I also put some ideas on the Github Readme including using feedback from the microphone to calibrate a width->pitch mapping to play music using your screen.
http://genabitu.github.io/screentunes/
Maybe I'll get to get it play music (a json with timings and notes would suffice, I suppose?)
http://genabitu.github.io/screentunes/
You have to calibrate it before it starts playing.
I'll have to find some other monitors to test this on. It would be awesome if there were some commplace model that's relatively loud for a wide pitch range. Said model might then be useful for musical hacks in the same vein as driving the stepper motors in old floppy drives.
Also makes for a nice covert channel... similar tricks with "listening" to the noises a computer makes have been shown to be possible to use for extracting information like encryption keys:
That was a cool hack!!
Zooming in (i.e. making the width greater) results in a lower-pitched sound.
Zooming out (i.e. making the width narrower) results in a higher-pitched sound.
Great catch/explanation of this anomaly.
I see that this screen has alternating black and white lines. I count 43 black lines on my monitor. Assuming 60 Hz refresh rate, that is 2580 Hz in terms of the pixels being off or on, which is a perfectly audible frequency. Even with 120 Hz refresh rate, that would be 5160 which is still easily audible. Without knowing anything else, I guess that there may be a capacitor somewhere that is charging and discharging along with the brightness of the screen as it is refreshed from top to bottom, which is causing it to flex in a way that produces an audible noise.
I am curious is Aardwolf can produce different frequencies by varying the width (and therefore the quantity) of black and white lines on the screen. If so, you should be able to play some music on it.
[1] http://www.edn.com/design/components-and-packaging/4364020/R...