New Technology Allows Plants to Speak Scottish English and Tweet Owners

MessoMesso · May 1, 2010

Old article, but what the hell. "Tweet" as in Twitter, by the way.

Full article and hilarious accompanying video here.

January 1, 2009 â€” Interactive telecommunications researchers designed a soil-moisture sensor device that can allow a house plant to communicate with its owner. The device can send short messages to a mobile phone or, by using a service called Twitter, it can send short messages to the Internet. The messages can range from reminders to water the plant, a thank you or a warning that you over- or under-watered it. To communicate, probes in the soil emit electric waves. A voltage level based on the moisture content is sent through two wires to a circuit board that compares the optimum moisture level with the current one. A local network receives this data and allows the plant to send a message through the device.

Knowing what your plants need isn't always this simple. For most of us, it's more of a guessing game. Phyllis Bilowich believes her porch plants like sharing her morning cup of joe.

"The hibiscus has grown taller than me," said Bilowich. "I contribute that to the coffee."

Now she can not only see the results, but Phyllis' plants can tell her exactly what they need. A new system called Botanicalls, developed by interactive telecommunications researchers, allows your plants to send "tweets," or short text messages, to your mobile phone or messages to the Internet.

"They'll recognize when they've been watered, and they'll say thank you, and they'll also let you know if you've over-watered or under-watered," said Botanicalls developer Katie London.

WHAT IS IT? Botanicalls provides a method for plants to indicate when they need care. Sensors are placed in the soil with a plant, where it measures the level of moisture. The sensors send a signal to a microcontroller, which determines when moisture is low or when water has been added. Then it can send a wireless signal to an internet-connected computer that can send a prerecorded message to the owner. These messages might include a thank-you when plants are watered, or a warning if the watering is too much.
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Miminari · May 2, 2010

While I admit the idea to be kinda cool, but when I read "Tweets", it totally ruined my otherwise positive opinion. Have we gotten so ADD that something that is over 140 characters is TL;DR?

zerobahamut · May 2, 2010

Wow, thats something we should do with animals. Trying to understand what animals are saying.

MessoMesso · May 2, 2010

zerobahamut said:

Wow, thats something we should do with animals. Trying to understand what animals are saying.
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...You want to equip random non-human animals with moisture sensors.

Shit, man. That's even creepier than what I like to do!

zerobahamut · May 2, 2010

Woops, I meant like making an invention for animals.

calvin_0 · May 2, 2010

i though what the hell is this, plant dont have brain nor capable of speech..... but its just a dirt sensor >.>

zerobahamut said:

Woops, I meant like making an invention for animals.
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they already have such device, its call "Bowlingual". But its only for dog and it is market as entertainment product.

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New Technology Allows Plants to Speak Scottish English and Tweet Owners

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