Statistical Analysis of Plant Bioelectric Potential for Communication with Humans

Abstract

The bioelectric potential of a foliage plant changes according to an occupant's behavior, for example entering the room in which the plant is installed, as well as watering and touching the plant. The potential shows the impulse responses due to the behaviors. In this study, the integrated values of the bioelectric potential were adopted to identify those behaviors. There are two types of values. Those were derived by integrating the bioelectric potential characteristics for a minute (vm1) and for an hour (vh1) respectively. The histogram of the values vm1 for the steady state perfectly took a normal distribution. The frequencies of vm1 for the behaviors were different compared with the steady state distribution. The system can identify the behaviors by examining the frequency table of vm1. Conversely, it is thought the plant gives us some suggestions using bioelectric potential characteristics. A clue for communication between humans and plants was also obtained. The vh1 becomes higher as the average room temperature (tr) becomes lower. There was a negative correlation between vm1 and trr. There were two groups in the scatter diagram of the variables vm1 and tr. © 2004, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.