This project explored the idea of how plants could be a more integral part of human lives, and how a design could promote human-plant connection. The final idea was a leaf that could indicate its health status, such as watering and temperature needs, as well as react to sensing and thus would incentivize the human to take care of it and act as a bonding moment.
The prototype was a resin printed leaf with different sensor and actuator attachments under it; a LED strip, capacitative touch sensor and vibration motor. Inside the stem, a plastic tube, electric wires connected to an arduino which was placed inside the pot along with a microphone for sound pickup and ultrasonic sensor for distance measuring. The leaf and stem was painted green to make it feel like a part of the plant, giving it a fair product representation and helping with immersion.
The leaf reacts to sound, touch and closeness. It blinks when sensing sound, plays a short jingle when touched and vibrates when sensing someone getting close.
Team Members
- Annie Claesson
- David Hagberg
- Eva Le
- Susanne On Huang
