4 ms·

Thirsty Plants Can Now Send Text Messages

9 points by kkleiner 17y ago

jnorthrop 17y ago
Neat idea but it seem really impractical. A sensor on every plant? What happens when a leaf falls off? Are you going to have a sensor that is saying "water me now!" until it is recovered? Is there really that much different between plants of the same species planted right next to each other that they'd each need a sensor? It would seem better to have a small cluster of sensors every 100m or so. That way you could water the areas that need it and have a bit of fault-tolerance (in case one sensor in the group falls to the ground you have the others in the group reporting correctly). Having said that though don't modern farmers already have technology that tells them when to water and how much? I vaguely recalled reading something about that kind of technology years ago.
- kkleiner 17y ago
  story was updated shortly after you read it to mention that not every plant requires the chip. Like you say, there must be other stuff out there as well, so it is unclear how useful this would be versus other competing solutions
tjic 17y ago
I object to the sensationalist "THEY can send text messages". You've got a sensor, and the sensor communicates back along a channel. This is like saying that "stars can now imprint their images on photographic film". In fact, you've connected a camera to a telescope.
- wmf 17y ago
  It could be worse: the plants could be tweeting.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- kkleiner 17y ago
  Robotrout, I don't have the specific info you are looking for...but if you really want to look into this further, you could contact one of the main researchers behind the project: http://www.agri.gov.il/en/people/875.aspx http://www.agri.gov.il/en/people/875.aspx The $.05 cost per plant does not mean that the unit cost is $.05...that is just the cost to buy proper coverage for one plant, even if that means that there is one sensor for every 100 plants.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
boryas 17y ago
Now we can have a fully automated garden which, once it is in full bloom, will also send a message to a machine that delivers a chemical to our brains that give us the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes from working on a garden.
- mahmud 17y ago
  I think a few Good Guys somewhere in Colombia or Afghanistan could use zigbee enabled farms. Just saying.
biohacker42 17y ago
$250? This is much cheaper http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_talk_t.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_...
msluyter 17y ago
For a while I wanted to write an app that'd send you reminders when it was time to water your plants (based on factors like the plant type, the weather, etc...) but there are just too many vagaries to make accurate predictions. IE, your house may be particularly dry due to your particular AC unit, and so you may need to water twice as often as someone with higher humidity. This, on the other hand, makes a lot more sense.

9 points by kkleiner 17y ago

Neat idea but it seem really impractical. A sensor on every plant? What happens when a leaf falls off? Are you going to have a sensor that is saying "water me now!" until it is recovered? Is there really that much different between plants of the same species planted right next to each other that they'd each need a sensor? It would seem better to have a small cluster of sensors every 100m or so. That way you could water the areas that need it and have a bit of fault-tolerance (in case one sensor in the group falls to the ground you have the others in the group reporting correctly). Having said that though don't modern farmers already have technology that tells them when to water and how much? I vaguely recalled reading something about that kind of technology years ago.

kkleiner 17y ago
story was updated shortly after you read it to mention that not every plant requires the chip. Like you say, there must be other stuff out there as well, so it is unclear how useful this would be versus other competing solutions

tjic 17y ago

I object to the sensationalist "THEY can send text messages". You've got a sensor, and the sensor communicates back along a channel. This is like saying that "stars can now imprint their images on photographic film". In fact, you've connected a camera to a telescope.

wmf 17y ago
It could be worse: the plants could be tweeting.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

kkleiner 17y ago
Robotrout, I don't have the specific info you are looking for...but if you really want to look into this further, you could contact one of the main researchers behind the project: http://www.agri.gov.il/en/people/875.aspx http://www.agri.gov.il/en/people/875.aspx The $.05 cost per plant does not mean that the unit cost is $.05...that is just the cost to buy proper coverage for one plant, even if that means that there is one sensor for every 100 plants.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

boryas 17y ago

Now we can have a fully automated garden which, once it is in full bloom, will also send a message to a machine that delivers a chemical to our brains that give us the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes from working on a garden.

mahmud 17y ago
I think a few Good Guys somewhere in Colombia or Afghanistan could use zigbee enabled farms. Just saying.

biohacker42 17y ago

$250? This is much cheaper http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_talk_t.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_...

msluyter 17y ago

For a while I wanted to write an app that'd send you reminders when it was time to water your plants (based on factors like the plant type, the weather, etc...) but there are just too many vagaries to make accurate predictions. IE, your house may be particularly dry due to your particular AC unit, and so you may need to water twice as often as someone with higher humidity. This, on the other hand, makes a lot more sense.