TEAM｜Xiaoting Tan, Haonan Wang, Yiran Wang

We are living on a damaged planet and in times where human impact on the earth has rendered species extinct, landscapes scoured, and resources strained. Researchers in HCI have responded to these crises by arguing that new interactions between humans and nonhumans (animals, plants, microbes) must be created to give rise to preferable futures.

The amazing perception and expression capabilities of plants have attracted our attention. They can perceive the environment and other biological entities and make relevant feedback. This ability is very surprising. We began to think about whether the built-in physiological capabilities of plants can help us reshape the relationship between humans and plants? Through investigations and experiments, we have continuously explored the potential of plants, and we have begun to imagine a sustainable future world in which people and plants coexist.

The Electrical Signals in Plants

In their life activities, plants need to continuously exchange materials and energy with the external environment to maintain their survival, growth and reproduction. At the same time, they have to cope with various environmental changes so that life activities can proceed smoothly. Therefore, plants can sense changes in external conditions and transmit this information to all body parts to adjust their functions accordingly. Although there is no information transmission system similar to animal neural networks in the plant kingdom, plants can feel and respond to external stimuli like animals. These responses are related to the production and transmission of electrical signals in plants.

Plant electrical signals are the main plant physiological signals related to plant physiological processes and the transmission of information in the body. They are ubiquitous in plants. When the external environment changes, plant electrical signals will show different characteristics and reflect the plant's physiological state, stimulating the plant to produce physiological changes such as movement, growth and metabolism, and material transportation, to coordinate the relationship between the plant body and the external environment.

Through relevant reference, we found that many biologists and botanists are exploring new technologies for monitoring plant electrical signals, and are trying to establish mathematical simulation models of plant electrical signals through a large amount of data collection. Some HCI experts are trying to establish relevant information for plants: a data set of electrical signals, in order to use the plant's own sensing function.

We believe that the effective use of electrical signals from plants can help us reshape the relationship between humans and plants and create a sustainable world of the future in symbiosis with plants.

EXPERIMENT

PLANT:
TIME:
LOCATION:
ROOM TEMPERATURE:

Peperomia tetraphylla
24 Sep, 7 p.m.
Shanghai (indoors)
22°C

CONCEPT & DESIGN PROCESS

Over the past decade, both science and science fiction have envisioned the possibility of augmenting the capabilities of natural organisms by interfacing them to machines. The plants’ sensing capabilities confirm the biological basis for the development of this technology.

We were inspired by the concept of “Future Mundane” popularized by Nick Foster. We believe our future is not made from transparent glass and Minority Report-style interfaces. Our future will be much more mundane where the old exists with the new. We wanted to make “Possible Objects” that represent and hint at this mundane future. We wanted people to touch and feel the future of living with plants in our lives.

In the near future, this is a possible story.

Plants are possibly be effectively used as biosensors throughout organic wireless sensor networks and have strong application prospects, which may become a natural and powerful extension of the future IoT.

inhome

Inhome is a plant sensor. It is widely used in future home life. People take good care of plants, and plants help people live better through their sensing properties. Inhome can monitor indoor changes in real-time (such as light, temperature, humidity, human movement, etc.) and connect to the household equipment through the cloud processor to control multiple types of household equipment, such as lights, heating and air conditioning, to make the room in a relax and comfort.

The behaviour of hurting plants can be seen everywhere around us. Some typical examples are picking flowers and breaking branches. This is because people often subconsciously do not think that plants are alive, especially for children, it is difficult to think that plants have life attributes.

Does not express oneself through voice or some kind of visual output (a face)

Unlike animals, plants do not move freely

Not immediately respond to any physical stimuli, can’t "eat" any food

inbox

Inbox is a new type of toy that is very popular among young people. When people interact with plants, the inbox will show different expressions and make different sounds. Through Inbox, plants can be further integrated into our lives so that there is an emotional dependence between people and plants for communication and companionship, in turn, it could help children perceive the life state of plants.