Zaragoza, Spain hacklab La Remolacha (“The Beet”) sports a logo which responds to human interaction with a beet plant growing in the space. Sensors keep track of temperature as well as humidity for both air and ground, while buttons add more water, plant food, light, and music.
The shape and activity of the visualization respond
s to the sensors. The higher the temperature, the more folds in the shape. More distortions appear when there’s more humidity in the soil, while rotation speed increases with air humidity. Adding food increases the size of the visualization, and music triggers more vibrations.
An Arduino keeps track of the buttons and humidity sensors, while a nearby computer, connected via USB, sends the data to a node.js server. The data are displayed on the website through the torus visualization, which is done in WebGL.
The beet’s environment also signals the health of the space, because if no one is visiting, no one can feed the plant. On the other hand, could too many visitors actually kill the thing?
The project was created by [Innovart], [Miguel Frago], and [Santi Grau] with help from other folks.
Thanks [Esther Borao Moros] for the tip!
An exceptional way to make tending to certain key plants fun and interactive with a knowledge on its needs. I’d find this invaluable for growing your own food. This’d be great for farmers too.
Very cool! This would be great for classrooms where kids could actually SEE what happens with plants as they tend them!
NEXT STEP: Monitoring vital signs on the class hamster….