Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology

Developing new agricultural techniques to improve plant health and production is desperately needed to address the looming food crisis. When plants are exposed to disease and poor growing conditions, they often respond through subtle micro-movements that can’t be seen by the naked eye. Researchers with expertise in life science, agriculture, electrical and computer engineering, sonification, and visualization are developing an image analysis system to interpret plant movement patterns under different growth conditions. The processed image data will be converted to audible sounds, allowing scientists to actually hear when and how a plant is responding to its environment. Being able to easily and immediately observe plant response will help researchers design new agricultural practices to improve plant performance.