Khoshia
Is your plant happy? Using a semiconductor enabled micro sensor to detect plant fluorescence.
When performing photosynthesis, plants re-emit 1% of the sunlight, called “solar induced fluorescence (SIF)”, which provides a direct view into their biochemical process. Scientists use expensive tools to detect SIF for research on agriculture, vegetation, climates, etc. What if there is a SIF sensor for everyone to care, learn and study plants? We have used semiconductor technology to make such a SIF sensor affordable (1% cost of spectrometer), lightweight and hands-on. It’s a simple prototype integrating a microchip digital palette, open source Arduino processor, and a 3D-printing leave-wearable clip. Our intention is to use less resource from earth to communicate with nature. It can detect SIF, track the footprint of photosynthesis, and collect biofeedback data. Connecting with apps/cloud databases, it helps to build an online open source among planters to develop and share knowledge for gardening, education, energy-saving farming, and environmental research.