Inspired by Marcelo Coehlo’s paper speaker and Vincent Leclerc’s Accouphene textile speaker, these paper and fabric speakers are made by running 5-9V sound amplified signal through a very conductive coil in close proximity to a magnet. Unlike most speakers that have the wire coil wrapped cylindrically and placed around the magnet, here the coil is in the plane and directly adhered to the membrane that moves the air creating sound.
The coils can be made from a variety of conductive materials. Copper tape, conductive fabric tape, conductive fabric and stainless steel thread work really well. Gold leaf does not work as well (yet!) in comparison. The coil can be one sided or two sided. A continuous spiral gives better results than one that backs up on itself.
The coils can be fused to a variety of membrane materials such as paper, vellum, veneer, fabric, transparency, tissue paper…
I’ve posted more about the construction process here:
>> http://konp.plusea.at/?p=265
Thick metal embroidery thread embroidered and strong magnet
Video
In the video you will see: the cube magnet has one strong side and two weaker sides that cause the speaker to be quieter, the audio signal is coming from an mp3 player and is being amplified by a disassembled off-the-shelf speaker unit with a 3.7V LiPo battery.
Conductive fabric lasercut and fused to canvas.
Conductive fabric lasercut and fused to paper.
Stainless steel thread sandwiched between masking tape.
Steel thread sewn into canvas.
Video
References and Links
Some experiments made with the couching embroidery technique and a coil basket weaving technique:
>> https://xxxclairewilliamsxxx.wordpress.com/electronic-textiles/#Textile
[…] Hannah Perner-Wilson has been experimenting with making speakers out of paper, using conductive tape and strong magnets. I like the idea of being able to build a speaker into almost anything! [via how to get what you want] […]
very nice!!!
jjR
Great! 😉
Great idea! Does volume and/or sound quality improve with a larger magnet?
volume does increase with higher voltage and larger magnets, but not necessarily sound quality. i think the kind of membrane substrate and the evenness of the coil are more responsible for that.
[…] crochet pieces are tiny speakers. We wanted to embroider the actual speakers themselves, à la How To Get What You Want, but the sound just wasn’t strong enough. We even bought some rare earth magnets, which […]
Its nice to see they decided to make a pretty looking version before tackling the much bigger problem that the sound of flipping the fabric over was louder and more distinct then the actual speaker. You can find conventional speakers that are the same size and louder.
it is true that commercial speakers of the same size are much louder, much more energy efficient and produce better sound quality, but they are not made of fabric. this is an attempt at building speakers from a variety of different conductive materials, experimenting to see what results can be achieved. hopefully we can also start working towards optimizing the designs and materials selections to make fabric speakers that are better sounding and use less power.
[…] been checking out ways of embeddings speakers into the fabrics too, courtesy of the amazing Kobakant website. WP_SLIDESHOW_IMAGES = { load: […]
if you make the coil tighter and longer, could it work as an R-fid reader?
[…] >> Instructable (coming soon…) >> Etsy >> Fabric Speakers […]
[…] 29, 30 2012 Showing Fabric Spekaers, Textile Sensor Demos II and A Kit-of-No-Parts at the World Maker Faire in New York, […]
[…] I missed tech crafts on Friday — thus missing a presentation from Hannah Perner-Wilson from Kit of No Parts & How To Get What You Want, who showed us how to make a Fabric Speaker. […]
Amazing!
Is it washable?
[…] Silent Pillow Speaker KIT >> Silent Pillow Speaker instructions >> Download booklet PDF (single-sided for screen viewing) >> Download booklet PDF (double-sided for […]
[…] http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2936 […]
[…] the most amazing programmable textile site – http://www.kobakant.at/DIY with ideas like this fabric speaker, or the sewable LilyPad Arduino chip. I found these via Carol Torgan’s wearable technology […]
[…] website met de Embroidered Fabric Speaker KIT Inspiratiebron […]
[…] Speaker tissu (http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2936) […]
[…] *inspired by the wonderful Hannah Perner-Wilson […]
[…] exemples sur le site Arduino http://arduino.cc/en/reference/tone Exemple de fabrication de speakers http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2936 […]
[…] fabric speakers: […]
[…] Fabric Speakers http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2936 […]
Dear Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson,
It is amazing to see the experiment and I am really inspired by it.
I’m a student who study design recently I was working on a project which want to apply sound on to my garment,It would be really helpful and kindness if you can tell me the process of making the embroidered speaker? what material should I prepare?
Thank you