PLANTS

The Eden Project has recently completed a new interactive exhibit for the PLANTS project in collaboration with the Sensory Trust. The exhibit has been designed by two Eden designers Louise Thorn and Elinor Slatford. It is designed to help Eden explain their involvement in the partnership project, and allow Eden visitors to understand the latest technology being used in large scale growing.

Project overview

The PLANTS project is a three-year research project devising a new technology to optimise efficiency and productivity of plant growth. The technology is based on the principle of the 'communicating plant'; plant signals are monitored to detect early signs of plant stress and diagnose the plant’s needs. In PLANTS, sophisticated microelectronics and software systems sense and analyse a range of plant signals (for example, chlorophyll content and leaf temperature) and then activate appropriate treatment (for example, irrigation, pest control, fertiliser applications and so on).

By monitoring plant signals rather than the environment, the PLANTS approach aims for precision delivery of resources, when and where they are needed. Using this novel technology PLANTS seeks to minimise waste of resources and the environmental and human health damage their over-use may cause.

Building PLANTS technology requires an interdisciplinary approach incorporating plant science, microelectronics, software design and integration and science communication. The project began in 2003 and is funded by the European Union's Fifth Framework programme under "Future and Emerging Technologies" in Information Society Technologies (IST-2001-38900)

Eden has worked in partnership with the Computer Technology Institute, Patras, Greece (software), Department of Zoology, Ecology and Plant Science, University College Cork, Ireland (plant science), and Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Ireland (microelectronics and project coordinator).

Eden's main role in PLANTS is dissemination. To date, Eden has delivered the branding and design elements of PLANTS as well as the project web site and leaflets. A public workshop showing the concepts involved in the research was held at Eden in October 2004.

Designing the exhibit

When the brief was given to Elinor and Louise they contacted the Sensory Trust as they felt very strongly that their exhibit should be inclusive. They wanted to create an exciting exhibit that would reach the widest possible audience but were aware that the subject itself was quite challenging. They came up with a fully interactive exhibit that asks you the visitor to find out the problem that is making the plant suffer and how you can make it better. This is done through a series of flashing lights and audio messages linked with buttons to control the responses. The exhibit has both text and audio instructions, for example 'Turning a bit yellow', and you must find the solution 'the plant is hungry', so you need to push the button to give it some food. All the text has all been translated into Widgits and Braille to ensure anyone can operate the exhibit independently.

The exhibit is an excellent example of inclusion can be achieved by the designers taking it as a priority at the earliest stage of their design work. They made sure it was in the first brief and continued throughout the project. They looked at both physical access and intellectual access. As the exhibit will be used by visitors to Eden they had to ensure everyone had good access up to and around the exhibit. They were thorough in checking heights and reach for visitors including those in wheelchairs. The information they were communicating is crucial for the success of the exhibit which is why they translated it into different formats.

The PLANTS exhibit at Eden is well worth a visit, it is an amazing looking thing to match the amazing technology the exhibit talks about.

Elinor and Louise would like to give a special thanks to Cate Detheridge of Widgit who organised the widgit translations and Pip Harris from Royal National Institute for the Blind who organised the Braille translations.