Imagine answering your cell
phone to hear your Scotch Moss plant telling you in a fake Glaswegian accent
that it needs a drink.
This scenario is not far from
reality with a group of postgraduate students at
The "Botanicalls"
project uses moisture sensors placed in the soil which can send a signal over a
wireless network to a gateway that places a call if the plant's too dry or wet.
Recorded voices are assigned
to each plant to match its biological characteristics and to help increase the
charm of the phone message and give plants their own personality.
Interactive communications
student Rebecca Bray, who developed the concept with three colleagues, said the
technology was not new but it's the way of communicating by voice and adding
personality to the plants that's different.
"They will call and tell
you they are thirsty and need a lot of water. They are also really
polite," Bray told Reuters.
"We wanted to make sure
that you weren't just getting phone calls that were really needy. So we have
them calling you back when you've watered them to say thank you for watering
me."
For example, the Scots Moss
is given a fake Scottish accent as it was not originally from
"We wanted to provide a
system so that the plants could actually survive by communicating to
people," said Bray who developed the system with Rob Faludi,
Kati London and Kate Hartman.
She said they were surprised
how many people have approached them to acquire this service for homes and
businesses but didn't expect the system to become available commercially for at
least another six months.
"We hope that the system
will help people learn how to take better care of their plants over time and
maybe not even need the phone calls after a while," Bray said.
