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Cybernetic Houseplant Can Move Itself Towards Light Sources

posted by martyb on Friday December 07 2018, @02:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the sieze-the-light dept.

takyon writes:

MIT researchers create a robot houseplant that moves on its own

Meet Elowan, a "cybernetic lifeform" that connects a houseplant with a machine that responds to its basic need for light (and is presumably named after the sentient plant creatures in Starflight 3). When a regular plant needs light, it fires off internal electrical signals that cause it to bend and grow towards it. When Elowan needs light, these internal electrical signals are interpreted by a machine that then simply wheels the plant towards the light. The plant can essentially move itself around because it needs to.

"Plants have natural bioelectrochemical signals inside them," explains Harpeet Sareen, assistant professor at Parsons School of Design. "They get excited in response to environmental conditions and conduct these signals between tissues and organs. Such electrical signals are produced in response to changes in light, gravity, mechanical stimulation, temperature, wounding, and more. They are electrically active systems readily occurring in nature."

Add self-watering and we're good to go.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:24AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:24AM (#771011)

    Is it just me or is reality starting to look more and more like a horror movie ?

    Starting Score:    0  points
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Friday December 07 2018, @05:25AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Friday December 07 2018, @05:25AM (#771039)

    Feed Me Seymore [youtube.com]

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @07:32AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @07:32AM (#771071)

    It's you. I mean, except for an Orange Clown in a dangerous position, stressed from all sides by people he has pissed off, you have nobody to be afraid of. Maybe only of the people that put that Orange Clown there.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @08:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @08:34PM (#771295)

      you have nobody to be afraid of. Maybe only of the people that put that Orange Clown there.

      Which is several tens of millions of people.

      Thanks. I feel so much better now...