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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Science Texting Plants

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:53 AM

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.

We truly live in the future. The future, the future is here!

(The story is not new.)

Comments (12) RSS

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@Ficus tweets: That bitch of a cat peed on me again! Why do you hate me so???

Posted by Cracker Jack on March 31, 2009 at 11:04 AM

This article is stupid. The plant doesn't communicate. A computer with probes in the soil does all the communication. The plant remains as voiceless as ever.

Posted by Greg on March 31, 2009 at 11:08 AM

Yeah, Greg, but I guess ol' Chuckles couldn't manage to figure that out. Dumbass.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on March 31, 2009 at 11:24 AM

Cool. Now, when can my ficus tree and I legally get married?

Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 31, 2009 at 11:26 AM

"a service called Twitter"? what is this, 2008?

Posted by cephi on March 31, 2009 at 11:50 AM

Just make that plant text my robot for more water and the deal is taken care of.

Posted by Pat on March 31, 2009 at 11:59 AM

That's cool and all, but you do NOT need one of those for a mother-in-law's tongue. You CANNOT kill that plant.

Posted by w7ngman on March 31, 2009 at 12:01 PM

It'd be cool, except for the price tag.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electro…

Posted by Griffin on March 31, 2009 at 12:39 PM

Sure, sure. But can it post to Slog?

Posted by lusk on March 31, 2009 at 12:49 PM

All your plants are belong to rootkit script kiddies from Russia and China!

Posted by Industrial Plants of the World Unite on March 31, 2009 at 12:54 PM

@9: Hell, given the intelligence level of some of the people here, it would probably be an improvement.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on March 31, 2009 at 1:44 PM

On the one hand I'm tempted to say: "But Charles, we've been living in the future for about 5-10 years now, haven't you noticed?" Which is true.

On the other hand, it should be clear that the way forward in human-plant interactions is to use very-well-designed low-tech solutions combined with permaculture wisdom to develop truly resiliant soil and plant communities.
Not the internet and this twitterpation thing everyone keeps talking about.
Oh, and strengthening psychic abilities all around, that's part of the future too. Inquire at your local brainstem.

Posted by treacle on March 31, 2009 at 4:33 PM