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Home / News / Fujifilm shows off foldable, flexible speaker

Fujifilm shows off foldable, flexible speaker

“Electroacoustic film” from the camera-maker could be used for future tablets and smartphones

We may have been getting all hot and bothered about flexible screens recently – but what about flexible speakers?

Fujifilm’s research boffins have come up with just that: electroacoustic film. It’s a material that can be used to make ultra-thin speakers that can be rolled up or even folded (check out the fan and origami examples in the video below).

The material, a blend of ceramics and polymers, can reproduce “good quality” audio when it’s bowed, bent or folded, so it’s not like you have to even flatten it out every time you want to indulge your eardrums in a spot of Chopin. (We put “good quality” in quote marks because it’s relative and we wouldn’t want to offend our audiophile readers…)

Team this material up with a flexible display like those on the PaperTab or from Samsung’s research labs and, in theory, you’ve got the basis for a mobile device that can be rolled up for easy storage, not to mention for use as an impromptu megaphone. The future can’t come quickly enough.

[DigInfoTV via Gizmodo]

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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