CULTIVASE plant for joint nurturing by Phillip Chang and Sabrina Li for IPD528 Design of Contemporary Products with Instructor Carla Diana.
Full description: Cultivase is a pair of smart planters, one for each person in the long distance relationship, which allows the couple to nurture their relationship through the act of growing a plant. The planter is not meant to be a replacement for a phone or video calling; it is meant to allow the couple to share the experience of growing a plant together and then facilitate that communication over a period of time rather than a set, scheduled time.The planters communicate with each other by telling how well taken care of the plant is and when the planter is interacted with through a series of LEDs. The top, blue set of LEDs indicates the health of your plant, while the bottom, red set of LEDs indicates the health of your partner’s plant. The brightness of the LEDs indicate how well watered the plant is. If it is dim, it means the plant is properly watered. The LEDs get progressively brighter as the plant requires more water. The planter also indicates when it is being watered by an LED follower pattern to mimic a “waterfall” animation. The LED pattern would also appear on your partner’s planter. So when you water your plant for example, you would see your LEDs blink on your planter and your partner would see their LEDs blink on their planter.The planter itself monitors the health of the plant by checking how watered it is through a soil moisture sensor. It uses a wifi module to talk to the paired planter. The mouth of the planter is designed to accept a standard 4” pot. The top part is hollow to fit the electronics and batteries. The base is concrete, and the watering tray is made by thermoformed styrene.We wanted to avoid any apps or text message alerts because we found that the smartphone was a source of stress and reminder of the distance between the couple. We wanted a planter to have a real, physical presence in the couple’s home or workplace.