Scientists have created a technology that lets plants either call you on the phone or send messages to your Twitter account when they need watering. The plants have sensors that detect the plant's soil moisture levels.
Botanicalls, the
inventor of this technology, is a group formed at the New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Botanicalls had created a unique technology last year and were able to use sensors by which the plants were able to place a call to the owner when they needed water. You can see that in the video here.
Now the same folks have
extended this technology to send
Twitter messages to your account.
“It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love"
The plant has capabilities to send you messages if the following conditions are met:
1.) When the moisture level of the plant's soil drops below the satisfactory threshold, it will send a status update that the plant needs to be watered.
2.) If the soil moisture drops below a critical level the plant will twitter that it is urgently in need of watering.
3.) Any rapid rise in soil moisture will be detected as a watering event. The plant will then determine if the soil moisture has risen to the desired level for a proper watering. If it has, then it will twitter its thanks.
4.) If a watering event occurs, but the soil moisture has not reached the desired level, the plant will twitter to report that it was watered, but not sufficiently.
5.) Likewise, if a watering event occurs, but the plant was not in need of water yet, the plant will twitter to complain that it is being over watered.
To see how they do it with a complete block diagram and all the tools necessary check the link
here. You can find most of these parts in
RadioShack.
Plant lovers would love to have this technology. Maybe they can extend this technology to pour water automatically from a water source instead of calling you at the office. Animal lovers would also like to get hold of this technology if the application extended to household pets.
