Assignment: Final Project 1: Progress Report

Collaborators: pejman

Green Thumb Project

The situation:

"I have a garden in my patio that is coming in nicely. I share this because for many years I have been a failed gardener. So what's changed? Well when I wake up each morning, staring me in the face, through the window, is my garden.

It appears proximity (or perhaps the frequency of being reminded or the accessibility of non-disruptive updates) is a strong determinant for success (at least for me). Of course, not everyone is in a situation to have a patio garden attached to their bedroom."

Proposal:

Design a TUI that communicates the condition of a plant that is out of eyesight. We imagine something like a virtual flower, lit up with LEDs. The colors will change as the soil dries out -- perhaps we can even represent growth too.

The idea would presumably fall into the Ambient Media category, as a sort of status indicator for our plant. As far as implementation, it's still needed to think of how the plant's condition will be monitored/measured/sensed, as well as how the outputs will convey various condition levels, whether it will be a physical display, desktop screen visualization, etc.