This is probably the wrong Internet of Things solution to watering plants

Nobody wants plants to die of thirst and neglect. So how can we use the internet to solve this problem? Probably not with the Grovio personal plant assistant, which is currently up on Kickstarter.

Grovio is a white cylinder that sits next to your plant and waters it through a small, unsightly hose. The device can track the light, temperature, and humidity situation, so the Grovio app can tell you if your plant is sad or whatever. The device can also support up to three plants at once, in the unlikely scenario that you're willing to ruin your whole plant aesthetic with even more hoses.

I don't know if Grovio is good at its job, or if the app's notifications are useful and timely. I just know that hoses are a non-starter for me. Build the watering mechanism and sensors into the pot, or just give me a butler robot already who can roam through my home and keep things alive. But let's not serve the aesthetics of plants with a sterile monolith plant neighbor that has water-filled hoses sprouting out of it.

Sorry for being so negative. I didn't realize going into this how strongly I feel about water delivery mechanisms. You can back Grovio for the early-bird price of $99, and it's supposed to ship by the end of the year.

The article was published on : theverge