LCD Screens Double as Speakers

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC has a story about a company who has developed an LCD screen that can produce sound as well. They claim that the sound quality is quite good, and compare it to average multimedia computer speakers. Also NEC is making and selling computers that use this technology in Japan. Hardware integration like this should make for some interesting appliances in the next few decades."

That's crazy!

[austinij]

It seems like an awesome idea, but how does it handle stereo? And I'd love to hear a wav file or something of how it sounds...

Image integrity?

[Mikey-San]

I'm no LCD scientist (though, I can tell you how they're made, thanks Apple Service Training for Losers with No Fscking Life), but it seems to me like heavy low-frequency sound coming /through/ the LCD would alter its color accuracy, at the least.

Granted, I have to put a good amount of pressure on my LCD to make it change color deeply, but don't you think if heavy low-frequency sound came out of it, something would happen, at least occasionally? What about the almost paper-thin glass sandwiched in the LCD layers?

I dunno. Seems to me like sound was made for speakers, not a display medium.

Does anyone out there have more info about the crap I just wrote? :-)

Re:*bzzt* wrong

[Jaycatt]

It would be nice for travelling presentations or training, however. The lightweight LCD is already useful for that. Not having to carry around speakers would also help with the travel weight.

Re:light music?

[valkraider]

Wouldn't the vibration *right on* the LCD screen do something over time? Especially at high volume. It seems like - other than laptops - this is kinda strange to marry the two techs...

Won't that hurt your eyes?

[192939495969798999]

I can see the screen flickering now and then on older (or especially low refresh rate) setups, but wouldn't the screen vibrating to sound really mess with the picture? Still, it sounds like a good idea in that it would save more desk space, especially if you had a really BIG LCD on the wall that did away with really big desktop speakers.

real world application

[digifuzz]

i could see this really taking off in the hand-held market, where the machines are really small and would benefit from having less components to have to cram into their small encasing..

~ fuzz

The answer is... it doesn't.

[pr0ntab]

NXT argues its technology has major advantages over conventional speakers. It says its SoundVU technology distributes frequencies evenly across a room, producing what audio buffs call a universal "sweet spot".

I read that as it's a speaker that fills the room with a single channel of sound. If it was in stereo, then it wouldn't be room filling if you could discern the channels. You could probably deal with it if the screen created two virtual speakers by superposition using exciters on opposite sides of the monitor. But then the sweet spot would be very small, aimed at the person sitting a few feet away. Definitely not room filling.

Plus, they go on to say how they intend to use it in mobile phones and PDAs. All single channel devices when used without headphones.

Fills a non-need with a nifty non-solution

[djh101010]

Sure, it's interesting, but it seems like another inappropriate use of technology. Just because something is possible to do, doesn't mean it's worth doing.

Just like the combined TV/VCR units, sure, it's nice when both functions work well, but if either function takes a dive, you're left with something that's less useful than either would have been if bought separately.

Maybe it'll be fine for people who don't particularly care about sound (and/or visual) quality, but I think this is another time when discrete components are the appropriate way to do it. It's not like the world has been sadly lacking for want of a speaker-monitor.

One question: what happens when you turn it up to 11?

Hi-fidelity sound?

[solarlux]

Interesting concept. The article speaks this producing "high-quality audio" -- yet I assume this must be mainly mid to high frequency sound. Any significant production of lower frequencies would certainly cause screen vibration, which might give new meaning to the term "flicker".

CRT/Speaker

[silvakow]

I thought the inside of the CRT looked more like a speaker, with a big magnet and a speaker-cone shape coming off of it going to the glass. But, alas, the CRT screens that were also speakers were made by Packard Bell or Compaq and had speakers attached to the side of the screen. It's quite interesting that the LCD beat the CRT to market with this technology, being that CRTs have been out for a while longer, ie. in everyones homes by the 1950s

Invisibility cloak?

[John Harrison]

Here is a non-invisible link. [cnn.com] Basically imagine if you had a camera on your back and wore a movie screen on your front. Then you set up a projector several feet away to shine the scene from the camera on your screen. This is a 5th grade science project invisible cloak. Not sure why it made the news.

surround sound DVD

[uwbbjai]

If I want to watch DVD in surround sound, I'd need 4 of these LCD screens. Too bad DVDs don't usually have multi-angled views... Imagine what that means to 3D games, you actually have to turn your head around to see what's behind you.. This technology can make some things really interesting

Re:That's crazy!

[evilviper]

I guess this is targetted at the L-top market.

I thought the same thing at first... It would be one hell of a step up for most notebook speakers. However, the reason most notebooks have croppy speakers is purely price. And somehow, I doubt they can make this LCD-speaker cheaper than two tiny little 1", 0.1 milliamp speakers.

What they arent telling you.....

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

is that what THEY are calling good sound is actually CRAPPY sound. I have spent my life in the audio industry serving the speaker makers around the world. This NXT and flat panel stuff pales incomparison to any 1/2 way decent speaker system. Sure for a laptop they may even make sence (keep things light and small) but if you want great sound from your laptop try a good set (or even not so good set) of headphones. But to think that you can replace your good speakers with this technology is a luaghable joke, JUST LIKE NXT's technology. Its cute and novel, but not really a practical application. It just proves that anything these 'new high tech' speakers can do, older speaker technology can do better, cheaper, and with way better results. But then again most people are happy with crappy sound, and these are the same people that purchase speakers based on Peak Music Power and not based on HOW THEY SOUND!!!! Ah ignorance is bliss, and there are lots of blissful people in this world!!!

Re:That's crazy!

[Oculus Habent]

They can embed both circuitry and speakers on an LCD panel.

Now, they need to make an LCD VNC-like device with stylus control and 802.11b built into the LCD itself. It could also dock and perform as a normal LCD screen while charging.

Using an ultra-thin battery behind the screen, you could have an extremely portable device with long battery life.

Would you buy a .5" thick 15" LCD screen that you could pick up and carry with you to connect to any device running a VNC-style service that laster 7 hours?

Re:Of course you can get stereo...

[nattt]

Thanks - NXT is an interesting technology that came out of the military working on anti-noise for jet fighters.... As a high end loudspeaker, it works well and is meant to sound quite nice, but acts as an area source rather than a point source, so you'll get more room effect than normal (or wanted) and because the sound is quite "fast" it can be hard to integrate a woofer with the right sonic characteristics.