Parrot Announces Bluetooth-Connected Flowerpot
At CES, drone and gadget maker Parrot announced a Bluetooth-connected flowerpot, the Parrot Pot. It joins the new Parrot H2O and the existing Flower Power in the company’s growing line of connected plant-care products.
That’s no ordinary flowerpot. (Rafe Needleman/Yahoo Tech)
The Pot is, as it sounds, a pot in which you can put a medium-sized plant. It also has a water reservoir along the side. It’s a nice-looking, white, modern container. With sensors and a water pump and a Bluetooth radio.
With the accompanying app, you tell the Pot what kind of plant you have (from a menu of 8,000 varieties). Sensors measure water content of the soil, temperature, light levels, and fertilizer level of the soil (by measuring conductivity). When needed, the Pot squirts water over the top of the soil.
Now your plant has Bluetooth. (Rafe Needleman/Yahoo Tech)
Parrot says the Pot can keep most plants watered for about three weeks, depending on the plant and conditions. If you have a larger plant or want to keep things going longer, you might want the Parrot H2O, a gadget you stab into the soil of your plant. It has all the sensors of the Pot, but you attach your own water receptacle (an upside-down water or soda bottle) to it.
Prices for the H2O and the Pot have not been announced. Both should be available this year. The current Flower Power product, $60, monitors your plant but can’t water it as the new products can.
The Pot watering its guest. (Rafe Needleman/Yahoo Tech)
Rafe Needleman can be reached at rafeneedleman@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @rafe.
