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Japanese Gadget Has Plants Talking Back
Tokyo (AFP) Dec 27, 2006 Japanese romantics will have the chance to hear some truly flowery language with the help of a playful gadget purported to express the feelings of plants. Through the voice of a small doll, the device will share what the plant is supposedly 'thinking' when a person strokes it. The "Hanakotoba", or "Communication Flower", consists of a small rod topped with a fairy figurine that can be put inside a potted plant or vase of water. When the owner touches the stem or leaves, a small electric current passes from the rod through a wire to a small doll. "What a beautiful day!" the doll, wearing a green vest and cone hat, will say once the flower is touched, or "Let's stay friends forever!" Hanakotoba has up to 200 different phrases, some as potentially uncomfortable as "Do you have a boyfriend?" The gadget, made by Japanese toymaker E-revolution, is the latest creation of Masahiko Kajita, who scored a smash hit in 2002 with "Bowlingual" -- a dog collar said to interpret canine barking. He said the Hanakotoba was meant to tap a female market. "I created translators for cats and dogs, which were a big success among men, so I was searching for a similar success among females, and since women love flowers, I decided to work on them," he said. "This toy doesn't use a single dirty or aggressive word, unlike Bowlingual," he said. But the plant can still become angry. If the device senses there is insufficient water, the doll says in a shrill voice: "Come on, what are you looking at? Give me more water!" The toy was released this month at 4,179 yen (35 dollars) each and, if successful in Japan, will make its way abroad, the company said.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links The language of Flowers - Hanakotoba Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com Animal Rights Heating Up In 2007 Washington (UPI) Dec 22, 2006 Despite intensified law-enforcement efforts and the passage of a new federal law aimed at animal-rights extremists in 2006, the year ahead looks to be a busy one, with pharmaceutical companies squarely in activists' crosshairs. Earlier this year the FBI, which considers animal activists one of the biggest domestic terrorist threats, helped prosecute and essentially shut down a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty that was focused on financially ruining Huntingdon Life Sciences, a firm that conducts animal research for pharmaceutical companies. |
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