Just as the flat screen revolutionised television virtually overnight, a new technology is seeking to do the same for audio.
Audio Pixels. It had to happen really, but are we ready for it?
What is Audio Pixels?
Audio Pixels is an Israeli company, now owned by an Australian company , that has developed technology based around tiny chips loaded with micro-electromechanical structures (MEMS) that each generate a tiny amount of sound.
It's completely scalable, so while a mobile phone might have one chip (and much richer, fuller sound than your current phone), a room speaker could have a hundred or more.
It's also much lower cost and much more efficient in its use of power, so it opens up a whole new world of incredible sounding, tiny and power-miserly gadgets.
What will it sound like?
This is the big question. In theory, it is capable of near-perfect reproduction. By eliminating all the mechanical and acoustic factors that can colour a traditional speaker's sound, and instead moving air via thousands of perfectly-controlled 'audio pixels', it could potentially render today's technology obsolete.
The key word here is 'potentially', because as yet we're yet to hear of any real-world demonstrations of the technology as it applies to hi-fi. It may be that it finds a niche in the mobile market and not beyond. Time will tell.
In the meantime, take 5 minutes to check out the company's video below:
Visit the Audio Pixels site to find out more >>