Plants are the new pets

Ever since Covid I have found myself taking a keener interest in indoor plants, even cacti, which in the past I have dismissed.
 
I am not alone. Many people have discovered their “inner gardener” so deep rooted is it in human instinct to nurture and care for something.
 
So it no surprise that a design company, Lua, have devised a novel product to cash in on this in order to help make our plants “virtual pets”.
 
 
Sensors are embedded in the plant pot, which measures the soil’s moisture, light exposure and temperature, and this triggers 15 different universal animated emotions ranging from thirst to too much heat/cold to pure happiness. This shows up in a series of emoticons on the side of the plant pot.
 
 
I have no idea whether it works or not but you can rest assured that even if this design doesn’t live up to its hype in a year or to there will be other versions coming down the line.
 
Meanwhile I am sticking to the watering can and my intuition.