This wearable lets your plants communicate with you

While the term “Plant Parent” has become a pretty standard term in the millennial lexicon, taking care of plants isn’t as easy as it looks! Sure, if you’ve got a dog or a cat, they let you know when they’re hungry, it’s easy to know when they’re bored or frisky, and you can take them to the vet when they’re unwell or unhealthy. With plants, not so much. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a plant’s health – soil, water, sunlight, pests, etc. But there isn’t any easy way of knowing what your plant needs… the BioCollar is changing that.

Designed by students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, the BioCaller is a wearable that builds empathy between the wearer and the connected plant. When paired with a piece of hardware that goes into the planter, the collar helps you understand the plant’s needs through real-time feedback. It becomes moderately tighter when the plant needs water, gets warm when the plant has too much sunlight, and vibrates when the plant has an infestation. In doing so, the wearable aims at letting the plant easily communicate its needs to you, and enables you to be a better plant-parent.

The BioCollar was designed as a part of a larger system called the BioPermit – a service that uses the collar to test prospective plant-buyers to see if they’re empathetic caregivers (a lot like how people are interviewed before they adopt a baby or pet). Obviously, the system is a speculative one, with its main aim being to test future scenarios and see if sensors can be developed that convert plant-needs into haptic feedback. I can definitely see this getting translated into something as effective as a wrist-worn fitness tracker that tracks your plant’s progress, or better still, an app that lets your plant communicate with you!

Designers: Sammy Creeger, Elliott Wortham & Maria Jose Tamayo

This frolicking feline-inspired lamp was designed to spark joy!

There isn’t a universe in which a cat frolicking around with a ball of yarn isn’t fun. Whether you like cats or not, there’s no denying that they’re a curious, entertaining species and if it weren’t for them, the internet would be a very different place.

The Miau lamp by Tati Ferrucio embodies that element of playfulness with a lamp and holder that’s inspired by a cat playing with a ball of wool. “The design concept was developed in order to allow the customer to make an emotional connection to the product. It intends to link user’s emotions to the lamp through their love for animals or even the memories of their first pets”, says Ferrucio. Made from wood, the cat comes with positionable arms, allowing you to make it stand, crouch, or sit down, while the ball-shaped light comes with a cord that literally wraps around the cat in a chaotic fashion, tying the two elements together quite literally! The cord can be unwound to create distance between the cat and the lamp, allowing you to use it as a floor-based light, a tabletop light, or even have the lamp hanging off your mantelpiece. No matter how you position it, there’s always visual drama between the curious cat and the chaotic ball of wool. Ultimately, it evokes a positive emotional connection and sparks joy, no matter how old or young you are!

Designer: Tati Ferrucio