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CES: Automatic Plant Monitoring Through Your Computer or iPhone (Video)
Timothy Lord starts this video with these words: "Sensors are a big deal at CES this year. They are small devices that track everything from the location of your pets to how many steps you have taken today." And so he chatted with Phillip Bolliger, founder of Swiss company Koubachi AG, which makes Wi-Fi sensors that help you give your plants the right amount of water and light and to keep them at the right temperature. As of this writing, the prices on their online store are in Euros, not dollars, but the sensors are now available through Amazon with U.S. pricing. Koubachi also has a free app for your iOS device, and a Facebook app for your computer or Android device, that will help you give your plants the right amount of fertilizer and other love even if you don't buy a Koubachi sensor.
Here I was excited for an app to monitor flow rates and temperatures. But no, it is for those things that make sugar from the sun.
Nudge nudge wink wink say no more. Legalize it brah!
Finally, all of the Farmville experts have something they can apply their skills to!
Amazon sells them for $99 a sensor. At that price, I can almost afford to have someone come in and water the plants for me.
Or, better yet, I can just continually get new plants and toss the old ones.
More pointless Slashvertisements. You guys that hard up for money?
in Colorado and Washington.
Assuming one does want a gadget solution to the "problem" of not taking care of houseplants, it's probably cheaper to roll your own Raspberry Pi or Arduino solution than to spend $100 on this thing.
Would be good to monitor various locations on a golf course for turf management. If it were hardened for the weather....
Saying "...and a Facebook app for Android users" is the same as saying "Android is not supported". Seriously, I have no interest in using Facebook for anything, let alone as an interface to a third-party.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
So what plant is worth all this technology? Hmm... I'll bet it is a Weed...
I can imagine weed growers (and their quixotic whack-a-mole pursuers) will be very interested in this.
This one http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1387729422/plant-link-listen-to-your-plants?ref=live
Seems better to me and cheaper
Or just use appropriate plants. I did experiments on spider plants, given the right root system and humidity I went 6 months without watering one of them before it started getting nutrient deficient.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/wifi-radiation/
http://phys.org/news/2010-11-dutch-wi-fi-possibly-trees.html
Enough with the gadgets you fucking nerds! God damn
And not for growing pot. Seriously, who the fuck besides botanists and home marijuana growers would need this?
They should be selling for $20 not $100. I might understand if it actually controlled the watering and fertilizing. You're paying a $100 for something that will tell you while you are on vacation, "oh by the way your plant is dying". Most of the others cost $10 to $20 they just lack the iOS app. I made an automatic watering pot out of a used soda bottle and it would keep the plants watered for a week and didn't cost a dime. The joke is it actually watered the plants. If you are going to sell automated systems make it do some form of automation!
.i've never understood why people consider plants orniments instead of what they really are, STATIONARY PETS
Like these?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Slashdot, you're really not hitting the high registers with these videos.
A video of people talking is good, but you need to punch it up a little. Use some powerpoint-style slides with text bullet points, then have the speaker read out the text as the audience follows along.
Here's an example of what *not* to do.
All that action and movement does little to enhance the video, and the scripted text makes it seem somehow terse. Don't do that - the discluencies - "ah", "uhmmm", "you know", and so on - are what make the speech sound normal. Drag the dialogue out a little!
And the cuts! A dozen or more different scenes in the example video doesn't add to the experience - just use one or two as you are currently doing. Showing someone flipping screens on a tablet is good - we need more articles about apps and products that people can purchase.
And be sure to put your video intro at the front every time. That way if the viewer is uninterested in the video, at least they will have spent the time looking at your logo.
Overall though, it's a pretty good video. Keep up the good work! It's hard to find videos of interest to tech people.
There is an alternative on Kickstarter called Plantlink. For $100 you get three sensors and a base station. The base station also controls valves for automatic watering.
What kind of plants are we talking about here: Gas plants? Manufacturing plants? Pharmaceuticals plants?
... lightweight.
House plants? WTF???
Oh yeah, it's an iPad
licet differant, aequabitur
At first I was quite excited about this thing, as I have been looking for something like this for a long time, but it is one of these things that are "almost, but not quite unlike tea" (from HHGG I believe).
Background: I grow orchids; a lot of them. It isn't hard, I've got a conservtory for that, but when you grow things in a small, confined space, the microclimate becomes very important - or perhaps that should be nano-climate, since it can vary widely over a few 10s of centimetres.
So, what I have been looking for is a sensor that can measure temperature, air-humidity, wind-speed and pressure, and is cheap enough that I can deploy one per plant. They should be networked and powered over a thin wire and be able to deliver their data up about once a minute or so.
Alas, the thing they produce doesn't fit.
For this price, I can buy an aerogarden, which comes with the water deposit, water pumps, lights and even comes with some seeds inside an optimized growing medium and fertilizer, besides being an aeroponics system, with a lot of advantages over growing stuff on dirt.
Even for those pot growers this is not a good idea.
having looked at the web site the device costs about 75 euros. To do a job that I can do myself by simply looking at my plants and adding water/feed as required.
Oh well, if you've got money to burn...
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !