Bizarre Tech: PlantWave, Bios Urn and Biopod

PlantWave

Nnn tsssss nnn tsssss.

Once called Midi Sprout (sounds like a type of dress for a plant of some kind), PlantWave (more like it) is a device designed to detect slight electrical variations in a plant via two electrodes placed on the leaves. The website says variations are graphed as a wave, which is translated into pitch messages that play musical instruments designed by the PlantWave team.

Characteristics of the wave supposedly changes textural qualities of the plant sounds. See, I don’t know whether this is more of a gimmick than anything. How can we disprove that the plant is causing these sounds? Eh?

The result is a “continuous stream of pleasing music that gives you a sonic window into the secret life of plants”. SUPER SECRET PLANT SQUIRREL.

You can use your phone to listen using the PlantWave app, or with “pro musical equipment”. DJ set by an Elephant Ear Plant?!

Getting upgrades for the app (basically they’re making you spend more £££) gives you more instruments and customisation options.

When you buy PlantWave, you get the device, the free app, electrode leads, three pairs of reusable sticky pads for the leaves, duck-beak clips for wee plants, and a USB cable for charging and data transmission.

Go forth and listen to your greens.

Bios Urn

One for any occasion.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Bios Urn is the world’s first biodegradable urn designed to turn you into a tree after you are dead.

So how does one turn one’s ashes into a tree? Well, there is a step-by-step guide on the website, but I will divulge a little.

The urn is made with two separate capsules, one of which will contain the seed or sapling that you want your loved one to be remembered by.

You fill the lower capsule with the ashes, mix the components with your chosen seed or sprout in the upper capsule, close the urn and then plant it with the top 3-5cm below the soil surface.

Costing $140 US, the urns are sold without any seeds so you can choose your own.

There’s also the Bios Incube Lite, a planter which fits all of the company’s urns, so you can plant your loved one close to you. Also, if you move around a lot, your person or pet tree can come with you. The Lite comes in white, pistachio, light blue, brown or anthracite and is 76cm tall and 33cm wide.

The urn will biodegrade during incubation, becoming a part of the soil and subsoil.

The team also have planting guides, and recommendations for trees depending on your region (in the US, I presume).

The team behind the urn also wants to turn cemeteries into forests.

I see dead people trees.

Biopod

Rainforest in your room? Yes, please.

The Biopod is one of those gadgets which makes me a bit excited. I could get little treefrogs and they’d be perfectly happy in there, and I wouldn’t have to do too much, and there’s less of a chance of me killing them. Win-win all round I reckon.

Biopod is “an app-controlled microhabitat that automatically regulates temperature, light, humidity, ventilation and rainfall”. The team claims it replicates the ideal environment for your plants or animals, so you can grow lots of different plants, or have a little rainforest for your pet pals.

With the Biopod app, you tell it what to do and it will create the ideal environment, and if you’re a novice at seeding, the app will provide a step-by-step guide. Handy. It helps you create the ideal environment depending on what you’re growing, or what pets you have.

So, let’s get down to the techie stuff. It has a Biopur Air injection system, which combines aeroponics with “advanced substrate and ventilation technology, perfectly balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide while maintaining life sustaining equilibrium”. I love jargon. Apparently, this system closely replicates natural air patterns that occur in real habitats. Sweet.  

It’s got a UVB CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) which replicates the sun’s natural output, and the LED light panel gives off the same colour temp and high PAR value (whatever that is when it’s at home) of the natural sunlight spectrum.

The “automated, low-maintenance system”, including lighting and watering, takes care of the environment if you don’t have the time. It “combines the benefits of an aquaponics system with the ideal conditions of a greenhouse”. Biopod also measures soil condition and lets you know when to harvest your wee plants. Apparently, it will “optimise growth for maximum production”.

As well as working like a greenhouse, it can function as an enclosed ecosystem for your little pets, without the need for a lot of maintenance. This means your wee froggos or other pets are kept safe and sound.

It’s got a HD camera installed (for you plant pervs) and is Wi-Fi connected. There’s also the Biopod Cloud, so info from your gadget can be shared with other users, for “better environments and best practices”.

It comes in four working prototypes – the Biopod ONE (volume of 14.2 gallons), “ideal for a herb or vegetable garden”, the TERRA (21 gal), a “great piece of décor for any home or office”, the AQUA (31.5 gal), an aquarium that “works like a complete ecosystem” which can also be converted to a standard vivarium, and the GRAND (89 gal).

I will take 10 GRANDS, thank you.