The Touchable Speaker Exhibit let's kids do something they normally get in trouble for; touching
the active cone of a working speaker.
They can see it vibrate at low frequencies.
They get to feel it vibrate from low to mid frequencies, and finally they get just hear all the
frequencies.
Most speakers are delicate and expensive precision instruments. This speaker allows you to test any ideas you have about what those high speed vibrations do without any worries of breakage. In it's simplest form this exhibit let's you see how all your senses perceive the vibrations. In more complicated scenario's you can see what drinking straws, ping pong balls, or Oobleck does in response to the vibrations.
Press the touch screen to start the exhibit. Use the mode selector buttons at the top to pick between different wave forms. A sine wave sounds like a pure musical note, like a tuning fork. The square and sawtooth waveforms sound much more mechanical and they represent the actual motion of the speakers. The waveforms drawn on the screen help the user picture what the physical motion of the cones are. The frequency of each speaker can be controlled by the green sliders on either side of the screen. As all these changes are being made you can keep your hand on the left speaker and eyes on the right one to experience the differences.
The touchscreen is an off-the-shelf commercial touchscreen intended for public use. Everything else that is exposed on the cabinet is made of plywood or quarter inch plastic, so there isn't much to break.
If you want to see the Touchable Speaker for yourself, visit the Science Mill in Johnson City, TX.
