Biome Smart Terrarium controlled by iPad

Here's a compelling use of the iPad that's meant to encourage users to consider a more slow-paced life -- The Biome Smart Terrarium which can be controlled with an iPad or iPhone.

Terrariums are typically dome-shaped structures used to re-create and maintain specific habitats. Some can support desert life -- plants and small animals -- while others mimic tropical features or even herb gardens. The Biome Smart Terrarium, designed by Samuel Wilkinson, contains sensors that monitor its needs, such as water, light or nutrients. Those sensors are monitored by the iPad, which triggers it to receive what it needs when it needs it.

Why an iPad? Wilkinson says the project is meant, in part, to prompt users to consider a more slow-paced life. "The idea promotes 'digital downtime' by finding an alternative use for smartphones and encouraging their owners to consider a slower life. The control and nurturing of a real mini eco-system takes patience and care, contrasting with the immediacy of messaging or tweeting that is so characteristic of the smartphone generation."

Biome was developed for a recent exhibition titled Slow Tech - Designs for Digital Downtime. There's no information on Wilkinson's plans to market the Biome or its companion iOS app.

[Via Gigaom]