When you buy a new TV it almost goes without saying that you’ll need new speakers. LCDs and plasmas gave back the 5-7 square feet that was once dedicated to cathode-ray tubes, but they pushed big built-in speakers out the door. The result: a gorgeous picture with tinny trash for sound.
Commercial and academic researchers are looking to change all that by putting the speaker in front of your screen. Emo Labs, a startup from Massachusetts, has created transparent membrane that could replace traditional cone speakers. The transparent film lays over your TV display and is then “driven” by two piezo-electric actuators. The actuators create the motion usually produced by a magnetic voice coil to create sound waves.
As you might imagine, laying a membrane over your picture does have its drawbacks. In its current form, the membrane nets a 4% loss in picture brightness. To be honest, that doesn’t seem so bad, especially as we get closer to the OLED revolution. With a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 4% should hardly be noticeable.
As for price, you early adopters will see the worst of it. Emo Labs estimates their membranes will add a 10-15% premium onto existing flat-panel prices. For larger TVs, you’d probably be better off putting that money toward a powered subwoofer. For smaller sets, under 27″ perhaps, the membrane could be another way to save space.
Source: Wired
