A flexible speaker unveiled in Taiwan could soon be used in smart packaging and clothing, says the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
The Taiwan-based development institute began developing the lightweight speaker technology - called FleXpeaker - in 2006, with the backing of Taiwan's Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
And, having unveiled technology that can compete with conventional speakers for frequency, FleXpeaker recently won the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award for consumer electronics.
The Websphere Journal reports that the ITRI is now planning commercialisation in early 2010 and is seeking to spin out a commercial company to market FleXpeaker for use in clothing, packaging and even building integration.