Rural HCI - Bert Bongers - Xs4all

One of the information types in Pathmanathan’s study was weather data from the Bureau of Meteorology; that is, objective, scientific data. To follow up what role such data could play in this field, we have designed and built a device that sits in a domestic garden and monitors various parameters, transmitting them to a server via the mobile phone network (pictured). Using this device we can monitor ambient temperature and humidity, soil temperature and moisture, ambient light levels, as well as the GPS location of the device. Our longer-­‐term goal is to explore what value a network of such devices would be in providing local information about garden conditions to the general community. Could we ‘crowdsource’ such data and derive useful quantities to help advise gardeners? How could we incorporate the opinions of people in the community to augment such information using a mobile device? As part of this investigation we are producing an iPhone app that incorporates data from these devices with recent rainfall data (see images below). The app will extract garden data from the user’s SmartGardenWatering model and display rainfall data, watering reminders, as well as sensor data. Finally – what about rural Australia? We are still exploring ways to extend these ideas into our rural community. There are several impediments to this. SmartGardenWatering uses postcodes to determine weather and soil conditions, but in rural areas a postcode region can be very large and have changing conditions. Data linked to GPS location might return more reliable results. Our plant database has unique data on plants specific to Melbourne (only) and the software relies on having accurate information about the requirements of the plants in a garden. This is important not just for the water demand calculations but also to support users in designing a garden that will thrive in their particular area. We need to extend the database – this is a non-­‐trivial task given the hundreds of plants involved, each needing data on nomenclature, flower colour, type, as well as images. One approach we