Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up with a product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be best to explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use it.

The user opens up the box to find the Hand held device with a color LCD touch screen, seeds for several different plants, earphones and location markers with embedded RFID chips. The handheld device would also have a docking station to connect to a computer. The idea is that when the user starts planting fruits, flowers, ect. They would then place a RFID in the ground right with the seed.(An RFID is a chip that stores information you enter, and then can retrieve the information later wirelessly.)

The user would input what plant he just put the RFID chip next to. Now when the user ever comes back to that plant he waves his device over the plant and up pops a history of the plant, how to take care of it, the history of the users interaction with that plant, ect. The device would also be able to play mp3 files, which would allow the user to hook up to the internet and download instructional lessons, different methods of planting, care, ect. The device could even give visual references for the user.

This idea is just not limited to outdoor use. You could use the system for greenhouses, or even inside the house with “smart pots.” Maybe you have smart pots that have RFID integrated chips. The main thing I want to concentrate on is building this idea into an entire system for home gardening.

I would really appreciate any answers to the following questions, and any comments about my idea

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Do you document plants as they grow?

How do you remember what plants you planted?

What are the most common things you need to remember when taking care of a garden, ie nutrition, type of fertilizer, ect.

What are the most important things you need to do before starting to plant seeds for your garden?

Are there different ways you need to treat plants that you grow outside then in a greenhouse?

Thanks for your time, this will really help me out.

"spirk" wrote in message
...

Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up with a
product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of
growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be best to
explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use it.

The user opens up the box to find the Hand held device with a color LCD
touch screen, seeds for several different plants, earphones and location
markers with embedded RFID chips. The handheld device would also have a
docking station to connect to a computer. The idea is that when the
user starts planting fruits, flowers, ect. They would then place a
RFID in the ground right with the seed.(An RFID is a chip that stores
information you enter, and then can retrieve the information later
wirelessly.)

The user would input what plant he just put the RFID chip next to.
Now when the user ever comes back to that plant he waves his device
over the plant and up pops a history of the plant, how to take care of
it, the history of the users interaction with that plant, ect. The
device would also be able to play mp3 files, which would allow the user
to hook up to the internet and download instructional lessons, different
methods of planting, care, ect. The device could even give visual
references for the user.

This idea is just not limited to outdoor use. You could use the system
for greenhouses, or even inside the house with "smart pots." Maybe you
have smart pots that have RFID integrated chips. The main thing I want
to concentrate on is building this idea into an entire system for home
gardening.

I would really appreciate any answers to the following questions, and
any comments about my idea

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Do you document plants as they grow?

How do you remember what plants you planted?

What are the most common things you need to remember when taking care
of a garden, ie nutrition, type of fertilizer, ect.

What are the most important things you need to do before starting to
plant seeds for your garden?

Are there different ways you need to treat plants that you grow outside
then in a greenhouse?

Thanks for your time, this will really help me out.


--
spirk
Greenhouses are extremely hostile places for anything electronic.
Most people I know wouldn't need the information, they know it and one of
the reasons they garden is the mental challenge of learning something
different. But you will probably find others who would be interested - Good
luck

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 01:29:41 +0000, spirk
wrote:

[long technothingie description]

Most people I know who have the money to buy gadgets like this use the
garden as a chance to get away from an overly tech environment.

Who do you see buying this thing?

The message
from spirk contains these words:

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

Slugs

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Mealtimes.

Do you document plants as they grow?

No

How do you remember what plants you planted?

I have a computer in my head.

TAAAW, what comes up tends to give the game away.

What are the most common things you need to remember when taking care
of a garden, ie nutrition, type of fertilizer, ect.

You don't have to *REMEMBER* things like that.

At least, I don't.

What are the most important things you need to do before starting to
plant seeds for your garden?

Get the seeds in time.

Are there different ways you need to treat plants that you grow outside
then in a greenhouse?

A?

Thanks for your time, this will really help me out.


I don't think you are really asking the right questions.

My advice would be to try to get a weekend or evening job in a proper nursery.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from spirk contains these words:

I would really appreciate any answers to the following questions, and
any comments about my idea

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

I don't perceive gardening in those terms. It isn't a tick-box,
flow-chart production process.

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

It isn't an intellectual process in the head, it's about instinct,
opening up to a subtler state of receptiveness and connection, going
with the flow. While the hands are in the soil and touching plants,
there's no requirement to remember theory and charts. Just as, when
riding a bike, I don't have to remember anything about dynamic physics.
(just as well).

Do you document plants as they grow?

I write the sowing date of seeds on a plastic label and stick it in
the pot.

How do you remember what plants you planted?

I write the name on a plastic label.

IMO, you're confusing the needs of gardeners ( very low-tech, best
summarised as KISS) with industrial horticulture. They are two very
different markets, with very different agendas.

Janet

"spirk" wrote in message
...

Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up with a
product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of
growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be best to
explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use it.


Presumably you've been given this particular topic as a project
and had no choice.

Just try and explain to your tutor that designers always do their
best work - both commercially and professionally, when working in
areas they're already familiar with.

Gardening is a very large, competitive leisure market World-wide,
and manufacturers are getting input and ideas from knowledgeable
amateurs, professional horticulturists, and designers
who are also weekend gardeners, on a 24/7 basis.

The fact that you need to ask such basic questions means
you're unlikely to come up with anything worthwhile -
certainly when compared with designing for a product area
you're familiar with. Concerning one of your own leisure
interests for instance. If you can't think of a worthwhile design
improvement or product idea in that area, then its unlikely
you'll do so for one with which you're totally unfamiliar.
Certainly not when compared with the many designers who
already have the requisite familiarity.

Basically its a non-starter in any case, because as has already
been pointed out, many people are attracted to gardening precisely
because it's so low tech. You hardly need any equipment at all
as garden tools can easily last for decades. While the high tech
end is already well catered for with scaled down versions of
commercial equipment. And what's more, its not the end of the world
if you forget what you planted where, in any case.

To some people anyway.


michael adams


--
spirk

In message , spirk
writes

The user opens up the box to find the Hand held device with a color LCD
touch screen, seeds for several different plants, earphones

!!
How do I listen to my radio if I have earphones?


The user would input what plant he just put the RFID chip next to.
Now when the user ever comes back to that plant he waves his device
over the plant and up pops a history of the plant, how to take care of
it, the history of the users interaction with that plant, ect.

But I *know* all that! Gardening is my interest. I therefore remember
what I need to know. Effortlessly.

And when I wave my device over the seed tray, it will pick up the RFID
chip from the back left cell, rather than one in the second from left,
will it?

This idea is just not limited to outdoor use. You could use the system
for greenhouses, or even inside the house with “smart pots.� Maybe you
have smart pots that have RFID integrated chips.

And that costs how much?
Compared with recycled plastic pots from last year, or empty yogurt
pots?

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

Having to go back to the house to refill my coffee cup.

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Where I left my secateurs

Do you document plants as they grow?

No

How do you remember what plants you planted?

The seed packet has been opened, I may have put the name on a plastic
label in the pot, I can recognise what comes up.

What are the most common things you need to remember when taking care
of a garden, ie nutrition, type of fertilizer, ect.

None of these

What are the most important things you need to do before starting to
plant seeds for your garden?

Choose what seeds to buy

Are there different ways you need to treat plants that you grow outside
then in a greenhouse?

The differences between different plants within in each of these
environments are at least as large as the overall differences between
greenhouse and garden. Greenhouses are warmer, have fewer slugs, and no
natural rainfall. The impact of each of these depends on the particular
plant.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Recreational gardening is not
about producing showy plants, it's about the whole process of growing,
of learning and understanding. Adding to your own knowledge base is
interesting, but having an artificial knowledge repository is directly
counter to that. If I want to grow a plant, I am interested enough in it
to remember what I have done with it (though I may note dates of sowing
on a plastic label), and I will remember its needs just as easily as a
football fan will remember the names of the players in his favourite
team. I do not want to mess around duplicating in a separate system
information which I can retain easily in my head.
--
Kay Easton

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:38:55 +0000, wrote:

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Where I left my secateurs

Yellow insulation tape on the handles or, if your prefer a soft grip,
the tape sold in sports shops to use as racket grips on squash rackets
(why are garden tools produced with green and brown handles?)

michael adams wrote:
"spirk" wrote in message
...

Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up
with a
product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of
growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be
best
to explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use
it.


Presumably you've been given this particular topic as a project
and had no choice.

Just try and explain to your tutor that designers always do their
best work - both commercially and professionally, when working in
areas they're already familiar with.
[...sound comments snipped...]

Agreed, everybody's comments. It's a sledgehammer to crack a
cornflake, but as an exercise it's _very_ interesting. I think our
friend should pursue it, though perhaps not in this precise
direction. An application of the principle which occurs to me is in
botanic or RHS etc gardens: a visitor could pick up the tool at the
entrance, and get, if he wanted it, far more information about a
plant than could be put on a label -- characteristics, history,
provenance, uses, mentions in literature, depictions in art, etc etc.
There are times when I'd like that at Kew and other places. In the
same way, it could be used with museum and art-gallery exhibits and
even some kinds of shop displays.

I would emphasise, though, what's been said already: if a designer
doesn't know the field he's working for, or work extremely closely
with people who do, the almost inevitable result is very bad design.
I've seen that lose a firm serious money (paid for with staff
redundancies).

--
Mike.

Mike Lyle wrote:


I would emphasise, though, what's been said already: if a designer
doesn't know the field he's working for, or work extremely closely
with people who do, the almost inevitable result is very bad design.

As a newbie gardener, I agree with much of the comments passed. I
would have no use and no interest in the suggested equipment in my own
garden.
But to be fair to the guy, he is asking for input from a group of
passionate gardeners of varying ability and experience, and isn't that
a fair enough first step to ascertain the prospects of his idea?

Cat(h)

JB wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:38:55 +0000, wrote:

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Where I left my secateurs

Yellow insulation tape on the handles or, if your prefer a soft
grip,
the tape sold in sports shops to use as racket grips on squash
rackets
(why are garden tools produced with green and brown handles?)

To encourage you to lose them and buy new ones. Our friend could
usefully design a tiny tracking device to stick on tools so we can
ask them where they a the technology for this kind of thing is
pretty mature. The device could be unpowered and passive, simply
returning a "Secateurs: getting warmer...getting colder" signal on a
PDA or telephone. One or two of our respected regulars have gardens
big enough to justify GPS!

Of course, there's still Lyle's inverse square law of searching. The
visibility of any given search target decreases as the square of the
intensity and closeness of the search. Classic instance: "Where are
my glasses?" "You're wearing them!" No bleeper can overcome that. A
colorally apples to tuyping mistyakes.

--
Mike.

The message
from JB contains these words:

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:38:55 +0000, wrote:

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Where I left my secateurs

Yellow insulation tape on the handles or, if your prefer a soft grip,
the tape sold in sports shops to use as racket grips on squash rackets
(why are garden tools produced with green and brown handles?)

Well, there's the simple answer for the design student's project.
Forget the computerised plantpot. What gardeners really want, is a way
to stop tools getting lost in the undergrowth. (Forestry tool
manufacturers have already grasped that, and make planting spades etc
with dayglo yellow shafts).

I'd happily settle for shocking pink handles. (Room for a brief
exposition by our student on avoiding blue-green-red handles, for the
sake of whatever proportion of the population is colourblind) .But if
the designer really wants to go high-tech, the technology is already
available in those keys that make the car bleep and flash at you.
Pressing a little keyring-sized scanner gadget would cause the lost
handfork to announce its whereabouts. Ideally, the locator-bleep could
be retro-fitted to favourite old brown tools. Further product
development opportunity; how not to lose the keyring-sized scanner in
the garden. The frugal gardener in me says "tie it on string round
neck".

No, no...it's coming to me now.. each garden tool is programmed with
its own phone number. When the spade gets lost, you just call it from
your mobile phone, and make it ring......


Janet

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

An application of the principle which occurs to me is in
botanic or RHS etc gardens: a visitor could pick up the tool at the
entrance, and get, if he wanted it, far more information about a
plant than could be put on a label -- characteristics, history,
provenance, uses, mentions in literature, depictions in art, etc etc.
There are times when I'd like that at Kew and other places. In the
same way, it could be used with museum and art-gallery exhibits

It already exists, in all three applications you mention. Usually
available for hire at the entrance.

Janet

The message
from "michael adams" contains these words:

"spirk" wrote in message
...

Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up with a
product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of
growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be best to
explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use it.


Presumably you've been given this particular topic as a project
and had no choice.

Just try and explain to your tutor that designers always do their
best work - both commercially and professionally, when working in
areas they're already familiar with.

Or in the bath, or the smallest room.

Can't add to or argue with anything that follows.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from JB contains these words:

/prune/

(why are garden tools produced with green and brown handles?)


So you'll lose them and have to buy more of them.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig