Google uses AI to build a better cucumber farm

Artificial intelligence technology doesn't just have to solve grand challenges. Sometimes, it can tackle decidedly everyday problems -- like, say, improving a cucumber farm. Makoto Koike has built a cucumber sorter that uses Google's TensorFlow machi...

High-rise Hydroponic Farm

Aprilli Design Studio’s Urban SkyFarm is a living machine, helping improve environmental quality by filtering water & air, providing edible greens & producing renewable energy. Dense urban developments will benefit from the additional green space by feeling a reduction in heat accumulation, storm water runoff & carbon dioxide. As a net zero facility, its aim is to operate only with renewable solar & wind energy. Harvesting from hydroponic systems, vertical gardens & farming decks, all goods are processed & distributed directly on the farm!

The Urban SkyFarm is a vertical solution that utilizes hydroponic systems as substitution of soil-based agricultural extensions. By using the hydroponic system, the Urban Skyfarm can provide hundreds of light weight farming decks which can be conditioned with supplementary heating, lighting and moisturizing while having the natural light as the main resource.

In order to gain maximum exposure to sunlight, the vertical garden lifts the main outdoor vegetation area higher up in the air in a section known as the “leaf” where mostly medium-based hydroponic fruit trees and larger scale vegetables needing more exposure to outside air and sunlight can be produced. The lower portions are controlled indoor environments using solution-based hydroponic farming with artificial lighting which are more suitable for indoor products such as basil, arugula, bok choy, etc..

It also serves as a community garden hub where urban dwellers can easily visit, grow their own vegetations and participate in the final production by bringing it home or selling it to the community. The central food market will host local mobile farmer markets around the neighborhood which will circulate through the city to facilitate producing and trading local food products grown by the community.

Designer: Aprilli Design Studio

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Visualized: World’s largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze

Visualized World's largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze

And why wouldn't it be? That's how the Kraay family of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada gets down, as evidenced by the family's past 13 years of elaborate corn maze designs -- from a logo of the Edmonton Oilers to a 25th anniversary commemoration of Rick Hansen's "Man in Motion" tour. Said QR code sends adventurous scanners to a website for the Kraay's family farm website. The code also got the Kraays into the Guinness Book of World Records for "World's Largest QR Code," which was really what drove this whole project. At approximately 29,000 meters (1.1 square miles), that's quite a bit of carefully crafted corn designing. It's certainly more elaborate than the previously claimed record holder, and a lot more official.

"It was something that we didn't think would happen. There were a lot of little things we had to do and Guinness is pretty picky with how you collect your evidence. We were a little bit on edge on whether it would come through so we were very relieved and very excited," Rachel Kraay told CTV News about the project. To verify that the code works, the Kraays had to commission a helicopter to fly them over their own farm, allowing them to scan it while hovering hundreds of feet above. And then, at the end of last week, the Guinness folks sent over a package certifying the bizarre world record. "They didn't even call. I just went to the door and there was a large package and inside was the certificate and a letter. I guess that's how they do it."

[Image credit: Facebook]

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Visualized: World's largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Swiss Researchers Invent System to Text Shepherds When Sheep Are under Attack

Apparently, sheep herding is big business in some parts of Switzerland and elsewhere in the world. The problem for Swiss shepherds is that wolves are making return to the area after being gone for about 100 years. That means that their previously safe sheep are now coming under attack and being killed by wolves.

sheep

Researchers from the country have now developed a system that can monitor the heart rate of the sheep. The system has been proven to work effectively by noting increased heart rate when a wolf attacks a flock of sheep. The heart rate sensor system can be integrated with a collar that would be able to text shepherds when sheep are under attack.

The researchers expect to be able to test the new collar, which can also spray wolf repellent, sometime next year. I wonder how the system would differentiate between increased heart rate due to attacks or simply a male sheep staring at a female sheep.

[via Phys.org]


Green Beast

An electric green shell. Bold, sporty, aggressive styling. Ultra-bright adaptive LED headlights. A super-flexible racing-style seat. Horsepower for days. These are just a few ways you might describe this sexy…. TRACTOR! (Gotcha!) But seriously, the T-Ractor concept is a modern, sporty twist on agricultural machinery that is a must-have in the driveway of every redneck!

Designers: Park Chanhyun, Lee Jaewha & Min Seong Kim

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