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Gadget pipes tunes through flowers

By YURI KAGEYAMA
The Associated Press

SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI / AP Kazue Nishi, an employee of Japanese telecommunications firm Let's Corp., listens to music through a bouquet of calla lilies using Ka-on.

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Called Ka-on, which means "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.

Place the flowers into the vase, turn on Ka-on and the magnet and coil relay the sound vibrations up the stems through the plant's water tubes.

Put your ear close and hear the music emanate from the petals. Touch a leaf, and feel it shake as though in a quiet dance.

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

Unlike regular speakers, which send sound in one direction, Ka-on shoots it in all directions, filling an entire room with music.

Masumi Gotoh, president of Let's Corp., a Nagoya-based telecommunications-equipment company that developed and manufactures Ka-on, calls it ideal for floral table arrangements at weddings, restaurants and hospital reception desks.

Ka-on vases and amplifiers come in various sizes, ranging in price from $46 to $460. There's a version that works with potted plants, and a wireless connection will soon be available for piping music to the Ka-on.

Not only does Ka-on deliver flowery music, it keeps bugs off plants and helps cut flowers last longer, Gotoh claims.

"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."

The $46 version of Ka-on has been on sale via the Internet since July.

About 3,000 have been sold, and some 10,000 additional orders received.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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