[*] Botanicalls outfits office plants with Asterisk solution

[Steve Lecomte]

You have to read this article and checkout the Botanicalls site.

Weird tech: Vegetation taps VoIP to voice its needs
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/30/31FEweirdtech2_1.html

Botanicalls, a VoIP-based service that enables plants to phone their
human partners as needed and describe their tending needs in detail.

http://www.botanicalls.com/

Here's how Botanicalls works: Light and moisture sensors on the plant
communicate to an embedded system programmed in Arduino, an open
source electronics prototyping platform for hardware and software.
When a plant's microcontroller determines that the plant needs to
phone for help, it makes use of Xbee and Xport open source RF
communication equipment to contact a PHP script with the plant's ID
number and specific need. The PHP script then packages information
about the specific plant stored in the database and passes it on to
Asterisk. The call is placed to the plant's caregiver by Asterisk,
which plays an audio file in the "voice" of the plant expressing its
need.

Before you know it Simon will have the plants playing Zork!