personal food computers
“
WHILE NOT YET IN FULL PRODUCTION, HARPER BEGAN
DONATING PFCS IN SEPTEMBER TO SELECT SCHOOLS IN AN
EFFORT TO RAISE EDUCATIONAL AWARENESS
AND ENCOURAGE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS TO GET INVOLVED
IN HELPING SOLVE THE WORLD’S FOOD SHORTAGES.”
Inside this do-it-yourself growbox lives an intimate garden
with an active array of electronic sensors monitoring nearly
every aspect of the environment in relation to the plants being
grown inside. These watchdog sensors vigilantly check and
control the climate, humidity, pH levels, nutrient dispensing,
and oxygen levels. It also monitors root zone temperatures
and electrical conductivity in real time.
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feature
What separates this system is that the entire growing process
is monitored and recorded while a digital footprint is created
containing all the information gathered during each step of the
growth cycle. As improvements are made, plants can be grown
with a precision that wasn’t possible before.
In an interview with Smithsonian magazine, Harper states,
“What’s cool is that at the end of your grow cycle, you get a
digital recipe. If you were to grow basil again, you would get
the same thing every time. You can email the basil recipe to
your friends, and they can run the program again and get the
same thing or they can start messing with it.”
As it is open-source, the program’s source code is made
universally accessible to like-minded growers and others
across the country or even around the world. By freely
sharing this knowledge, anyone can access the digital recipe
and learn to grow the best version of their favorite plant and
even make contributions and improvements to the recipe.