Zaragoza, Spain hacklab La Remolacha (“The Beet”) sports a logo which responds to human interaction with a beet plant growing in the space. Sensors keep track of temperature as well as humidity for both air and ground, while buttons add a lot more water, plant food, light, and music.

The shape and activity of the visualization responds to the sensors. The higher the temperature, the a lot more folds in the shape. a lot more distortions appear when there’s a lot more humidity in the soil, while rotation speed increases with air humidity. adding food increases the size of the visualization, and music triggers a lot more vibrations.

An Arduino keeps track of the buttons and humidity sensors, while a nearby computer, connected by means of USB, sends the data to a node.js server. The data are displayed on the web site through the torus visualization, which is done in WebGL.

The beet’s environment also signals the health of the space, because if no one is visiting, no one can feed the plant. On the other hand, could too lots of visitors actually kill the thing?

The project was created by [Innovart],  [Miguel Frago], and [Santi Grau] with help from other folks.

Thanks [Esther Borao Moros] for the tip!