The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-334459, filed Dec. 26, 2007, including its specification, claims and drawings, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Described herein is a novel speaker which is different from a conventional speaker which converts an electrical signal into an acoustic signal through a mechanical vibration system.
In a conventional speaker, a sound propagates in form of a dilatational wave (a sound wave/longitudinal wave), thereby stimulating human's hearing sense. A speaker which is different from such a conventional speaker is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Nos. 2000-350285, 2006-207108, and 2006-197562.
Japanese Laid Open Patent No. 2000-350285 discloses a speaker having a diaphragm, a support member which supports the diaphragm in a state where internal stress is produced therein, and a sound source connected with the support member.
Japanese Laid Open Patent No. 2006-207108 discloses a receiver, a piezoelectric device which vibrates based on an audio signal received by the receiver, and a helmet with a speaker to which the piezoelectric device is attached. Moreover, a sheet-like speaker to which the piezoelectric device is brought into close contact with a flexible sheet is disclosed.
Japanese Laid Open Patent No. 2006-197562 discloses a speaker having a piezoelectric device which vibrates based on an input signal, and a wave motion radiation unit which is brought into close contact with an oscillating face of the piezoelectric device.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Nos. 2006-197562 and 2006-207108, physical characteristics of such a speaker, which are different from those of the conventional speaker are described as set forth below.
That is, the speaker uses the wave motion property of sound. Since the sound from the speaker may propagate in the air as a wave motion, energy loss and its attenuation rate are low, as compared with the conventional speaker. The sound quality and a propagation property thereof are excellent.
In addition, from another point of view, the sound from the speaker described above may be deemed to propagate in the air as particles. However, the mechanism of such a physical phenomenon of the speaker is not necessarily clearly explained.
A novel speaker is described, based on the knowledge of the new physical phenomenon of such a novel speaker which is different from the conventional speaker.
The present speaker includes a sound source, a rod-like member whose base end is in contact with the sound source, and a pair of flexible wing members whose ends are attached to the tip of the rod shape member, and whose other ends are free.
The present speaker is novel in that the property of the sound, propagation of sound, amplification of sound and attenuation of sound, etc. is used, taking into consideration, the existence of a component of a longitudinal wave and that of a traverse wave in sound, as a starting point.
Wing members each of whose material is different from the other (two or more kinds of materials) is prepared, thereby enjoying the differences in the sound quality due to differences of (the quality of) the materials.
Especially, the shape of the wing members is not limited to a quadrangle, a triangle, and a circle. For example, the shape of the wing members may be that of a thing in nature like a leaf or a petal.
In addition, the number of the wing members may be at least two (a pair) or more.
The sound radiation position in the up-and-down directions can be adjusted.
The wing members of the speaker may be rotatably attached to the speaker. That is, it is possible to rotate the wing members so that the direction of sound can also be rotated as if it follows the wing members.
The present speaker is novel and is different from the conventional speaker in that the present speaker uses physical phenomena such as the special feature of sound, propagation of sound, amplification of sound, and the action of attenuation etc.
Other features and advantages of the present speaker will be apparent from the ensuing description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
A description will now be given, referring to embodiments of the present speaker. While the claims are not limited to such embodiments, an appreciation of various aspects of the present speaker is best gained through a discussion of various examples thereof.
An embodiment of the present speaker is described, referring to drawings.
As shown in
As shown in
The lid 25 is made of synthetic resin, such as plastic, and has a hole into which the concave portion 26 can be inserted.
The concave portion 26 is made from wood, plastic, etc., and has a slot to which the base end 30 of the rod-like member 3 is attached.
The sound source 2 differs from the conventional electrodynamic type speaker unit, in that while in the conventional speaker, the diaphragm is attached through a damper, in the present sound sources 2, the lid 25 which is equivalent to the diaphragm is directly attached to the casing 24, and in that while in the conventional sound source, cone paper etc. is used as a diaphragm, in the present sound source 2, hard material such as plastics is used. Since other structural elements are common to each other, any one of an electrodynamic type, electromagnetism type, piezo-electric type, or electrostatic type speaker unit may be used therefor.
The base end 30 of the rod-like member 3 may be placed on the piezoelectric device which can convert an electrical signal into mechanical vibration, as the sound source.
As shown in
As shown in
Although the ends of two sheets of paper may be inserted in the slot 32 in order to form the wing members 4, one sheet of paper may be prepared as wing members as shown in
The wing members 4 are flexible, and sound (volume) may be emitted in a predetermined bowed state (a stress state as described above). When the bowed state cannot be maintained by the self-weight of the wing members 4, the bowed state can be controlled by attaching a bending force providing member, for example, weight etc., to each edge 41.
The material of the wing members 4 is typically paper, synthetic resin, etc. In addition, styrene foam or hard synthetic resin which is used for packing food may be used for the wing members. Moreover, a concavo-convex emboss pattern may be formed on the front face and/or the back face of the wing members 4, so that stress can also be adjusted.
An operation and effects of the above described speaker will be described below. When an electrical signal is inputted to the voice coil 22 of the sound source 2, a force will be applied to one end of the support section 23 which supports the voice coil 22, based on “the Fleming's left-hand rule.”
In
When the stress is added to the wing members 4, a traverse wave becomes easy to pass through the wing members 4, and the sound proportional to stress (amplification) will be emitted. The phase of sound will not be out of order, and even if the power added to the voice coil 22 is small, the distance at which the sound can reach is long, so that the sound can be heard at a long distance.
There are the following examples of physical phenomena which are similar to that of the speaker in the relation between vibration and sound. When a thin plastic board is pressed on a “music box” which vibrates mechanically, the stress is added to the board, and sound similar to the speaker can be obtained. An electromagnetic wave is measured from the “music box” that vibrates mechanically. In addition, the soliton wave (solitary wave) is also observed.
A string telephone in which paper cups are connected with a thread, may be taken up as another example of the phenomenon. Sound is believed to include a component of a longitudinal wave and a component of a traverse wave. Even if the thread of the string telephone is pressed down by a hand, the sound can be transmitted. It is believed that the component of a traverse wave in the sound propagates in the thread.
If the stress is added to the wing members 4 as mentioned above, it is believed that the force makes a traverse wave of the sound easily pass through between molecules of the wing members 4, so that the sound which is proportional to stress (amplification) is emitted. On the other hand, as the stress added to the wing members 4 is reduced, it becomes difficult for the traverse wave to pass through the inside of the wing member 4, so that the traverse wave is absorbed therein, and the emission of the sound stops. Therefore, in the present speaker 1, the sound can be adjusted from predetermined volume to approximately no sound, or approximately no sound to a predetermined volume.
As shown in
The effects of the speaker 1 of the above structure is summarized below. Sounds emitted by the speaker 1 are not affected mutually, and it is constructed so that it is difficult for sounds from the speakers 1 and 1 . . . to interfere with each other. Namely, even if the two or more speakers 1 and 1 are placed and operated in the same sound field (space), it is possible to identify sounds from respective speakers. Therefore, a system different from the conventional system can be designed, without being concerned about the conventional speaker system.
For example, as illustrated in
By separating the rod-like member 3 from the sound source 2, or bringing it in contact with the sound source 2, touching the rod-like member 3, or making the wing members 4 open and close, not only a child but an adult can experience the relation between vibration and sound therethrough.
A sound can be emitted in directions where the wing members 4 extend by the speaker 1. Therefore, the radiation direction of the sound can be controlled by not only arranging wing members in the direction of 180 degrees about the tip 31 of the rod-like member 3 as the central point, but setting the wing members to an arbitrary angle.
Communications with people can be performed from both hearing sense and visual sense by putting a message into the shape of the wing members 4 or displaying a message on a front and/or back side.
In addition, as illustrated in
Next, as illustrated in
Based on the knowledge of the new physical phenomena, a speaker system 10 shown in
The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate and describe exemplary embodiments of the present speaker. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to any precise form disclosed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. The invention may be practiced otherwise than is specifically explained and illustrated without departing from its spirit or scope.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-334459 | Dec 2007 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6044159 | Schmertmann et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
6181799 | Azima et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
7103190 | Johnson et al. | Sep 2006 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2000-350285 | Dec 2000 | JP |
2002-078078 | Mar 2002 | JP |
2005-159409 | Jun 2005 | JP |
2006-197562 | Jul 2006 | JP |
2006-207108 | Aug 2006 | JP |
2006-303821 | Nov 2006 | JP |
2007-166027 | Aug 2007 | JP |
2007-214917 | Aug 2007 | JP |
2007-228557 | Sep 2007 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20090169047 A1 | Jul 2009 | US |