JVC develops "breath sphere" speaker

Those strange sculptures you see above are actually speakers which JVC is calling "breath spheres" (or at least that's how Google's well-versed translator interprets it), which the company says "you cannot feel the existence of" -- you also cannot buy it yet, either. The 4-inch sphere consists of eleven speakers, each covered with a "Weibull curve" diaphragm that expands and contracts (or vibrates), supposedly delivering a non-directional, natural sound field. According to Impress, JVC seems to be looking at a commercial launch sometime in the first half of 2007, though they don't appear to have given any indication of price. It's also not clear if it'll double as a Jedi training device or not -- we'll keep you informed on this latter bit, at the very least.

Read - Impress
Read - JVC

[Via Akihabara News]

[KaosDG @ Sep 14th 2006 3:17PM]

My old boss had speakers that looked similar to that.

They sounded pretty darn cool too.

[bluemonq @ Sep 14th 2006 5:36PM]

Breath sphere? Ok, I'm just going to get this over with and say what no doubt at least some people were thinking.

"Hehe, breast sphere."

There, you've made JVC cry. Happy now?

[Navstar @ Sep 14th 2006 3:39PM]

How long until your neighbor's kid comes by and crushes each cone with his finger?

[tampamaestro @ Sep 14th 2006 3:47PM]

You mean those aren't the things from Star Wars that floated around with needles to find the location of the hidden rebel base?

Perhaps you would prefer another target?

M

[blackfeather @ Sep 14th 2006 3:51PM]

No... more like: "With the blast shield down I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?"

[M @ Sep 14th 2006 4:04PM]

Yup, Design Acoustic D12 was also a "dodecahedren"(12 sided) shaped speaker in 1972 (+or - 2 years. But it was bigger and I am sure better (10" woofer, 5" mid and 9 tweeters. The 12th side was a port for the woofer. They were great but no one liked the looks so they fad e d a w a yyyyy

[like, whatever @ Sep 14th 2006 4:11PM]

Bose also made speakers like this back in the day...

[Mark @ Sep 16th 2006 12:17AM]

Does this remind anyone of Bit from Tron?

[B from TX @ Sep 14th 2006 5:30PM]

I, for one, welcome our "breath sphere" robotic overlo... Wait, they're NOT robots!?!?

[Warhorse @ Sep 14th 2006 5:45PM]

Darnit, now I have to find the charger for my lightsabre in this box of junk again...

[Camperton @ Sep 14th 2006 6:23PM]

"you cannot feel the existence of". Hilarious.

Does that mean you can't hear them too?

[Adam Rice @ Sep 14th 2006 6:02PM]

JVC's actual English name for them is "pulsating sphere," which I don't consider much of an improvement. I translated some of the press materials for them, and half-jokingly suggested "breathing balls" as the name. (The word they're using for "pulsating", 呼吸, can carry more than one meaning).

The ball is quite a bit larger than 4"-- each face is 5" across, IIRC.

[JohnnyC @ Sep 15th 2006 12:11AM]

Perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence from the translated article are the GRAPHS DISPLAYING SOUNDWAVE COMPARISONS and the elimination of distortion that is an inherent limitation to cabineted speakers.

A subtle difference maybe, but your ears should feel the more natural sound, especially if you play back a high quality analog signal from a record.

Anyway, I think this is an exciting area of development. All of these sysstems now (DTS, 7.1 surround, etc) are still based on cabineted speaker setups... maybe we are entering an era of further perfecting sound reproduction, possibly a giant leap forward? It would be great timing with the current HDTV revolution that is upon us.

[Kris @ Sep 15th 2006 4:07AM]

so sophisticated

[nand @ Sep 15th 2006 5:18AM]

A breath sphere (which is in fact a dodecahedron), sounds a lot like my flexi-hedron, a dodecahedron I made in the online world of Second Life. Grab a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdyznUk4Edw or sign up for your Second Life at www.secondlife.com and visit the sim of Lasiocampa (or view nand Nerd's profile to find it).