plants
Science
Toyota Creates Flowers To Absorb Prius Manufacturing Emissions
4:53AM Adam Frucci | What do you do when the “eco-friendly” car you’re manufacturing is actually horrible for the environment to manufacture? Re-engineer nature, obviously! More »
Design
FlowerEYE Pot Examines The Lightning Bolts Under The Soil
4:00AM Mark Wilson | The FlowerEYE pot tracks soil humidity, light levels and ambient temperature, all while displaying a plant’s root system like an episode of Storm Stories. If only this ultimate flowerpot technology actually existed, our perennials would rise again. [HomeTone via Unplggd]
Design
LightPot is a Simple and Elegant way to Grow Plants in Your Lamp
12:40PM Adrian Covert | First, let me say that despite the name…NO, NOT THOSE KINDS OF PLANTS. LightPot is a minimalist table lamp, with a bed of soil for tending to small, green lifeforms. Lovely, no? More »
Robots
Robots Care for Plants (By Peeing on Them)
1:00PM Wilson Rothman | Call it what you want, but the MIT-built horticultural robots roll around, lowering a tube and spraying right into dirt around the plants’ stems. I’m snickering, but the project itself is pretty cool. More »
Gadgets
Desktop Hydroponics Are Perfect for the Corporate Jungle
4:40AM Mark Wilson | There’s really no reason that a pot filled with soil can’t sit next to your computer, but something about a hydroponics system just feels more thematic. More »
Gadgets
How To Keep Plants Alive Using LED Light Spikes
9:20AM Brian Lam | Pop Sci has a tutorial on how to build supplementary LED grow lights for plants. I’d assume you should use LEDs with fuller spectrums, and they’re supplemental, but look neat. [PopSci via Lifehacker] More »
Design
Broto Aeroponic Pot Keeps Future Cold and Sterile (Like It Should Be)
1:20AM Mark Wilson | Using the Aerogarden to grow plants without soil is by all means a neat idea, but the product isn’t exactly urban chic. We like this concept more. More »
Gadgets
Now Even Thirsty Houseplants Demand Attention With DIY Twitter Kit
8:33PM Kit Eaton | Back in February we showed you a slightly botched-together system that lets your houseplants Twitter, but now there’s a complete kit available. After soldering it together, you simply shove it deep into your plant’s pot, connect it up to with an ethernet cable, and when its moisture sensors detect that you’ve been a bit lax in watering it’ll Twitter with a “water me please” prompt. Ignoring it won’t work as it’ll step up the game with an urgent Tweet, and over-watering’ll earn you a scolding. It’s possibly the only way I’d remember to feed Reg, my sadly dessicated lemon tree…though at this rate of digitizing the average home is at risk of networking overload. Out now for $US99. [ via OhGizmo] More »
Design
Robotic Legs Keep Your Plants Strutting Towards the Sunlight
11:00AM Sean Fallon | We all know that plants tend to grow towards the sunlight—but plants fixed with a set of these robotic legs would actually be able to walk around and find the light as it moves around the room. So, despite your best efforts to kill them, robo-plants will be stayin’ alive (too bad there is no automatic watering system). Unfortunately, the device is only a concept, and there is little information on how it actually works—so your plant’s dreams of making it big on Broadway may be dashed.
Robots
