Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures
This paper describes the preliminary results of measuring the impact of human body movements on plants. The scope of this project is to investigate if a plant perceives human activity in its vicinity. In particular, we analyze the influence of eurythmic gestures of human actors on lettuce and beans....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/15/6971 |
| _version_ | 1797585972180811776 |
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| author | Luis de la Cal Peter A. Gloor Moritz Weinbeer |
| author_facet | Luis de la Cal Peter A. Gloor Moritz Weinbeer |
| author_sort | Luis de la Cal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper describes the preliminary results of measuring the impact of human body movements on plants. The scope of this project is to investigate if a plant perceives human activity in its vicinity. In particular, we analyze the influence of eurythmic gestures of human actors on lettuce and beans. In an eight-week experiment, we exposed rows of lettuce and beans to weekly eurythmic movements (similar to Qi Gong) of a eurythmist, while at the same time measuring changes in voltage between the roots and leaves of lettuce and beans using the plant spikerbox. We compared this experimental group of vegetables to a control group of vegetables whose voltage differential was also measured while not being exposed to eurythmy. We placed a plant spikerbox connected to lettuce or beans in the vegetable plot while the eurythmist was performing their gestures about 2 m away; a second spikerbox was connected to a control plant 20 m away. Using <i>t</i>-tests, we found a clear difference between the experimental and the control group, which was also verified with a machine learning model. In other words, the vegetables showed a noticeably different pattern in electric potentials in response to eurythmic gestures. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:16:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7be3855a2f6343efbd4815abcf7da14a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:16:33Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-7be3855a2f6343efbd4815abcf7da14a2023-11-18T23:36:55ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-08-012315697110.3390/s23156971Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic GesturesLuis de la Cal0Peter A. Gloor1Moritz Weinbeer2MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Cambridge, MA 02142, USAMIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Cambridge, MA 02142, USAFoundation Fintan, 8462 Rheinau, SwitzerlandThis paper describes the preliminary results of measuring the impact of human body movements on plants. The scope of this project is to investigate if a plant perceives human activity in its vicinity. In particular, we analyze the influence of eurythmic gestures of human actors on lettuce and beans. In an eight-week experiment, we exposed rows of lettuce and beans to weekly eurythmic movements (similar to Qi Gong) of a eurythmist, while at the same time measuring changes in voltage between the roots and leaves of lettuce and beans using the plant spikerbox. We compared this experimental group of vegetables to a control group of vegetables whose voltage differential was also measured while not being exposed to eurythmy. We placed a plant spikerbox connected to lettuce or beans in the vegetable plot while the eurythmist was performing their gestures about 2 m away; a second spikerbox was connected to a control plant 20 m away. Using <i>t</i>-tests, we found a clear difference between the experimental and the control group, which was also verified with a machine learning model. In other words, the vegetables showed a noticeably different pattern in electric potentials in response to eurythmic gestures.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/15/6971biosensorsmachine learningmotion detectionplant–human interaction |
| spellingShingle | Luis de la Cal Peter A. Gloor Moritz Weinbeer Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures Sensors biosensors machine learning motion detection plant–human interaction |
| title | Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures |
| title_full | Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures |
| title_fullStr | Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures |
| title_full_unstemmed | Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures |
| title_short | Can Plants Sense Humans? Using Plants as Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Eurythmic Gestures |
| title_sort | can plants sense humans using plants as biosensors to detect the presence of eurythmic gestures |
| topic | biosensors machine learning motion detection plant–human interaction |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/15/6971 |
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