Strange

Device lets plants Tweet their desires to owners

by Ann Smarty | January 27, 2009 at 10:31 am

194 views | 27 Recommendations | 6 comments

A new tool that enables plants to send messages using Twitter has been developed. It allows them to have a voice shout for water and thank their owners for good care.

The first generation of the Botanicalls technology used the telephone. The creators rigged a moisture sensor to stick a plant's soil to sense how wet the dirt is and then pass that information to a microchip. The chip, in turn, sent the information through the Internet to a phone. The phone would ring, a person would answer and "the plant," in its own individual voice - complete with accents - would have a few words to say about its condition.

The fundamental mechanics behind Botanicalls builds on the sort of technology that enables systems currently on the market - alarm systems that call the police and fire departments or gadgets that allow people to call home and turn on the heat, or start their car from inside on a cold day.

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JeffHuang

at 11:03 on January 27th, 2009

Is this really necessary? Interesting, but I don't know if I want a plant calling me.

Paschen

at 13:52 on January 27th, 2009

We conducted some serious studies on this sort of reaction and tried to determine if plants had a soul or feelings and if they could feel pain or had a memory. The research is still going on and the results so far are actually surprising.

Jarrett Martineau

at 18:50 on January 27th, 2009

Hilarious.

yo.ruiters

at 22:23 on January 27th, 2009

Thanks Jeff. This is one of my favourite plants at home. Whether it's a cactus or succulent, I've no idea. Somebody please enlighten me! Its got these little spots of spines which embed into your skin and is just irritating for days. Given it's always storing its own water I'd not be concerned about giving it a device to call me, that's just weird.

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waltcw3ret

at 10:56 on January 29th, 2009

My basil plant in the house for the winter. I like to use fresh herbs when I prepare food.

The lamp above the plant has a standard 20W fluorescent bulb, which deliveres plenty UV light for photosynthesis.

waltcw3ret has contributed a photo to this story.

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