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In Wroclaw, Poland is a lively terraced house that reflects the youthful energy of the couple who owns it. Designed by Znamy siฤ for the owners, and their two dogs, who love to cook, entertain friends, and play board games. Drawing inspiration from the whimsical world of Playshapes (wooden blocks that can be moved, layered, or combined), this modern home now boasts a fusion of structures, forms, and vibrant colors that bolster creativity, socializing, and play.
The new interior holds many elements that allow the owners to play with form. Moveable furniture sets the stage with shelves on wheels that enable the couple to create flexible arrangements and new spaces. The kitchen island is not only the place for food prep and cooking, it stores board games and houses water dispensers for their beloved dogs. The dining tableโs top lifts to play games and work puzzles.
Geometric shapes and a strong palette of colors intertwine forming layered spaces rich in textures and visual intrigue. The inclusion of lots of wooden elements gives nod to Playshapes, while adding organic charm.
Three shelves set within a blue painted alcove hold a large selection of plants and objects for a touch of biophilia.
The square dining table lives under one of the hanging grids that holds plants. Similar gridded structures live alongside the wooden staircase adding a pop of color while providing safety for those climbing the stairs.
The bathroom features similar wooden cabinets as the kitchen island with geometric patterns adorning the fronts. An inset cabinet is painted a playful pink on the inside, pairing nicely with the black and white floor tile.
Photography by Migdal Studio.
Professor Paco Calvo believes that plant behavior is the key to understanding how human minds work. Plant lover Amanda Gefter clearly sees the logic in his work and delights in explaining it to us in this fascinating piece.
Artificial neural networks have led to breakthroughs in machine learning and big data, but they still seemed, to Calvo, a far cry from living intelligence. Programmers train the neural networks, telling them when theyโre right and when theyโre wrong, whereas living systems figure things out for themselves, and with small amounts of data to boot. A computer has to see, say, a million pictures of cats before it can recognize one, and even then all it takes to trip up the algorithm is a shadow. Meanwhile, you show a 2-year-old humanย oneย cat, cast all the shadows you want, and the toddler will recognize that kitty.
Wheeled robots can accurately measure the angle of leaves on corn plants in the field, report researchers.
โThe angle of a plantโs leaves, relative to its stem, is important because the leaf angle affects how efficient the plant is at performing photosynthesis,โ says Lirong Xiang, first author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University.
โFor example, in corn, you want leaves at the top that are relatively vertical, but leaves further down the stalk that are more horizontal. This allows the plant to harvest more sunlight. Researchers who focus on plant breeding monitor this sort of plant architecture because it informs their work.
โHowever, conventional methods for measuring leaf angles involve measuring leaves by hand with a protractorโwhich is both time-consuming and labor-intensive,โ Xiang says. โWe wanted to find a way to automate this processโand we did.โ
The new technologyโcalled AngleNetโhas two key components: the hardware and the software.
The hardware, in this case, is a robotic device that is mounted on wheels. The device is steered manually, and is narrow enough to navigate between crop rows that are spaced 30 inches apart โthe standard width farmers use. The device itself consists of four tiers of cameras, each of which is set to a different height to capture a different level of leaves on the surrounding plants. Each tier includes two cameras, allowing it to capture a stereoscopic view of the leaves and enable 3D modeling of plants.
As the device is steered down a row of plants, it is programmed to capture multiple stereoscopic images, at multiple heights, of every plant it passes.
All of this visual data goes into a software program that then computes the leaf angle for the leaves of each plant at different heights.
โFor plant breeders, itโs important to know not only what the leaf angle is, but how far those leaves are above the ground,โ Xiang says. โThis gives them the information they need to assess the leaf angle distribution for each row of plants. This, in turn, can help them identify genetic lines that have desirable traitsโor undesirable traits.โ
To test the accuracy of AngleNet, the researchers compared leaf angle measurements done by the robot in a corn field to leaf angle measurements made by hand using conventional techniques.
โWe found that the angles measured by AngleNet were within 5 degrees of the angles measured by hand, which is well within the accepted margin of error for purposes of plant breeding,โ Xiang says.
โWeโre already working with some crop scientists to make use of this technology, and weโre optimistic that more researchers will be interested in adopting the technology to inform their work. Ultimately, our goal is to help expedite plant breeding research that will improve crop yield.โ
The paper appears in the Journal of Field Robotics. Coauthors are from Iowa State University and Auburn University. The work had support from the National Science Foundation and the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State.
Source: NC State
The post Robot rolls through fields to measure corn leaves appeared first on Futurity.
Engineers have developed wooden seed carriers that mimic the behavior of self-burying seeds.
Before a seed can grow into a tree, flower, or plant, it needs to successfully implant itself in soilโa delicate and complex process.
For the Erodium flower to implant a seed, its stalk forms a tightly wound, seed-carrying body with a long, curved tail at the top. When it begins to unwind, the twisting tail engages with the ground, causing the seed carrier to push itself upright. Further unwinding creates torque to drill down into the ground, burying the seed.
Inspired by Erodiumโs magic, Teng Zhang, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University, Lining Yao from Carnegie Mellon University, and a team of collaborators worked to engineer a biodegradable seed carrier called E-seed.
Their seed carrier, fashioned from wood veneer, could enable aerial seeding of difficult-to-access areas, and could work for a variety of seeds or fertilizers and adapt to many different environments. The carriers also could be used to implant sensors for environmental monitoring. They might also assist in energy harvesting by implanting devices that create current based on temperature fluctuations.
โThis is a perfect example demonstrating the beauty and power of bioinspired design. We learn from nature and eventually achieve superior performance by leveraging the freedom of engineering design,โ says Zhang.
The teamโs work appears in the journal Nature.
โSeed burial has been heavily studied for decades in terms of mechanics, physics, and materials science, but until now, no one has created an engineering equivalent,โ says Yao, director of the Morphing Matter Lab in the School of Computer Scienceโs Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon.
โThe seed carrier research has been particularly rewarding because of its potential social impact. We get excited about things that could have a beneficial effect on nature.โ
Additional collaborators are from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania, Zhejiang University, and Accenture Labs.
Source: Syracuse University, Byron Spice for Carnegie Mellon University
The post Wooden carrier unwinds to bury seeds appeared first on Futurity.
In 2011, a horticulturist named Mathias Maier stumbled across an unusual mutant of a Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant that traps and feeds on insects. Scientists recently discovered that the typical Venus flytrap can actually "count" to five, sparking further research on how the plant manages this remarkable feat. The mutant flytrap might hold the key. According to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, this mutant flytrap doesn't snap closed in response to stimulation like typical Venus flytraps.
"This mutant has obviously forgotten how to count, which is why I named it Dyscalculia (DYSC)," said co-author Rainer Hedrich, a biophysicist at Julius-Maximilians-Universitรคt Wรผrzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany. (It had previously been called "ERROR.")
As we've reported previously, the Venus flytrap attracts its prey with a pleasing fruity scent. When an insect lands on a leaf, it stimulates the highly sensitive trigger hairs that line the leaf. When the pressure becomes strong enough to bend those hairs, the plant will snap its leaves shut and trap the insect inside. Long cilia grab and hold the insect in place, much like fingers, as the plant begins to secrete digestive juices. The insect is digested slowly over five to 12 days, after which the trap reopens, releasing the dried-out husk of the insect into the wind.
Among Woodland, the art and design exhibition at Teatro dei Ragazzi in Turin, was Serena Confalonieriโs site-specific installation, Volรฉe. The project, which was on display during the Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament, was created for LEA (Lead Exclusive Area), an a space for welcoming international guests at the event. The concept โ that nature pre-exists the work of man on Earth โ was simple enough, but the execution appears to be anything but. The ultimate goal of the project was to offer visitors the chance to experience a return to nature. A place where humans are free from the effects of civilization and can live a life guided by instincts.
Volรฉe brought this concept to life in LEAโs foyer space. The floral composition, created using both man-made and natural materials, is an explosion of color and texture. Confalonieri used polyurethane panels for the reception, benches, and tables, all milled with a vertical motif reminiscent of classic columns. Meanwhile, dried plants and flowers sprout from these elements in shades of lilac, purple, orange, yellow, and white. This vegetation takes over the polyurethane-built architecture of the installation, creating a sense of being somewhere between fiction and reality.
In its final form, Confalonieriโs Volรฉe was full of lightness and grace. its soft, curved shapes alive and harmonious โ just like the movements of the tennis players on the court.
To learn more visit serenaconfalonieri.com.
Photography by Serene Eller.
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