Hydroponic growing with the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things has connected countless household objects to the net, from fridges to televisions, and now it can also be used to grow hydroponically. Behold the Gro.io, an all-inclusive hydro system that's nearly fully automated. The brains behind this system is the Gro.hub. This central computing tower runs an embedded Linux OS on a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 Processor and processes signals from ten separate remote sensors. These monitor things like water temperature, level, pH and flow.

The Hub uses all of this information to keep track of system conditions and disperse the appropriate amount of nutrients, light and water to keep everything in balance. Additionally, instead of outputting all that information to a local monitor, the Gro.io will push it to the branded iOS app on your phone via the tower's integrated Wi-Fi receiver. The app allows you to monitor the long term growth of your plants (presumably all eight weeks of it), adjust nutrient and light levels and receive notifications if anything goes awry. Like conventional systems, the Gro.io uses 20 gallon buckets to house individual plants under an array of either three or five 60W LED bulbs -- 180W and 300W total output, respectively. That's enough light to grow up to six plants simultaneously.

Source: Engadget