Cyborg Botany is a stream of interaction design at MIT Media Lab that proposes using augmented plants.
Plants have electrochemical signals and response mechanisms inside them that make them sensitive and responsive to their environments, Cyborg Botany taps into nature’s inherent ability to interact with the world around them. The idea is to enhance the functioning of digital devices by fusing their interaction with nature’s capabilities.
“Our goal is to merge and power our electronic functionalities with existing biological functions of living plants,” states this Fluid Interfaces Project. “Through Cyborg Botany, we re-appropriate some of these natural capabilities of plants for our interactive functions.”
You can find the two case studies presented by MIT Media Lab in which they demonstrate their vision of 'bi-directional' interaction using living plant systems, here.
Credit: MIT Media Lab
