting sound through bending wave action. All that is required is a self-supporting surface and an exciter. The use of materials not normally associated with loudspeaker diaphragms offers up new industrial design opportunities.

Source [nxtsound.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you notice the material vibrating, especially if it's a clear layer over a screen? I notice the smallest of vibrations caused by speakers that aren'

figures

[Tablizer (95088)]

all the useful ideas come from either porn or war

won't someone think of the basers?

[jollyreaper (513215)]

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 (533831)]

And plan C is the macarena [xkcd.com].

:P

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[jollyreaper (513215)]

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?

Other approach..

[cheros (223479)]

Imagine the scene: thumper car stands at traffic light, with the sound turned up high as usual - windows are always down on those sort of cars because they have to make sure everyone hears just what a horrendous lack of taste they have.

A very large "I have loadsamoney" car silently pulls up beside it (say a Rolls or something). Guy in the back never even lowers his newspaper but says something to which his driver nods politely and pressed a button.

Front window adjacent to the thumper silently slides down,

Not new, and advanced by Jose Bertagni

[postbigbang (761081)]

of BES speaker fame. He used to make speakers out of styrofoam. They sounded great. His demo was using a door as a sound conductor. Honeycombs are nothing new at all. Look up 'geostats' to find them.

Hallmark cards?

[Chas (5144)]

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?

Finally a card for Grandpa

[Shawn Parr (712602)]

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 (869638)]

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!

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[Marbleless (640965)]

Just what we needed!

... and I'm starting to sound like my grandparents ;)

re:great .. more noise pollution :(

[ed.han (444783)]

uh...didn't you mean the vogon destruction of earth rather than takeover? you know, something to do with a hyperspace bypass? :>[/pedantic bastard]

ed

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[Datamonstar (845886)]

Damn straight, my brotha! And this [msn.com] lady can help us do it! ...once she gets that bajillion or whatever dollars, that is.