Using Tables as Speakers

James writes "At CeBIT, Olympia has been showing off its Soundbug - a gadget that can turn almost any flat surface into a soundboard. It's only gonna cost £29.99 (around $45, i guess), but it sounds like there's some seriously cool science behind it."

it's kinda cute..

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.golem.de/0203/18739.html

For more information

[Wind_Walker]

You should see this [slashdot.org] Slashdot article from nearly a year ago. It describes Korean scientists doing this exact same thing, but as a "proof-of-concept" type of thing.

Apparently, some things that Slashbots debunk as vaporware are made practical :-)

been around

[AssFace]

I can recall Sharper Image's catalog having these for whole walls in the past. If I recall a write up in a sound magazine, the quality is surprisingly good, but obviously not like audiophile level.

More info

[Mr Windows]

Soundbug is made by Newlands Scientific [terfenol.com], a company based in Hull (UK), and comes in a variety of colours, some of which (pink and purple) are pretty disgusting, some of which (grey and blue) aren't...

Their website has plenty more glossy pictures, and a bit more info about "smart materials", which are used to make the wall/glass/whatever vibrate. They seem to be similar to piezo-electric materials, though better (at least, that's what the company would have you believe).

Official Site

[theCURE]

Check out this [soundbug.biz] link for the official site of the product. Includes pictures.

Terfenol?

[glh]

>>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.

If they make a ton of these, what's that going to mean for our supply of Terfenol? I'm not an environmentalist or anything, but I'm sure people won't be happy.

Here [ucla.edu] is a cool article and picture on Terfenol. Looks like its main purpose is for damping and energy absorption. Kind of looks like gold!

Better version already available

[IainHere]

DERA the British "defence" research agency developed a much better version [qinetiq.com] years ago (technologically, if not financially), where the panel itself was made to vibrate using electronic impulses. More info here [go.com].

Interestingly, they were looking for ways to reduce background noise (using anti-noise) when they stumbled across it. They've been available commercially for years.

Official Soundbug site

[deepstephen]

The official Soundbug site is here [soundbug.biz]. You can enter yourself into a prize draw to win one...

Re:Unique, yes...smart, no

[Mr Windows]

The 400 pound pressure (presumably this means 400psi, or something?) applies inside the device, to the components which are moved. These components are moved quickly in order to induce vibrations in the object to which they are attached. The sheet of glass (or whatever) doesn't get 400lb (psi? again) pressure applied to it, it just picks up the vibrations.

Video showing how it works..

[cstrommen]

There's a video up in different formats over for you all to download... This thing looks amazing! [soundbug.biz]

Re:Conference Calls?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does a guitar become inaudible simply because you are holding it?

Re:Reverse the technology

[FinnishFlash]

Well, that is allready existing technology.

You use a laser beam to measure vibrations on a window. Window's because they vibrate more easily than whole walls.

Ofcourse this technology is not foolproof, as it is highly sensitive to "structural" background noises like heating systems etc.

Cool right up until.....

[CDWert]

I have found something out over the years, the least likey scenario an engineer can imagine , I and others will do routinley.

There is a pressure of 400lbs aexerted by this gadget, it creates frequncy vibrations in a material that make sound, simple enough.

BUT my desk is partile composite with those idiot lags. No vibrsating the hell out of this 300 piece of junk for a long term is going, very simply to make it fall apart.

I have seen it before, vibration causing the particle composite to litteraly crumble when subjected to long term vibration. Glue seperates, and screws losen.

Be real neat righ up until your desk collapses :)

Re:Laurie Anderson's Sound Table

[stapedium]

As an audiologist I have to be pedantic and note that bone conducted sound does not give you the same cues for locating the sound (i.e. no head shadow). So saying you can hear it in steroe is a little misleading. While you can add additional streams of sound, you will loose lots of timing and amplitude cues (no head shadow, and bone conducts sound faster than air) you use to locate where a sound is coming from . The "speaker" however sounds pretty neat, and a $40 bone oscillator is even cooler (typically in the $100's). I wonder if the frequency response goes up to the ultrasonic range. If you really want to hear some weird stuff, you can actually hear frequecies by bone conduction that your cannot hear by air conduction (over 24 kHz). (Science [nih.gov] and Lancet [nih.gov]) There is a company [hearinginnovations.com] in Tucson doing some cool stuff with this to make hearing aids and tinnitus maskers.

Re:More info

[Anonymous Coward]

Shaking the local geology is hardly related to the resonant frequency of the entire Earth.

If memory serves, he had a steam powered mechanical oscillator attached to the cast iron frame of the building he was occupying at the time. As the frequency rose he observed as various parts and things in the room were shaken at their resonant frequency. Of course everything else in the building was being shaken too, and lots of stuff in the immediate area around the building.

As with nearly everything else Tesla has done, the reports are invariably vastly inflated.