Control your computer with your house plants

Posted August 9, 2012 by Johnny2x in Science

When you are surfing the interwebs do you ever look at your house plant and feel bad?Do your plants feel left out?

Well then cheer up because technology is here to save the day!

Botanicus Interactus turns plants into multitouch controllers

It is now possible to control a computer by touching a house plant – touching the plant in different places can even cause the computer to do different things. While using a mouse or touchscreen still might be more intuitive, Disney Research’s experimental Botanicus Interactus system does hint at what could be possible down the road.

The system incorporates a single electrode, placed in the soil of a real or artificial potted plant. Using Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS) technology, it is then able to determine not only if the plant is being touched, but also to estimate where on its “body” that touch is taking place. It can additionally detect the nature of the touch (a stroke, a tap, etc.) or even if a person merely has their finger close to the plant.

Source: Disney Research

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Johnny2x

John created the HowsYourRobot.com just because he cares about each and everyone of you. He likes science, technology, movies, and music. He also likes long walks in the park but only at night and in most dangerous park he can find AND he discovered the internet while playing in his back yard as a child. Some of this is true and some of it is not.