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Hello, It's Your Houseplant Calling
Or even tweeting. Today's apps and gadgets let plants communicate in better ways than with a show of withered leaves
Houzz Contributor. I'm a Silicon Valley-based writer, columnist and blogger, covering technology and culture. http://elgan.com
Houzz Contributor. I'm a Silicon Valley-based writer, columnist and blogger,... More »
Just because your houseplants lack a central nervous system doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from the consumer electronics revolution. Researchers are working on all kinds of crazy ways for your plants to communicate, for example. One of the wackiest is a project at Keio University in Japan that would have your plants waving their branches to get your attention.
The prototype uses clear string connected to motors in the base of the plant’s pot, plus a motion detector at the base of the pot. One basic use for this would be for sensors in the pot to detect problems, such as a lack or excess of water. When the motion sensor detects a person nearby, it can wave the plant's tiny branches to communicate, “Hey, I could really use a drink” or “Stop! That’s enough water already.”
Other areas of research are more practical. One is the development of robots that tend to your houseplants, so you don’t have to.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explored this area of robotics, called robotany, a few years ago. They looked at ways for houseplant owners to program in the type of plant, and thereby the amount of sun that plant would require. The robotic component would move the plant to different places in the house to optimize light.
MIT’s project never resulted in consumer products. But other areas of robotany are already going online. For example, a company called Blue River Technology is developing something it calls the Lettuce Bot. The goal is an automated farm robot with wheels that can detect weeds and pull them at high speed. It uses “computer vision technology” to recognize weeds by sight and distinguish them from crops. The goal is to turn this thing loose on a large farm and have it remove all the weeds. This would eliminate the need for herbicide and also for expensive labor, simultaneously improving the quality of the food and lowering its cost.
The prototype uses clear string connected to motors in the base of the plant’s pot, plus a motion detector at the base of the pot. One basic use for this would be for sensors in the pot to detect problems, such as a lack or excess of water. When the motion sensor detects a person nearby, it can wave the plant's tiny branches to communicate, “Hey, I could really use a drink” or “Stop! That’s enough water already.”
Other areas of research are more practical. One is the development of robots that tend to your houseplants, so you don’t have to.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explored this area of robotics, called robotany, a few years ago. They looked at ways for houseplant owners to program in the type of plant, and thereby the amount of sun that plant would require. The robotic component would move the plant to different places in the house to optimize light.
MIT’s project never resulted in consumer products. But other areas of robotany are already going online. For example, a company called Blue River Technology is developing something it calls the Lettuce Bot. The goal is an automated farm robot with wheels that can detect weeds and pull them at high speed. It uses “computer vision technology” to recognize weeds by sight and distinguish them from crops. The goal is to turn this thing loose on a large farm and have it remove all the weeds. This would eliminate the need for herbicide and also for expensive labor, simultaneously improving the quality of the food and lowering its cost.
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The way consumer technology works is that all the big, expensive technologies developed for large companies eventually get cheaper and find their ways into the consumer marketplace. So we can look forward to weed-pulling robots available on Hammacher Schlemmer in five years and in the garden section of Home Depot in 10.
Meanwhile, technology for plants already exists for some purposes — mainly to communicate their needs. For example, a new product called the Wi-Fi Plant Sensor lets plants tell you what’s going on — by telephone!
Here’s how it works. You stick the sensor, which looks like a very short golf club, into the soil of one of your plants. Then you use the phone app to record the plant species. You then simply follow the app’s instructions and alerts for caring for the plant.
The device itself measures moisture levels in the soil and the amount of sunlight the plant is getting, and takes that information into account when sending you marching orders.
Meanwhile, technology for plants already exists for some purposes — mainly to communicate their needs. For example, a new product called the Wi-Fi Plant Sensor lets plants tell you what’s going on — by telephone!
Here’s how it works. You stick the sensor, which looks like a very short golf club, into the soil of one of your plants. Then you use the phone app to record the plant species. You then simply follow the app’s instructions and alerts for caring for the plant.
The device itself measures moisture levels in the soil and the amount of sunlight the plant is getting, and takes that information into account when sending you marching orders.
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| A more old-fashioned way to monitor soil moisture and light exposure is a product called the EasyBloom. And by old-fashioned, I mean that it uses USB connectivity and a PC rather than wireless and a mobile app. The EasyBloom looks like a fake flower. You stick it into a houseplant or even outside in your garden, and it will collect data about water and light. Every once in a while, you pull it out of the soil and plug it into your computer. An application will give you the rundown on what the plant has been going through, enabling you to take action to change the watering schedule or change the amount of light it gets. A “plant library” provides recommendations. |
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| Another fun way for your plants to alert you to an uncomfortable dryness is via Twitter, the microblogging service. That’s right: Your fern can have its own Twitter account. A gadget called Botanicalls monitors the moisture in your plant’s soil. It then tweets when the water level gets too low. Here’s one plant’s Twitter account, so you can see what it looks like when a houseplant tweets for attention. |
Ideabook updated on Sept. 25, 2012.
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I checked this out and I am going to purchase it. What I will do is research an address (zipcode) that corresponds to our temperate Sydney weather so any plant info off their database is relevant.