"Sensitive Plant"

A Cyberplant that is light sensitive.  Light patterns change if you walk past and cast a shadow on the plant.

Uses Jessa Flower modules built by Stan Cohen at Bira Systems

These are "electronic candles" with all the charm and calming effects generated with white light emitting diodes. Flash and flicker modes can be set at turn on. Makes a great centerpiece on the dining table with the lights turned down.




Shown at Robogames 2006




I used the Jessa Flower modules to make an artbot work called "Sensitive Plant".  A Picaxe Microcontroller senses changes of light intensity and causes a brief interuption of the power to the modules.  The interuption causes the module to switch to a different light pattern. You can see the controller just below the top of the vase. The light dependent resistor protrudes at the opening of the vase.



Controller with light dependent resistor at one end.
Schematic of controller (pdf)

Picaxe program
'Sensitive plant"
'Only 28 bytes long
'Written by W.D.Sherman 4-25-07

symbol light1 = w0           'allocate variables
symbol light2 = w1
start:
high 4                       'turn on jessa flower module
readadc 1,light1             'check light levels
pause 250
readadc 1,light2
pause 250
light1 = light1/10           'reduce light sensitivity
light2 = light2/10
if light1=light2 then start  'detect a change of light intensity
low 4 'turn of module to interrupt power
pause 1000
goto start

Video at Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HJLvt26QgA