Intelligent gardening system and method

• US 9,271,454 B1
• Filed: 01/09/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alexander Natanzon, Jacob Shochat, Ludmila Natanzon, Vitaly Roginsky
• Original Assignee: Alexander Natanzon, Jacob Shochat, Ludmila Natanzon, Vitaly Roginsky
• Inventors: Natanzon, Alexander, Roginsky, Vitaly, Shochat, Jacob, Natanzon, Ludmila
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNES-BULLOCK, CRYSTAL JOY
• Application Number:
  US13/694,833
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: 700/275, 700282-284, 702 1- 3, 47/655, 47/79, 47/82, 340/500, 340/540, 340/568.1, 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/572.8, 340/572.9, 340/603, 340/604
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/167 Control by humidity of the soil itself or of devices simulating soil or of the atmosphere; Soil humidity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 27/003 Controls for self-acting watering devices
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 27/008 Component parts, e.g. dispensing fittings, level indicators
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 19/2227 with means for amusing or giving information to the user A47G23/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders

Abstract

An intelligent gardening system and method for monitoring and analyzing a moisture level in individual gardening pots and/or containers is provided. A system comprises a moisture measuring sensor integrated into a pot/container. A gardener can read moisture-related data using a mobile device, a computer, or a tablet, or directly from built-in display. The gardener can send the moisture level-related data along with other data (such as, a type of a plant, a soil type, size of a pot, a plant size, location, current weather, an air temperature, etc.) to a central server connected to a central gardening database or to a cloud service and receive gardening recommendations. The gardening recommendations can include other recommendations pertaining to a particular plant and gardening conditions.

Claims

1. A gardening method comprising:

integrating a moisture level sensor with a display into a pot having a pot ID tag;

launching a gardening application on a mobile device;

acquiring video data from the display of the moisture level sensor by the mobile device;

storing the video data into a cache memory of the mobile device;

narrowing the video data to the pot ID tag and to a current moisture level data;

deriving the current moisture level data and the ID tag from the narrowed video data;

storing the derived current moisture level data and the ID tag into a persistent memory of the mobile device;

analyzing the current moisture level data and generating gardening recommendations by the gardening application; and

rendering the gardening recommendations on a screen of the mobile device and implementing the recommendations by a gardener.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising connecting the mobile device to a remote server, wherein the server acquires gardening recommendations from a public information database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the server is a cloud server connected to any of:

a plurality of gardening information sources, to a central gardening database and to social networks.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the mobile device provides to the server any of:

a plant type;

an air temperature;

a duration of a day light;

a geographic location;

soil physical and chemical properties; and

a soil type.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling positioning of the moisture sensor by the mobile device via the mobile device gardening application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the values of the pot ID and the moisture level data are acquired by the mobile device via a wireless connection established between the mobile device and a pot pairing circuitry.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising controlling positioning of the moisture sensor in a vertical plane from the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising controlling multiplexing between a plurality of moisture sensors from the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the deriving of the moisture level data and the pod ID tag from the narrowed video data is performed by a scene interpretation engine running on the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the moisture sensor is positioned at a root of a plant.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising integrating into the pot a plurality of moisture sensors connected to the display.

12. An intelligent gardening system comprising:

a gardening pot;

a pot ID tag affixed to the pot; and

at least one moisture sensor integrated into the pot, the moisture sensor has a display for rendering a moisture level data and the pot ID to a gardener,

wherein;

the moisture level sensor is configured to provide the moisture level data to a mobile device;

the mobile device is configured to acquire a video data from the moisture level sensor display and to derive a current moisture level data and the pot ID from the video data using a mobile gardening application; and

the mobile device gardening application is configured to analyze the moisture level data and to render gardening recommendations to a user on a mobile device screen.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a wireless pairing connector integrated into the pot for connecting to a mobile device, wherein the wireless pairing connector receives data from the moisture sensor and provides it to the gardener'"'"'s mobile device.

14. The system of claim 12 comprising an array of moisture sensor probes integrated into a supporting pole structure rising from a bottom of the pot.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein positioning of the supporting pole with the array of moisture sensor probes is movable and remotely controllable from the mobile device via the wireless pairing connector integrated into the pot.