You've probably heard of Stardew Valley or Farmville, video games where you manage a virtual farm. Now, what if you could monitor real plants from the comfort of your home? Thanks to new research at Binghamton University, State University of New York, that's becoming a reality.
Engineers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a system that creates "digital twins" of real farms, allowing users to walk through fully interactive virtual spaces and observe actual plants in real time – technology that could make farming more accessible for older adults and people with disabilities.
"This gives users the experience of walking through a greenhouse they already know without physically being there," said Anwar Elhadad, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University.
While sensors are crucial for monitoring modern-day farms, 2D dashboards lack the contextual information that comes from being on-site, said Elhadad. This system lets users explore your greenhouse as if they're actually there. The technology could be especially useful for those who can't adequately access their farms.
"This project is designed for accessibility. So if someone is elderly and can't walk around the farm or the greenhouse, they can use this interactive setup and see the data, see how everything is working," said Mohamed Gallai, a PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University and lead author of the paper.
Plants are photographed and placed in the virtual environment as 3D objects. A microcontroller placed in the soil or at each plant monitors vital information, such as humidity, temperature and gas levels and sends the data to the virtual system in real time. Using goggles, users can walk around the greenhouse and see the plants, interact with them, and monitor data.
The system provides real-time sensor data on key metrics such as temperature, humidity, and light.
"You can imagine 10 or 20 plants, each with its own miniaturized monitoring system feeding data into the VR space. And you get to log in, inspect plant by plant, depending on how many sensors you actually installed in your space," said Elhadad.
In addition to improved accessibility, this system could also be used for educational purposes. For example, students in biological and agricultural sciences might use it to study plants in a hands-on, interactive environment.
The researchers noted that the project is still in the early stages, and based on demand, they could add more features to the VR space in the future.
PhD students Azaz-Ur-Rehman Nasir and Ofelia Huerta also contributed to this research.
The paper, "Immersive Digital Twin Framework for Reliability Monitoring of IoT Sensor Nodes Using Mixed Reality," was presented at the 35th Microelectronics Design and Test Symposium.
