Key Takeaways
- Use AI and Raspberry Pi to create a talking plant that reports on its well-being and needs.
- Matt Reed’s project demonstrates how sensor data and AI can improve gardening success.
- This innovative system allows you to directly ask the plant how it’s doing and what it needs.
I’ve always been terrible with keeping plants. One of my major gripes is that plants can’t tell you what’s wrong with it, or if everything is going smoothly; by the time something has gone horribly wrong, it’s often too late to save them. However, someone has fixed this problem by combining AI with a Raspberry Pi to create a plant that will literally tell you if something is wrong.
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GPT-4o and Raspberry Pi combine to make a plant that talks back
This cool project was the invention of Matt Reed. Matt goes into detail as to what he did in his blog post, and shows off a working model in the video above. If the idea of a plant asking you to feed it gives you Little Shop of Horrors vibes, that’s exactly what Matt had in mind. Fortunately, Matt decided to go with a tomato plant for his project, instead of whatever it was that Audrey II was.
In his project, Matt uses sensors to monitor the quality of the soil. This gives him a base idea as to what areas need improvement, and which parts are doing just fine. However, the unit also comes with a microphone, through which you can directly ask the plant how it’s doing, and what it needs. The Raspberry Pi will then fetch the sensor data and parse it through GPT-4o to create a report on how the plant is doing. It will even keep tabs on prior events; for instance, in the above video, the plant states that it was too cold for it last night.
Not only does this project show off how AI can help you garden better, it’s also a cool demo of how someone can combine sensor data with an AI to create a system you can literally ask to see what’s wrong. And if you like the idea but you have no idea how to make your own, check out these Raspberry Pi projects for beginners.