Fujifilm Corp developed an electroacoustic film that can be used as the diaphragm (vibrating plate) of a speaker and unveiled it at nano tech 2013, a trade show that runs from Jan 30 to Feb 1, 2013, in Tokyo.
By using the diaphragm, which Fujifilm calls “Beat,” it becomes possible to realize a speaker that can be bent and folded. At the trade show, the company exhibited a slim speaker, retractable speaker and Japanese fan (sensu)-like speaker.[more…]
A soft material is required for a bendable diaphragm, however soft materials absorb vibration, thus it’s difficult to ensure a flexibility and high acoustic characteristics at the same time. Fujifilm overcame the difficulty by using a viscoelastic polymer that hardens in the audible range (20Hz to 20kHz) and softens in the range for bending it by hand (several hertz).
Fujifilm explains they :
“mixed the viscoelastic polymer with piezoelectric ceramics to make a piezoelectric composite and packaged it with a protection layer after sandwiching it with electrodes. When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, the piezoelectric ceramics vibrates, and the viscoelastic polymer functions as a diaphragm.”
As the design is still in its concept development stage at the moment, thus there’s no information on its pricing or worldwide availability yet.
Read more:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20130201/263651/
