The Flower Vase MP3 Player, As Cool As It Gets

If there still are people who say that in the field of headphones and MP3 players everything has been said and done, we're glad to prove them wrong by introducing one of the most innovative designs we've met this year: the flower vase personal music system. And if "audio gadgets" is on the menu, then this piece of tech is by far one of the most striking things available to this date; forget iPod design and by all means prepare to greet a dramatic change in what you thought you knew about music players and headphones.

This amazing concept is the brainchild of Korean designer duo Won-Ho Son and Joong-Ho Choi, and it is one of the strongest statements when it comes to technology combined with fashion.

The flower vase MP3 player and headphone set is indeed exactly what its name says: enjoy a portable digital music player shaped like a recipient you'd normally use to put flowers into, but loaded with cunning track skip controls, rechargeable battery and a flash memory. Atop the vase, two rose buds have been placed – they are the very earpieces, colored in the same nuance as the vase and with a green receptacle, hiding the rotary volume controls.

We're not sure whether each earphone sports its own volume control (and that would not be so nice) or if the volume ring of one earpiece affects the whole gadget. Everything is in a small-scale design, and can make for a most exquisite fashion accessory, especially if worn like a pendant around the neck. The overall shape of this portable music system breathes a fresh air and is a natural born eye-catcher, despite its somehow poor comfort factor.

Of course, the rose buds look awesome but their shape comes with some issues: first of all, we're talking dimensions – they should be small enough to fit in a person's ear. Then there’s the hygiene problem, as their shape, with interleaving layers, is prone to dirt build-up with little possibilities to clean it. Despite these purely functional aspects, the very design idea gets an A+ from us, for marvelously exploiting a (sometimes) dangerous mix between nature, fashion and technology.

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