Foil + Paper = Speakers

Catarina Mota, Alicia Gibb and Shelby Arnold built a speaker made entirely from copper foil tape on cardstock + a magnet. They’re testing it with the JelTone edible piano. The speaker’s design comes from the High-Low Tech Research Group at MIT.

The tape is applied to the paper in a coil-shaped pattern. When connected to the output lines of the JelTone with alligator clips, then suspended over a magnet, the speaker produces a soft hum. This sound matches the tones that the piano produces when hooked up to a real amplifier, though it’s a lot softer and noisier.

Check out the High-Low Tech writeup here to learn why it works, and how you can make your own. MIT and NYU ITP researchers came up with lots of variations. Try building one and seeing if you can crank up the volume.

Shelby (left) and Catarina hooking the speaker up

photos: Ari Lacenski