I have an idea for creating a new "omni-directional" speaker and was wondering what you guys think and how practical it is. (in theory it works).
The a simple implementation might be: Take a balloon and a metal sphere along with a insulated rigid wire. Attach the wire to the metal sphere and put the sphere inside the balloon through its opening. Coat the balloon with a conductive paint and attach an electrode to it. Put a charged gass with an inert gas into the balloon and seal it with the insulated wire comming out the opening of the balloon. Attach the two wires to to an amplifier and play some music. The balloon should contract and expand to the sound.
How it works: The balloon holds the charged particles and seperates them from the outside world while providing a diaphram that can move. The metal sphere and conductive coating provide a method of applying an electric field to the charged particles. When the field is pointing away from the metal sphere there is a net force on the balloon's surface that will cause it to expand by all the impluses of the charged particles and when the field is directed inwards then they will cause the balloon to contract(due to the elasticity of the balloon's surface).
Now there are technical issues involved that I'm not sure of but it seems like it could work.
One could also use a parallel plate like device where the plates are movable but enclose a charged gass(or possibly a liquid but I think this is impractical).
The main issue seems to be the charged gas. The gas has to be dense enough to supply a strong enough pressure to the balloons surface to cause it to expand. The balloons elasticity also as to be taken into account. I'm just not sure if its possible get a gas that isn't to "heavy" yet still will have enough momentum generated by the electric field to increase the internal pressure on the balloon.
I thought about trying to implement this but I wouldn't know where to get the charged gas and it might require a lot of fiddling around with.
So I'll see what you guys think.
Thanks, Jon