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Music Media Technology Science

Turn Your House Plants Into Speakers 193

Posted by timothy from the audrey-already-sings dept.
thermopile writes "According to this story, your everyday houseplants could be turned into room-filling speakers. Called Ka-on ('Flower Sound' in Japanese), the machine consists of a donut-shaped magnet and coil at the base of a vase that hooks up to a CD player, stereo or TV. Prices range from $46 to $460. I don't know about you, but I'd hate getting fragged by that plant over there while playing Doom 3..."
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Turn Your House Plants Into Speakers More

Turn Your House Plants Into Speakers

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  • Sound quality ? (Score:5, Informative)

    by leonmergen ( 807379 ) * <lmergen@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:20AM (#10254384) Homepage
    Hmmmm, I wonder what the sound quality is... I recently bought this device [thinkgeek.com], but the sound quality is really poor... nice idea though!

    • Re:Sound quality ? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Orgazmus ( 761208 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:27AM (#10254410)
      How would those work as a headset?

      • Re:Sound quality ? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        But was this meant to be funny? (it's score 3, right now.)

        I remember a project in the 60's that used a vibrating pad so deaf kids could hear through their skull.

        With cheap gear like this available now, you can experiment broadly. Turn it loose on deaf hackers. They may start making tunes to share on them.

    • Dude! (Score:4, Funny)

      by YouHaveSnail ( 202852 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @07:50AM (#10255254)
      I just got this new geranium and you've gotta hear it? Sweet treble, clear midtones, and WICKED bass!

      • Re:Dude! (Score:3, Funny)

        by Rick.C ( 626083 )
        I just got this new geranium and you've gotta hear it? Sweet treble, clear midtones, and WICKED bass!

        Sir, your ear must be made from a low-grade tin alloy!

        A geranium, the "houseplant of the masses", will never be able to produce the scintillating highs or the rich, full lows that true music afficionados find so inspiring. Those sonoral qulities are simply not in a geranium's breeding.

        For a truly satisfying listening experience, might I suggest a split-leaf philodendron? Not just any specimen will do, of

        • For a truly satisfying listening experience, might I suggest a split-leaf philodendron?

          Uh, yeah, okay, cool. Does it have an input for my 8-track?
    • I tried one on the potted catnip and all I got was high pitched yowling.

      What do you do if your aspidistra only likes Kenny G?

      Seriously though folks, even if the plant does not have any resonances in the audible range, the fact that it is distributed in space limits the frequency response. From a bush a foot across, say, anything above 1Khz is going to be greatly reduced by the waves coming off different parts of the bush tending to cancel out.

      Seems to me that this idea goes in the same bin as putting

  • Trippin (Score:5, Funny)

    by threeofnine ( 813056 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:20AM (#10254386)
    Now when I am tripped out on LSD, I can say that the plant really did say something. :-)

    Three of Nine

  • Way to go, Slasdot editors! (Score:4, Informative)

    by shaka ( 13165 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:22AM (#10254390)
    Déjà vu? [slashdot.org]
  • Would be really funny to hear how this sounds. Maybe i should get myself one of those? ;) I cant imagine they would be so nice for listening to music on, tho.

  • repost however improved info (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:24AM (#10254398) Journal
    This is a report, but not of the same article. You can mention things more than once! :-)

    "Later this month, you'll be able to carry on a telephone conversation with a flower with a planned speaker phone model."

    So this is indeed new! I would love that. Now I just read Light Fantastic - where Rincewind is convinced the trees aren't talking to him!

    Little did he know it was all Ka-on (flower sound) and twoflower could have told him that!

    lol zomg rolflmao etc etc.

  • Some pictures of singing plants (Score:5, Informative)

    by nayigeta ( 792068 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:24AM (#10254399) Homepage Journal
    BBC report [bbc.co.uk] cover the same story with some pictures.

    This is pretty cool, especially for some geeks that are high on gardening.

    Would like to try this myself.

    • "This is pretty cool, especially for some geeks that are high on gardening."

      I'm sure they'll sell millions, as most geeks can keep a plant alive[/sarcasm]

      I think this would be more of a boost to the gardening industry than anything else, buying myself a new plant every week so I can listen to my music :P
      • I'm sure they'll sell millions, as most geeks can keep a plant alive[/sarcasm]

        I take offence to that, I used to be a park caretaker. That was a lot of plants to ensure life for. I can happily say I did a very good job. Better than most other students since or before. (It was a government supported job available to university students only).
      • I'm sure they'll sell millions, as most geeks can keep a plant alive[/sarcasm]


        I think this would be more of a boost to the gardening industry than anything else, buying myself a new plant every week so I can listen to my music :P
        Yeah right. Geeks wouldn't buy new plants to listen to. They would just download them from a P2P network (plant to plant).
    • This is pretty cool, especially for some geeks that are high on gardening.

      Boy, would that be a great practical joke on your stoned roommates.

      Pot plant: "Hey. I think you've had enough, eh?"

      Stoned roommate: "HOLY SHIT!"

      If he/she thinks the pot plant was actually talking to them, they just might take it as a sign they need to stop smoking pot :-)

    • This is pretty cool, especially for some geeks that are high on gardening.

      Yeah I know some geeks that are high on gardening. Heh. Doesn't really involve music coming out of the plant though.

    • Here is the page where you can purchase one.

      Flower Speaker Amp
      Flower Sound Series (Ka-On)

      Current exchange rate is about 108 yen to the dollar:

      http://www.lets-direct.jp/fsp/fsp3.htm

  • Well I guess it's a step up from... (Score:3, Funny)

    by webgit ( 805155 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:28AM (#10254414)
    ... those really annoying plants that dance with the music!

  • Afroman's HD speakers (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ryg0r ( 699756 )
    Thats what it reminds me of.

    But I'm a music producer, quality over novelty.

    Edirol MA-20D's [edirol.com] for me! Even though they are not any where near as good as the Yamaha NS10's.

  • Hook it up to a tube amp (Score:4, Funny)

    by BrainInAJar ( 584756 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:30AM (#10254418)
    for more accurate sound. Ipod -> FM transmitter -> Tube radio -> Flower...

  • Eeeehm ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by YeeHaW_Jelte ( 451855 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:32AM (#10254424) Homepage
    "The plant is happy listening to music," says Gotoh, showing off a rubber plant hooked up to Ka-on in his Tokyo office. "Gerberas and sunflowers work especially well as speakers."

    I'm not sure I'll take horticultural advice from someone who has a _rubber_ plant on his desk ...
    • "... never let up, you know that. There'll be rubbers in my desk, rubbers in the coffee. Rubbers, rubbers, rubbers. If only you'd kept your mouth shut, but no, you had to go tell everybody."

      "Well give the guys a break. It's in one ear out the rubber."

    • Re:Eeeehm ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by mairas ( 102089 ) <mairas@iki.fi> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:17AM (#10254544) Homepage

      I'm not sure I'll take horticultural advice from someone who has a _rubber_ plant on his desk ...

      Uh, rubber plants (Ficus elastica) are common household plants, and while they might not be the most difficult plants to keep alive, they still are real, living entities, instead of being made of rubber, as you seem to suggest. I'm not sure I'd listen to critique of one's horticultural knowledge from someone who doesn't even know the rubber plant...

    • "The plant is happy listening to music," says Gotoh...

      Well, from what I understand on how nature reacts to music, it's the type of music that matter. There was some test done long time ago on the dolphins (if I recollect correctly), where music was played on the beach, and dolphin reaction was noticed. They enjoyed classical music (came closer to the beach), ignored country (neutral reaction), and run (well, swam) away when rock music was played (negative reaction, seemed to annoy them).

      I just feel sor
  • Has anyone studied has this affects the life expectancy of affected plants? I guess it may depend on the music you play. If you play Kenny G, they won't last a week. Celine Dion, maybe 2.

    • If you play Kenny G, they won't last a week. Celine Dion, maybe 2.

      Yes, but the real question is how long will you last having to listen to that music?

      • I dont' play that kind of music but I can say that my plants have survived over a year on top of my current speakers so I'm fairly sure these would be fine. Of course this might be more like a constant earthquake depending on the volume, anyone know how well plants handle those?
    • There were tests performed by Mrs. Retallak in Denver proving that differrent types of music have differrent impacts on plants. The tests showed, that plants grow bigger when there is classical music playing, and smaller or wither when rock music is playing. When it's Indian classical or Bach, the plants grow even bigger and tend to bend to the sound source.

  • You might make your plants sick... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:39AM (#10254447)
    I remember some TV show talking about the affects of music on plants. They did slightly better w/ classical, normal w/o music of course and wilted w/ heavy metal. I wonder how a racing game vs. the sims or doom 3 would do.
    • I have anecdotal evidence to the contrary. My roommate in college set one of his plants atop one of the large speakers we had in the living room of our apartment. It was fed a fairly eclectic blend of classical, hard rock, American folk, new wave and punk. The plant grew to almost surround the speaker, and when we moved out, we had to cut it away from the speaker. (My roommate found another speaker to set it on in his new place. The plant continued to thrive.)
    • Here is an interesting page on music and plants [ctstateu.edu].

      I'm afraid that their conclusion isn't very hopeful for those of us welcoming our new listening plant over... yeah.

      There is an interesting bit about Mimosa pudica, a plant that is sensitive to vibrations.

  • This reminds me of a couple of short stories by J.G Ballard. One of them, Prima Belladonna, is about a guy who runs a shop selling plants specially bred to be able to "sing". I thought it was quite a cool premise, the idea of your house being filled with music produced by plants, sitting there humming to themselves all day long. Now, this isn't quite as cool as that, but still...
    • Having such plants would be an expensive hobby... have you never felt the need to strangle your coworker or that one know-it-all kid in class who used to let everyone know that he or she knew all the answers to the test you were writing while you were sweating over the question "Name:" by humming contently?

      On the other hand... this is /. You probably WERE that kid ;).
    • We musn't forget the humming (ringing) plants on Talos IV in the ST:TOS pilot episode

      Of course, those plants must have been everywhere because every eerie looking planet had the same sound in the background.

      They must have a soothing effect though because they even made Spock smile.

    • "Boy have I got a deal for you"
      *pulls small green bird out of pocket*
      "notice the interesting, tri-pronged root structure. This is an especially rare one with 2 trunks. It'll sing to itself for hours. For you, a very special price."

      For every round hole, there's a square /.er trying to fill it :-/

  • Something... just something... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Silverlancer ( 786390 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:50AM (#10254474)
    Something... just something... tells me that this isn't going to catch on. The fact that its both Japanese and relatively useless is a hint.

  • Very nice - but havent we seen this before? (Score:5, Informative)

    by syrinje ( 781614 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:51AM (#10254476)
    Looks like some article-posting-karma-whoring is in progress....and the ed fell for it. We all saw this story on slashdot [slashdot.org] before.

    I quote from the original -

    Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday July 21, @02:44PM from the listening-to-foghat-on-your-ficas dept. 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."

    On second thoughts - this plant as speaker idea is not so hot either....

  • And with trees ? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fib2004 ( 753099 )

    Does the sound power depend on the size of the plant ? It could be interesting to try that on trees, I just imagine putting up a festival in my garden and using the two trees I have as baffles...

  • Wow, no katakana (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kahei ( 466208 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:00AM (#10254503) Homepage


    I am absolutely amazed that they named it in honest-to-god pseudo-Chinese rather than calling it 'furauaa saundo' or something.

    Next, they'll start naming things in actual Japanese. Oh, wait, that would require attention to aesthetics and meaning rather than to sounding cool and vague.

    Bring back Heian period Japanese, say I.

    PS I am not a crank.

  • More pictures (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ranx ( 28829 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:06AM (#10254520) Homepage

    Here you can see some pictures:

    http://www.lets-direct.jp/fsp/fsp3.htm [lets-direct.jp] (Mostly pictures of flowers in a vase).

    I wonder if the last vase is really seven times more expensive than the first one.

  • Looking for a good plant to play Bob Marley (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RobsterCraw ( 800237 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:10AM (#10254527)
    I am actually quite interested in this thing. The big question is what plant species have the best acoustics (i never thought id say that). Would it be better to have a plant with large leaves, small leaves, one stem, bushy, or do flowers sound better. If someone knows something about this please share. And I wouldn't consider this a mere novelty. In the narrow sense, yes it it to people like me but for what I think is the targeted demographic, people who own a hackey sack (or frisbee) collection, whittle wood, are always wearing a "Phish" t-shirt, and watch "willie wonka and the chocolate factory" on a weekly basis, having a musical plant is a major advance in critical technology. Unfortunately, the marketing strategy failed to notice that the young and avid gardeners of modern society don't keep their house plants lying around the house, out in the open where any one can find them, like say, the police. I think that once some acoustic testing gets done I'm gonna have to invest everything I Have in the bonzai tree industry. Once the word gets out about the acoustics I'll be making a nickel for every tree manufactured and assembled in factories nation wide. But seriously, what factors would make the difference for better sound?
    • Look at the flower arrangements [lets-direct.jp]. They're comprised of small flowers accompanied by big, flat leaves. My guess is that the leaves generate most of the sound, while the flowers generate most of the press.
    • This is not rocket science. Pillows and soft objects muffle sound, so expect the same from soft stemmed and soft leaved plants. Stiff plant stems will be able to transmit the sound to the beginning of the leaves and petals, but still the volume will be low. My opinion, for what it's worth, (and I did get an A+ on my college research paper, "The Physics of Sound") is that most of the sound is from the pot itself, and without the flower pot, you have essentially no volume.

      How do the plants like it? Cons

  • ...but $300 bucks is a little much for flower speakers. I don't see it catching on except with maybe the Ikebana crowd.

  • Woah! What next? (Score:3, Funny)

    by jigyasubalak ( 308473 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:44AM (#10254621)
    Turn cockroaches into USB Flash memories?

  • Don't Forget (Score:1, Funny)

    by Luigi30 ( 656867 )
    You think this'll ruin the Vogons' perfect stereo arrangement when they come and blow up the earth for that new intergalactic bypass?

  • Puzzling results... (Score:3, Funny)

    by bytesmythe ( 58644 ) <bytesmythe&gmail,com> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:50AM (#10254647)
    I hooked this up to a bowl of petunias and the speakers blurted out "Oh no, not again."

    I figure if I knew why it did this I'd know a lot more about the nature of the universe.

  • Brings a whole new meaning to... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @05:53AM (#10254654)
    my speakers just died.

    And the way my plants hold up, i'd have to buy new
    speakers every two weeks. ;)

  • Column of fire (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    When I was in college we made an acetylene torch play music.

    We put tungsten electrodes at the top and bottom of the flame, applied a large bias voltage along with the signal, and injected ions.

    One of my buddies found the recipe somewhere. I've never seen it before or since but it's pretty spectacular.

  • Long term effects? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Mortiss ( 812218 )
    All well and good (plants liking music), but what would be long term effects of exposing plants directly to all vibrations (esp. if you like high volume)

    I for one wouldnt connect my award winning lily to it.

    (Afterthought) Got to check warranty for something like:
    "Company is not liable for any damge sustained by the plans due to the use of this equipment."
  • ...linux on a dead badger, used as an mp3 player... especially if you consider flower's smell can cover the dead badger's stink
  • I read about a True random number generator, then I half expected a doom 3 demo, than I saw the "I don't know about you, but I'd hate getting fragged by that plant over there while playing Doom 3"

    I put 2 and 2 together and in true orwellian fashion thought that they had hooked a plant up to a doom 3 bot and had somehow got it learning the maps and killing people!

    madness.

  • If they can be used as speakers... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by uberchicken ( 121048 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @06:14AM (#10254716)
    then couldn't they also be used as microphones? Speakers are usually microphonic; stick a set of headphones in your mike socket next time you're stuck without a real mike in your NetMeeting sesh.
  • This is definitely a repeat story ...

    And I do believe within the last few months.

    --The Dude

  • What would be really cool ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by gustgr ( 695173 ) <(gustgr) (at) (gmail.com)> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @06:28AM (#10254759)
    Imagine playing Zero Wing with plant speakers. To hear a flower saying to you:

    ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

    That would be bizarre.
  • is having those plants say "Feed me, Seymore, feed me" :)
  • So what are plants which commit Sepukku after listening to the backstreet boys called?

  • -1, Not Funny (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tairnyn ( 740378 )
    Since bad humor seems to be the hallmark of this thread...

    In mother Japan, flower speaks to YOU.

    Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!

    • Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!

      No, no, no. You haven't been paying attention lately, have you? It should be...

      Imaging a beowulf cluster of these... in Japan!

      ...it's amazing you missed such low hanging fruit.

  • So now, instead of having to talk to your plant, your plant will talk to you???

    (Maybe you need watering once in a while too.)

  • oh? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Superjhemp ( 810389 )
    '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.
  • I don't mind getting fragged by the plant so much, I just wish it wouldn't laugh at me every time.

  • Alpha Source (Score:3, Funny)

    by centauri ( 217890 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @10:30AM (#10256609) Homepage
    Speakers, bah! I'm looking for a way to turn plants - say, all the trees in my garden - into microphones, so I can eavesdrop (leavesdrop?) on people who might be plotting against me. Anyone who knows how to do this should email dsidious@imperialpalace.coruscant.gov.
  • So now I have to worry about watering my speakers before they die?!
  • It certainly sounds like a fun idea to try this. You could see what plants work the best; e.g. if leaf length would improve bass response (like blowing on a grass leaf), or if it would just rupture the plant tissues at each leaf's resonant freq.

    Maybe this wouldn't work well at all; a plant with many different branch/leaf lengths might be similar to having a tweeter, mids, and a sub, or would the different branchs just cancel each others' signal out.

    I don't know about keeping the bugs off though. How do
  • ... that standard apartment-lease agreements will now prohibit ownership of those giant-leaved "elephant-ear" plants?

  • From the article:

    Later this month, you'll be able to carry on a telephone conversation with a flower with a planned speaker phone model.

    You can do that now, if you take the right drugs.

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