A typical speaker uses electromagnetism to move the voice coil, which passes those vibrations on to the speaker cone, which in turns moves the air, creating sound waves. The UbiRock is essentially a speaker, but without a cone or diaphragm. By itself it doesn’t move the air much, so it produces very little sound. But by placing it in contact with other objects, such as a desk, wall, cardboard box, etc., the object acts as the speaker diaphragm and the object’s surface produces sound.