Fostex has prototyped a vibration speaker system that uses, instead of diaphragms, a tabletop or any material, on which it is placed, to render sound.

The speaker system features an actuator using a super magnetostrictor that extends and shrinks in line with magnetic field changes. The actuator converts input sound into vibration and conveys it to the tabletop so it renders sound.

Excluding some materials including glass and concrete, this system can use any material as an audio speaker. Since sound is heard from a whole tabletop with the system on, it gives listeners a strange feeling that it is “unable to specify where the sound comes from.”

The company aims to launch it onto the Japanese market in the first half of 2006.

Via Tech-on.