Each plant sends two kinds of “natural” inputs:
- electrical resistance of its sap
- water content of soil
The values are taken through a microcontroller and sent to a server to be processed.
There are two different outputs given directly by the device for the user:
- sound
- light
Each face of the cube gives different sound and light outputs, according to the plant it’s linked to.
The music is constantly generated on the basis of the electrical signal given off by the plants. Each of them has a different musical instrument sound in order to be identified.
The sound is played very quietly so, to listen, you must place the appropriate face very close to your ear.
Light intensity is related to the soil moisture: when the soil is wet, light is on and bright, when the plant begins to be thirsty, it starts to fade (and it could go off if the soil becomes completely dry!).
Linfabeat: lights and audio outputs
Linfabeat: telecommunication
(Click on the image to enlarge it)
As you can see in the diagram, the plants are linked to a microcontroller that takes the values given by the soil moisture sensor and those related to the sap resistance from leaf to root. The microcontroller is connected to a computer which sends all these data to a web server. The web server processes all the data, which are then sent via wireless (wi-fi connection) to the device carried by the user. The device, finally, gives different sounds and light intensity as outputs, according to the information received by the server.
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