PlantMate: A Bidirectional Touch-Based System for Enhancing Human-Plant Empathy and Pro-Environmental Behavior

Enhancing the emotional connection between humans and nature is critical for fostering pro-environmental behavior, yet humans often struggle to perceive plants’ responses to environmental changes. Existing systems for human-nature interaction are largely unidirectional, limiting opportunities for meaningful empathy. To address this, we present “PlantMate”, a platform enabling bidirectional touch-based interaction. PlantMate translates users’ touch into bioelectrical stimulation to enhance plant growth while translating a plant’s electrical signals under varying environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity) into electrical muscle stimulation for users. A pilot study with 12 participants revealed three key benefits: perceiving plants as interactive agents, decoding plant feedback, and redefining human-plant relationships through discernment and affective touch. This research highlights the potential of bidirectional human-plant systems, offering a novel approach to human-nature interaction while aiming to enable users to cultivate empathy for nature and encourage pro-environmental behavior.