- Green-fingered gardeners have long espoused the positive
benefits of talking to plants.
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- Now a gadget developed in Japan is allowing flowers to
answer back - with music.
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- Called Ka-on, which means "flower sound" in
Japanese, the gadget consists of a doughnut-shaped magnet and coil at the
base of a vase.
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- It hooks up to a CD player, TV or stereo and relays sounds
up through a plant's stem and out via the petals.
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- Happy plants
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- The speakers shoot sound in all directions, filling a
room with music.
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- The idea is the brainchild of Let's Corp, a Japanese
telecommunications equipment company.
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- It plans to develop a flower with a speaker phone to
allow users to carry out conversations with their plants later this month.
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- As well as being a novel idea for flower table arrangements
at weddings and reception desks, Ka-on is also being used for concerts
in Japan.
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- The Ka-on vases and amplifiers come in various sizes,
priced from £25 to £250.
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- President of Let's Corp Masumi Gotoh says that the system
is also beneficial to the plants, keeping bugs off and helping them last
longer.
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- "The plant is happy listening to music," he
said.
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- "Gerberas and sunflowers work especially well as
speakers," he added.
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- Surfers are responding to the musical flowers. Some 10,000
orders have been received via the internet and 3,000 have already been
sold.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3656332.stm
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