A World Where Even Forests Learn to Talk

Forests? Talking? What could forests possibly find useful to talk about? What about ..... fire? Imagine a forest of trees, wirelessly networked to communicate information such as temperature, humidity, winds, and more?

enough energy is available to power wireless mesh networks within forests that can transmit data about local temperature and humidity conditions. These networks could be used for agricultural monitoring or early detection of forest fires. Voltree Power is planning to test their so-called Early Wildfire Alert Network (EWAN) beginning in the spring. _DesignNews_via_Bioenergy

Networked forests (and fields) could monitor for fires, pests, poachers, and a large number of other things.

Starting this spring, Voltree will test its device in a 10-acre area provided by the U.S. Forest Service in Boise, ID. Future applications, Love says, could include agricultural monitoring as well as radiation detection along the U.S. borders, to prevent the smuggling of radioactive goods. _TechnologyReview

Interesting. These talking forests and fields will detect smugglers, terrorists, the health of crops and trees, forest fires, and more. All made possible by the ability to turn lovely trees into "battrees."

And that is only the sensor side of the equation. What about actuators? What if trees could fight their own fires, or change the flow of the fire to make it easier for human firefighters to control? What if forests could alert animals of danger and somehow guide them to safety? Or trap poachers, terrorists, and other "undesirables"?

You can read more about the technology behind networked forests here and here. Here is the full text of a PLOS research article by MIT scientists describing the underlying phenomenon.

The voltages involved are in the milli-volt range, suitable only for a trickle charge to a small rechargeable battery. But as electronic devices are made smaller and less power-hungry -- yet more capable -- the possiblities for distributed computing and networking using very small levels of current are growing more impressive.