Bio-machine

Jurema Action Plant by Ivan Henriques

Mimosa pudica is the sensitive plant that interact with the customized machine.

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Preview Exam at Hoop Gallery, Den Haag / NL 2011. - To measure the Action Potential from the plant some electrodes are placed in its branches. When the leaves and branches of the plant are touched this signal changes. Picture by Katherine Cuningham found on Ivan Henriques' website.

Like humans, animals and machines, the plants have an electrical signal traveling inside them, but they do not have nerves like humans and animals; nor wires and cables like machines. This electrical signal travels inside the cells of the plant. In collaboration with professor Bert van Duijn from the Biology University and the Hortus Botanicus on a research into the Action Potential of this plant they settled upon a solution in which a signal amplifier reads the differences in the electromagnetic field around the plant to determine when it is being touched. These electromagnetic variations trigger movement of the robotic structure, on which the plant is situated, by means of a custom-made circuit board. The thresholds for response are set in such a way that only touching the plant makes it move away from the person touching it.