“Magic Bean” promises to help farmers deal with climate change
Device collects important data from soil
LONDON, England (KYMA, KSWT, KECY) - British engineers have unveiled a soil monitoring system that promises to help farmers worldwide deal with the effects of climate change.
Engineers say the Smart Seed, also known as the "Magic Bean," uses artificial intelligence to give growers important information about the soil in which their crops grow.
"Magic bean is a wireless device that has a battery and uses the sensor to collect data from the soil, and then it sends this data, every hour to the server, and then for the rest of the day it's just sleeping." says researchers Lorenzo Cucurachi.
The smart seed provides information on growing conditions by monitoring soil temperature and moisture levels. Farmers can check the data either online, or through an app,
The pod's expected to cost around $118. Engineers say the low price will give farms of all sizes access to this high-tech tool.
"Making sure that when we designed the 'magic bean', it was as cheap as possible, but we were not losing on the quality of signals, on the quality of data we were receiving and all of the data will be stored in the cloud for further analysis," says electronic engineer Dr. Tatiana Kalganova.
Right now only a few farmers in southwest England are using the magic beans, but engineers have plans to work with growers in India in the future.
