Vibroy

The Korean company Xenics has produced a fun device called Vibroy, which can transmit a sound wave to any object that can be used as a sound box, making the wave audible. It's the same principle that makes a tuning fork audible when placed on the sound box of a piano or guitar.

Basically, Vibroy connects via a mini-jack to a player (e.g., an MP3 player). Then you place the mini-speaker at the other end of the wire on any object. In this way, Vibroy transmits the vibration to the object it comes into contact with, which becomes a speaker.

Of course, the quality of the audio is strongly influenced by the nature of the object used as a speaker and its ability to vibrate. Different materials, in fact, behave differently: a glass cup, for example, will only reproduce high frequencies, while a wooden object will have a broader spectrum.

Here are some demos.

Now, since everyone's talking about this as a brilliant idea, let's clarify...

First, with a mini-speaker like this as a source, this thing will initially have a very limited frequency range. By eye, it won't go below 200/300 Hz and won't go above 10,000: the bass and treble are lost.

Second, the frequency response of any object is far from being even vaguely flat. Consequently, what you hear has little to do with what the musicians were trying to achieve. However, it's a lot of fun and even instructive to hear the frequency response of various objects.

Finally, it's not the only system of its kind. You can see others on YouTube, practically identical. A significant step forward towards generalized lo-fi.

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