Botanical Kit Lets Plants Tweet When They Need Water
NYC-based researchers and innovators create a kit that monitors soil moisture level and automatically notifies plant owners over the social network.
Botonicalls, an organization focused on innovations in plant-to-human communications, has devoted their time to creating a wifi-enabled plant-care system. The claim:
The Botanicalls project is fundamentally about communication between plants and people. We are empowering both by inventing new avenues of interaction. Plants that might otherwise be neglected are given the ability to call and text message people to request assistance. People who are unsure of their ability to effectively care for growing things are given visual and aural clues using common human methods of communication.
The team is selling their Botanicals Kit through Sparkfun, a DIY electronics website. The kit comes with an Arduino microcontroller, an Ethernet module, two probes to insert into the soil to monitor moisture level, and a pre-programmed petal-shaped chip that enables buyers to connect their house plants to Twitter. Owners of the kit can customize their plant’s messages, which function as tweet reminders of when watering needs to get done.
Buy this unique device on Sparkfun for $99.95.