A research group at Keio University are creating interactive plants, enabling them to display emotions and communicate with people.

“The purpose of this system is to make living plants seem even more alive, and give them a greater presence. To do this, we’re attaching actuators to plants, so they have a more physical aspect, which could encourage communication between plants and people.”

“This plant is moved by pulling cords from two stepping motors. To time the movements, there are two sensors attached to the plants, a microphone and a motion sensor. The movements of the plants are based on what the sensors detect.”

The researchers have developed a wide range of movements to convey emotions. These movement patterns are based on data attained from getting people to operate the actuators, and suggesting appropriate motions.

“Previous research has indicated that if plants are stroked once a day, their growth is suppressed. But we’ve been doing this moving plant project for nearly a year, and none of the plants have wilted.”

“We’d like to have plants moving freely in places where people go about their lives. So, we’d like to make actuators that can handle plants of many kinds, with varying size and strength. We’d also like to research how plants could be utilized as content.”

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