Jun 10, 2016

Talking to Plants … and Plants Talking Back By Tim Hodson

Did you know that plants can communicate — with people?

We know that gardeners like to talk to their plants, but imagine if plants could talk back to gardeners?

According to a recent article on Fast Company’s website, that could be in the works.

A research project, dubbed Project Florence, was created by researcher Helene Steiner as part of Microsoft Research’s Studio 99 program. According to Steiner, “Project Florence, [is about] using living plants as conduits for human communication. It represents a preliminary exploration of symbiotic information processes between human and plants.”

Researchers use a “sensor-loaded plant capsule” — a totally controlled environment for a single plant — that is hooked up to a computer.

How it works is a person types a message into the computer. That message is then broken down into chemical compounds that are translated into a series of blinking lights. The plant then can react to blinking lights via the sensors attached to its leaves and roots and “communicate” how it is feeling. The plant’s reaction is then translated into words through the use of Twitter. Florence’s software takes those responses and searches for Tweets that have the same sentiment as the response.

“We can almost create moods of the plant, and abstract the message that comes back,” Steiner said in the Fast Company article. “When I ask you a question and you’re in a really good mood the response is probably better than you’re tired. That’s why we thought natural language processing was a good way [to indicate the plant’s state].”

I’m not so sure too many greenhouse growers need to “talk” with their petunias, but researchers believe the concept has a lot of scientific potential.

Steiner and Microsoft Research plan to develop hydroponic and aquaponic farms this summer to learn more about how plants respond electrically and chemically to develop more sustainable growing systems.

Click here to check out a short video on Project Florence.

— Tim