A new technology called AcoustiVision hopes to put some Boom Boom Pow into your rear window. All car subwoofers rattle the entire car — rear window included — but Magna says their technology can use the rear window to make sound. AcoustiVision uses two exciters at the base of the window with power fed from amps in the trunk, which are said to boost a stereo signal from 12 to 200 volts. After the system is connected, the two exciters use the glass as a membrane to vibrate the window, moving air to create sound.
If the system works as well as my Detroit cruiser then it could mean getting rid of those huge speaker boxes in the trunk. “It is a whole new way to generate sound in a car,” said Magna product director Greg Rizzo. “There are still tweeters up front but the glass replaces a big subwoofer in the trunk.”
Magna hasn’t landed any contracts from any big automakers yet, but says that AcousticVision could be ready for production by 2015.