This Smart Pot Can Help Plants Express Emotions

House plants and pets share one attribute; they cannot communicate with us, so sometimes it is impossible to know exactly what they want. Unlike trees, pets can grow or spout, but that is not something anyone can decipher. If you are one of those who wondered what their plants feel like or what they really need, there is a solution.

Vivien Muller, a Belgium-based designer, has created an anthropomorphic vase with sensors onboard. This special planter can measure light exposure, soil moisture, and temperature, all the key factors to keep plants alive and well. With information from the sensors, owners can see expressions of 15 different emotions on a 2.4-inch LCD screen.

For example, when you see the planter display an image of clattering teeth, the plant is feeling cold. When it is too hot, you will see beads of sweet; this is the time to water the plant. When it is hydrated, the screen will show a happy face.

The face that sticks its tongue out while panting means that the plant needs more water, but if you overwater it, the face will look sick. In total, Lua, the smart planter, has 15 animations. Six of them are for the plant’s well-being, while the other nine are for expressions such as grumpy and wink.

To make the plant feels livelier, Lua pot also comes with motion sensing so that whenever movements are occurring in front of the plants, the eyes will follow them.

The planter comes with an app in which owners can put in the information of what kind of plant they are growing by scanning QR code. That data enables Lua to come up with the specific need of each type of plant to better take care of them.

The company behind Lua is called Mu Design, and they plan to ship this smart planter in December 2019.