Using Plants as Speakers

Kerhop writes "People who like talking to their plants can now enjoy a musical accompaniment, thanks to a Japanese invention that turns petals and leaves into amplifiers. Several others are also reporting details of how it works."

A Few Thoughts

[thewiz]

1. What kind of music should go with which kind of plant? Roses for Guns N Roses? Potted plants for Grateful Dead music?
2. Do we really want plants that make funny noises? I've got coworkers for that.
3. Do the plants really like the music? Has anyone done a survey?
4. Is Slashdot really the proper forum for this posting?

Dope

[mfh]

What about those huge Cannabis plants, carefully concealed and yet still lining the back wall of your yard? They might like Floyd, I'm thinking.

Re:Dope

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

One word:

Eno.

Re:Dope

[Orgazmus]

They would probably like Hendrix and Santana too ;)

Re:Dope

[jellomizer]

Yea Right the poor Cannabis plant when hearing Pink Floyd will go into a Panic. "OH NO!!! I am going to be up rooted and taken away from my food and water source. Then wrapped in paper blocking off all sun light and then burned to death." For God sake people stop smoking Cannabis, you are torturing the poor plant and scaring its offspring. It is probably saying to its young "Increase your Pontancy [cnn.com] so your tormentors in the future will no be so unmotivated that they will not pick your children."

Re:Dope

[jellomizer]

No one ever said that Cannabis was smart.

Re:A Few Thoughts

[zijus]

Is Slashdot really the proper forum for this posting?

You don't like plant singing at you ? I feel it's a pretty poetic invention. Makes me smile. Makes the omelete finely. Immagine you garden filed with strawberies plant, slowly growing year after year, expending the music. Or an aple tree growing into your nasty neighboor garden. And then play Simple Pleasure of Boby Mc Ferrin at him. OoooO yeeea!

Re:A Few Thoughts

[CProgrammer98]

Do plants really like the music?

Hmmm... sending vibrations up the stem.... souds like fun to me!!!!!!!

I want it ! ! !

[superpulpsicle]

Next to my Chia pet collection.

Re:A Few Thoughts

[PalmerEldritch42]

What happens when you get a plant tuned up just how you like it, and it dies? I mean, I have been using my old-fashioned Sony speakers for like 15 years now, and they are still working. Unless you hook it up to a bonsai tree with some staying power, how useful is it if you need to change your speakers every time they die?

Re:A Few Thoughts

[midav]

Being a latin word 'cacti' is the proper plural form.

Re:A Few Thoughts

[indigeek]

1. What kind of music should go with which kind of plant? Roses for Guns N Roses? Potted plants for Grateful Dead music?
Lower the frequency, bigger the speaker, so
Banana plants for sub-woofers, rose plants for midrange, cherry blossoms for treble.

Re:A Few Thoughts

[Exatron]

Wouldn't it be better to use the banana plant to play "Yes, We Have no Bananas"?

Re:A Few Thoughts

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> 1. What kind of music should go with which kind of plant?

The possibilities are endless!

Imagine playing Ryuichi Sakamoto through your Bonsai tree. Or better yet, play Operation Ivy through your ivy! Oh, and play Kiss through your tulips! Randy Rhodes through your rhododendron! SheDaisy through your dasies! Petula Clark through the petunias! Biggie through the begonias! Yellow Magic Orchestra through your yellow orchids! Blue Man Group through your bluebells!

Oh, and through your amorphophallus titanum?

Cannibal Corpse.

okay, I'll stop now.

Re:A Few Thoughts

[Jahf]

If by 4) you mean your post, you should probably have asked that of yourself before posting. If by 4) you mean the article ... heck yes. "News for Nerds". No one (who is in charge) said /. was all about Linux or the 'net. I think using plants as speakers is techno-gadget nerderific ... don't you?

Re:A Few Thoughts

[dnahelix]

the ACID plant

Silly Japanese

[BinaryWolf]

They could of saved some time and ordered the sound bug [thinkgeek.com].

Not so Silly Japanese

[refactored]

Not so silly. Here I've been talking to my plants for years.

And they just die.

I didn't know they only understood Japanese.

Screaming Trees?

[webwalker]

It had to be said.

Although I am dubious about the long term effects of Billy Idol (or KISS for that matter) on my potted pansies. (Potted....nevermind...)

RMW

Re:Screaming Trees?

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

The black dog runs at night.

Re:Screaming Trees?

[Deagol]

Twin Peaks fan?

This is pretty cool!

[ShinSugoi]

Just think, combine it with some of those amplifiers you attach via suction to a flat surface on your windows, and you can have a totally rocking greenhouse!

Sounds like the body speaker...

[Shoeler]

Or was it the "skull vibrator" ie head speker?

Regardless, this sounds like it needs to be in the "why-the-hell-would-you-waste-your-money-on-it" category. Those fake-rock speakers are one helluva lot cheaper, and sound quite good.

it works?

[rozz]

"Several others are also reporting details of how it works."

how it works ... IN JAPAN

prank galore:

[alex_ware]

you can imagine someone going in their greenhouse to give their plants a pep talk and then the plants start to give them backchat.

This requires killing the plant

[Blastrogath]

Unless I'm mistaken, most people who talk to their plants don't want to cut them and put them in a vase or jar.

Re:This requires killing the plant

[artemis67]

Oh yeah, like vibrating them thousands of times a second would be good for them anyway... :-P

First thing i'm getting mine to say:

[anothy]

"Feed me, Seymour!"

What kinda sounds

[grunt107]

Each report says the plants can transmit sounds, but all are vague enough to make me hypothesize the sounds are muffled and probably unintelligible.

If the plant speaker could reproduce the sound accurately, however, there would be some interesting applications. I would couple the speaker w/video recognition - then I could have the plants "yell" at unwanted visitors at my house.

Re:What kinda sounds

[Quobobo]

Or you could stick some speakers next to your plants, crank up the bass (so that they shake slightly), and have an even better effect!

Excuse me while I go patent this.

This is making plants speakers (not amplifiers)

[agurk]

This is clearly stated in the last link:

"The system, comprising an amplifier, vase and an acrylic resin cylinder, makes flowers' petals and leaves vibrate and transmit sounds, just as the paper cones of stereo speakers vibrate, the two said."

So the system has an amplifier and the plant has the role of loudspeaker. I was hoping for a powersaving alternative to my amplifier, but I better stick to it a little longer.

Re:This is making plants speakers (not amplifiers)

[Paulrothrock]

So the system has an amplifier and the plant has the role of loudspeaker. I was hoping for a powersaving alternative to my amplifier, but I better stick to it a little longer.

Why not just wire a bunch of potatoes together?

Good Karma

[darth_silliarse]

Jimi Hendrix through a hemp forest ::drool::

Smelly Speakers

[ProstheticSwan]

From now on, speakers may smell as good as they sound.

Re:Smelly Speakers

[Tandoori Haggis]

Someone I know had his loudspeakers pissed on by some drunken somnambulist (sleepwalker).

Isn't using plants for speakers going to make this more likely. Cats and dogs spray plants with "scent".

Speakers != Amplifiers

[Anonymous Coward]

The article seems to suggest that the plants are being made to 'amplify' the signal. Although I guess there could be some mechanism here working that I'm unaware of, as it stands it looks to me like the pedals are just converting the energy into sound.

Yeah, this is really nitpicky.

Obscure 80's Reference.

[Deathlizard]

Well, now I got a singing plant. All I need now are mini plant sunglasses and someone to invent a device to make a plant dance and I'm all set.

Falling

[leomekenkamp]

A falling plant was reported making a sound remarkably similar to the english sentence: "Oh no, not again."

Re:Falling

[jcostantino]

Early in the morning I can't sleep / I can't work and I can't eat / I've been drunk all day, can't concentrate / Maybe I'm making a big mistake / Caught me down like a killer shark / It's like a railroad running right through my heart / Jekyll and hyde the way I behave / Feel like I'm running on an empty gauge / Oh no not again / It hurts so good / I don't understand / Infatuation.

Is that whey you play crappy Rod Stewart music through the plant?

Re:Falling

[iantri]

Er.. no.. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.

For the trixsters amongst us...

[Dracolytch]

This has some amazing potential for pratical jokes. Imagine going through a greenhouse and hearing a rattlsnake piped through a Plantplifier.

Oh yes... Halloween will be fun!

~D

Re:For the trixsters amongst us...

[the_twisted_pair]

Oh yes... Halloween will be fun!

I'd rig the garden hedge up and loop the heartbeat from Dark Side of the Moon. See if any brave ickle trick-or-treaters dare make it to my front door!

Who else?

[Jonsey]

Did anyone else here get the intense desire to either play a "nature sounds" CD through their potted office-plant, or just the sound of leaves rustling slightly?

Imagine the hours of fun as the boss looks for that damn draft that he knows just HAS to be in that corner.

I think I've just convinced myself to get one once they come to market here. : )

New line for Hitchhiker's

[The I Shing]

Zaphod could say "Holy Zarquon's singing plants!" Nah, the "singing fish" line was more surreal.

amplifiers

[jwitch]

"...turns petals and leaves into amplifiers."

So the question remains. When will those bastard trees stop attenuating my wifi signal?

All Five Senses?

[FunWithHeadlines]

"The inventor of the gadget, Keiji Koga, said: "We are finally able to experience plants and flowers with all five of our natural senses." You mean I have to eat the plant after it plays music for me?

Re:All Five Senses?

[KD5YPT]

You have a good point... let's see.

Sight: "Oh, what pretty flower."
Sound: This article
Smell: "Um..."
Touch: "Soft..."
Taste: ... oh I got it, "Good tea."

Re:All Five Senses?

[l0ungeb0y]

Sure, an artichoke is a thistle and might make for a good subwoofer.

Two questions

[madenosine]

Wouldnt the "right" frequency vary significantly from plant to plant? Or are they planning on providing a fake plant?

Re:Two questions

[jcostantino]

You will have to consult the compatibility chart to verify that your plant is supported. There may be a downloadable firmware update to support more plants in the future.

Re:Two questions

[pjt33]

I'm more puzzled about why you'd use it to play music if you can only hear one frequency.

Ok read this please

[Anonymous Coward]

fark posted this a few hours ago so there is already a lot more comments. And something tells me 90% of the posts modded up will be +Whatever,Funny. So you may as well go to Fark.com [fark.com] and see it done right :)

/please don't mark this informative you brain dead mods, and you know which ones you are, if anything this is funny.

Amplifier?

[NoMercy]

I can understand ultra-sonic sounds being converted to audiable ones under certain sinarios, but I can't see where petals and leaves get the power from to aplify audio waves, thus I'm highly sceptical that the device is anything more than previous speakers which use any medium to which there attached as a cone.

In other news...

[Polymath Crowbane]

A spokesperson for Earth First! called for an immediate boycott of Japanese products. "We cannot stand idly by and watch the further enslavement and oppression of our green brothers and sisters by chlorophyll-challenged bipeds. We call on right-thinking people everywhere to send a clear message to the profiteering corporate lackeys of Japan that we shall not accept their careless attacks on the other lifeforms that allow us to share Gaia with them."

twisted

[romit_icarus]

Am i just twisted, or does this also remind someone else of the Little Shop of Horrors?! http://www.littleshopofhorrors.com/ [littleshopofhorrors.com]

What artists to the plants enjoy?

[Apocalypse111]

Palm trees: Jimmy Buffet
Cannibus: Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd
Vegetables: Boy-bands and Brittney Spears
Grains, Barley, Hops, & Tobacco: Frank Sinatra
Squashes: Smashing Pumpkins
Eggplants: MC Hawking
Genetically modified crops: "Weird" Al

Re:What artists to the plants enjoy?

[wowbagger]

Vegetables: Boy-bands and Brittney Spears
Cruel and unusual - you'll have Greenpeace on you in a cocaine heartbeat.

Genetically modified crops: "Weird" Al
Wrong. Genetically modified crops: DEVO

And of course we need an industrial strength version to make a pine tree sing I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK...

Re:What artists to the plants enjoy?

[tunabomber]

I think flowers would be into blues- you know, the kind where they use a wa-wa petal. I suppose they could just listen to Tripping Daisy or the Posies, however. Or maybe Guns 'n Roses when they have an appetite for getting their leaves destroyed.

Casio ...

[CodeArtisan]

So if I hook up my Casio keyboard to a pot plant, does this mean I will end up with an awesome photosynthesizer ? I also have a great 'geranium diode' joke, but I'll save that for when the current thread needs rectifying.

Curious

[SageMadHatter]

I wonder if the constant vibration of the sound resonating through a plant's body will cause any harm to it.

Mad Hatter

oh?

[jpellino]

'The inventor of the gadget, Keiji Koga, said: "We are finally able to experience plants and flowers with all five of our natural senses."'

I'm guessing this guy's never slept in a tall pine forest. The sounds are amazing.

Re:oh?

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

'The inventor of the gadget, Keiji Koga, said: "We are finally able to experience plants and flowers with all five of our natural senses."'

I'm guessing this guy's never slept...

I totally thought you were going somewhere else with that sentence.

Re:oh?

[randyest]

You picked the wrong kind. Try these [whatscookingamerica.net]. Many varieties are quite tasty, though they're much more popular in Japan than the West in my experience.

Re:oh?

[PsiPsiStar]

They're very high in Vitamin C. ... was it a wild rose? Cut roses from flower shops have detergent in them.

It'll never work.

[JeanPaulBob]

The sound quality is far too grainy.

Re:It'll never work.

[Apocalypse111]

Yeah, it probably WOOD KNOT work as well as advertised. We should all LEAF it alone until someone can test the technology.

Call me a troll if you want, but, you know, STICKS and stones... it would only prove to me that you can't see the FOREST for the TREES, you LUMBERing oaf.

Meanwhile jay and silent bob are celebrating...

[Shadow of Eternity]

For some reason i think there is going to be a flood of websites with the proper calibration for playing Pink Floyd through a cannabis plant. to the japanese: "Meditate and relax in the serene gardens of nature while listening to the calming sounds of music through a plant" to the americans: "Not since Dinner and a Movie has there been such a good combination. Smoke and dance at the same time with half the equipment! grow your own subwoofer!"

Obligatory...

[KD5YPT]

I hereby welcome our new vibrating, singing plant overlord...

Maybe soon to be replaced vibrating, singing dildo...

Would they explode...

[Anonymous Coward]

...if I turned the amp up to 11?

Re:Would they explode...

[kent_eh]

"Listen...
to what the Flower People say"

Don't blame me, you started teh Spinal Tap references

Obligatory joke

[JosKarith]

Play some old soul using the plants that grew from the grapes you threw out a few years ago - you really can say you "heard it on the grape vine"...
Please - if you're going to throw tomatoes can you make sure they're GM free ones...

Zep

[blackmonday]

As heard on Fark: "Robert Plant not available for comment". Perhaps we should also add: "Still no cure for cancer".

If they can be used as speakers...

[Daverd]

then couldn't they also be used as microphones? The sound would just travel in the opposite direction.

You bet.

[Bozdune]

That's why the plant in your bedroom is a "begonia."

Re:If they can be used as speakers...

[wwest4]

oooh, oooh... i know. it's the only reason i looked at this thread. Hint #2:
Counter-intelligence droids.

obligatory singing bush

[WormholeFiend]

The Invisible Swordsman is unavailable for comment.

A Philosophical Question...

[sarcastro73]

If a tree plays Elvis in the forest and there's no one to hear it, is he still alive?

Reading topic without reading story

[Jacek Poplawski]

Imagine desk, computer, chair, and two big power plants on both sides used to play heavy metal music in stereo.
Even better, imagine 5.1 setup: 5 power plants around desk and one underground (nuclear one?).

A tree...

[ndogg]

So, if a tree in a forest is attached to one of these, and there is no one around to here it, does it make a sound?

I guess what should really be asked is, who would bother to buy one for a tree and then not listen to it? Trees get lonely too.

Just the thing...

[jejones]

...for listening to Oak, Ash, & Thorn [oakashthorn.com]!

Hard to use?

[byssebu]

There can't be an universal frequency for all plants so you must calibrate the 'loudspeakers' depending on the plant you're playing trough. And when the plant grows. Guess what?...
Recalibrate! And even if you calibrate it like a jedi master the sound will be more like the Ents from The Two Towers than from a speaker.

WARNING!

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

Warning: Don't plug these into a cactus, such as this [bravenet.com], or you may find yourself in a world of hurt, especially at the every low frequencies.

Re:WARNING!

[Cat_Byte]

Wish I had mod points ;) Thats funny right there. I don't care who you are thats funny.

Marshall Amps

[Soporific]

Imagine seeing a wall of Marshall flower amps on stage at a death metal show.

~S

I misread that...

[cozziewozzie]

...as using PLANETS as speakers, which immediately reminded me of Hotblack from the Hitchhiker's Guide. I should read something more mainstream for a change...

new business area

[mr. spike 2]

We could download or order ringtones for our plants. Most interesting could be ringtones for cactus-type stuff:)

for example cactus vibrating by ice-t track. Or rammstein. it goes better than Celine Dion "my hear will go on".

On the other hand, could playing fast and harsh dnb on plants be harmful to them? :)

Amplifiers?

[drinkypoo]

Uh, no. The story submission, as usual, is brain-damaged. It doesn't turn petals and leaves into amplifiers, it turns them into the surface area of a driver whose components include the plant and some sort of device to make it vibrate - a transducer?

Having the petals and leaves function as an amplifier is some vorlon shit. But, nice try.

such missed opportunities

[everyplace]

If only Pauly Shore had this technology for his climactic party in Bio-Dome. It would have saved the movie.

Disney already has prior art...

[dcigary]

...on musical plants [go.com]...

New Scientist Article

[chaosmage42]

I don't know why this [newscientist.com] article wasn't posted with the main story, but here it is {much longer than the other articles}

Hi, I'm the Inventor, Keiji Koga...

[feloneous cat]

You know, I had a crappy pair of speakers and I thought, why not pass along the experience? My plants love the music of Yoko Kanno, PuffyAmiYumi, Pillows, and all other wild and wacky music groups.

Now, sadly, all of my plants are dead and I am still stuck with these crappy speakers. But now all of your plants are dead too! Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

(This made more sense in the original Japanese... well, no actually it didn't...)

Old Science Fair Experiment

[bombadillo]

"according to Koga, music is also good for the plants, which are invigorated by the constant musical vibes."

Any one ever do a Science Fair project on the effects of differnt types of music on plants? It would be cool to see an experiment on the effects of different types of music played through the plant with this device. And of course compare the findings to the original experiment.

Imagine...

[cammoblammo]

...a beowulf cluster of these.

Oh, that's right. It's called a forest.

(ducks)

I am your geranium

[PsiPsiStar]

...and I pronounce Linux lee nooks.

Veggie music

[g0at]

The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra [gemueseorchester.org]

(It's real; I found 'em linked in my girlfriend's blog [typepad.com] yesterday. Wish I could get a copy of their disc here in Canada affordably...)

-b

Re:In Japan...

[nuclear305]

I believe the proper line would have been either...

In Soviet Japan...plants speak to you!

OR

Plants speak to you...in Japan!

Re:In Japan...

[jcostantino]

Well, I for one welcome our new Perennial overlords.

Re:Our Perennial Overlords...

[Commander Trollco]

No. Your RIAA/Napster/Burpee licence only allows these music files to be played on certain select annuals. The plant DRM prevents transfer to other species.

Re:Our Perennial Overlords...

[jcostantino]

I just found out that you can download an illegally hacked genus ROM file to use the system with poplars.

Re:In Japan...

[blackest_k]

so lets see now i guess any audio source would do, so the plants could speak
wonder how long before the tv is showing home movie footage of freaked out kids and grandma's.
not to mention upsetting a few vegan's
but what would you have your plants say

farmers vesion going
Giit orff moi land !