"Eventually, we came to the idea of what if a plant could just make us a telephone call?" remembers Kate Hartman, one of Botanicalls' three partners. "What if we could pick up the phone in the lounge and it's the plant on the windowsill, calling to say it wants to be watered?"
The first generation of the Botanicalls technology used the telephone. The creators rigged a moisture sensor to stick a plant's soil to sense how wet the dirt is and then pass that information to a microchip. The chip, in turn, sent the information through the Internet to a phone. The phone would ring, a person would answer and "the plant," in its own individual voice - complete with accents - would have a few words to say about its condition.
The fundamental mechanics behind Botanicalls builds on the sort of technology that enables systems currently on the market - alarm systems that call the police and fire departments or gadgets that allow people to call home and turn on the heat, or start their car from inside on a cold day.
Because the hardware for the phone system was so expensive, it wasn't practical to sell. That's where the Twitter version, released late last year, comes in.
"It's simpler and easier to maintain," Hartman explains. "With a phone, we needed a server and it was expensive to send calls. With Twitter, it's free and the hardware connects right to Twitter."
Recently, as part of the Conflux Festival in New York, Botanicalls sponsored a telephone walking tour of the plants surrounding the conference center where the festival was held. People on the tour called a Botanicalls phone line to hear various plants and trees talk about themselves.
As accessible as they seem, the kits aren't for everyone. They require soldering, for instance, and the ability to program if, say, you want to expand your plant's vocabulary. Still, the company has sold a few dozen kits and gotten interest from publications that cater to techies and do-it-yourselfers.
Hartman guesses the perfect audience for Botanicalls is either a do-it-yourself, crafty sort who's into gardening or an avid techie with a black thumb.
"We're still feeling it out and seeing how it develops," she says. "Right now, it's a tool for watering your plants and a tool for conversation - a way to think about technology and its role in our lives."
Kit buyers are signing up to follow each other's plants on Twitter.
