The goal of the Micro Grow Project is to create a collaborative agricultural containment experiment that promotes education and sustainable bio and agriculture technologies. It operates on the premise that a community is made up of individuals … and through individuals we can build a community to further design innovations and agricultural technologies for the Micro Grow community.
The LabBox Grower micro grow box was specifically designed to grow plants within a miniaturized bio containment unit.
After downloading the LabBox Server software (Windows only) you can control the LabBox Grower through a web browser or iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. LabBox Server also connects to Twitter meaning you can receive periodic updates right to your Twitter account.
Current Temperature Readings
Light, Pump and Fan Statuses
Low Reservoir Notifications
High-Low Temperature Notifications
The LabBox runs on a PICAXE microcontroller so you can hack it with BASIC.
By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?
I saw this on Oli’s Journal last night. It’s pretty cool but I find it more than a bit scary.
“Each cow wears a RFID tag that is used to coordinate her activities with a central computer. As a cow approaches the robotic milking pen, the computer reads the tag and determines whether or not the cow is scheduled to be milked, based on her stage of lactation and average daily output. If the cow is ready for milking, she is allowed into the pen. Once inside, a robotic arm washes her teats, latches on, and extracts the milk while the cow eats high-grade feed to make her happy. The milk output and feed input is recorded by the main computer and stored in a database, along with the total milking time, time/teat, and total time in pen. The farmer enters additional information into the database, such as a when a cow gives birth, becomes ill, or is sent for slaughter.”
Some clever people at Critical Media Lab have hooked this up to Twitter and the cows now broadcast things like “Got into the milking pen at Mon, May 10 ‘10 12:40 am and in 3:38 secs I pumped out a full 12.1 kg. Impressive!”.
I find this funny, incredibly interesting and terrifying at the same time.
