Growable Media Design: Integrating Plants and Digital Media for Information Visualization is an ambient media project designed to visualize everyday communication.

Growable Media controls the growth of plants by making difference in photosynthesis: controlling the supply of water and light.

The system consists of three parts: a sensor that collects data about everyday communications via mobile phones and RFIDs; a MySQL database server manages the collected data; and an actuator reads data from the database server, and embodies information as growth of plants.

When the RFID readers detect users ID as they come home, a computer starts the browser application and accesses the JAVA applet in the XPORT device server. The applet checks the database, and acquires the results of communications. Hence, it controls the duration of running LEDs and the duration of running the water supply.

Examples: RFID readers built into desk will sense IDs of your (registered) visitors/friends sitting down there. They will transmit data of IDs and duration of meeting to the database.

If you have a friend whom you often meet, corresponding plants will grow up well. But if you have a friend whom you neglect, corresponding plants will wither to notify you that you’re forgetting him/her.

Design Team: Satoshi Kuribayashi, Akira Wakita.

Thanks Matt!
Related: Infotropism, The Eco pods, Fish, plant, rack, Spore 1.1 and Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignoneau‘s Interactive Plant Growing.