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Plants Use Twitter to Tell You to Water Them

Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon Feb 25, 2008 09:37 AM
from the science-and-technology-versus-laziness dept.
Hardware Hacking
ptorrone noted a Make article about twittering your plants just in case you need that sort of thing in your life. And you do. He says "The gang from Botanicalls used one of Adafruit's new open source hardware ethernet shields for Arduino (open hardware too) to make some plants talk — and now you can too! That's right, having your houseplants Twitter you when they need water and more! You can see what one of the plants is doing now..."
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Submission: Plants use Twitter to tell you to water them by ptorrone (638660)
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CNet is reporting that one blogger has started an outcry about harassment as it applies to Twitter. While their written stance appears to support the safeguarding of abuse, Twitter appears to be waffling on the issue when it comes to the hard line of enforcement. "The final response to Waldman's complaint from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone asserted that "Twitter is a communication utility, not a mediator of content," and that "Twitter recognizes that it is not skilled at judging content disputes between individuals. Determining the line between update and insult is not something that Twitter, nor a crowd, would do well. Stone added that Twitter's team would continue talking about which situations were appropriate for account banning."
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While it may not be rocket science, the Twitter team has been making a concerted effort to effect better communication with their community at large. Recently they were set-upon by a barrage of technical and related questions and the resulting answers are actually somewhat interesting. "Before we share our answers, it's important to note one very big piece of information: We are currently taking a new approach to the way Twitter functions technically with the help of a recently enhanced staff of amazing systems engineers formerly of Google, IBM, and other high-profile technology companies added to our core team. Our answers below refer to how Twitter has worked historically--we know it is not correct and we're changing that."
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Plants Use Twitter to Tell You to Water Them 50 Comments More /

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  • Just what every household needs.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by somersault (912633) on Monday February 25 2008, @09:41AM (#22545346) Homepage Journal
    Their very own highly opinionated /. troll, complete with an infinite supply of hot air, a built in watering reminder, and an obstinate refusal to just die. If you want to make sure that the watering reminder works you must make sure not to leave any Microsoft related products around though, otherwise the ranting could distract him for days!

    • Ah. So I was not the only one to imagine the horrors of a Twitter in every household.

      Imagine planting one (no pun intended) inside Microsoft campus...

  • Marijuana Plant (Score:5, Funny)

    by Himring (646324) on Monday February 25 2008, @09:42AM (#22545362) Homepage Journal
    Says,
    "Dude, roll me...."
    "Dude, nice roll. Not too tight on ends or loose in the middle."
    "Dude, you're burning me now. Huh, huh, huh...."

    • Hehehe.. it's like the UK police using YouTube to bust guys who record themselves speeding - recently they got one guy who was driving at 120mph while using one hand to hold the camera - not the most sensible thing anyone's ever done is it? In this case though, they could probably nab the owners of illegal plants if they're dumb enough to put up real pics :P

  • tag: sensless (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    tag this one as "senseless"

    jeez...
    • I was trying to think of some very intelligent or funny comment about this article.

      I got nothing.

      --
      got to go now, my cactus is twitting.

    • tag this one as "senseless"
      Or "slashvertisement" or "spam" or "sock puppet" or "viral marketing"

  • This is nothing (Score:4, Funny)

    by Malevolent Tester (1201209) * on Monday February 25 2008, @09:49AM (#22545452) Journal
    We've got vegetables and fruits doing development.

  • Rather than have the plant call you... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sacremon (244448) on Monday February 25 2008, @09:54AM (#22545518)
    ...why not have it hooked into a watering system directly? That way all you need to do is make sure the reservoir has water in it. Seems a lot less intrusive, and you don't have any potential phone bills from your plant.

    • I was already thinking it would be much easier if you just had it water itself when it was thirsty. No need to run a cable anywhere that way.
    • Perhaps you don't set up an automated watering system is because of the trouble of running piping to plants scattered around the house? If you opt for a local reservior to avoid the water piping then you'll need something to let you know the water level is too low. That means back to square one with getting notified.

      Let us know how "intrusive" having water pipes/lines running to all your houseplants is. Especially for people in apartments.

      • The actual mission is to improve the communication between human and plant. Who knows what would happen if you'd make the plants independent from the humans..

        Ah, hence the slippery slope. Eventually someone will figure out a way to get plants to post to Usenet, and from there you'll get a bunch of pistil porn and flame wars about the size each other's e-stamen...

  • Hard plants (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ChromeAeonium (1026952) on Monday February 25 2008, @09:55AM (#22545528)
    They used an ornamental pepper and a pothos? They're simple, just water them every week or so. What would be impressive is if they worked a system for a hard plant, like a Pseudolithos, that would take humidity, time of year, soil type, ect. into consideration when telling you when to water.
    • they already have such systems for them, They range from simple (Bright red LED blinking in your plant), to advanced systems that sms your phone. far more effective than the silly design in the article and commercially available.

  • I've heard of... (Score:5, Funny)

    by techpawn (969834) on Monday February 25 2008, @09:57AM (#22545546) Journal
    People talking to their plants... but their plants talking to them? What is this Soviet Russia?

    If my plants start talking to me it means I need to go away for a little vacation...
    • If my plants start talking to me it means I need to go away for a little vacation...

      Usually when plants start talking to people it means they've had enough and it's time to lay off for a little while ...

      In this case a vacation may be warranted so long as the subject takes a taxi to the airport and does not attempt to operate a motor vehicle him/herself.
    • Going on vacation is not gonna help now that they can text you too .. you would have to go live in an Amish community or a monastery.

  • Arduino is a great platform (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Biotech9 (704202) on Monday February 25 2008, @10:01AM (#22545572) Homepage
    I've got no electronic/IT background at all (I'm a lab tech), but even I could mess around with an arduino and get it to work. My GF is using one in an art project to have bag that analyses RFID tags from supermarket food and change the appearance of the bag depending on how ecologically you shopped.

    I'm thinking of trying to use an arduino and my home music/movie server PC to make a cheap version of Philips 'Wake up light' [amazon.co.uk]. I was thinking of using it to control a stepper motor hooked up to a dimmer switch, but maybe someone here (with real electronics knowledge) can hint at a better way to do this?
    • Use a triac [wikipedia.org] to build your own dimmer circuit and control it directly.
    • I've been considering getting one of these for use as a build tool.

      Eons ago, Slashdot had an article on using lava lamps as part of your build control process [slashdot.org]. The idea was that if the build broke, the lava lamp of the developer who broke was switched on. Since lava lamps take a while to get going, you had about twenty minutes or so to fix the build before everyone started noticing what was going on.

      Now I thought about doing the same with an Ambient Orb [ambientdevices.com]. A spot of searching suggests I'm not the only o

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by evanbd (210358)

      Certainly, though the details depend on the kind of light; since you say a dimmer, I'll assume you mean a normal 120V incandescent. It would be easier with LEDs or low voltage DC lights, harder with fluorescents.

      Warning: this is a high voltage circuit. Don't kill yourself, observe normal precautions, etc. Mistakes might well fry you or the circuit. Also, in an effort to keep this as simple as possible, the wiring will not be to code -- as in, both sides of the light bulb will be potentially "hot", so

    • I'm thinking of trying to use an arduino and my home music/movie server PC to make a cheap version of Philips 'Wake up light'. I was thinking of using it to control a stepper motor hooked up to a dimmer switch, but maybe someone here (with real electronics knowledge) can hint at a better way to do this?

      Cheap X10 controller, cheap X10 light dimmer switch hooked up to the lamp you want to control (I think the LM465's should work, but I've never used them). Ebay's probably the cheapest source. Ignore the ar

    • If you've got no electronics experience, DON'T USE a triac!

      A triac is an extremely fast electronic switch which is used as follows:

      1) You monitor the AC current. Specifically, you notice when the sine wave crosses zero volts (120 times a second).
      2) You then turn on the AC power sometime *after* the zero crossing occurs, but before the next crossing, where you turn it off again.

      With the right timing, you let only a portion of the AC current through, which results in less power - effectively dimming the light
  • Okay, today I saw in order:

    1) Tabletop home aeroponic "herb garden"
    2) Upside down hanging "tomato" grow bags

    Now this?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by techpawn (969834)

      1) Tabletop home aeroponic "herb garden"

      I actually have one of those [aerogrow.com] in my apartment. It's really neat. The light is on an 8 hour timer and the water pumps up into the sponge the different plants are growing into. It adds a unique aesthetic to the apartment as a whole and the artificial sun works better than an alarm clock sometimes both on when I should head to bed and get up.

      It will be nice to have fresh herbs.

  • They don't want water.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by idiotnot (302133) <sean@757.org> on Monday February 25 2008, @10:08AM (#22545632) Journal
    'cause water is from the toilet. Brawndo [brawndo.com]'s got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

  • Demanding... (Score:5, Funny)

    by wonderwidget (625200) on Monday February 25 2008, @10:18AM (#22545748)
    From Twitter
    URGENT! Water me! 06:29 PM February 22, 2008 from web
    Water me please 06:27 PM February 22, 2008 from web

    Yeah, that's just what I need - a needy plant pinging me every couple minutes.

    When are you coming home! 06:31 PM
    Does this vase make me look fat? 06:32 PM
    Why are you ignoring me?!? 06:32 PM
    We need to talk. 06:35 PM
    You know what you did! 06:36 PM
  • Is that device basically a moisture gauge that calls you? If so, your plants aren't saying shiat. Keep playing the Mozart though, they like that.

    Botanicalls was developed to provide a new way for plants and people to communicate in order to develop better, longer-lasting relationships between them.
    People can have relationships with plants? I suppose The Professional [imdb.com] comes to mind now.
  • Worst title I've seen in years... I'll let other people make the jokes

    Except this one: Perhaps they should have named it 'Erris'
  • That's really cool, and similar to something I was thinking of doing. However, I'd probably just use this nifty little board as it has the AVR and Ethernet already on it: http://shop.tuxgraphics.org/electronic/eth.html?id=24ad20#article06061smd [tuxgraphics.org]

  • Twitter is down, like, half the time [mashable.com].

    How long until the first lawsuit from a disgruntled plant-owner whose plant died because he was waiting for a tweet that never came?

    (Note for the humor-impaired: I keed, I keed!)

  • When I read that some geeks had found a way to get plants to "twitter" them, I feared the worst. Thankfully, "Twitter" is apparently just a universal instant messaging service [wikipedia.org].

  • The Exciting World Of Plants! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quiet_Desperation (858215) on Monday February 25 2008, @11:37AM (#22546780)
    6am: Huh?
    7am: Photosynthesizing
    8am: Photosynthesizing
    9am: Photosynthesizing
    10am: Photosynthesizing
    11am: Photosynthesizing
    noon: Photosynthesizing
    1pm: Photosynthesizing
    2pm: Photosynthesizing
    3pm: Photosynthesizing
    4pm: Photosynthesizing
    5pm: Photosynthesizing
    6pm: Photosynthesizing
    7pm: The dark! The dark! Oh woe! Do not go gentle into that good night! Rage, rage against the dying of the light!
    8pm: no activity
    9pm: no activity
    10pm: no activity
    11pm: no activity
    midnight: no activity
    1am: no activity
    2am: no activity
    3am: no activity
    4am: no activity
    5am: no activity
    6pm: Huh?

  • I've been in embedded HW/SW for 35 years. "Ethernet shield" - what is that???

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by anotherone (132088)
      Arduino is an open hardware project. It consists of a base board with certain capabilities, and you can buy (or build) "shields" to add capabilities to the basic package. The ethernet shield for example adds ethernet capabilities to the thing.
  • If my plants need to twitter me to ask for water, I've got bigger problems...like "what happened to all the water in the aquarium?" and "are my fish only good for fertilizer now?" (pair of amazon swords and a half dozen tetras sitting on my desk).
  • Feed me Seymour! 11:47am February 25, 2008 from basement.
  • At the end of each week it says "feed me more gas". And if I dont it makes aloud sputter and stops moving.

  • Insanely expensive, not "open source" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperBanana (662181) on Monday February 25 2008, @02:53PM (#22549694)
    The Adafruit "shield" uses a $50 (yes, $50) Xport module, which is anything but "open source".

    So. $10 for the circuit board, $50 for the module, and then another $30-$40 for the Adruino board.

    That's $100 not including shipping...plus the cost of a wall-wart power supply ($10+), ethernet cable ($10-20) and an ethernet port (a couple more dollars- you can get hubs pretty cheap these days)

    You could easily hit $150-200 on this project for just getting to know that 2 of your plants need water, something you can figure out by sticking your fucking finger in the soil each morning.

  • For cats, too. (Score:4, Funny)

    by autophile (640621) on Monday February 25 2008, @03:11PM (#22549926)
    Wake up. 5:30 am
    I said, wake up. 5:31 am
    Feed me. 6:30 am
    Feed meh! 7:30 am
    Feed me again. 7:40 am
    No, not that, get me treats. 7:41 am
    Feed me. 8:00 am
    URGENT: Litterbox is full. 8:15 am
    Piss off. 8:30 am
    URGENT: Litterbox is rank. 8:31 am
    Hey, where are you going? 8:32 am
    Why are you going out the front door? 8:33 am
    Feed me? 8:34 am
    Feed me? 8:36 am
    (sleeping) 8:38 am
    (sleeping) 12:01 pm
    (sleeping) 4:30 pm
    (sleeping) 6:00 pm
    HI! HI! WELCOME BACK! PET ME! 6:02 pm
    Feed meh. 6:03 pm
    URGENT: Litterbox is REALLY rank. 6:04 pm
    I did not knock that over. 6:05 pm
    Why you always can has blame me? I are too cute. 6:06 pm
    Piss off. 6:10 pm
    (sleeping) 6:11 pm
    (sleeping) 9:00 pm
    (sleeping) 12:10 am
    Knockin' stuff off the countertops. 1:05 am
    (sleeping) 2:00 am

    • Re:Yeah, like my plants need to remind me to water (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ChromeAeonium (1026952) on Monday February 25 2008, @10:26AM (#22545850)
      If you can't grow anything, I suggest you get an Opuntia. I haven't watered a few of mine since early December, and they're fine. Of course, the glochids [answers.com] will make your life miserable if you touch them, but they're still pretty cool and most species are fairly easy to grow (not all easy though; O. microdasys and some others can be hard). As long as the soil drains and drys quickly, you don't overwater it, and it gets enough light, pretty much anyone can grow one. If you can't grow an Opuntia, you probably can't grow anything. Everyone on Slashdot should have an Opuntia.
      • Are you keeping edible varieties? And if so, how often do you harvest?

        I've got a couple of cacti at home, but none at the office. The only plants in my cube are cuttings from our leased philodendrons, and a lonely aloe plant grown from cuttings of the one that lived with me at my last consulting job.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by ChromeAeonium (1026952)
          One of them (O. ficus-indica) is edible, but since I just got it about a year ago as unrooted pads, really I don't know how often it will set fruit. If you really want to know, you can ask people wiser than myself on this forum [gardenweb.com] or this one. [thegardenforums.org] If you didn't already know, you can also eat the young pads of some Opuntia species, provided you've passed them under a flame to burn off those darned glochids.

          For office plants, I'd suggest getting something cooler than a philo to keep your aloe company, like maybe
      • If you can't grow anything, get an artificial plant. Or switch to collectables. [hummelexchange.com]

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