Imagine being at a dinner party and you have to excuse yourself because you just received a text from your thirsty house plant. This kind of communication is not a scenario out of science fiction; it’s reality thanks to Microsoft Research FUSE Labs’ newest member, Kati London.
London is one of the driving forces behind Botanicalls, a project that enables communication between plants and people. A sensor network gives flora the ability to call and text people to request assistance, such as “I need water.”
“A lot of what I’ve done is combine diverse or disconnected networks in new ways to create new kinds of interaction,” says London, who studied painting and industrial design before turning her attention to gaming, hardware and interactive technologies. “Sometimes that’s sticking a sensor in a plant connected to a mesh network of other plants and giving them access to human communication protocols, such as using a telephone and a human voice or Twitter. Sometimes, it’s designing games for three economically and culturally diverse ZIP codes and trying to get people to connect with each other who wouldn’t do so otherwise, using a real-world currency.”
Her work on Botanicalls provides just one window into the talents and imagination London brings to FUSE Labs. Read more about London over at the Inside Microsoft Research Blog and see why Peter Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft Research USA, says that London’s work is a “combination of cutting-edge technology, social conscience and creativity [that] is a great basis for innovation.”
Bruce Vanderpool
Microsoft News Center Staff