Talking To Plants Could Be Reality With Microsoft's Project Florence

Communication with plants could be a new reality with Project Florence initiated by Microsoft. Helene Steiner while still working at Microsoft research envisioned to bring together nature and technology and started working on the Project Florence, learning to communicate with the plants. The prototype project uses a technology which allows one to talk to plants and have them talk back to you.


Florence while still in its nascent stage is essentially a capsule-type enclosure capable of hosting a plant and several sensors. The apparatus is connected to a computer loaded with software which lets us type anything. Once we’ve posted in what we want to convey, it is analyzed for positive or negative sentiment. The mood of the message is then translated into a set of blinks. A loving sentiment might be beamed at the plant in the form of long red blinks,for example, since red light encourages plant to flower.


The sensors attached to its network of roots and leaves, check the wetness/dryness/chemical balance of the soil, the quality of air circulating around it and so on to get an idea of how the plant is feeling, which leads to user getting a response from the plant. It further translates these feelings into tweets. Project Florence’s software scans Twitter for messages relating to a plant’s specific sentiment, and then fills in the blanks using said messages.

The team hopes to develop the technology further in coming time to more accurately translate plant’s chemical and electrical output to best serve the plant itself.

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