Are we ready for the verdant world of the ‘Smart Yard’? The ‘Smart Home’ has been playing the field for a good two decades, making sure your water isn’t leaking and your thermostat isn’t having a meltdown. But the lawn? The rose bushes? The majestic oaks? Well, there’s a newcomer in town, a sprightly little venture named ePlant, that seems to think it’s onto something big.
Now, you might be thinking, “Why should I care about my trees?” Well, according to ePlant’s top dog, Graham Hine, your leafy companions are not just crowd-pleasers, but they’re also a surefire way to bump up your property values. And that’s not just eco-friendly talk – the National Association of Realtors puts a number to it: as much as a 30% increase on your home’s sale price. So, making your trees happier might just put a serious smile on your bank balance too.
Let’s face it, caring for your trees has been more of a guessing game in the past. You could try to be a tree doctor, but diagnosing tree distress was a time-consuming and error-ridden process. Even AI systems could be stumped by the limited ways trees express their woes. And those who dared to use technology had to grapple with a jumble of wires, batteries, and antennas. Not exactly a walk in the park.
A Tech-Savvy Solution
Here’s where ePlant steps in with a solution that seems to have more grace and less wires. They’re leveraging the power of AI to tackle this green challenge. Hine describes it as simple as screwing a sensor onto a tree. This sensor then reads the micrometre changes in the tree trunk’s diameter as it transpires water, a kind of arboreal pulse. Paired with weather or irrigation data, these pulses can tell quite a tale about the tree’s responses to its environment. All this information is transmitted wirelessly to ePlant’s AI systems, which then construct a comprehensive model of each tree’s unique reactions.
The Conversational Tree
But wait, there’s more. ePlant has a second trick up its sleeve – a generative AI conversational engine. This allows the ‘tree’ to actually chat with its owner, giving updates about its health and needs. Why? Well, as Hine points out, most people are all too quick to forget about these kinds of apps. So, they decided to make the experience more engaging to keep users hooked and help their product succeed.
The Future of Smart Yards
While others in the field have focused on things like smart lighting or sprinklers, ePlant and Hine are more interested in what’s growing. They’re exploring ideas like adding an accelerometer function to predict if trees are at risk of falling. They’re also looking at applications in farming, such as getting the watering balance just right for vineyards.
And it doesn’t stop there. ePlant is even considering using their sensors to assess carbon sequestration, monitor forest health, and track disease spread. Their TreeTag device starts at $149, a price that might seem steep to some. But as our appreciation for the outdoors grows, ePlant is betting that we’ll be more than willing to invest in the health of our own little piece of the planet.