Technabob » plant

Japanese Scientists Create Interactive Plants That Can Wave at You

Conner Flynn — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:30:18 +0000

Everything is interactive these days. But plants? Japanese researchers are working on that one. Researchers at Keio University aim to create interactive plants. Interactive plants, like puppets, are designed to react to and convey emotions. Now if some interactive zombies show up, we can have Plants vs. Zombies for real.

The plants are attached to motors by a series of threads wrapped around some leaves and branches. These motors are connected to a microphone and a motion sensor. When the motion detector senses you or the microphone hears you, it triggers the motors and creates the movement as if it were alive. Well, I suppose it is alive, so like I said, it becomes a slave puppet.

They say that it doesn’t harm the plant, but I’m not sure about that. I guess when they are ready, plants will rise up and kill us for payback, just like robots. Oh joy.

[via DigInfo]

Bike Planters: A Little Green Goes a Long Way

Hazel Chua — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:00:01 +0000

I read a lot about the “Green Revolution” over the last weekend, since it was one of the topics covered in my school Finals. You’d think that something with that name would have something to do with saving the environment, right? Wrong. It’s actually a movement that pushed for advancements in the field of agriculture, such as the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other advanced farming methods that increased crop yields but caused the deterioration of the soil and of the environment, in general.

But what do you think about starting your very own Green Revolution – and I mean, the truly green kind? The Earth is at the stage where we people need to start giving back instead of consistently just taking. One way to do this is by carrying a little bit of green everywhere we go with this portable Bike Planter.

These tiny 2.3″ tall, 3D printed planters from Wearable Planter (yes they sell ones you can wear on your person too) let you carry your favorite plant with you wherever, whenever. Because of its small footprint, the Bike Planter is happiest carrying around clippings from succulents or air plants. Most bike riders I know are already eco-conscious, and this just lets them prove their point further.

The Bike Planter is available for $45(USD) over on Etsy.

[via Inspire Me Now via Likecool]

Plants vs. Zombies Cake: Eat Some Braaaains (and Sugaaaar!)

Technabob — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:00:42 +0000

While many mobile gamers have probably moved on from Plants vs. Zombies by now, I’m still not finished with the most painfully difficult mini-games yet, so it’s still in heavy rotation on my iPad. Somebody else is still enjoying their PvZ too, as is evidenced by this excellent birthday cake, inspired by the game.

The cake was created by Imelda Wikamulia as a present for Technabob reader Greg Off’s birthday, and it’s loaded up with all of our favorite PvZ characters. In the pics, I can see some sunflowers, peashooters, kernel-pults, wall-nuts, a couple of potato mines and torchwood among other defenses. There are also ample zombies on the attack.

Virtually the entire thing is edible, including the hardened sugar pool, and the coconut-dusted green lawn. About the only thing you can’t eat are the tiny cloth costumes made for some of the zombies. As the individual plant and zombie pops get finished off, there’s a whole bunch of additional ones for the eating.

Kudos to Imelda for a great geeky cake, and thanks again to Greg for sending along the pics. Now I need to go find me some sugar, so I can stay up late to finish those pesky mini-games.

Super Mario Bros. Potted Plants: Just Add Sunshine

Technabob — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:30:13 +0000

Here’s the perfect thing to plant out in your garden if you’re too busy stuck inside playing video game to water your plants.

Based on the various flora from the Mushroom Kingdom (not including the mushrooms themselves), these potted plants require absolutely no care.

The plants themselves are made from melted Perler beads, doing away with that pesky soil and water and replacing them with, well, styrofoam and nothing. I suppose you could sprinkle some water and plant food on them if you really wanted to, but they’ll do just fine without. Although the Piranha Plant does like to be fed the occasional plumber.

The set of plants was made by Etsy seller Melloduck, and includes a Piranha Plant (10″ tall), a Fire Flower (7″ tall), and the lesser-known Nipper Plant (5″ tall). A set of 3 plants, including matching green terracotta pots – will set you back $35 (USD) – a small price to pay for a completely care-free garden.

Artist Uses Leaves as a Canvas for Awesome Art

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:00:19 +0000

I have seen a lot of art in my time and much of it isn’t that impressive to me. I have seen people use just about everything to make their art. I have never seen anyone use leaves from various trees to make their artworks. The art you see in the images here is from Lorenzo Duran and the works are so awesome. I would love to know how he does this.

I suspect it involves a super sharp knife. The artist picks the leaf for the project and washes, dries, molds, and then cuts the leaf away to reveal the art within. Just look at how detailed the works are with the little branches of the trees. I would not have the steady hands needed to do this sort of thing.

The artist’s works are based on paper cutting techniques that are used in Japan, China, and other countries.

Check out the artist’s site to see more of his works. If you see one that really grabs your eye, you can purchase the work. Duran doesn’t price anything and prefers to let the buyer set the price.

[via Like Cool]

Cyborg Plant Goes on Walkabout

Range — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:54:43 +0000

This robotic plant can go on walkabout whenever it pleases. It was created by the Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza, who specializes in thought-provoking robot creations, as well as mechanical sculptures.

The Plantas Nomadas robot plant is part robot, part plant. I guess that’s kind of obvious from the name. It’s nomadic and it can walk about, slurping water from contaminated rivers to keep itself going. Thanks to a microbial fuel cell, the elements of the contaminated water are decomposed and turned into energy, that will feed the “brain” behind this robot.

It’s definitely an interesting concept. I wonder why they don’t make thousands of these and release them into the wild to help clean up the environment.

If you’d like to check it out in person (and happen to live in Spain), you can see Plantas Nomadas at Laboral, Gijón (Spain) through June, 7, 2010.

[via We Make Money Not Art via Good]

Guerrilla Gardening Just Went Spy Tech

P. Blandino — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:16:41 +0000

Guerrilla gardening is a form of activism where a gardener plants seeds or crop in abandoned land they do not own, or even public property (which I’m gonna guess is illegal). Most of these actions are done in the cover of night so they’re not caught in action. Designer Vanessa Harden has invented a few spy gadgets for these gardeners to do their work in the sun. The Precision Bombing Device I is made to look like an standard SLR camera but actually it shoots out sugar glass covered seeds like a BB gun.

Check out the demo video below to see The Precision Bombing Device I in action.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I would have never imagined gardening would look so cool when using spy inspired tools. You can check out more tools on Vanessa’s design website. Honestly, I’m about to buy some sugar coated seeds so I can load up my BB gun and plant my new yard from my window.

Brinno Gardenwatchcam: Time-Lapse Digital Garden Camera Shoots Video Slightly More Interesting Than Watching Paint Dry

Technabob — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:50:58 +0000

Want to know if your green thumb is really green? This nifty garden gadget lets you keep watch over your budding plants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from across the globe if you want.

The Brinno GardenWatchCam observes your flowers as they grow, taking time lapse digital photos at intervals ranging from 1 minute to 24 hours apart. Just set the camera in front of your plants, set the desired interval, and start capturing your garden as it takes shape. You can also include time and date stamps on your images if you want. Here’s an example video taken from the GardenWatchCam’s time lapse images.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The camera is designed to take 1.2 megapixel macro images from as little as 20-inches away from your subject, or can be set to a distance focus mode for plants more than 20 inches away. Images are captured in JPEG format and can be saved into an AVI video file, and you can store up to 2GB of pictures on any USB flash drive. The camera runs on 4-AA batteries and should be able to shoot images for 4 to 6 months depending on the interval you set.

Of course, you don’t have to use it to shoot time lapse videos of flowers. Pretty much anything that takes a long time to happen is a potential subject…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can find the GardenWatchCam over at Amazon for $139.99 (USD). More example videos can be seen here.

Put Your Plants in Tetris Pots

Alisha K. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:30:34 +0000

If you can manage to keep potted plants alive, they might as well be in Tetris planters. Really, what else are you going to put them in? This gorgeous project is classy and cool.

Hmm. Better with or without the grass?

The grass is nice, but those planters could hold almost anything (delicious candy! paper clips!) in style. But whatever you’d like to use them for, I’m sure you’ll agree: I thought they would be bigger.

Heartbreaking.

[Tetris pots via Gamer Grrlz]

Your Plants Can Talk (via Twitter)

Technabob — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:53:02 +0000

Now we’ve all heard the myth that talking to your plants help them to thrive, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a way to find out what they’re saying back to us. This gadget lets you keep tabs on your house plants via the Internet, letting them reach out to the world using the popular micro-blogging website Twitter.

Adafruit’s Botanicalls Twitter Kit lets your plants communicate over the web, letting you know when they need water, or if they’re feeling happy that they’ve been recently cared for. And since Twitter can notify your mobile device of new posts, you can receive a text message when your plant is feeling blue.

The easy-to-assemble electronic kit uses wired moisture sensors to detect your plant’s state of mind and send information out to the Internet via an on-board Ethernet jack. Connect the board to your PC using a USB cable, and the Arduino-based circuit can be programmed to send custom messages to Twitter.

The kit is available from Adafruit for $160 USD. All I need now is for my dogs and cat to start Twittering too and I can finally take a nice long vacation.

[via MAKE]

Junk Mobile Phones Give Way to Flowers

Technabob — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:45:27 +0000

Ever wonder what to do with your old cell phone when you’re ready to upgrade to the latest and greatest? Why not bury it in the ground? That’s what a group of scientists will have us doing if they have their way.

Researchers in the UK have devised a new mobile phone body which can simply be tossed into the compost heap, and will disintegrate within weeks. Once the phone’s shell has broken down, an embedded sunflower seed is released into the earth, sprouting life anew from your wayward technological garbage.

A team at the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group, in conjunction with PVAXX Research & Development Ltd. and Motorola used a special biodegradable polymer which is completely functional under normal working conditions, yet starts to rapidly decompose when placed in compost. Now they haven’t solved the problem of what to do with all those nasty toxins in your phone’s electronic components and battery pack, but at least they’ve got a solution for all those cheap plastic cases.

For those of us with iPhones, we’ll just have to melt down our aluminum and glass beauties using conventional recycling techniques when that iPhone 2.0 eventually comes along.

[via Baby Ruthless via Roadside Scholar]

Mario Piranha Plant is Soft, Fuzzy, but Still has Teeth

Technabob — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:09:07 +0000

Ah, a day in the life of a platforming plumber. Just when you thought it was safe to jump down another green drainpipe in search of a secret stash, out pops one of those annoying piranha plants to ruin your day.

Fans of the Super Mario franchise can now enjoy their very own mini piranha plant, complete with big pointy teeth.

This 6-inch tall version of Mario’s flowery nemesis was needle and wet-felted by Toronto artist FoulFowl. Only one of these handcrafted felt plants is listed on her Etsy shop, so if you want it, you’d better move quick before it’s gone.

USB Greenhouse Keeps Desk Gardens Growing

Technabob — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:13:56 +0000

Here’s a way to add a little green to your desktop surroundings. This USB mini greenhouse helps you easily grow a little garden with the help of your computer

The egg-shaped device from DreamCheeky holds artificial soil, seeds and water, then helps your budding garden grow by feeding it with a USB-powered grow-light. The kit comes with everything you need to get started, including some marigold seeds. It even ships with software that lets you monitor the growth rate of your plantings.

You can pick one up for yourself over at Geeks.com for about 20 bucks.

[via EverythingUSB]

Dandelight: Light Up LED Dandelions

Technabob — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:51:03 +0000

Dutch artist Lonneke Gordijn of Drift has created these beautiful little lights which create an amazing synergy between technology and nature.

The Dandelight combines a 9-volt battery, an LED, phoshphorusbronze and a real dandelion head to create a fragile, but stunning light source.

[via dezeen via Core77]