An audio technology that turns plants and flowers into loudspeakers has been developed in Japan, although some experts remain sceptical about the idea.
The speaker system, designed by Let鈥檚 Corporation, a technology firm based in Okayama, southern Japan, mimics the way conventional audio speakers work. But it uses flowers instead of the conventionally used cone made of paper, plastic or metal, to generate sound waves.
Flowers are inserted into an acrylic tube containing a magnetic coil and an oscillating component. Applying an alternating electrical current causes the tube, and the flowers, to vibrate at high speed, producing audible sound.
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Let鈥檚 has not released any information on the performance of the system but says it can be used to reproduce audio from a CD or the radio. 鈥淲e have added the fifth and final sense, sound, to the four senses already expressed by flowers 鈥� colour, scent, taste, and touch,鈥� the company said when launching the technology.
Hirohiko Okugawa, a manager at Let鈥檚 told Reuters that flower speakers could be used, 鈥渁nywhere where you would want music naturally integrated with a natural surrounding鈥�.
Floral display
The system is designed for use in stores, as part of a floral display, for example. The company says it also plans to develop versions that include a self-contained FM radio and power source. Let鈥檚 says it will sell different sized units for between 5,000 yen ($46) to 50,000 yen ($460).
However, some experts doubt that the system would work well in practice. Stanley Lipshitz, an audio researcher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, says speakers normally vibrate rigid material, so using something flexible like a plant would be far less effective.
鈥淐learly, if you vibrate something at an audio frequency, you will get a sound,鈥� he told New 杏吧原创. 鈥淪o I have no doubt it would make some sort of sound. But I don鈥檛 how good it would be.鈥�
However, Lipshitz suggests the system could perhaps be used to let people carry out a conversation with their favourite flora. 鈥淎 lot of people like to talk to their plants so maybe you could write some software to finally let them do that,鈥� he says.