Have you ever wished you could have a real live pet but you just can’t, whether because of restrictions in your living situation or because you travel a lot? Well, you’re in luck! Meet Lua, the cheerful smart planter with feelings that turns your plants into Tamagotchi-like pets, allowing them to communicate with their owners.
Picture yourself excitedly picking out a beautiful green plant and walking home with it. You’re excited about being a plant mommy or daddy and set your beloved plant down in an ideal spot in your room. Then what happens? Well maybe your plant baby will thrive, or if you’re like many people, maybe not. But what if you could put your baby to rest in a planter that will not only help her express herself but will also help keep her alive?
Mu-Design, the company that makes Lua, has this information on its website.
Your plant has its needs but it can’t communicate them to you.
Lua turns your favorite plant into a spirited virtual pet! It’s the perfect addition to your inner garden houseplants: its playful/cheerful/lively personality makes it the ideal plant companion.
This awesome little planter is designed to turn your beloved plants, which already probably feel like a part of your family, into pets. The device uses sensors that trigger 15 different universal emotions that are even animated. Also, you can set Lua to have its eyes follow you around the room, just like a pet’s eyes would! Awesome or creepy? Well, that’s up to you.
But this planter is not just adorable. It also measures the soil’s moisture, temperature, movement, and light exposure, which also helps to keep your plan healthy, alive, and well. It’s perfect for someone who doesn’t have a green thumb. It also comes with a saucer for good and important water drainage.
And how do you monitor all this? There’s an app for that. So just like baby monitors, you can check in on your plant baby from anywhere to see how he/she is doing. The app works by setting up a QR code that Lua reads and interprets. You enter in the type of plant family and the exact plane, then set your own thresholds. The company says that the app only requires an internet connection once for the download, and it’s then completely operational, even offline. How awesome is that?
But let’s get to the fun part: the planer’s animations. Lua has 15 different real-time animations.
- Thirsty: tells you when soil moisture drops under the defined threshold so you know when to water your plant baby
- Sick: helps you avoid adding too much water
- Vampire: if light exposure is insufficient, Lua turns into a vampire
- Squint: if Lua squints, you’ll know your plant baby has had too much exposure to light
- Cold: Lua will sneeze the next day if she’s cold the previous day
- Hot: obviously, this animation will trigger if the plant’s environment is too hot
- Happy: sigh….back to normal and good health and happiness
- Puzzled: you’ll see this animation if Lua can’t read your QR code
- Wink: if Lua understands your QR code, you’ll get this wink
- Tired: if there’s no movement, the planter will go back to sleep
- Wake-up: when movement is sensed, your planter will wake up
- Grumpy: this is a random animation that may show up if there’s a chance of rain
- Tongue sticking out: another random animation just for fun
Mu-Design is a Luxembourg company and they have another successful project called Ulo, an interactive home monitoring owl. Lua’s development took 13 months, and the small team plans to work hard to make eco-technology “human-friendly.”
At this time, Lua comes in the colors eggplant, sunflower, agave, and has one unannounced future color that the Lua community will decide. The planter weighs 500g and it has a waterproof elastomer shell.
Lua is not for sale just yet, but you can track Lua’s progress and preorder it Indiegogo. The company has already raised over $50,000, 151 percent of its goal. So rest assured that Lua will actually be available for purchase very soon, and it’s going to be hugely popular. The company says that shipping should start in December 2019.
Will you be getting a Lua? Who doesn’t want to have a perfect little plant baby?
