Can Plants Perceive Human Gestures? Using AI to Track Eurythmic Human-Plant Interaction
Alvaro Francisco Gil1,2, Moritz Weinbeer3, Peter A Gloor1
1MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 24, 2024
Summary
Plants can detect and differentiate human movements through changes in their electrical signals. This study shows plant electrical signals vary based on eurythmy gestures and plant species, suggesting plants may act as biosensors.
Area of Science:
- Plant electrophysiology
- Bioacoustics and biosensing
- Human-plant interaction
Background:
- Plants exhibit electrical signaling, but their response to external stimuli like human movement is not well understood.
- Eurythmy, a form of movement art, involves expressive gestures that may influence biological systems.
- Understanding plant perception of human activity can reveal novel ecological interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if plants generate distinct electrical signals in response to human eurythmy movements.
- To determine if machine learning can differentiate between various eurythmy gestures based on plant electrical data.
- To explore potential differences in plant responses across different species (salad, basil, tomato).
Main Methods:
- Conducted 6-month experiments involving human eurythmy gestures near salad, basil, and tomato plants.
- Utilized a plant SpikerBox to measure voltage differentials between plant roots and leaves.
- Applied machine learning algorithms to analyze temporal patterns in plant electrical signals.
Main Results:
- Plant electrical signals successfully predicted whether eurythmy had been performed.
- Machine learning models could identify specific types of eurythmy gestures based on plant signals.
- Distinct electrical signal patterns were observed among different plant species, indicating species-specific perception.
Conclusions:
- Plants possess the capability to perceive and respond to human movement through measurable changes in electrical signals.
- Plant electrical activity can serve as a reliable indicator of performed eurythmy gestures and their types.
- Species-specific differences in plant electrical responses highlight the potential for plants as biosensors in human-environment interaction studies.
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