Speakers get thin as a sheet

PNI, a Korean research firm, has developed speakers made of thin transparent sheets studded with electrodes, according to the Web site Insead Innovasia. The firm has worked on the speakers, which are about as thick as cloth, for four years and now hopes to go into mass production. Right now, the speakers can only support sounds in the upper end of the register and not low bass sounds yet.

In the past 30 years, speakers have undergone a massive revolution. In the "Frampton Comes Alive" era of the 1970s, Kenwood and others decked their speakers in fake wood and sold them as massive decorator objects. Now, small is the answer. US inventor Elwood Norris will soon promote HyperSonic Sound, a small speaker that can throw sound so that it sounds like you are standing next to the speaker.