I was reading through my Kiplinger Letters and noticed the following information:

"For Stereo buffs: Speakers in the form of a flat silicon material that comes in rolls and can be put onto any surface in homes, cars, etc. Available by 2005 from SRI International".

Thought it sounded pretty cool ... have to wait and see.

 

Is this anything like the promises of cold fusion? J/K

There have been planar speakers in existance for many many years, but their low-frequency response is somewhat lacking (unless you have a REALLY BIG SHEET). These are held in some sort of bracket to provide tension and connection elements, so a free-standing speaker that can be form-fittedto its environment would be quite unique. It doesn't sound like anything a piezo element with the right substrate couldn't do, but maybe there just wasn't a market for it in the past (or no one thought of it).

But I won't hold my breath until 2005

 

SRI was a client of mine for a while they were more in to weapon systems than muzak!